Tekton Double Impacts

I have the more powerful Ayon Audio Odin III Build 4 in my system.  This is a 50 watt/ch Class A amp with 40 volts per SET tube x 4 tubes.  It has tremendous bass, highly resolving, and more powerful and outclassed a high end 100 watt/ch monoblock amps I had in my system.  I'm waiting to hear the Odin with the DI SEs I have on order.  I've had two digital components and four amplifiers/integrated from Ayon Audio/USA Tube Audio. USA Tube Audio has always professionally addressed all of my questions and issues.  The isssue were related to the KT-88 tubes that exceed their useful life but the newer Triton amps always provided feedback to let you know they were out of spec.  The SET tube used in the Crossfire that Ayon manufactures inhouse has a much longer life (2500 hours vs 10,000).  Go for the Crossfire.

@mikeg - Thanks Mike, but I really was hoping for people to talk me out of this impulsive purchase. ;-) I must be as crazy as an Austrian at this point because I haven’t even had my current amplifier for 11 months and I love it just fine. If I never audition the Crossfire I will never know what I’m missing. Seriously though, thanks for the additional info and of course for sealing my fate! :-)

@corelli - At least you actually have my back! I doubled my money selling a batch of my Cryptocurrency Miner hardware on ebay and yes it’s burning a hole in my pocket! ;-) I have heard people allude to the China connection and also to Ayon having some reliability issues, but nothing verifiable is presented on either front by an actual owner on the reliability issues or something concrete that proves that Ayon is made in China. The sales person said, and I’m paraphrasing, "Haters gonna hate!" LOL Seriously though he said reliability is not an issue, but he did indicate that possibly a few people in the industry may have an ax to grind and post negative things.

@all - Going to an Audiogon forum to be talked down from making an impulsive audio purchase is like a heroin addict hanging out with a bunch of junkies expecting to get clean! LOL What the hell was I thinking!

@jcarcopo  

Like @mikeg I've had a positive experience with USA Tube Audio. 

I also loved my Ayon integrated and did not have any reliability issues.

I approached them a few months ago regarding a Mastersound preamp and an integrated amp. They did not talk me over to Ayon. : )

All the best with your decision.

@david_ten - I agree with you because so far my dealings with Paul at USA Tube Audio have gone really well.  He's very matter of fact and confident regarding Ayon amplifiers.  

Jcarcopo,
-I’m glad you are having fun with this "ordeal" 😊. Life is to be enjoyed.
Human nature dictates that a few reported bad experiences dealing with retail dealers take precedence over probably 100s (1000s?) of good transactions.

Place of origin regarding manufacturer and assembly should not be ambiguous. Ayon or any other company should be clear and upfront. Having said this the bottom line for me is the sound quality and overall quality of the product. It could be high quality from China or India and mediocre from Europe or North America.

You have a terrific amplifier already but the problem is that there are numerous superb alternatives available and we can’t own them all. I’m thrilled with my Coincident Frankenstein yet I know there are 8 to 10 other amplifiers I’m familiar with that would be as satisfying to have in my system. I only need one out of the excellent pool of amplifiers.
Charles

I know this is off topic but the internal parts quality are high in the Ayon Audio products (gold plated printed circuit boards, R-Core transformers used in digital units, high end capacitors, choke filtered, etc).  I'm using the Ayon Audio S-5 Network Player/Preamp and I've had success when I added an Uptone Audio JS-2 linear power supply to feed a QNAP NAS drive, replaced the spinning drives with a single solid state in the NAS, added an SOtM network filter between the NAS and S-5, placed all digital components on SR Tranquility Bases, and upgraded the Ethernet cable to Revelation Audio Labs.  kept the Ayon Audio S-5 and sold my fancy digital front end computer and never looked back.

@charles1dad - See that’s sort of where I am at. I love what I have now and frankly believe very much in "hear no evil and see no evil". I already have a very neutral and enjoyable presentation, so much so that I’m using Reaper Mastering DAW software with some fancy-pants VST plug-ins to add a touch of warmth and richness to the final sound I hear as well some judicious/minor DSP/EQ calibration to account for very slight room/speaker anomalies. ( I know futzing with the signal is heresy to some, but I’m an audio-heretic so It’s okay)

Overall I don’t think it can be improved upon easily without some ’good ole’ confirmation bias which requires spending gobs more money. (I’m somewhat joking, but I’m not..really. I’m cynical that way)

I think the Ayon will also be utterly neutral, possibly flawlessly so, until I add some vst plugins which would likely negate it. So if I refrain from adulterating the sound in the digital domain and if by chance the Ayon perceivably increases dimensionality, soundstage size/depth, creates more of virtual reality effect, or enhances the separation of instruments, blackens the background, or increases palpability then I’ll think it’s totally worth the investment irrespective of the contamination from the placebo effect or my own confirmation bias caused by having spent a wad of money in search of said aforementioned superlatives.

