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

@stephenurquhart Yes it's a custom color.  Eric will paint your Encores any automotive or specialty color you chose.  The high gloss finish is extra labor intensive and does normally cost $1000 more lately.  I'm not sure what current pricing is but expect to pay around $9000 or even a bit more.  Ask Eric for current pricing. 

So $1,000 extra for high gloss and how much extra for a custom color?  Do you know what any of the colors look like without the high gloss?  Would they be like a flat finish?Thanks,Steve

@stephenurquhart there's no charge to pick any color you want. The high gloss is the up charge.  I've owned both double impacts in a flat finish and Encores in high gloss.  High gloss is worth it to me. 

@jcarcopo can you mention other speakers you've heard that the encore compares favorably to? I really appreciate your insights but comparisons with actual models makes things very concrete to me.

Thanks!

@smodtactical - In no particular order:

JBL Everestx4 Stacked - (Excellent sounding system a friend owns, but I can’t afford even a pair though, and way too big for my room)

JBL K2 - (Excellent sounding system, my friend owns, but I can’t afford them either and too big)

Klipsch RF-7II (Horns that have a distinct/harsh rising upper midrange to highs, very hard to eq out)

Vonschweikert VR10, VR5, VR2, VR4JR (Back in the day they were great and very holographic, hard to drive with SET amplifiers)

Dali Helicon & Euphonia (Not forward sounding, way too relaxed, soft, and hard to drive with SET amplifiers)

Analysis Audio Omega Ribbon/Planar Magnetics (Hard to place, too big, hard to drive, and they sounding pretty good on some music)

Meadowlark (Nice sounding transmission lined speakers, no where near the dynamics of the Encores, inefficient design)

Cabasse (Yuk, horrible, NO!)

Legacy (Lovely sounding, just not on my radar anymore)

Orangutans (Very beautiful speakers, Lacking in the midrange and dynamics for me, although a nice higher efficiency design 96db, overpriced though IMHO)

B&W (Too harsh, beamy highs, fatiguing, and incoherent sounding- Maybe with McIntosh gear and the treble turned down.)

Vandersteen 2C & 3A (Nice background speaker, elevator music speaker, unoffensive, but not very dynamic)

Harbeth 40.1 (Beautiful sounding speaker, hard to drive with low wattage tube amps)

ZU Droids (No way would I own them, they are the worst measuring and sounding speaker on planet earth)


  There are many more that I’ve Auditioned, used to sell, or owned, but they aren’t very memorable.

Hi everyone, mint condition Encores for sale for anyone interested.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9ff76-tekton-design-encore-full-range

Has anyone noticed that the weight of the Encore published by Tekton has dropped from 175lbs to 145lbs?  Thirty pounds per speaker is an enormous amount. Where did all of that weight go?  

Hello all...I'm new to the group.  Was very interested in the Encores.  Did notice the discrepancy between the 145 lbs on the Tekton Design website and the 175 lbs that others quote.  Are there reviews other than stereotimes?  Would be interested in seeing some measurements.  Thanks!

Well, I was told 175lbs. I can’t easily weigh them as I don’t own a scale, but I would simply contact Karma or Eric and ask the question. Maybe Eric altered the design to make them more affordable. As I recall they originally were $9000 with gloss finish, at the time. $9200 with grills. At times they are on sale for as low as $7k for non-gloss finishes. Great speaker!
A FOREVER SPEAKER. 

chenzobat, Straight from Eric the Encores weigh 145 lbs. Perhaps the 175 figure is with packing or an error.

I spoke to Eric briefly last week...he was jammed at the time.  Asked him about the tweeter selection on the Encore vs the DI SE.  He spoke very highly of the Encore but didn't have time for an explanation.  Also was looking for the difference between the Encore and the Moab.  The Encore has the two 7" mid-bass drivers and smaller woofers.  Thinking the overall expense of the drivers must be what's driving the $2500 price difference.  I'll try to call him again.  Thoughts?

chenzobat, I lived with Moabs for 8 months, loved them! Eric told me the Encores are a little more polished, maybe checking a few more audiophile boxes. Above 300 Hz they should be very similar, adding those 7" mid-bass couplers and the 11" woofers will make the Encores quicker and more able to differentiate bass lines while still having enough weight, impact, and low bass extension. The Moab's slight weakness was their definition in the bass, not as quick as Double Impacts or DI SEs, although much lower extension and power. The woofers in the Encore have a different surround and look very different from the custom Eminence units in the Moabs? I'm led to believe the Encores are the sweet spot in Eric's lineup, the Moabs being the very best value in speakerland!

