01-21-13: Finsup I stepped away from this thread for a month after making my post about Glenn Beck talking about Tekton only to come back to read some really amazing comments. Amazing in that I only mention about Glenn talking about Tekton, nothing else in my post, certainly nothing political, and then a firestorm of negative comments from some people.
It wasn't your post, it was a few down from yours. But you posting and bringing it up will surely reignite the fires.
Boy those Omens and Lores are great speakers, no?!?
Since this is pretty much the defacto thread for all things Tekton, I thought I would mention Eric has posted a pic of his new Pendragon HT system. No info other than a pic - he mentions to call him directly for more info. I have not had any problems in getting through to him when I have called. http://tektondesign.wordpress.com/
For the Tekton Lore owners, what have you found to be the best speaker placement method for them? Mine sound great but I haven't tried messing around with placement all that much.
I find the Lore can change quite a bit with different toe in/out. A bit too much in my room and i have played around alot trying to decide which i prefer.
I found that toe in so the speaker is almost firing staight at you brings more detail and focus with vocals more upfront but looses some bass impact, the sound stage narrows and on some recordings can bit a bit in your face when playing loud.
Toe them out so that they are almost straight ahead and i found the soundstage widens alot more and the overall sound is more even handed across the range and is more forgiving to the recording and volume. Bass has more punch and vovals take a step back. I have i prefer this setup overall but at times i still change it just to confirm it in my head.
What about in the middle of the two positions? Yeh you would think this would be the ideal considering the above but i found it hard to get that middle ground in my room.
I like to have them off the wall as much as i can without loosing too much bass as i find the sound stage depth is better.
Now this is in my room so ymmv. At the moment i have them on the long wall of my room and sit about 8 feet from them and they are about 7foot apart. But im am planning to turn the room around so they will be on the short wall and i will be able to sit a bit further away. I used to have my previous system this way and the room accustics where better.
Andrew Robinson has recently posted that he will soon be reviewing a Pendragon Theater system. Outside of this thread, he has been my go-to source for information on Tekton speakers.
Steve Guttenberg just posted his review of the Enzo: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57582778-47/tekton-enzo-a-strong-contender-for-speaker-of-the-year/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheAudiophiliac
I don't know if it is a full and complete review or just the beginning, albeit a very substantial introduction, but Andrew Robinson's review of the 7.2 Tekton Pendragon Theater System is now up. I recommend the video clip he incorporates into the review for anyone jumping over to read his thoughts.
Unlike every review on any piece of equipment I have every read, he doesn't actually spend any time discussing specific movies or music. He does spend time discussing the application of this kind of system to one's own room, including noteworthy comments about the challenges using the surrounds might pose and a brief evaluation of the sub-woofers performance, or slightly lack thereof.
I know this is raising the thread from the dead, but does anyone have experience with the M-Lores (or Lores) with Peachtree products? I'm very highly considering an M-Lore/Decco65 combination.
My brother has M-Lores with the original Peachtree Nova and likes it very well. But he streams through an unmodified Airport Express using the optical to connect to the Nova's DAC. This is also his first audio system and does not have points of comparison other than having heard my much more $$$ system with Lores in a much more acoustically suitable and treated room.
Not much going on on this thread for some time. So what's up? I have read some good reviews on the Enzo. Curious to know if anyone has the Enzo and what they think of them or how they compare to the Lore. Also on some other threads have read about Eric going off on some of customers. Any feedback on this?
The Zu Omen sound like hi-fi, the Tekton sound like music, closer to the real event; I always found the Omen to bright despite the amp. I finally got the Pendragon's, amazing speaker
For a time, this was one of the hottest threads on AudiogoN. Why it cooled, I don't know. For me, I was interested in purchasing the Pendragons. Maybe it was the delays some (many?) customers were experiencing in getting speakers delivered, that played a part. It did for me: I went in a completely different direction and purchased a pair of Ohm 5000s. I am very happy with these speaker, but I digress.
I still want to reconfigure completely my HT set-up and I have decided to reconsider once again Tekton, this time the Lore S - thinking at least 3 (LCR) but maybe five all around.
