I finally received my Lores after what seemed like an eternity. They are well worth the wait! Mine took about 150 hours of playing at many different volume ranges, and as if by magic, they bloomed into beautiful music machines! The bass got tighter and the highs smoothed out. The mids were perfect from the beginning.
I’ve had a lot of good gear over my nearly fifty year audiophile journey. Like Eric, I was amazed by live audio at a young age. I started with some ElectroVoice Sentry IV-B’s. I used them for listening as well as live sound reinforcement. They NEVER let me down! I’d still have them, but they were destroyed in a house fire. Then I went on to Klipsch Industrial loudspeakers. I loved them almost as much as my EV’s, but they weren’t as smooth.
Now I’ve got my Lores. My days of playing drums and doing live sound are over, by choice. The Lores are the BEST sounding speakers I’ve ever owned! Any style of music, at any volume. Just don’t fear the FLETCHER-MUNSON phenomenon at low volumes. I love my Lores, and I’ll die a happy audiophile!
I’ve owned several fantastic speakers over the years including B&W 804’s, Thiel CS 2 2’s, ProAc D18’s, Tekton Lore’s with a beryllium tweeter, and now the Perfect SET’s (with a standard tweeter). All of these speakers are very good in various ways, but the Perfect SET’s are considerably better than all of them. They posses a major slice of sonic characteristics of different speaker technologies. For example, they have much of the speed, velocity, and liveliness of a horn design, the unforced detail and resolution of an electrostat, the dynamics of a high efficiency box speaker, and much of the imaging of a good minimonitor. Don’t let appearances fool you, the tweeter array might suggest the speaker could sound unbalanced with too much high and low energy with not much midrange energy. I assure you, these speakers are very linear and extremely coherent from top to bottom. These are the most coherent speakers I’ve ever owned. They’re also very engaging and they sound incredible at all listening levels. They sound stunning with my Primaluna Integrated amp. Interestingly, even though they were designed with low power SET amplifiers in mind, they actually sound better hooked up to the PrimaLuna’s 4 ohm taps. (They also sound excellent on the 8 ohm taps, just a little better on the 4 ohm taps). The Perfect SET’s excel with every genre of music from classical to rock, to jazz, etc. They have accurate tone and they produce the leading edge, body, and decay of a note with aplomb. Each note is clearly delineated and easily heard distinctly from other notes, yet simultaneously served up as one coherent platter of musical deliciousness. More than any other speakers I’ve heard, the Perfect SET’s allow me to do what I’ve always wanted to do, which is to stop listening to the gear and just enjoy the music! The SET’s are an incredible value. They sound better than speakers costing many times the price. They do everything so well, I can’t find fault with them, I really can’t.
This evaluation is done after over 200 hrs of break-in.
The last time I had experienced sonic bliss was with a system that cost $70,000 in 1998: 550lb. Dunlavy SC-VI speakers, monoblock tube amps that looked like jewelry, speaker cables as thick as my wrist, and a fully-treated, dedicated, audio-retailer listening room that had walls filled with sand. That system would cost $117,000 in today’s dollars. The Dunlavys alone would cost $42,000.
That was then. Now, I have finally arrived at a small fraction of the price. I feel no need to further chase the audiophile horizon. As the Double Impacts have broken in, I have been continuously and increasingly astonished at their natural and ghostly-holographic sound. Just this week I switched from a Sony Blu-ray transport to a server, using Exact Audio Copy to ensure perfect digital data transfer onto the hard drive. The difference was INSTANTLY noticeable to myself and my non-audiophile friend. Some people say that digital source makes no sonic difference: “Its all 1’s and 0’s”. But the Double Impacts revealed the change of digital source in way that jumped out at my non-audiophile friend. Well, that is an understatement. It was more like the sonic difference was thrown (lovingly) at our heads. And this transport/server comparison was done with real-time A/B switching. I had also experienced a prior improvement in clarity and soundstaging by re-terminating the speaker cables to eliminate signal-thru-solder.
Putting audio into visual terms, we audiophiles seek a transparency akin to a clear window pane. These speakers are more like a wide open window; no glass. Your upstream changes will stand out.