I received a pair of Encores with a Be upgrade for the main tweeter about 6 weeks ago. I had a job change after they were ordered (more work, less money, but I am grateful to be working) so I have not had the time or energy to do a proper A/B versus a pair of Wilson Yvettes.  My preliminary review is that they present a taller and better defined soundstage than the Wilsons.  I listen primarily to classic rock and classical, and the bass response for rock is just better in the Tektons.  My other quick observation is that the Tekton's are better when I am not sitting in the primary listening position.
I do not have a wife, so the "big boxy look" does not matter. I got the high gloss Rosso Folgore upgrade and I think they look great

@gimmeroc Thanks for sharing your preliminary thoughts about your experience with the Encores compared to the Wilson's.  I'm glad to hear the Encores are an improvement over the Yvettes. 

 I love my Encores very much and consider them my forever speaker.  I find their superb coherence lends to their great imaging, soundstage, and revealing inner detail.  I just moved my entire system to a bigger dedicated room and I can't wait to get my 18 ATS acoustic sound treatments in about a week to tame the slap echo by reducing the decay.

It sounds good now, but soon they should sound spectacular.

Again, thanks for sharing. 

@klh007 , I have noticed the difference in the woofer surrounds between the Encores and the Moabs...closely looking at pics. Was thinking that it had a more refined driver.  Do you currently own the Encores?  Appreciate the description.  Certainly looking for everything you described.

@gimmeroc, thanks for the comparison with the Wilsons.  I never considered the Be upgrade for the main tweeter...will look into it.  I share the same musical tastes and occasionally listen to opera.

Currently I have Focal 936 Arias, a BAT VK-75SE amp and just upgraded to the BAT VK-33SE preamp.  The Focals are very good... mids are well defined and clean however they don't present the sound stage that I'm looking for.  And at times the speaker can be fatiguing.  However, the system is setup in a finished basement in need of room treatment.  

@jcarcopo, thanks for this forum!!  It is my best source of information on the Encores.

@chenzobat Thanks a lot! I'm glad it has been helpful. It means a lot to me. 

@chenzobat, The woofer in the Encores is a pricy one from SB Acoustics.

Klh007, thanks for the info.  Great to see quality drivers are used.  It all helps in justifying the jump from the Moabs to the Encores.  

I just ordered a pair of the Encores.  I've owned a pair of the Tekton Seas Pendragons since 2013 and love them but was getting the upgrade bug so I called Eric to ask about the Encores and Moabs.  Eric thought if I liked the full sound of the Seas Pendragons, the Encores would be a better fit than the Moabs for me.
I'm currently using a Yamaha home theater receiver for the Seas Pendragons because many of the audio sources I am amplifying are HDMI audio.  I may want to use the Yamaha as a preamp and feed into a two channel power amplifier.  Any suggestons for a stereo power amplifier that would be a good fit for the Encores?  I wouldn't want to spend more than $2K for a power amp.

@jsoku Congratulations on going with the new Encores! I love mine very much.  They are my forever speaker.

Regarding powering them I'm probably not going to be much help.  I run source direct from my Matrix Audio Sabre X Pro MQA DAC and power mine currently with a pair of 15wpc Allnic A6000 Quad Parallel 300bxls SET Tube Monoblocks.  The Encores are relatively high sensitivity at 96db albeit at a 4ohm load, but as you can see in my case, it take very little power to drive them to 94db peaks in my 20x13x8 room from my listening position 10ft away. 
I'm very biased towards to amps for music and SET topology tube amps in particular because of their 3D holographic and palpable portrayal of vocal and string/wind instruments as well as incredible sound staging.
  You can get pretty close with solid-state using a Pass Labs XA25 I'm told, but that over $5k.   

Eric pairs his speakers with Parasound amplifiers at the shows and they always get high marks for the pairing, but again they are outside your budget, unless you possibly find them used.
 
You could go with an amp that utilizes NCORE Class D modules offered by numerous manufacturers.  Some have better sounding input buffer boards, like Nord or Apollo Audio which even allow you to choose the overall tone you want by choosing the opamp chip to your liking.  Best bang for your buck might be a no frills ncore design.  If you Google ncore amplifiers you will get dozens of results. I know theirs a brand that's like $700, but their name eludes me at the moment. 
I prefer NCore Class D to most Class A/B amplifiers.  They tend to be very powerful and very low in distortion, but also are fairly smooth sounding. They do transients well too. 