By all accounts, Tekton speakers are great speakers but I still don't know what to expect. Delivery seems to still be hit or miss with some waiting a few weeks to 3 months (which is, IMHO, not unreasonable at all for custom-made speakers), to many months - which is not so good.
The only way to know for sure if the wait is worth it is to hear for myself so if there is anyone within a day's driving distance of Charlotte, NC (that would include Chicago, DC, Atlanta, Orlando) who'd be willing to allow a home audition of either of the Pendragons or Lores, or the Enzo, I'd appreciate it.
BTW, some of the best reviews of Tekton speakers I have ever read can be found over at Part-time Audiophile. I've recommended his reviews before in this thread. He now has a recent review of the Pendragon S and his Maggies 3.7 mated with a number of different amps. In my estimation, it is one of the best audio reviews of any kind ever written.
You can read the review, "Magnepan and Tekton meet Pass Labs, Odyssey, Job, Merrill, Red Wine Audio, First Watt and Vitus Audio" here.
Last weekend I took my Lores to visit another audiophile, along with most of my system. We had a long day of swapping out equipment on his Gedlee Abbeys and then the Lores. We had on hand:
DB Labs Tranquility SE with recent Gold level upgrades Lampizator Level 5 boards, Duelund caps, upgraded tubes
It was a silly amount of equipment, but the system completely gelled with the following combination, and we both agreed we could be happy forever with this setup:
Lores Samson amps Dude pre Lampizator
Now, granted my Lores have about $600 in completely rebuilt crossovers and silver internal wiring, and bypass entirely the binding posts. That said, this is absolutely silly!!! $1600 speakers with $16,500 in electronics and another couple grand in cabling!
But the reason I share is that it was the best sound either of us had heard within memory, and the more important point is that the Lores are capable of responding with whatever level of electronics you are able to throw at them.
Am I saying that they're the best speaker out there? No, and I'm actually always looking at my options for upgrading. But I've tried some significantly more expensive speakers over the past three years I've owned the Lores, and decided to stay with the Lores because of what they do right.
My friend is seriously considering the Lores after last weekend...
Could you go into some more detail about your Lore's mods? I own Lores, but I've never opened them up... I just assumed it is a single cap before the tweeter.
No, it's a full crossover network. The woofer is not run fullrange - crossover is in the neighborhood of 3khz I think. Three caps, two resistors, two inductors. I replaced the caps and resistors with higher quality - Mills for resistors, and a mixture of Clarity SA, ESA, and Mundorf Supreme for the caps. 18 gauge silver hookup wire replaced the zipcord stock internal wiring. Bypassed the binding posts by routing the internal cabling through two small holes I drilled into the cabinets just above the binding posts, using binding posts to clamp to the speaker cables from my amp.
01-28-14: Ictwoody Could you go into some more detail about your Lore's mods? I own Lores, but I've never opened them up... I just assumed it is a single cap before the tweeter. - Woody
Woody, the caps in your Lores are Dayton. I believe Eric used Dayton on the earlier Lores and then switched to less expensive caps later (not that Dayton are super expensive). I've got a good pic of the XO from when I did the Dynamat mod on yours, PM me at that other site if you want me to send it to you. Assuming you're the same Ictwoody I sold mine to ;)
IIRC, you corresponded with Eric about your mods. If not you, apologies, then it was someone else who also modded some speakers.
Did he end up adapting any of your work into later iterations of any of his speakers? Or put another way, is Eric amenable to doing mods, maybe even similar to what you did, on speakers one orders?
I think I would rather listen to the speakers in stock form first, but NOT being a DIY kind of guy, if I wanted to mod, my options would be to either send speakers back to him or find someone else who would.
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.
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.
Hello the Zu use the ribbon now it is open and surly but loose dome of the dynamics.the tekton with Mundorf cap upgrade is hard to beat for the money . I personally like the Klipsch.i can get used Lascala for $1500 And rebuilt the Xver what a great Classic loudspeaker.just as called down K horn 104 db efficient in reality. Dynamics fantastic snd smooth once you put Mundorf a Silver oil capacitors in the top snd mid section. I met Paul Klipsch back in the 70s a nice guy with genius. He hooked up a $5.00 radio with a. 9v battery and the K horns were very loud on 1watt.
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