“Invest” in Tekton?


I’ve been a member of Audiogon for a while but haven’t really had the need to utilize the forums until now... I’ve perused the forums pretty extensively the past couple of days but haven’t really found my specific question.... First some background: I’ve had my current system for quite some time (PSB image: 5t, 9c, 2b, subsonic 6; Denon AVR3311 as preamp; and a NAD T955 amp) and have been pretty happy with it... yes, I tend to hold on to my stuff for a while.... I recently decided to explore the option of upgrading/updating my speakers and was pretty interested in some midlevel stuff (SVS Prime, Emotiva, PSB X2T, Paradigm 8, 9, or 10 something…) but ultimately decided the $2000-$3000 price tag wasn’t worth the investment as they were all roughly in the same league as my PSBs... Somehow, I stumbled upon the review of the Tekton double impacts... don’t even know how I found it but there I was... I kinda chuckled to myself when the reviewer started comparing them to $20,000 speakers and then started calling them better at some things... I was a little pessimistic about the review because in my aforementioned research every speaker was the greatest thing since sliced bread.. (To be honest, in my eyes, the professional reviewers lost some credibility because every speaker was just great, couldn’t find a bad review no matter how hard I tried...) Anyhow, the comparison to speakers 7-10x in price piqued my curiosity so I started snooping around for any Tekton reviews I could find and lo and behold, everyone loves them and the comparisons to speakers multiple times their price were plentiful. Ok, so the Tektons are good and now I’m more interested than I should be…

So here’s the rub… I’ve never even considered spending $5000-$6000 on a speaker system (5.0-5.1). Never in my wildest dreams… I’ve always had a theoretical limit of $3k and never gave anything above that a thought. Along comes Tekton with speakers that are in the 5-6k price range (5.0-5.1) but are being compared to speakers $20,000+ and the fact people are putting them in the same league as speakers in that price range, and saying they are better in some instances, is intriguing…

So here’s where I am asking for some assistance. It seems the Tekton lineup is a unique opportunity to acquire reportedly superior sonic performance with apparently unparalleled value. However, $5-6k is a TON of money in my world.. It won’t break the bank but admittedly, it bends it pretty significantly and spending this kind of money on speakers definitely wasn’t a consideration even a week ago… Personally, I am seeing this as a once in a lifetime purchase (am 43 and would expect these to be the last major speaker purchase of my life) but I do need to justify to my betrothed. My original sales pitch to her included the analogy “it seems they are selling Lamborghinis for the price of a Mustang…” and “I really don’t think there will be another opportunity like this” (when did I start selling timeshares???!!!) There are other barriers with her as well (e.g., “They’re how big?!”) but she does have somewhat of an understanding of how much I like music and stereo stuff.. somewhat…

So my actual questions:

  1. To those that have actually heard the speakers, (transducers?)… do you really feel they are leaps and bounds better than typical speakers in the 3-6k range (generally speaking…)? For comparison, I liked the SVS Ultras but due to price and size (yeah, I know how big the Tektons are..) I put them in the “maybe someday” category. To be clear, I’m not asking is “x better than y?” but rather “Do these $3000 speakers really belong in the same class as $20,000 speakers????

  2. In your humble opinions, is this really a rare/unique opportunity with unparalleled value that is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” or are situations like this (incredible value for the money) more common?

  3. I can’t even claim to have a basic understanding of electronics, I’ve read up on ohms and what not and my eyes glaze over.. I spoke with Eric and he, without hesitation, stated my NAD T955 would be plenty sufficient to run whatever options I went with. Thoughts? I intend on using the NAD until it dies (hopefully no time soon) and will deal with next steps when the time is right…

  4. I am super nervous about ordering something so expensive unheard, If anyone is interested, I would like to have a discussion relating to my type of music and listening environment/levels.. (not including in this post to keep size down..)

  5. Any other relavant information I haven't considered, particularly in the area of justifying a purchase such as this?

There are probably 100 other little tidbits I could include in this but I am trying to be as brief as possible and I still wrote a novel… Anyhow, any productive assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

la10slgr
The magic is the tweeter array.  So I would disregard comments about models that do not incorporate this feature.  After all, the OP was curious about the DI's, not lesser models
Post removed 

thanks everyone so much for chiming in.  So, here's what we have learned (I think..):

1. People strongly recommend auditioning (an obvious consideration if I do say so...).  Anyone live in Colorado and have some Tekton Double Impacts, Electrons, or Enzo 2.7s lying around and willing to hang out for a lil bit???  I'll being adult beverages!!!

2.  People aren't necessarily a fan of their other models, Luckily, the ones that got "poo-pood" aren't on the list!!!

3. Those that have heard/own the DIs (and a vote for the Electrons) feel they are pretty amazing overall and seem to recommend them without hesitation at their pricepoint but seem to stop short of calling them $20,000 speakers..

4. Gear better than my current situation is strongly recommended, but not necessarily an absolute requirement.

5. Did I miss anything?


By all means, keep the comments/recommendations coming!  I'm definitely of the mindset that having a larger sample size yields more accurate data..

Thanks again!

Of course you have to be nuts to drop big money on a speaker you never heard.
That said, pair of 700$ Rega RS-1's monitors will show the difference between a pre
and amp costing 4k and a Lamm setup costing 80K . And anything in between . Tried on my uber-rich buddies system several times because he
didn't believe it , he does now .
Amps trump(no pun intended)  speaker every time . At least on acoustic music .

I don't think that I would call the DI's a 20 to 25 k speaker beater in general.

But me and my wife did take a small trip to a out of state dealer to listen too a pair of magico Q5's that were a demo pair.We listened too them for about 1 hr or so and we brought with us 6 records that they let us use.They do have a excellent build quality,but I decided to think about them and look at other speakers.Then I started reading about the DI's and thought,sure a lot of hype about these but I would like a pair anyhow.Even though I have only had them for 2 days I truly love them better than any speaker I have ever owned in the 30 yrs that I have been in this hobby.My first big speakers were a set of Khorns with mac amps.

With all that said I guess,in my situation they did beat 24k speakers,even though I would have payed cash on the spot for the magico's,I strongly felt that the overall Sonics were only 3 to 5% better than anything I've owned or heard.You have to ask serself is it worth it.I'm just a working guy too and the diff. in money is going to be better used going into my retirement account.

The playback of music is and always will be highly subjective.

I have taken many chances in gear purchases over the years,mostly for the good and I really don't stress about it.I took loses recently on a pass xa30.8 and a first watt j2.Even though these are really good they did'nt better my ref600m.It's just part of the chances in life that we take sometimes.If I don't buy and try I might not have the opportunity to ever try diff. gear and then I would always wander.We have no dealers in my state they are average home theater.

In the meantime I'm going too enjoy my new Di's,They are simply that good.

Kenny.