There are some active discussions concerning the delivery of speakers and specifically speaker grills for the incredible Tekton Speakers. But nothing on this forum. I'm now nine months waiting on grill delivery. Anyone else??
I think this was only an issue when the double impact took off back in early 2018. My grills were delivered with my speakers in July. A friend across the US also received his grills with the speakers in Sep this year.
Does anyone know if the situation on speaker grilles has improved? I ordered a set of Double Impacts with grilles last week. I received the Tektons several days ago with an email that said the grilles would follow soon.
I will be ordering my DI tomorrow. Have the color selected and ordering the grill cloth from Acoustex. On their site, they state that their cloth allows 98 percent of the sound transmission. If I have this correct, Tekton said that one option is a standard grill that they offer that is painted. The other option is the Acoustex material. I'm assuming that a painted grill would not be very appropriate. Will order two sets of grills, different colors, for options. To be delivered together with final payment upon delivery. I've already waited two years looking for a bargain on Goldenear Ones. gave up since none were for sale around me. So Tekton can take their time.
I have ascertained that the paint flaking on my DIs is due entirely to my mishandling them and not a fault in the paint job.
The grill cloth is glued then staples onto the back of the grill frame. This is all well and good. I am not complaining (except some of the sticky glue is exposed, but that is nitpicking and not the issue here).
The problem is this:
With the grills on the speakers, I was repositioning them by pressing the grills against the face of the speakers when pushing them back. The flaking is actually the staples chipping the paint. It is only apparent at the precise location that I press to push the speakers back.
I post this for a few reasons:
1) I am a fan of the sound these speakers produce in my room, but I am not a fanboy. I don’t regret my purchase AT ALL and hope Tekton van eventually work out the grill issue. Yet this thread is getting nasty, and I would like to separate myself from that nastiness.
2) Hopefully other Tekton owners can avoid this issue if they reposition their speakers with grills.
3) I am also not going to post on this thread anymore, and I am thankful nobody will miss me either.
You assume I’m a Tekton boy as you put it. I would defend other companies as well and have If I feel they don't deserve it. Also, I build my own speakers thank you, and know how hard it is? That's all.
As a general rule, I hate conflict and wish posts were more civil. Calling people names. I don’t think we’re in grade school anymore.
I do agree if I had 25 million dollars I could probably build some pretty accurate speakers and would be pretty mad if the machine I had did not have a real tight tolerance.
Well, I’m out I’ve got more important things to do instead of arguing over silly things. Never should have posted. was not worth my time, as a matter of fact, I might take an audiogon forum vacation.
Did you read any of my posts closely? Not once have I dissed the sound of Tekton. And no, I have not heard a pair. I mainly commented on construction technique and quality control. I have been to a quality speaker manufacturer called Legacy Loudspeakers. I'm sure you have heard of them. Their quality is beyond reproach. Each and every speaker is checked over and over for quality. Grills are custom made for each pair individually because the slightest offset will make an ill fitting pair of grills or ones that won't stay on the speaker at all. Bill Dudleston, the chief designer of Legacy listens to every pair of loudspeakers that go out his door and he makes damn sure that each speaker matches the final prototype. Do they have quality issues at times? Of course they do, but they will rectify the problem ASAP. Customer service is paramount to them. I know this because I know Bill Dudleston personally.
Finally, sir, I have never run a business but I have done production. I ran a 25 Million dollar piece of machinery that would produce a raw product worth $10,000 each every two hours. I had to simultaneously run three computers to monitor specifications so as nothing was out of spec. My job and livelihood depended on it. There wasn't a day that I worked for 30 years that I could have been fired for even one out of spec product if I had gotten careless or indifferent. This is very important when one of your customers is Boeing, if you get my drift.....
"Any company can make a good pair of loudspeakers but it takes consistency to make them great." Really!
No company is perfect. I can assure you that I have purchased several products from reputable companies that end up being defective.
It’s the nature of production. As a person who has done production for years, failure just happens. It’s how often that is important.
I don’t know you mr_m. But have you ever run a business? Ever done production? It’s not easy. Out of thousands and thousands of speakers sold how many really did not meet the customer’s expectations. I’m guessing not too many or we would hear hundreds and hundreds of issues. From what I can tell most customers seem happy.
Have you heard any of Tekton’s speakers in a controlled environment? Just curious? Not saying that Tekton’s speakers are for everyone, but listening and then offering an opinion it’s more credible. But in the end, it is still an opinion.
As far as the grille situation. That could be improved.
