Tekton Double Impacts

corelli,

You might just want to reachout to Jeff Halpern of Tone Imports about the 508; I found him pretty easy to communicte with when I was going about purchasing my 518, as well as with some follow-up correspondence.

@corelli:  I don't recall for certain, but was Decware an option you had considered? If it was, any particular reason for choosing Line Magnetics over it?

Yes, there is more discussion of the 508 over at Audio shark, as Charles stated. In fact, some of the folks there actually heard the 508 compared to both the 518 and 219 and posted some very interesting impressions. It is an informative and insightful discussion. I've had mine several months now and don't think I could love it any more. I think Wig loves his just as much, and we have both enjoyed quite a few awesome amps in our systems over the years, for whatever that may be worth to you. The 508 is built like a tank and sounds magical, especially with upgraded tubes. I love the looks of it, too. I would imagine any of those three LM amps would sound fantastic with the Double Impacts, speaking of which--mine arrived today, two days ahead of schedule!

I have them installed now and have been listening for less than an hour, so I will reserve judgment for a bit. I do like what I am hearing so far.--honestly, I am shocked by how good they sound right out of the box. I will need to play around with placement some and get at least 40-50 hours on them before saying too much. When I get to 100 hours, I will put the Ulysses back in and then we will see what's what. This is going to be a LOT of fun. The DI are clearly very impressive speakers. This going to be some tussle between two great sets of speakers!

Charles, again thanks for the further info/advice.  I'll be sure to check out Audio shark.

Walter, your experience will probably parallel ours in that the DI's are good out of the box and rapidly improve.  I did not find these took nearly the time of my VSA VR-33's (those took forever).  I'm really looking forward to your comments on your amp/speaker interface.

david_ten, I have read about Decware over the years.  I could be way off here but I wonder if the LM gear provides a bit more low end weight and control.  It just seems to be a great value and clearly one of the top lines out of China.  The Melody AN300b looks like another great choice.  Twin 300's in push-pull.  Read teajays review.  This captured the known attributes of the 300 tube while having impressive extension on both ends all while possessing 3D imaging.  Then there's the LTA gear.

The DI's open up a whole new world of lower powered choices I never had with the Magnepans.  Yes, this is fun.