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My Take on the Tekton Array, Experiences to Date

Based on my albeit disparate (different rooms and systems) experiences, as a reviewer of 14 years, and having built hundreds of systems with a wide variety of genres of speakers including arrays and panels, this is my succinct initial critique of the Tekton array technology. I have enough experience with large speakers of many genres that I can grasp the operation of different designs, including arrays in a straightforward manner. If you wish to see the speaker systems I have reviewed, see my bio and reviewing history at Dagogo.com.

I spent an evening at a new friend’s home hearing his setup with the Tekton Moab speakers. Nice, plenty of positive things to say. However, it was quite obvious that the array adds convolution to the imaging, especially with more complex music. Voices are split in prismatic fashion and I could hear the grouping of drivers’ contributing to that. It does have a more stringent sound, and does not excel in that system at warmth, even though a relatively recent AR preamp and Pass 30.8 Monos were in use. The bass was ok, but certainly not overwhelming in terms of impact or tonality. For $4K some good scale, acceptable presence and impact; reminded me of a low to mid line Magnepan or Vandersteen, a bargain, but with idiosyncrasies. Before I get to my critique, the obvious benefits of the Moab are large scale it has inherently as a big tower, the respectable bass and LF at the price point, and the grandeur of the center image, which is a faux recreation of panel speakers’ splayed center of the sound stage.

The interesting thing is what happened when the owner visited my home and heard my new to me as of two months ago Wharfedale Opus 2-M2 Monitors with the Legacy Audio XTREME XD Subs. In terms of relative soundstage as regards seating position and speakers, my perspective is that the Opus cast as large a soundstage due to the much closer seating position (approx. 2x closer) as the Moab. Frankly, for all the tweeters purportedly giving the Moab such incisiveness, not really. The 3" soft dome of the Opus 2-M2 to my ears in this system was much more precise and elegant, without the smearing of the multiple drivers’ launch. Tonally, I prefer the Wharfedale/Legacy combo from top to bottom. Dynamics favored the bookshelf/sub combo, too.

My new friend’s reaction? Incredulity, stating several times he could not get over the sound quality of the setup. He grokked at the price of the used pair of speakers. From my experience hearing two Tekton speakers now, both times in close succession (one time at a dealer just across the hallway at a show, and the other the same evening in my room following the visit to hear the Moab) to each other, the 3" soft dome of the Wharfedale is more exquisite than the array of tweeters of the Moab, and sacrifices nothing in terms of soundstage when the seating position is forward. I pursued the Opus 2-M2 to achieve a similar result as a pricey ATC or PCM speaker with similar soft dome mid, but at substantial savings. I succeeded brilliantly, based on several previous listening experiences with such speakers. I’m rather more excited about this development than the refurbishing of the pair of Ohm Walsh Model F speakers I worked on last year about this time. I could cough up the Ohm speakers without much problem, but wouldn’t dream of giving up the experience of the Opus and Legacy Subs.

This is not a definitive assessment as I have not conducted direct comparisons in my own room. My opinion could change substantially were I to do so. Am I shocked that the Moab owner was gobsmacked at the performance of the Wharfedale bookshelf speakers and Legacy subs? No. I rather enjoyed telling him that the Opus 2-M2 is a lower end speaker system for me. :)

Imo, a person has fundamental ignorance of the performance characteristics of different genres of speakers if they suggest, or worse boast, the Tekton array of tweeters has better refinement and precision than other genres of speakers when it comes to imaging. Anyone who understands design knows you can’t splay the image with multiple drivers and achieve superior coherency simultaneously. And, no, I do not care what claims are made about it; I have heard the effect twice in near term comparison to dynamic speaker systems, so fans and makers can claim what they wish, but I go with my ears and comparisons, of course with the same music selections.

I have refrained from commenting at length about the Tekton signature until I heard it again. I was absolutely correct in my initial assessment of the Tekton monitor I had heard at AXPONA about two years ago. At that time I sated the Tekton tweeter array did not have the precision, density and purity of center imaging of the Ryan Speaker bookshelf in the room nearby. I had the precise same experience between hearing the Moab and the Opus 2-M2. When I have the same experience twice, I am confident that I am locked in on the reality of the differences of the genres of speakers.

I’m neither for, nor against Tekton. It’s a different flavor of speaker. As I said about two years ago after the experience at AXPONA, the design will have its idiosyncrasies, as do all genres of speakers. Fanboys may rail, people who have moved on might concur. Whatever. I have zero interest in arguing my impressions. I will not call them conclusions, as that would require a direct comparison. Would I think anything significant might change in my assessment. No, I do not. But, I’m experienced enough and not so presumptuous that I would expect no chance of it.

douglas_schroeder
douglas_schroeder OP
3,281 posts
 

lwin, nice explanation of your priorities in setup. The extreme toe in would explain, I think, some of the discrepancies between our experiences in hearing the Tekton array. Ah, Ulfberhts; mea culpa for calling them Moab. Go big or go home! ;) Bill Dudleston of Legacy Audio sets up speakers such as the Whisper similarly, with the axis of the L/R crossing before the ears, though not as extreme. I get why you are doing so, to share the sweet spot. Hopefully your new seating will resolve the issue. 

