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

i have only heard the double impacts, but reading about the amps used and going into shutdown, someone might want to audition electrocompaniet amps.  i have an older pair of ec aw75 dual mono amps; they're rated at 75wpc into 8 ohms, 140/4 ohms; 220/2 ohms, stable into loads <1 ohm.  but the thing about them - and about all ec amps - is the current - these amps are rated >60 amps current.  and all ec amps are like that.  and, they're considered by many as solid state gear for those who like tubes

lowest powered ec amps presently in production are the aw180 monoblocks, at 250w into 8 ohms and >100 amps current.  but you can find great deals on the used aw25/50/60/65/75/100/120/250 stereo amps.  

doug s.

@jcarcopo XA25 + Encore seems like a great combo! How do you like it ??

@smodtactical I've been using SET tube amplifiers for 20 years and this is the first solid-state amp to have a beautiful enough midrange to sway me away from tubes while the added weight and heft in the bass region from the XA25's high damping factor provides a solid foundation to any music.  It's an excellent combo and I highly recommend it. Vocals are velvety smooth, string, and wind instruments sound amazingly dynamic, natural, and very real. I highly recommend this particular model over other XA amps in the line up for its unique minimalist use of 4 high output transistors per side, exceptional specifications when compared to all the other XA series, and its specific distortion makeup which, to my ears, comes closest to a SET tube amplifier. 

@charles1dad I will certainly post my impressions and comparisons. The Don Sachs preamp will be arriving far before the amp (still in the queue, no ship date yet), so I will have time for it to settle before adding his KT-88 amp to the mix. Honestly at this point I can't even give a definitive review of the Aegirs with the Encores, or the Encores themselves really, because the Encores are still going through the break-in process. Their sound has continued to change over the last 9 days - for the better I will add. The sound has filled out, especially as the woofers and mid-bass drivers loosen. I assume those require longer breaking in time than the tweeters. Perhaps break-in also influences the overall cohesiveness. At the very least I can say that the Encores don't overload the monoblock Aegirs, unless you are blasting Taiko drum music. And they sound really good.

Once the Sachs preamp ships I will switch to a single Aegir, as his preamp doesn't have balanced XLR outs. I will then eventually compare Sachs/Aegir to Freya+/Aegir and Freya+/Aegirs.