Again, for music though. Imho, nothing beats a good SET Tube Amplifier or a Class A solid-state amp like the pass labs XA25.

Are you doing full surround sound?  If not, maybe ditch the receiver and look at the 2 channel anthem integrated with room correction. My friend loves his a lot.  Also, that receiver is your weak link. The dacs in most midfi receivers are quite awful sounding and have poor measurements to back that up.  It used to not be that way, but they really have gone down hill over the years. 

Hope this helps you some. Glwys

@charles1dad You could put me on a feeding tube and build a toilet into my recliner and I'd have little reason leave my new man cave, but I'm already clocking entirely too many hours listening to music as it is.  With the quarantine in place/covid mess and my pre-existing health issues I'm starting to become so much of a hermit that I'm may very well be turning into an agoraphobe by the time this pandemic is over. 😁

Thanks for the suggestions.  I asked Eric for a recommendation for amps, and he also recommended Parasound.  Looking at their amp line, I don't think I'd get enough of a bump-up from their lower priced amps relative to my Yamaha--I think I'd have to move up to something like the JC5 to get a significant bump up and that's more than I want to spend right now.
I'm more of a videophile than an audiophile--I have an 11.2.4 projector home theater in the basement--the Tekton Seas Pendragon are going to replace the mains on the home theater system once Eric builds me a center channel speaker that matches the Seas Pendragons, which he's going to do and send me together with the Encores.  I might also later buy one of the Tekton subs, although mysteriously they get very little press and reviews.

The Encores are going into my listening/computer room, but it is a multi-use set-up for listening to music, watching TV on a 77 inch OLED, and my son's gaming.  I do have a nice but very overpriced DAC (the Chord Dave) in this set-up so music quality could be great.  I am curious about tube amps, but given the amount of use, replacing the tubes will probably be more frequent and headache-inducing than I'd want, even if I convinced myself to take the plunge on the initial start-up cost.
Thanks for starting this thread--it certainly contributed to my taking the plunge on the Encores.

@jcarcopo

I greatly appreciate your contributions to this forum! For a long time I planned to order Moabs, but now I think Encores might be a better fit -- bit smaller physically yet smoother musically(?). Music is primarily classical. I plan to bi-amp with tubes on top and ss bottom. 

My question is about tubes: Is there much difference between set and push-pull for orchestra string quality? I'm thinking push-pull would have more power for mids, no? 

Thanks for comments.

@coot Thanks for the kind words. I’ve never heard the Moabs, but I like to think to the Encores are special and believe Eric would mirror that sentiment as well.

Regarding bi-amping: I’m not a fan of it, it’s really unnecessary with the Encores. Whether 60wpc or 15wpc I still achieve at least 94db peaks at 10ft away with zero compression and no soft clipping. That being said usually if you’re going to do it, the amps typically are identical, and mixing topologies like SET and SS are not going to have remotely similiar gain structures or sound signatures. Can you gain match the amps and make it work with an active crossover or passive volume controls, yes, but should you? I wouldn’t. That being said SETs excel at glorious midrange and highs and give up a bit of authority in the bass (sometimes) due to a lack of feedback and damping (there are pros and cons to this approach)
, so if you’re going to do it and with non-identitcal/dissimilar signature topology amplifiers (which I wouldn’t recommend), at least keep the SET on the mids and highs, and keep the ss on the bass where feedback and damping belongs. If properly gain matched it will sound only disjointed. WHY? Well, I’m glad you didn’t ask 😁, but I’ll tell you why. I heard a $10k speaker I pined for years ago called a DB99 by Von Schweikert. It was a speaker designed for SET amplifiers and came powered with its own SS amplifier to handle the bass region fed by the output signal of your own SET amp. The idea being the SET amp could feed its flavored signal to the ss amp and therefore minimize the disjointed disconnect between the way a SET sounds and ss sounds while allowing the SET to handle only the high and mid frequencies . It sounded awful. I hated it. I tweaked the gain settings on the ss amp all night and never got that thing to sound coherent and right.

Furthermore, the Encores come bi-wireable, not bi-ampable, but don’t let that stop you from paying Eric to make them biampable, anything is possible. Surely that is in his capabilities.