I had considered Tektons for my SE amp...liked the efficiency but had no place to hear them, and "buy and return" doesn't do it for me. Bought a pair of new "open box" Capitol Edition (75th anniversary of Capitol Records...meh...) Klipsch Heresy IIIs for 1000 bucks off list, and the grills were sort of saggy (look at the pic on the Klipsch site and those are saggy also), so I bought a pair of stock Heresy black grills that look great (and it was easy to move the "special" badge to the new grills). I mentioned all this to Klipsch and they said..."sorry"...and offered to send me new grills for free. Now THAT'S the way you do it, and Tekton should address this grill thing as, hey...it's competitive out there.
Mr M...I actually agree with you and roll my eyes when fanboys chime.I heard Tekton, ive seen them,tap on the cabinets ,examine the quality,looked at the Eminence drivers.Junk imo,the cabinets have little to no engineering research behind them,they look like junk,Tap on one,come on,lol.Selected drivers,thats a joke.How many who bought Tektons complained about mismatched speakers,one blue one grey,lol..Let's face it Eminence is not on the cutting edge of technology.I get that for some its an upgrade but lets examine what speakers are being replaced,and dont feed me that bs replaces 30k speakers,bunk,Constant complaints follow this company,from grills not fitting,no holes in cabinets, or ariving at all,Mismatched speakers,cap used were not as advertised, poor paint on the horrble look caninets...on and on.....and ive heard them!
I think this thread remains a good example of "ya gets what ya's pays for." Of course, the popularity of Tekton relies a lot on the idea you are actually getting more than you are paying for, in terms of sound quality relative to other manufacturer's prices. And that's great. But reality can't totally be escaped - and it seems the general fit and finish (from reports I've read) and customer service remains in the "get what you pay for" realm. Frankly the issues stated here would drive me nuts, and I'm willing to pay more for better service/finish/aesthetics etc.
My comments are factually accurate. Just re-read some of the comments by actual owners of Tekton speakers. And please re-read my post as you have taken what I said way out of context. I have visited several of the highend speakers places of manufacture and talked in depth to their designers and I can assure you that that type of quality (Tekton's) doesn't make it out of there doorways. Any company can make a good pair of loudspeakers but it takes consistency to make them great.
Your comments are factually inaccurate and you should listen to some Tekton speakers before disparaging them. Tekton drivers are quality choices and available on the open market -- a big plus for replacement needs. My set of DIs is finished well, the 2 sets of grills Eric sent me are well made and look fine.
Those are facts, period. Anyone can repeat criticisms but that doesn't make your approach helpful -- rather just the opposite.
You claim that nobody at the price point has Eric's quality. Even though I never have heard a new pair of Tekton anything, and I'm sure they sound respectable at their price points. But even at his prices, large rectangle boxes with rough finishes, poor grill construction (if you actually get a pair), inexpensive drivers with dust caps that "dimple" in their shipping cartons, etc....Well, you get the gist. That's not quality engineering. There are companies out there that sell less expensive speakers than Tekton and sound respectable with very good fit-and-finish. IMO.
You should send your ideas to Eric, by way of Karma at tektondesign@gmail.com. Threads such as this will serve some purpose but direct contact is always more efficient.
Three Points
First, inexpensive CS is ONLY ONE of the ways in which Eric saves business costs. Other areas are 1) no/little advertising, 2) brilliant product development but without traditional methods/time/costs, 3) Small physical plant, 4) direct sales, and 5) careful driver selection. Eric probably could tell you many others.
Second, a good portion of my corporate career was spent in quality assurance at customer service centers. CS is very expensive and at smaller companies takes a disproportionate amount of the budget. Eric handles a lot of contact himself and Karma helps with most of the rest. This can be an ideal approach if done properly. Sometimes, however, personalities conflict.
Third, whenever I start buying from a company such as Tekton, one of my goals is to help them succeed because their success is also mine. Have the DIs and am considering either another set or the Ulfberhts. It is, consequently, IN MY BEST INTERESTS for Eric to continue and prosper. Suggest that all Tekton owners fall into this category.
craig, do the math. If you hire one additional person to build grills, the expense of that one person spread over all the speakers sold is not going to come close to increasing the speaker cost by 5 or 10 times. $50,000/1,000 speakers sold = $50 per speaker. CS is CS.
It's because the speakers sound so good. Plain and simple. Eric doesn't place importance on grills and you have to force his hand and, yes, Karma is the one to deal with.
No other speaker company is even close to Eric's quality level at his price points and saving on customer service is one of the reasons why he can offer such impressive speakers at closeout prices.