I have at least 2 dozen audiophile-grade recording on CD’s that I’ve owned for 20-35 years. Everything from classical, to jazz, to electronica. I am hearing the music again for the first time- with background instrumentation and minute sounds effects that eluded me for over 1/3 of a century. The difference in low level detail is not subtle.
The bass is phenomenal; powerful and nuanced. The Double Impacts do not overpower the living room of my average-sized apartment. Sine wave tests with a decibel meter show a startlingly flat bass response at my seating position even though the back of the speakers are 10 inches from the back wall. Maybe I got lucky? And the soundstage has very good depth in spite of the compromised speaker placement. The midrange is glorious, deserving more words than I can write here. The treble is pristine and liquid. These are like electrostats with sensitivity and SLAM.
The reason is now obvious for the rave magazine reviews of the Double Impacts. Writing to describe the Double Impact’s transparency and oomph is like discussing sex with with a virgin. I didn’t have to win the lottery to finally achieve my goal of re-experiencing the jaw-dropping sound of that crazy-dollar system from 1998.
Associated equipment: Musical Fidelity A300, Schiit Bifrost DAC, Kimber PBJ interconnects, Audioquest Type 4 (crimp terminated without solder), dedicated laptop computer configured with Fidelizer and playing WAV files ripped from CD’s.
If you are looking for an inexpensive entry into big sound these are a very good choice. They do not require a lot of power to drive them but produce a wonderful sound. I have mine hooked up to the Heaven 11 Billie Amp (tubes) and they really brought back my love for listening to music at home. I keep going through my collections of digital files and CDs just to see how good something can sound. I will say when I have some disposible income I will upgrade. Now that my music bug is back a Pair of Moabs maybe in my future. I will be sticking with Tekton. That is a ton of speaker for the money. Watch the Adiophiliacs review of the M – Lores on YouTube.
I got my Electron SEs with Be tweeter upgrade with a high gloss gray finish in January of 2021. They were to replace my Wilson Watt puppy 5.1s that lost a tweeter (and the pandemic made it almost impossible to replace). Sadly, the SEs took longer to get than the new tweeters for the Watt Puppies, but now I have a A/B comparison.
I am using, arguably, horrible source equipment for the speakers, as I decided to try the new Sonos amp with them. I have not tried my more reference like equipment (e.g. Krell monoblocks), so forgive me if the review is tainted in that respect, but part of the appeal of the Electrons was their stated sensitivity – so why not see what a little class D amp can do with 98.8 dB of sensitivity.
I did upgrade the source into the Sonos amp to include some Schiit Audio DACs driven by high rez digital sources and alike, but I also listen using the built-in streaming services in the Sonos device. I have not hooked up a turntable yet to the speakers, so all sources have been digital.
Bottom line, yes they are fantastic. Toe them in, and move the speakers around if the sound isn’t awesome. Get your ears at tweeter level. I am still fine tuning, but the listening room is challenging in that the main area is 24’ x 24’ and there are large openings in some walls. Despite the large challenging space and small amplifier, these speakers do very well.
Surprisingly, as compared to my upgraded / refurbished Watt Puppy 5.1’s, the tonality is quite similar in the room. Perhaps they are both quite neutral and revealing. The Electrons beat out the older Watt Puppies with better detail, especially in the mid to high frequencies. I hear details with the Electrons that I don’t hear in any of my other reference speakers or even some top end headphones (B&W, EV, Hifiman, Sennheiser, Cambridge Audio, Focal, etc.).
In addition to the detail and resolution, the speakers’ presence is quite impressive. When I listen to EDM, the room shakes, but in a very tight and controlled manner. It’s uncanny. Friends who come over and listen are blown away by the power and control. All that being driven a 125W at 8 ohm class D Sonos amplifier. Crazy.
What next? I want to drive these with tubes and big monoblocks. I am too lazy to drag my Krell amps up the stairs to these speakers, but it will happen. I also want to try these bad boys with vinyl. But for now, the sound is so satisfying that I just want to sit and listen to them versus goofing around with additional equipment. And isn’t that really what matters? Listening to music? That’s what these speakers do to you, they demand that you just sit down and listen and you get rewarded with amazing detail and involvement.