I’ve been using SET amplification for over 20 years. When I was about 25 years old I had access to a bunch of solid-state and tube amps to audition over many months at a high end boutique in CA I helped out. After hearing many different amplifiers I took an Art Audio Diavolo SET Tube Amplifier home for a weekend and enjoyed it a lot, but I couldn’t afford it anyway so I brought it back to the store. A month of torment goes by and I’m thinking out of everything I had heard that Diavolo was the only thing that had a purity in the midrange and a 3d holographic nature that nothing else I had heard possessed. I meekishly asked the owner one day about it. He explained to me why it sounded the way it did. (Simplest topology, pure class A, no phase-splitter/zero cross-over distortion, pleasant 2nd/3rd order harmonic distortion characteristics that went along with the musical signal, etc) I had just moved to my new studio and I wanted to try it one more time before committing to it and he of course said "sure". It sounded even more glorious in my new place. Me and a friend were both picking our jaws off the floor it sounded so good. The next day I asked the owner "how much?". He sold it to me for $2500, it retailed for $6999. I literally was prepared to pay double that price, but I acted very nonchalant and paid him enthusiasticly. I’ve owned 2 versions of the Diavolo, and now I own the Allnic A6000s SETS. All I know is SETs, and I’ve never heard anything at ANY show or ANY store or ANY fellow audiophile’s house to make me think of switching to ss or pp tube equipment.

Sorry for the long-winded trip down memory lane. So to recap. I’m firmly in the buy, beg, or borrow, but get a SET amp camp and no, a push-pull tube amp, even in SE MODE isn’t the same thing. 😁

Hope this helps you out. Now go biamp some Encores! 😉

Coot,

fwiw, as I mentioned on the other thread, if you run a SS or Class D amp with only 10k input impedance for bass in particular, That will not match well with most tube pre-amps. That impedance issue will create distortion and result in poor bass most likely.

Can you tell me what pre-amp you use? That would help settle that.

If currently you use tube pre-amp with your 10k input impedance Class D amps, that might well account for any bass issues with your Ohm 5000s ( or any other speakers driven similarly for that matter) which should be able to deliver as much clean bass as desired, though since driver is downward firing you might not feel as much slam with Ohm Walsh in the bass as others with bass drivers firing towards your listening position. 

If you have an impedance mismatch from Pre amp to amp, I would address that first otherwise any speaker change may make little difference.

Also I recall your room was odd shaped with one speaker closer to side wall than other. The adjustments on the 5000s should be just what the doctor ordered to tame bass as needed. It could be harder to get other speakers to work well there unless you have some other way of tuning left versus right speaker specifically as needed.

Hi jcarcopo, 
Thanks for the trip down memory lane as I can appreciate it thoroughly.  You discovered SETs earlier in life than I.  I went through the solid state amplifiers then tube push pull route for a number of years. My introduction to SET amplification happened about 11 years ago.  My recognition of their superb attributes mirrors your accurate  description.  It was quite definitive and unmistakable. Jcarcopo, there's been no looking back 😊. 
Charles 

Jcarcopo,
I realize that bi-amping is fairly popular but I believe that your perspective as it relates to the Encore is very rational. It would seem that these speakers don’t need it and are better off with a single high quality amplifier.
Charles

jcarcopo,
"Thank you" doesn't do justice to your detailed (and much appreciated) response!. You have answered my questions very well indeed. My only concern left is... what about bass? As I understand it, that is a weakness of SETs. That'll be my own little first-world problem to solve. Never heard an SET - ever.
As of now, $24k and up is out of my league.

mapman,
Pre is W4S. All is working well now that I have the 5000s located properly with the help of Ohm tech.

Thanks for your response. Yeah, room is limiting with left wall solid, right with 4-ft archway. Rear is mostly open which helps. I had a bit of boomy bass so installed a DSpeaker Antimode which takes care of that pretty well. SQ is good for now, but I still want to go to Encores.

Ok good to hear.  Is the soundstage and imaging better now?   That will always be different than others but elements of the recording/performers should occupy specific locations in the soundstage with most decent quality recordings.  
Do  good mono recordings  have a solid focus in middle of rear wall?   That is usually a good indicator things are set up well for proper imaging and soundstage with Ohms. 

That device sounds like it provides a lot of flexibility matching speakers to room. 
Having had an audition of double impacts safe to say Tekton will be a different beast. 
Cheers!

