Tekton Double Impacts

Hey Charles,

I do not use a DB meter to see how loud the loudest passages are when playing music.  However, even massive pipe organ played at volume levels that pressurize my very large space are easily achieved with this combo.  I get that owners that use the DI's in home theater systems are not going to use either piece in their systems. However, if you are driving a two channel music system there would be no rational reason not to least audition this combo.  On at least three occasions, two with the DI's and one with the Ulf's, my guest listener swore they were listening to at least a 100 watt amp because of the control of the bottom end and the volume levels achieved on big band and rock music like Radio Head with no compression/attenuation at all.

So, if there is a psychological barrier I hope individuals would get past this power rating nonsense which Eric's speakers really bypass because you can drive them so easily, unlike many other full range box enclosure designs that do need watts/current to perform.

Hi Terry,
Just to be clear I completely get and understand your point, been there and done that. However you have considerable experience in the audiophile community and know the popular held mantra of "the more power the better". I’m just pointing out that despite your very well documented listening sessions of various types of amplifiers driving the Double Impacts, 3 watt SET won’t cut it. "Just not enough power " in spite of your multiple power amplifier use with these speakers. I’m just making an observation based on behavior/psychology of certain (certainty not all) mindsets.

Further clarification, I’m not critical of those who possess this mindset. I bring it up because I sense your genuine enthusiasm with this amplifier/speaker pairing and just wanting to share this splendid discovery with fellow music lovers. You realize that the Tekton Double Impacts and the Ulfberths allow one to fully exploit low power amplifiers and especially SET.  Unique speakers for sure. 
Charles

I feel like handing out cigars. I’m officially joining the Ulfberht club after talking with Eric today. I’m glad he’s plenty busy now, he deserves it. Less than 2 months ago, it took him 2-3 weeks to deliver my DI’s. Now, it’s a 3 month wait for the Ulfberhts. I don’t mind the wait at all. It’ll give me time to sell some equipment and work out my final signal chain. I know that this is a hobby of tweaks and changes, but it’s my belief that this very well could be my ideal system for years to come. Honestly speaking, I could have been completely happy with the upgraded DI’s if there was no such thing as Ulfberhts. I’ve had many "things couldn’t sound any better than this" moments with the DI’s.

Bill M

One thing I have believed since first talking to Eric about the no-comprimise, full-sized Ulfberhts is that they are not going to sonically overwhelm most rooms. It's his belief that speakers don't work that way. It's more likely that they will visually overwhelm the room however. I'm going to have the speakers painted a neutral color that will match the walls in the room.

Btw, he mentioned that someone's Mini's were getting painted today!

Okay sports fans, here we go with the comparison of Double Impacts that teajay has been listening to with my Wilson Sashas.  Keep in mind, my Stereo Times publisher, Clement Perry, is working on the Double Impact review and I don't want to get in the way of what he has to say.  With that being said.......

Allen Richards and I got together for this listening session and as was mentioned previously, we were listening with the VAC Renaissance Mk V preamp, two VAC Signature iQ amplifiers run in mono ( so that's 200 watts per amp) and I'm running Asus laptop with Fidelizer Pro (maxxed out at the "audiophile" level) and a custom NOS DAC built for me by Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle Audio.  I had been using Klee Acoustics cables throughout but discovered another little inexpensive gem from Tellurium Q called the Black II that I have been using on the speakers.  Mike Kay's Archon Blue power cords are used on the amps and the preamp.

Allen and I bought the DI's in the house and laid them down as we began to listen to music on the Sasha's.  We each took two tracks to listen to, and once we were done, we set the DI's up, if you want to call it that.  Nothing too serious.  The DI's were set up with the side of each speaker five feet from the side wall, seven feet between the speakers and the front of each speakers was ten feet from the front wall.  They were spiked.  We re-listened to the four tracks we listened to on the Sasha's.  Initially, the sound from the DI's was uninvolving, bass was diffuse from the midrange and the highs, and pretty much just not a good listen.  The Sasha's were clearly the better sounding speaker.  

I shared with Allen that before I passed judgement on the DI's, they needed to settle into the carpet with the spikes, that I needed to spend a lot more time setting them up, remembering that we had merely set them up where we placed them when we bought them into the house, and that I need to do more experimentation the taps on the back of the amps.  We were listening to the DI's on 2-4 ohm tap which is where they work best with the Sasha's and I suggested we listen on the 4-8 ohm tap.  Allen didn't want to wait until later so I made the tap change right away.  The improvement was immediate and it was not subtle at all.

We started off with the four tracks we listened to on the Sasha's and the DI's and the music sparkled with life and energy.  There was a sense of verve and reality, with the music seemingly being performed "live" within the landscape of my listening room.  The Sasha's has these attributes as well, but not to the same level as the DI's.  What's remarkable to me is the DI's ability to sound effortless like a horn speaker, have the ability to "see into" the performance like good planars, and the the ability to convey the life-like realism of dynamic speakers, all at the same time.  Though they do a fine job, the Sasha's couldn't quite match that.  

The Sasha's deep bass performance exceeded that of the DI's if that type of thing is important to you.  I need to move the Sasha's to the side, do my due diligence and devote some time doing some serious setup experimentation for the DI's in my listening room (25' X 16').  One last thing to add; I noticed a lot of you like using the SET or small powered tube amps to drive these speakers.  That's cool.  The sound of these amps has been quite impressive at teajay's on the DI's and Ulberchts.  I just want to lend my two cents and say that the DI's can sound just as compelling with 200 watts/channel as they do with the lower powered amps.  That's just my opinion and probably Allen's too.  YMMV.