Dan Clark –
I finally received my Lores after what seemed like an eternity. They are well worth the wait! Mine took about 150 hours of playing at many different volume ranges, and as if by magic, they bloomed into beautiful music machines! The bass got tighter and the highs smoothed out. The mids were perfect from the beginning.
I’ve had a lot of good gear over my nearly fifty year audiophile journey. Like Eric, I was amazed by live audio at a young age. I started with some ElectroVoice Sentry IV-B’s. I used them for listening as well as live sound reinforcement. They NEVER let me down! I’d still have them, but they were destroyed in a house fire. Then I went on to Klipsch Industrial loudspeakers. I loved them almost as much as my EV’s, but they weren’t as smooth.
Now I’ve got my Lores. My days of playing drums and doing live sound are over, by choice. The Lores are the BEST sounding speakers I’ve ever owned! Any style of music, at any volume. Just don’t fear the FLETCHER-MUNSON phenomenon at low volumes. I love my Lores, and I’ll die a happy audiophile!
Uploaded image(s):
Jeff (verified owner) –
I’ve owned several fantastic speakers over the years including B&W 804’s, Thiel CS 2 2’s, ProAc D18’s, Tekton Lore’s with a beryllium tweeter, and now the Perfect SET’s (with a standard tweeter). All of these speakers are very good in various ways, but the Perfect SET’s are considerably better than all of them. They posses a major slice of sonic characteristics of different speaker technologies. For example, they have much of the speed, velocity, and liveliness of a horn design, the unforced detail and resolution of an electrostat, the dynamics of a high efficiency box speaker, and much of the imaging of a good minimonitor. Don’t let appearances fool you, the tweeter array might suggest the speaker could sound unbalanced with too much high and low energy with not much midrange energy. I assure you, these speakers are very linear and extremely coherent from top to bottom. These are the most coherent speakers I’ve ever owned. They’re also very engaging and they sound incredible at all listening levels. They sound stunning with my Primaluna Integrated amp. Interestingly, even though they were designed with low power SET amplifiers in mind, they actually sound better hooked up to the PrimaLuna’s 4 ohm taps. (They also sound excellent on the 8 ohm taps, just a little better on the 4 ohm taps). The Perfect SET’s excel with every genre of music from classical to rock, to jazz, etc. They have accurate tone and they produce the leading edge, body, and decay of a note with aplomb. Each note is clearly delineated and easily heard distinctly from other notes, yet simultaneously served up as one coherent platter of musical deliciousness. More than any other speakers I’ve heard, the Perfect SET’s allow me to do what I’ve always wanted to do, which is to stop listening to the gear and just enjoy the music! The SET’s are an incredible value. They sound better than speakers costing many times the price. They do everything so well, I can’t find fault with them, I really can’t.
E. Diaz –
This evaluation is done after over 200 hrs of break-in.
The last time I had experienced sonic bliss was with a system that cost $70,000 in 1998: 550lb. Dunlavy SC-VI speakers, monoblock tube amps that looked like jewelry, speaker cables as thick as my wrist, and a fully-treated, dedicated, audio-retailer listening room that had walls filled with sand. That system would cost $117,000 in today’s dollars. The Dunlavys alone would cost $42,000.
That was then. Now, I have finally arrived at a small fraction of the price. I feel no need to further chase the audiophile horizon. As the Double Impacts have broken in, I have been continuously and increasingly astonished at their natural and ghostly-holographic sound. Just this week I switched from a Sony Blu-ray transport to a server, using Exact Audio Copy to ensure perfect digital data transfer onto the hard drive. The difference was INSTANTLY noticeable to myself and my non-audiophile friend. Some people say that digital source makes no sonic difference: “Its all 1’s and 0’s”. But the Double Impacts revealed the change of digital source in way that jumped out at my non-audiophile friend. Well, that is an understatement. It was more like the sonic difference was thrown (lovingly) at our heads. And this transport/server comparison was done with real-time A/B switching. I had also experienced a prior improvement in clarity and soundstaging by re-terminating the speaker cables to eliminate signal-thru-solder.
Putting audio into visual terms, we audiophiles seek a transparency akin to a clear window pane. These speakers are more like a wide open window; no glass. Your upstream changes will stand out.