@coot Well, bass is subjective. I'm not a bass head to begin with. My Allnics provide ~10db of feedback and possesses ~10db damping to produce very tight, accurate, and even prodigious deep bass on thunderous deep house or on kodo drums for instance.  It's quite gut punching good. Most SETS are zero feedback designs, so they may approximate the deepest bass without the absolute control and slam that solid-state has to offer.  If your budget allowed I'd highly recommend the Line Magnetic 508ia 48WPC 805 SET amp for about $4600.  It's a premium quality piece with gobs of SET magic and way more power than you'll get from most low powered 300b SET amps.  Again, the Encores are 96db sensitive and 48wpc will get you plenty of amplitude whether it be bass or otherwise.  I really enjoyed that piece and at its price point its a relative bargain for such powerful SET amp.  Taylor at Goldprint Audio can help you. He's near me in NC, but maybe theirs a dealer closer to you.  If I can get by with 15wpc, you could be in hog heaven with 48 glorious watts per channel.  Regardless which way you go, I'm sure you're going to love the Encores, regardless. 
Glwys ☺ 

I read lots of good remarks about the LM508 but I'd really like to stay with made in America or at least not made in Communist China.

coot, here are your amps:
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649626932-audio-mirror-45w-set-monoblocks/
i have an older pair w/o some of the upgrades these have, and they're very nice.  with power to spare; they can probably drive almost anything except really inefficient speaker in a big room.. 

if you want to bi-amp, the way to do it is with an active crossover set at 40-100hz, (depending on room and speakers), and a pair of subwoofers driven by solid state or class-d amp.  unless a conventional speaker's normal bi-amp x-over point is 100hz or less, i'd stick w/identical amps if bi-amping...

imo, of course.  😉  and, if you have room, i'd recommend going to actively crossed subs even if your main speakers go deep.  that's because most speakers that can dig even into the 20 hz frequencies have their first x-over point anywhere between 300hz-1khz.  and if they don't have to see that last 40-100 hz, the mains themselves will sound better, as well as the low bass sounding better.  and the amps driving the mains will also thank you!  probably a lot, if they're set amps?  😉

doug s.

@cooThe Audio Mirrors @Sedond/Doug recommends are another high powered SET option as well. They're made in the USA at a very fair price. I've not heard them yet personally to offer any input on them delivering SET-like goosebumps and magic especially utilizing that russian 6c33c pentode being ran in triode mode. They are very beautiful amps though and definitely are a well thought out design considering their necessary protection system to prevent malfunctions if the tube decides to malfunction. 
I considered a similiar pair using that tube made by a one-off manufacturer in NJ. The amps were made in Vietnam, unbeknownst to me, and were very poorly made, even after a tech went through them and getting them working he just looked at me and told me to return them because they were of a poor design and were highly distorted way short of their rated power.  It was at this time I noticed the Audio Mirrors.  I reached out to the builder's Audiogon ad, but didn't hear back and around that time I discovered the Allnic A6000 Monoblocks and I decided to pounce on them.

If you go that route please chime in and let us know how you like them! 

Any thoughts or experience with Decware Amps?

@bourcier I've only oggled their website a few times.  I was drawn to the 25th Anniversary Super Zen Triode 6wpc monoblocks (how could you not want a pair after reading that marketing material, 😁), but I fear atleast15wpc might be really the minimum the Encores need to sound decent with enough low-end extension.

I never looked at his other offerings, but I kind of like the guy. He's very passionate about audio and it shows in his product information.

@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.

Anyone out there have their Encores and wish they had more from them? Or found nitpicking issues with them?

I've seen a few people who have traded them in for the Ulfberhts, which I guess is understandable given that is Eric's top of the line offering. I've heard from some of those people who comment about how the Ulfberhts seem to produce more of that live sound Tekton is becoming known for compared to the Encore. Not sure what that means as far as the Encore line however. Or what kind of sound they create comparatively. 

My only hesitation on the Ulfs is their size obviously. I can probably manage it, but how much more performance are you getting for that size trade off?

Out of curiosity, I looked at the tweeter arrangement and noticed a few differences and am curious how that pans out for soundstage, imaging, etc. To me it seems the Encores, being slimmer,  use a different tweeter housing which has a smaller diameter than the Ulf. (5 screws opposed to 4) so Im guessing the tweeters are spaced out more in the Ulf/Moab line. What effect that makes for placement differences, idea listener positioning/seating height, etc. between the two. 


Basically how much more performance can you really get out of the Ufs over the Encores in a reasonably setup room with high quality, highly reviewed electronics/amps/connections?? Or is it just a a slightly different overall sound presentation. More than a personal taste difference?



I called Tekton the other day. Haven't had a chance to talk to Eric himself to see what he would recommend for my situation, or what he would say about Encore vs. Ulfberhts (If anyone has had that conversation and cares to comment, please do)  but the lady on the phone said someone recently sent back their Encores in exchange for the new Moabs, which are also getting a lot of critical praise for their ability. 


