Considering the New Tekton Design Encores? AND Owners Group - Experiences/Questions


I am the very happy owner of the first pair of New Tekton Design Encores and I thought I would create this thread to answer any questions anyone might have regarding the Encore speakers, room considerations, and associated equipment. If you’ve order your pair already, please chime in. I really want to hear what other people’s experience are with these unbelievable speakers.

I drive my Encores with both an Art Audio Diavolo SET 300b Tube Amplifier with 8wpc and I switch in my 700w Nord One-Up SE Monoblocks for non-critical listening and some big pieces of music that benefit from the extra power.



  • Made under U.S. Patent 9247339 with multiple new patents pending
  • Proprietary loudspeaker design
  • Ultra-linear frequency response with ±.5dB deviation from 70Hz-20kHz
  • One single crossover element placed within the tweeter path
  • Ultra-linear, entirely time-invariant minimum-phase mid-range section
  • Proprietary patent pending 15 dome radiating hybrid MTM high frequency array
  • Two 6.5" mid-bass patented ’overtone & harmonic’ transducers
  • Dual 11" low-frequency transducers
  • ​96dB 2.83V@1m sensitivity
  • 4 Ohm design for optimum performance
  • 20Hz-30kHz frequency response​
  • Dimensions Width 13.25" x Depth 15.25" x Height 62"
  • 800 Watt power handling
  • Weight 175 lbs​
128x128jcarcopo
Myself, I am both, when the engineering hat is on I want to know what creates what sound, how to find the problem, what to do about it, and so on. Can very delicate DSP fix the problem? Is there noise being injected somewhere? Is the postion wrong? Is the amp picking up vibrations and thus having problems (if the amp is solid stated and doing that, and its not on a paint shaker,  replace it). Is the phono stage doing its job...so on and so on. Measurement helps to track all this down, and to make a clear path. It is not the final arbiter though. It just lets you know what is changing as you make your mods.

Spin the hat around when the work is done and ,like jcarcopo, it has to be an emotional event, or why bother? That's the final test. Though I do have to admit I have to wait an hour or two between mental states, before just listening for pleasure.
@fetguy Sir, never change, without detectives like you helping people like me, people like me wouldn’t realize the level of satisfaction that I’ve reached using juducious dsp/eq to correct for anomalies between my speakers and the room they happen to be occupying. If it wasn’t for you I would have ended up a complete placebophile. Instead I am a fairly balanced and split between being both analytical and also holistic regarding sound quality and how to alter it to suit my ears.


Fetguy,
I don’t believe that the two approaches or mindsets are mutually exclusive by any means. We are discussing electronic devices so it’s undeniable that scientific and engineering principles are utilized and applied. I don’t disregard the necessity and importance of measurements and specifications.

My only "big picture" point is when all is said and done you simply must listen and assess your reaction to what you hear. It’s indisputable that audio equipment measurements are important, but they don’t replace (or eliminate the need) the act of actual listening experiences. You wrote "It has to be an emotional event or why bother?" Amen.
Charles
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A case in point, I decided to spend the day seeing if I could match the 2005 Pass labs Single Ended Transistor sound with that of the 1995 recapped Threshols T-400. On the surface, they have a rather different sound, with the T-400 seeming dryer and less bouncy in this room. Jcarcopo once called that amp's bass "relentless".
Looking over my room correction curves, listening, and applying very tiny amounts of dsp (adjustments in the 1/100th of a db at a time) I discovered that the "dryness" was that the IGBT of the T-400 has quite a bit lower impedance at 20hz than the Pass's mosfets (relative to the rest of the spectrum) , so has a bit too much 20-40hz relative to the Pass. Thus filter errors on the room eq showed up MUCH more clearly (by ear) than on the Pass. And, yes, I got all but the difference in in presentation of dynamics between single ended and PP amps. Fun work.