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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
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 

Jcarcopo,

Your comments /experience are a good example of quality compared to quantity in regard to amplifier power. The 700 watt Nord was not the sonic equal of your much lower power tube amplifiers (With your speakers). No surprise to me.


If the Pass Labs XA 25 is a ’close’ 2nd to two superb tube SET amplifiers that’s quite a compliment indeed for the XA 25. This is a pure class A (25 w at 8 ohm/50 wat 4 ohm class A) relatively simple circuit well designed amplifier. I suspect it would be better sounding than the often praised Parasound amplifier matched with the Tekton Encores. I’m certain I’d love the Encores driven by the 15 watts from the Allnic given my listening preferences. And yes the EML XL 300b is an excellent tube both in sound quality and reliability.

Charles

jcarcopo's avatar
jcarcopo OP
504 posts
 
@charles1dad Charles I feel like a heretic buying the XA25! It’s the first solid-state amp I’ve owned that I actually was intrigued with sonically within a few seconds of hearing the vocals and midrange play even while it was cold right out of the box. The gestalt was very jarring. My preconceived notions of solid-state are forever altered. Pass has devoted so much of his time to his First Watt amps and he sneaks this XA25 amp into his line up, which is nothing like the rest of the XA .8 series which use many transistors and have actually worse specifications. The utter simplicity of the XA25 along with it’s truly single ended circuit seems to be winning me over. I had 2 people suggest it to me whose opinions I value and so I decided to take the plunge and try it just to prove them wrong, but I am very pleased with it. Terry London’s Review mirrors my own sentiments regarding this amp being built entirely around the midrange and that it’s as close to SET like I’ve ever heard.
ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,883 posts
 
@ JCARCOPO i am happy that you like the encores as i stated i did not what to hijack the post i do not what to argue.what i was saying is most speaker company are miss leading in there numbers.your right 15watts is all you need.i can’t used more then 5-watts.@my seat 13’ the spl is 106 Db.but @1watt its great.your art audio diavolo SET-300b tube amps are great.that 1-watt in that amp is what i live for in audio.but it is more then just spl? you know that. the jbl i use are two/way.the $2500 i paid for them.i have not found better for what they sound like and cost i found better the jbl everest but at $60,000? if you found audio happiness with *encores*thats the audio (grail).don’t stop until you you drink from the silver cup.why are you reading this? GO listen to the (ENCORES) over and out.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
It's a 10 to 1 ratio with wattage anyway. It takes 1000w to effectively double the output of 100w amplifier in spl. So even with 50w you need 500w just to double the perceived spl. At least that's how it's been explained to me. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Power to volume is logarithmic, but not quite that much. Doubling the power is only 3dB louder. Double three times- 3, 6, 9dB- you're talking 8 times the power to go 9dB louder. The ten to one you're thinking of is probably 10dB takes ten times the power. That one is true. 

Another factor is "double the perceived spl" that one is pretty subjective. 3dB is only a little louder, but a lot of people would probably agree 10dB is twice as loud. So that may also be where your 10 to 1 comes from.
Either way, based on what I am hearing from my Moabs its a slam dunk that Encores are super easy to drive and sound amazing.

jcarcopo's avatar
jcarcopo OP
504 posts
 
@millercarbon Thanks for clarifying. I knew I was on the right path, but I'm glad you clarified this for me. 😉 
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