I have at least 2 dozen audiophile-grade recording on CD’s that I’ve owned for 20-35 years. Everything from classical, to jazz, to electronica. I am hearing the music again for the first time- with background instrumentation and minute sounds effects that eluded me for over 1/3 of a century. The difference in low level detail is not subtle.
The bass is phenomenal; powerful and nuanced. The Double Impacts do not overpower the living room of my average-sized apartment. Sine wave tests with a decibel meter show a startlingly flat bass response at my seating position even though the back of the speakers are 10 inches from the back wall. Maybe I got lucky? And the soundstage has very good depth in spite of the compromised speaker placement. The midrange is glorious, deserving more words than I can write here. The treble is pristine and liquid. These are like electrostats with sensitivity and SLAM.
The reason is now obvious for the rave magazine reviews of the Double Impacts. Writing to describe the Double Impact’s transparency and oomph is like discussing sex with with a virgin. I didn’t have to win the lottery to finally achieve my goal of re-experiencing the jaw-dropping sound of that crazy-dollar system from 1998.
Associated equipment: Musical Fidelity A300, Schiit Bifrost DAC, Kimber PBJ interconnects, Audioquest Type 4 (crimp terminated without solder), dedicated laptop computer configured with Fidelizer and playing WAV files ripped from CD’s.
Gary McFall –
If you are looking for an inexpensive entry into big sound these are a very good choice. They do not require a lot of power to drive them but produce a wonderful sound. I have mine hooked up to the Heaven 11 Billie Amp (tubes) and they really brought back my love for listening to music at home. I keep going through my collections of digital files and CDs just to see how good something can sound. I will say when I have some disposible income I will upgrade. Now that my music bug is back a Pair of Moabs maybe in my future. I will be sticking with Tekton. That is a ton of speaker for the money. Watch the Adiophiliacs review of the M – Lores on YouTube.
Uploaded image(s):
Robert Williamson –
I got my Electron SEs with Be tweeter upgrade with a high gloss gray finish in January of 2021. They were to replace my Wilson Watt puppy 5.1s that lost a tweeter (and the pandemic made it almost impossible to replace). Sadly, the SEs took longer to get than the new tweeters for the Watt Puppies, but now I have a A/B comparison.
I am using, arguably, horrible source equipment for the speakers, as I decided to try the new Sonos amp with them. I have not tried my more reference like equipment (e.g. Krell monoblocks), so forgive me if the review is tainted in that respect, but part of the appeal of the Electrons was their stated sensitivity – so why not see what a little class D amp can do with 98.8 dB of sensitivity.
I did upgrade the source into the Sonos amp to include some Schiit Audio DACs driven by high rez digital sources and alike, but I also listen using the built-in streaming services in the Sonos device. I have not hooked up a turntable yet to the speakers, so all sources have been digital.
Bottom line, yes they are fantastic. Toe them in, and move the speakers around if the sound isn’t awesome. Get your ears at tweeter level. I am still fine tuning, but the listening room is challenging in that the main area is 24’ x 24’ and there are large openings in some walls. Despite the large challenging space and small amplifier, these speakers do very well.
Surprisingly, as compared to my upgraded / refurbished Watt Puppy 5.1’s, the tonality is quite similar in the room. Perhaps they are both quite neutral and revealing. The Electrons beat out the older Watt Puppies with better detail, especially in the mid to high frequencies. I hear details with the Electrons that I don’t hear in any of my other reference speakers or even some top end headphones (B&W, EV, Hifiman, Sennheiser, Cambridge Audio, Focal, etc.).
In addition to the detail and resolution, the speakers’ presence is quite impressive. When I listen to EDM, the room shakes, but in a very tight and controlled manner. It’s uncanny. Friends who come over and listen are blown away by the power and control. All that being driven a 125W at 8 ohm class D Sonos amplifier. Crazy.
What next? I want to drive these with tubes and big monoblocks. I am too lazy to drag my Krell amps up the stairs to these speakers, but it will happen. I also want to try these bad boys with vinyl. But for now, the sound is so satisfying that I just want to sit and listen to them versus goofing around with additional equipment. And isn’t that really what matters? Listening to music? That’s what these speakers do to you, they demand that you just sit down and listen and you get rewarded with amazing detail and involvement.
Uploaded image(s):