“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

Bullitt,
have you tried tubes in the signal path at all?
Does your 4520 have a preamp input? I have an older Denon 5803 that I picked up in a pawn shop for $150. Score! Its amplifier section is pretty descent. You could probably find a used tube preamp into the Denon and you may be amazed at the color and vibrancy it brings just for a test to see if you like it. The DIs are easy to drive so the wattage of the 4520 is probably fine for now. IMO through my experiments the preamp is possibly the most important thing in the chain. I am sure 50% will disagree. 
been "off the grid" for a while so figured I would update...  I want to thank everyone for contributing (within this thread, messaging, and in a couple of cases actual conversations..) and helping me think about the "investment" from a variety of angles..  I took that little field trip to Utah and got to audition the DIs live and in person.  On the negative side, the DIs were the only speakers available (no Enzo 2.7s or Electrons lying around...)  On the plus side, they sounded pretty amazing...  The "room" was a small-medium size warehouse so I can't say what they will sound like in my room but here are my impressions:  1) amazing clarity and detail.. On one song I have listened to for well over 20 years the clarity of the guitar confused me a little as it sounded different than what I am used to, can't wait to experience that with all of my favorites...  2) size is large yes, but not as obnoxious as I feared..  Especially considering they were sitting right in front of the new ulfberhts...  those things are ridiculously tall!!!! no, I didn't get to listen to them... 3) bass was surprisingly ... light?  I chalked that up to being in a warehouse and actually felt a little relieved as people have mentioned the bass would be overwhelming in my room... so as it is, I have 2 big boxes in my living room..

Why in boxes in my living room????  Well, the project has been going slower than I had hoped but I am hopeful things will really be picking up here in the next couple of weeks... but the good news is the room has grown to 10x14 ft as it moved to a different area of the basement...  Also, I am learning all about sound dampening/isolation and have my fingers crossed that a sweet little integrated will be coming my way...  I don't want to jinx it...


@la10slgr:  Congratulations. Great news about your room! Looking forward to your impressions and evaluation of the Double Impacts (I believe that is what you went with, correct?).
I know that I am ridiculously late to the party on this one, but for whatever it’s worth, I can’t agree more emphatically with the truth that you simply can’t know how a given speaker is going to strike your fancy until you have heard it in your room, with your music, connected to your equipment. I’ve had an embarrassing number of speakers pass through my listening room over the years and I have regularly been surprised – both on the positive and negative side of the ledger – by how a particular design sounded.
I also want to say that I’ve come to feel strongly that if you’re going to purchase a speaker directly from the manufacturer, it needs to come with a reasonable audition period. Speakers with dynamic drivers (I don’t really have any experience with planar magnetic or electrostatic designs) are mechanical devices and I’ve no doubt that the sonic changes that come with the mechanical break-in of the speaker surround, "spider" and so forth are real phenomena and not just psychological artifacts. So, it’s a matter of spending a reasonable amount of time with the speaker in your own environment, rather than reading specification sheets, etc.
For whatever that’s worth!