Yes, as a current double impact owner, I think you I cant go too wrong with any option. Just waxing details here before I ultimately buy one of theses to upgrade the DIs. 

I've never heard the Ulfberhts, but I'm absolutely sure they have several pluses over the Encores. I pushed Eric to build me the Encores 2 years ago because I wanted a more room friendly and more asthetically proportioned speaker similar to the Ulfberhts at a more affordable price.  I paid $9k for them at the time with a gloss finish when the Ulfs were selling for $12k.

If you're on Facebook you should join the Tekton Worldwide Owner's Group. Then send a message to Jon Jonsyk and get his impressions because he has owned both Encores and Ulfberhts. 

If I had the room for them and the additional funds lying around I'd possibly upgrade to the Ulfberhts too, but I'm more interested in his 2112 speaker project since it's been quite a long while, they're shrouded in complete mystery, and it hasn't been released yet which has me curious like I was when people whispered about the mini Ulfberhts which became the Encores.

I might just harass Eric about them tonight. 😁 

haha harass away! Curious if he releases any teasers. 

Wonder what the 2112 will turn out to be. Something like the 1812 given the same naming?

I did reach out on the Tekton Owners Group. Its a great resource with more photos and personal input which is super helpful given the inability to see/hear many of these speakers in person. Unfortunately I don't have a FB account at present time so I'm borrowing an account to pester people for their impressions. 

I reckon either speaker are reasonable deals presently. Though I bet Eric and company are swamped with orders at present time. 

That being said, I waited about 9 months for my double impacts 3.5 years ago. 

what i's like to see is a mini-ulfberht, with the moab's tweeters and woofers, and the encore's two 7" mid-bass drivers between the woofer and tweeter array, like in the ulfberht's, which use four of the 7" drivers.  maybe, too close in size/cost?  or at least a mini ulfberht w/the 10" woofers of the encore, instead of the 12" woofers.  i do believe someone custom ordered a pair of the encores that way, w/the woofers top-n-bottom, instead of both at the bottom.  i'd definitely want the encores that way, were i to order a pair...

doug s.

@sedond 
can you, or anyone explain to me the benefit from having the woofers in the top to bottom orientation compared to the Encore in the double on the bottom?

Another random question, but are the tweeters for the Encore, Moab, and Uf all the same? just spaced differently apart in the Encore. 

Or does the Encore use different tweeters than the Moab/Uf?

whacky - the benefit of having the woofers high & low, as opposed to having both at the floor, is more even room loading of the bass. different locations of the bass drivers means low-end standing waves are more evenly spread out in the room, with a smoother in-room response.

it does appear that the tweeters are a bit different in the encores than in the moabs and the ulfberhts; i'm also curious about this. it could be just the tweeter's surround and spacing is different, but maybe not?  and what does the different spacing achieve in one vs the other?

doug s.

@sedond @whacky   I always thought the woofers were simply placed on the bottom of Encores so that the treble tweeter height would be ideal. If he located the woofer and the midbass driver beneath it it push the entire array down considerably.  The only way around it would be to make the speaker taller which wouldn't make it a mini Ulfberht, which was the intention.

Regarding the tweeter.  He uses a very good Wavcor tweeter that retails for $95 on Parts Express, so yeah that's $3000 in tweeters in the Encores, alone, but I'm sure Eric gets quantity discounts 😁 because he uses so many tweeters. I do not know what tweeter he's using in the Moabs, but I would have to think he's using a more practical priced driver to reach the lower overall price point. The Ulfberhts tweeters are likely even nicer than the Encore tweeters, but I don't know what model he's using in there. I doubt the amount of mounting space between the tweeters is germane to sound quality, he just used the Wavcor tweeter because it was a very good driver for this application at the price point for the speaker. No other manufacturer gives you over 50% of your money in speaker drivers alone and thats not even including the crossover parts, cabinet, paint, labor, shipping, and a reasonable profit margin. Most dealers make 40%-50% profit on highend speakers and high end speaker manufacturers multiply their raw costs by ~500% to reach their pricing.  Tektons are a steal, but you all already know that and I digress. 😊

While I am sure the speakers are all everyone says they are, they all are just way too ugly to go in my living room.  I could never own them (not that I want them) and I am willing to bet my GE Triton Reference speakers will give them an excellent run for the money.  I am talking about comparatively priced Tektons