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

@bourcier - i had a very bad experience w/steve deckert a few years back.  at the time, i had some very efficient 97db/1w coincident victory's. steve assured me that one of his low power ~4wpc amps (i forget which model) would have no problem driving them - even tho his amp was 4 ohms, and the victory's were 14 ohms.  it seemed to me that his amp would only be making ~1.3w into a 14 ohm load.  

well, i was right; fortunately the amp i bought was used, and i was able to unload it w/o taking a bath; but it was a total waste of my time.  the amp wouldn't even get to normal listening levels when fully cranked, let alone loud.  and i had three other 4wpc amps to compare, that had no problem driving the speakers to louder than comfortable levels.  i can't say i trust deckert all that much...

ymmv,

doug s.

hi charles1dad,

amps i used to drive the coincident victory’s to loud enough to drive you out of the room worked because they were not 4 ohm only amps. a true 4 ohm 4wpc amp (like the decware amp i tried) will put out a little over 1wpc into a 14 ohm load.

two amps were custom-made home-brew amps i got off ebay - one made by a hobbyist in germany; the other by a chinese gentleman living in australia. (if you do a websearch on "mcchanson Web Page" you’ll find the aussie’s work; the german has a webpage - http://www.goldstrom.de/ )

the aussie amp is ~4.5w set w/6v6 valves; i had the builder add 16 ohm speaker tap from the x-former (add’l speaker tap not shown in builder’s original pic:
https://photos.google.com/search/custom/photo/AF1QipNFC9OKiWe8u2-mHtNG1bf4GZ1Qtw3IbGCTLrVh

the german amp is 3wpc el84 set amp; it was built w/5 ohm x-formers; w/info from the builder, i swapped them out w/16 ohm x-formers:
https://photos.google.com/search/custom/photo/AF1QipM5chUDTvm2YJ7APEN684nrbqaupF96Iv4zRmRf

these ~4wpc el84 set amps were pulled from an akai m8 r-2-r tape deck; 8 ohm taps:
https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipM_-qPgUAuLEbhBym1VjgNTE0xZHO95-3rMarKp

finally an el84 sep commercial product - almarro a205a mkii; ~5wpc; output tap rated 8/16 ohms:
https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipMWSYxNls1meOmyBbt1PW7vqjX97ZguaGm5gXWG

digging thru my old records indicates it’s the zen taboo amp i owned; rated 6wpc into 4 ohms, not 4wpc; which means that it’s putting out something like 1.7w into 14 ohms. even srajan ebaen, who reviewed this amp, said it didn’t drive his 12 ohm zu’s very well, much preferring the 6 ohm model.

pricewise, the zen retailed for ~$1k, the almarro for ~$800. my other amps were way less; $300 shipped for the german amp being the most expensive. they all crushed the decware in performance, all sounding absolutely fabulous. they all also sound great on my oris 150 horns, w/fostex drivers...

doug s.

hi  charles1dad,

yes, good transformers are important.  but it's not like the transformers in the decware zen taboo were shoddy.
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/decware/taboo_2.html
it was simply that they're set up at 4 ohms, and have unusually low input sensitivity.  this should have been a red flag, and steve deckert could have been more forthright when i queried him about how they'd match w/my 14 ohm speakers.  but in fact, it seems his answer will depend on who's asking the question, and what steve wants them to hear.  i have emails from steve about this; when i told steve about my results, he said he knew why my set-up wasn't working (w/my high-gain preamp), and added:

" The Taboo is ideally suited for 8 ohm speakers. It will do 4 ohm and 16 ohm, but would rather see 16 ohms then 4. I’m not sure how the 6 moons review got listed as lower is better. While that is true with many of our amps, it is not true with the Taboo."

i explained to him that srajan got those results w/the taboo working better on his 6 ohm vs 12 ohm zu's, and that steve told him it was to be expected.  so, i asked him i'd love to hear why he thinks the taboo's didn't work in my set-up.  i never heard back from him.  ;~)

doug s.