I think you will have a lot of fun trying the Wharfedale speakers in the big rig. It's always a learning experience to set up a new rig. It is one of the greatest joys of the hobby for me, like cooking with sound, a unique feast served each time!

viber6, I wish I had that kind of sway, that I could urge and manufacturers jump into action on a new build. That has only happened one time, with the Legacy Audio Whisper. I wanted to review the Whisper, but it was an active speaker requiring triple everything (cables, amp channels, etc.), which was prohibitive for me. I said to Doug Brown, Bill's business partner at the time, can't Legacy make a speaker that can switch so I can listen to it with a stereo amp and try-wire, and also use it as built. Doug said, "You challenge Bill to make it!" I said, "I'm not going to challenge a designer to make a product!" He said, "Then, I will!" And they did! The result was the Whisper DSW, originally named after me; Doug Schroeder Whisper. It has 12 sets of binding posts because it is what I call in the review a "crossover speaker", for it allows 3 configurations; fully active with six channels of amplification, hybrid with active bass and passive mid/treble, and fully passive with as little as two channels of amplification and try-wiring! I LOVE it! I have built SO many amazing systems with it! Legacy has incorporated the hybrid element into several of their speakers, where an owner can select the operating mode.

Later, I also requested Bill to work with me on a review in which an assessment of the efficacy of upgraded internal parts was the topic. The speakers were returned to Legacy, where it was rewired with 10AWG Clarity Cable throughout and caps replaced with Clarity Caps (no relation to Clarity Cable). It was called the Clarity Edition. So, the speaker now is the Whisper DSW Clarity Edition. I have reviews of the entire process at Dagogo.com 

In regard to your dreaming of a concave ESL speaker, it sure sounds fascinating and I would love to review such a speaker if it was built! But, though I am not a designer, nor proficient in the math, something tells me it might be untenable. I ran stacked Eminent Technology LFT-8 speakers for a while, and though it was terrific fun and huge sounding, It was less coherent than other designs/setups. I'm wondering if the concave stereo effect might be too beamy for its own good. 

 

jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,242 posts
 

Iwin a friend of mine from Illinois , I think he heard your Ulfbert Tekton, He likes the sound you have. I’ve heard those ULFs at Teajay , on classical they are amazing, so powerful, it’s like Iam on a classical concert hall, it feels so real.i am planning to buy the Moab, but the KLH panel became available near me.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

Pretty close to my impression sonically although I am not as kind. The imaging IMHO is terrible. The problem is that at high frequencies the treble is being radiated only by the domed center of each tweeter which puts them to far away from each other. They have to be not more than a wavelength away from each other and at 20 kHz that is something like 1/2". So at high frequencies instead of speaking with one voice the moab is speaking with a choir. It is hard to pick an individual voice out of a choir. It is very tough to get tweeters close enough together to get this to work. The magnet structures get in the way. I would also think it better to use one good tweeter and one or two good midrange drivers than 15 cheap ones. The only advantage is the loss of one crossover point. 

Doug, what do you mean by "a panel speaker's splayed center sound stage"?  could you describe that better for me. Do you mean the instruments are spread wider apart than they should be? How does a speaker do this in a "faux" fashion?

 

tsushima1
1,165 posts
 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Exactly ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Soooo … Shiller And The Gang , any comment ? Presumably you are too busy trawling through the archives looking for any prior historical record  to discredit the poster as a Tekton Hater  😉

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 

Corelli-

Cheap Chinese drivers?  Do your homework man before spreading lies.  The Electron SE uses Wavecore tweeters that sell for $75 each.  So lets see-that's over $1000 in tweeters alone.  The high quality SB acoustics drivers add nearly $700 dollars.  And then there is the cabinets, crossovers--oh, and, will throw in free shipping.  

Show me one other speaker out there that has this kind of value in terms of final cost to parts cost ratio.  Please, name just one.

But here is one other reality.  Eric Alexander can take an inexpensive driver in implement it in a way so that it way outperforms it's modest price.  I have owned speakers using top end Scanspeak drivers that offered less musical enjoyment than Tekton designs using lesser drivers.

Yes. We know. And they disappear with pinpoint imaging in a 3D sound stage like nobody's business. Award winning, with many, many professional reviewers praising them, and a customer satisfaction rate in the (very) high 90 percent range. 

But, can't you tell? This is a sour grapes bash Tekton discussion. Let them have their fun. Don't crash the party. 

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