Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

Eric and I did correspond - a long while ago. I sat on the idea for well over a year after he and I talked before I actually ordered all the parts and went ahead. I tried calling him again when I was getting more motivated, just to double-check what I had written down a year earlier. I wasn't able to get a hold of him at that time - he had become super swamped. I think this was around the same time people started complaining about long long delays in their orders and lack of communication from him.

Anyway, when I did have his attention, he certainly offered for me to ship the speakers back to him and let him know what I wanted done. He wouldn't have charged much at all for his time - just a basic labor charge. Good customer service offer. I ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk to ship across the country two more times, plus the added cost that I could just as well put into better crossover parts! But he was quite open to it and even offered to order the parts for me if I told him what I wanted.

I am certain you could have him make the custom upgrades part of your original order. He offers an upgraded crossover with Mundorf Silver/Oil caps, I think, but I know you could talk to him about any combination you want and he could install those for you. The only thing he might not go for is the binding post solution I made, which is a bit unconventional and I'm not sure what he would think about it.

Yes, rebuilding the crossover mainly involves soldering skills, although I had to cut some new wood boards since the old boards weren't large enough for the larger capacitors. I just used diagrammed the original crossovers before disassembling them and then replicated the same layout on new boards I cut, glued the caps/resistors/inductors into place after twisting the leads together, and then finally soldered everything together once everything was laid out right and connected properly. Then just a matter of glueing back into the cabinet after connecting the driver leads and binding post leads to the right connections on the crossover. That final soldering process can be a bit challenging, but I just set up a TV tray/short side table next to the upright Lore cabinets, which made the perfect work space for supporting the woofer driver while soldering those last connections and glueing the crossover board into the cabinet.

It's definitely a DIY project, involving some basic electronics and woodworking skills, as well as critical thinking skills and figuring out what will get the job done in your work environment. Rewarding, but not for everyone, and not without risks of screwing something up.

Thanks, Genjamon. I take it you still have the Lores? Have you heard any other models since acquiring them?

Yep. Still have them. Tried the Lore S when it had just come out. I preferred the Lore for its strengths, acknowledging the more refined sound of the Lore S, but just didn't have the presence and scale in my room and for my tastes. The Crossover and internal wire upgrades have gone a long way to addressing its weaknesses in imaging and clarifying the critical upper midrange. The Lore has responded to every upgrade in y system I've thrown at it thus far. At times I thought it was the limitation in the system only to find later something else being the culprit. At this point I'm not interested in upgrading speakers until I've addressed Everything else in my system first. Don't get me wrong, I think it's absurd that I'm running upwards of $20K retail in electronics into the $1500 Lores (including crossover and wiring upgrades), but that's what has sounded best to me.

Points of comparison. I went to RMAF in 2010 several years ago and heard a bunch of great systems. My favorite rooms that year were the Odyssey room, a couple rooms with Sonus Faber on tubes, the Fritz Carbon 7's room, and a couple more I can't remember. My personal speaker evolution has been Klipsch Lascalas to Hornshoppe Horns to Omega Hemptones to Tyler Acoustics Linbrook monitors back to Hornshoppe Horns and now to Lores for the past four years or so. The longest I've had any speakers, and they have continued to add pleasure as I have taken the system up from Miniwatt integrated amp through a progression of electronics to my current system. Last fall I auditioned Eggleston Andra II's in my home for a couple weeks and decided to keep the Lores. That presence thing again in the midrange. In January I took my entire system up to a buddy's with a better custom dedicated audio room. The Lores with these electronics were way better than his Gedlee Abbeys, which sounded muddy and incoherent in comparison. I think that was a lot of system synergy issues, as he has very different electronics and has his system fully functional now (it wasn't then) and says it's doing great things. Well, he's heard a LOT more systems than I have, is looking for something truly special, and he said he would happily live with my system any day of the week, and he has some pretty high standards.

I don't doubt I'll start on the speaker merry go round again in the next year or two. The cognitive dissonance of Lores matched with my electronics is just too great. But it's great to know that I can confidently keep my Lores and know I'll have top notch sound as a fall-back until one of those others knocks my socks off ;)

Those comments would probably have sealed the deal for me and I would have placed an order for 5 or maybe three plus two Mini-Lores today. Had planned on using my bonus plus tax refund to make it happen - until, that is, my wife (and much better half, lost her job in October and is still (!) looking for work. Sigh.

I'll just need to live vicariously through other people's comments for awhile longer.

The only inherent limitation with an efficient speaker the size of Lore is probably low end extension/flatness.

A sub or two could fix that if needed.

I wouldn't worry about the cost ratio between speakers and the rest at all if things are sounding good.

Its when the room is very large and/or teh low end extension is limited and or the system cannot play loud enough without compression or amp clipping that an additional investment is most likely required.

If bigger, deeper, louder is not a concern, then you have a fantastic chance of getting things to shine their best with a smaller investment in speakers.