So I put up with the CS in order to get a great product at the best possible price. If you want great customer service, spend 5 or 10 times as much and go with a fine company such as Wilson.
This post was originally listed in 2013,thats 5 years later with the same poor customer service..I heard the monitor and imo it sucked to put it bluntly.Why bother with this company?
Original poster here... (back after several years and on my 4th pair of Tekton speakers).... I recently bought another pair of Tekton speakers (Enzo XL) about 2 months ago and ordered with grills (+ $75). I like the way they look with the grills and have 2 small kids and the sound difference is negligible with or without them on.
I got the speakers in decent time... they smelled pretty bad of pain odor and the finish is fairly poor.... if you run your hand over any of the surfaces (even the top), you will easily feel smooth and rough differences. I waited about 4 weeks before bothering them with an e-mail about the grills.Never heard anything, sent another e-mail about 2 weeks after that and got a reply about 3 days later with a FedEx tracking number. I thought... awesome... the grills are on the way. When the grills arrived, the package looked fine and was not damaged. The grills seemed to be packed well also. But, once I took them out to fit them to the speakers, I noticed that 3 of the 4 corners on EACH grill were cracked/broken. Literally, these grills were made from 4 pieces of 3/4" x 3/4" MDF (approx.) and glued in the corners.... THAT IS ALL. Being that these speakers are so tall, there really should be an intermediate cross-brace and triangle corner braces for strength, with nails/glue through the corners... these grills were just total garbage. Also, the pegs in the grills did not line up well at all with the holes in the cabinets! I had to force/bend the grills into place. I could have easily built better grilles myself and saved time and money. So I sent an e-mail to Eric (which Karma also sees all the e-mails I think) asking for a refund figuring that another set of the same horribly-built speaker grills would do me no good... he apologized and said that he would have Karma "....call me on Monday". Never got a call from her. Waited about 10 more days and sent a follow-up e-mail and got a reply saying that she would call me later that day. Never heard back from her. At this point, I really do not care about the grills or the refund... too much time invested on my part.
I absolutely LOVE the sound from these speakers, but these details are killing me.... like they say... the devil is in the details.
#1: MAKE & SHIP THE GRILLES WITH THE GD SPEAKERS ! ! !
Well my grills are otw. Like an earlier poster wrote. Karma is the one you need to stay in touch with. She is very responsive and seems to be the driving force behind getting grills.
I thought I might give a little context. So I live in Utah. Utah seems to have its share of audio companies for some reason. Wilson Audio, Zu Audio, Kimber Kable, Tekton Design. Except for Wilson Audio, I’ve been to all places several times. I knew a guy who worked for Wilson Audio though. Anyways back to the subject at hand. I know Tekton has tried to sub out grills to other companies, but they never deliver to Tekton’s satisfaction. Though there is one bright side. He now seems to have found help recently that is delivering to Tektons standards. But they still have to build the backlogged grills. I’m not saying this will solve all your woes, but perhaps grills will come a little speedier. Thought I would still email. Be kind, but perhaps firm about getting your grills.
Just adding to the post my frustration in trying to get grills for my Enzo 2.7's. The speakers are beautiful and sound awesome. I like the rest of you posting in this thread cannot seem to get Eric to send my grills. It's been a month now and still no grills. I guess it's time to put the full court press on Eric and just bug the s**t out of him till he's sick of hearing from me.
I think "a glorified DIY'er with poor management skills" is a good way to put it. I had a set and tried them for two months. I also had a few other AGoners come over to check them out. Everyone liked them, but not enough to buy them. It took two months and several reminders to get the grills, and ultimately I sent the grills back without opening the box.
I sent them back not only because of the grill issue and sound quality, but because in the long run I don't think they will hold their value. It seems like every set of DIs he builds is a little different... like any DIYer might do. When he makes changes to design all the time, how can you really know what you're buying?
At the end of it all, this guy has no idea how to run a business. It's too bad, because if he could focus on a good product at a good price with good service, he'd have a real long-term business. As it is now, he seems to be hanging on by his boot straps.
I had to reread this thread and I’m glad I did because I missed this post the first time.
”I wouldn't call this operation a "manufacturer". "Amateur integrator" would be more appropriate. He's a glorified DIY'er with poor management skills.”
I like the stories that I’ve heard from various owners of Tekton products.
1.Some are still waiting for their grills even though they already paid for them when they purchased the speakers.
2.A few people finally received their grills after many months of waiting and constantly asking for them,and then they realized their speakers have no holes to mount the grills.
3.A few folks ordered their speakers without grills and told the Tekton folks they would never need or use them and they received their speakers with ugly holes that they now can’t cover up.
4.Some haven’t never received their grills that were paid for and probably never will,but in a few cases it really doesn’t matter because these individuals either sold their Tektons or just gave them away to get rid of them and move on.Probably 5 yrs from now the Ups guy will put a package on your doorstep and it will contain your long lost grills.Woohoo.
I am glad to hear the grills arrived and not only that. They help fix an issue with your room. For me personally, the grills take the inner detail and screw the imaging for me. They sorta hurt the attributes the tweeter array brings. I would recommend you fix your room and remove the grills when in use. My 2 cents.
In hindsight, I am glad it turned out the way it did. I was able to break in the DIs hearing how they were voiced (sans grilles) for two months. That gave me plenty of time to get them to work in my living room and become quite accustomed to their sound. Now that I finally have the grilles, I can tell how different they change the sound quite assuredly, whereas if I had received the grilles with the speakers, I would have frequently removed-added-removed the grilles attempting to see which sound I liked best. In the end, I like the sound with the grilles on, as it has smoothed out a problem frequency for me.
I like the idea of not having them ship until grilles are shipped with it. But wouldn't this also allow your speakers to move further back into Eric's queue? If he has hundreds to build, I certainly would want mine to be as close to the front of the queue as possible!
Karma was very responsive via email with me, and I reminded her I was waiting for grilles once a week. As others have stated here, being a customer who consistently reminds them you are waiting for your order pays off. It did for me.
The grille issue is a silly thing for Tekton Design to get negative feedback over. IMO, this appears to be an easy fix. I looked at these grilles when they arrived and thought "what is the big deal? Couldn't Tekton Design hire a high school kid to just make grilles on the weekends for the orders shipping out that week?" They are very uncomplicated creations.
@Aniwolfe I think this is a valid suggestion and this is what I did when I ordered the Lores from Tekton....and yes they asked me a couple of times if they could just ship the speakers and I declined and shortly thereafter, speakers and grills were shipped together.
When you think about the issue from an overall business perspective, there are really two choices that are fair to the buyer...either ship the whole order at once...or if you are going to split shipments, don't bill anything until the final items are shipped thereby making the order complete.
A suggestion I got from a fellow Audiogoner. If you order grills with your speakers and want them shipped at the same time. Tell Tekton to not ship the speakers or charge your credit card until the grills are made and ready to ship. If they email you with a tracking number, make sure it includes the grills. If not call them and tell them to hold the shipment until they make the grills. If they charged your credit card make sure they put the money back. That should provoke Eric to make the grills to complete the order. Good Luck.
Raidho is another without grills,there are a few that come to mind but most are on a higher level of price and quality. IMO the easiest thing would be just dont offer grills.Shouldnt be that big of a deal to the mod and DYI guys buying Tekton to make grills.
Totem for one but they have started to provide them with more recent models. Dropping the ball with speaker grill orders is downright embarrassing. I think that was the oldest Tekton complaint I used to read about online. This isn’t a new issue for the manufacturer so you have to wonder why it has taken so long to come up with a resolve when there has been no end to new designs/products.
The solution is simple. My advice to Eric is to out-source the manufacturing of the grills, then add the extra cost into the price. Out-sourcing would solve the delivery issue, and the added price may reduce the demand for those pesky buggers. Happier customers, reduced time/effort for him...Win Win!
"I think that this thread is 3 years old and the issue still persists is a real statement to the miserable management and questionable cash flow of the operation"
"Someone on another thread mentioned the awkward fit/appearance of the squared grills over the rounded edges and corners of the boxes".
"So I asked him to just send me the frames,grill cloth and the pegs and I would finish them myself since I'v built a few speakers."
"One should not be making excuses for the no hole debacle. If you order them with holes, they need to send you new speakers if they don’t have them. You should not have to make a trip to Home Depot to resolve this at all"
I have to say,vey interesting reading on this forum some days.
I have to agree with Kosst on this. It is inexcusable to have this kind of an issue on something so simple. Why in the world would the grills not ship with the speakers if they were ordered that way? If he has to hire out grill building to keep up with production, then that is what needs to happen. What happens if you have a real issue with the speaker? I went down this road with a different custom speaker builder. As good as the speakers sounded, I could never get past what happened during the build and delivery process.
This is strange, I just called Eric yesterday and told him it was 8 weeks in and still no grills for my DIs. He told me he’s been VERY busy and had hundreds of speakers to make and getting ready for a Demo show. So I asked him to just send me the frames,grill cloth and the pegs and I would finish them myself since I'v built a few speakers. No problem, on there way.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