What I am saying, I guess, is that I can’t lose really, but I can be a lot poorer for the effort. Lol

@mikeg - Thanks Mike, now I want the S-5 too. :-)

Thanks for everyone’s help. I know what I must do now.
(Stall for as long as I can before giving in)

@jcarcapo

I think the Ayon will also be utterly neutral, possibly flawlessly so

I doubt, if you are being literal, the above.... but I do believe you will love it's sound....

It's a heck of a nice problem to be dealing with. : )

@david_ten - I may have been exaggerating a wee bit. 

Anyone looking for a wallet  friendly  INT  tube amp, seems to get get positive reviews. I have no personal experience with it, only sharing with the community.

 
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=109&cp_id=10919&cs_id=1091903&p_id=16153&seq=...

@sprocket75 - you mean these? 
https://www.monoprice.com/pages/tube_amps

They're ridiculously cheap, but most are hybrids and I only like set amps.  I can't imagine they sound too good at their price points, but it would funny if it sounded decent.  I might buy one and send it to my solid-state audiophile buddy as practical joke.  

😂 

I've been trying a Rockna Wavedream dac for the last few days. This thing is all kinds of awesome. It totally obliterates the Yggdrasil and Directstream dacs I had been using. Super high resolution and not a trace of digital glare. Nice natural, organic sound. The Ulfberhts have great synergy with it.

Congrats 333jeffrey, I found the same type performance with the Concert Fidelity DAC. I didn't realize just how much of a difference a DAC could make. I had the Yggy and Perfectwave DAC previously and as good as they are they don't compare to the smooth, organic and realistic sound of the Concert Fidelity. Looks like you've found the same in the Rockna. 

Tempting Dennis Had SET creation for seemingly reasonable $:


https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F152761532648

@lmswjm - I live only 15 minutes away from Cary, NC.  I could go audition it for you and then buy it for myself if it sounds good? lol

Stfoth, Aric is definitely worth giving a call. High quality parts, hand assembled by Aric himself and he's extremely competent and trustworthy. He's building a 300B SET for me right now. 

@333jeffery   Nice on the Rockna Wavedream

Keep us posted on what you find? Are you using it's pre functionality?

@stfoth - Anytime! I'm always up for a new build. I'm up for pretty much anything, even custom builds if you had something specific in mind. 

@mac48025 - Thank you Tom- it's much appreciated! I made some good headway today- gotta call it quits for the weekend tho. Back at it Monday ;-)

Upgraded from Speltz's Anti-Cable level 3 reference speaker cable to CT GE speaker cable between my BAT vk 500 and the DI's. These are just ass kicking cables!! Black black background, super delineated and defined bass, very natural sound tone and timbre. Beautiful soundstage. Taller wider deeper. Zero harshness to be found. Choral voices all separated in an astonishing manner. Found out I can connect my desktop to my pre directly. YouTube live everything imaginable and the sound is incredible. Keith Carlock drum solo was like being there live and acoustic. The resolution is just beautiful. These are the most natural sounding cables I have heard and they are very very close to the real thing. A saxophone sounds acurate. Piano is just stunning. Violin is almost perfect and I am willing to bet that changing out the IC's will bring the sound much closer to real. There is something very delicate sounding about these cables. All the information is there. My brain was actually shocked at first because of the realism.
Thank you Bob! You ain't gettin' these back from me! 
Greg

@greg22lz , They're the best SC’s I’ve ever owned as well. Outperforming a 4K set of cables I had. 

@greg22lz Thanks for the desricption of the Cerious speaker cables and DI's. I'm thinking TEO game changers for the IC's. I'd love to hear your setup next time I pass through the area.

@aniwolfe Totally in your camp on the needing electric and stand up bass definition/clarity. My father played R&B in my early years engraining the importance bass lines and how they make music pop. Many of the favorite classic rock bands also have the most musical bassists. I'm betting the DI's provide that clarity and authority given enough power, room accuracy and correction - just put them, on order!

Luke,

The 1812’s are more aimed towards the home theater crowd. Music lovers would be better served by the Ulf’s. (This is per Eric) I do not recall any posts here by 1812 owners.

Thanks Corelli, yes it seems there are not too many 1812’s out in the wild.

There is a customer review over on the Tekton site. I’ll include a small excerpt here...

Holy smokes, I have never heard a sound like this before! The highs are crisp and clear with tremendous imaging…the mids are punchy and concise…the lows are clean, correct and enveloping. The more you listen, the more you are drawn into the sound. I heard nuances I hadn’t heard with any other speaker.
I consider myself an “Audio Enthusiast” which would be less technical than a true Audiophile. Over the past few years, however, I have heard a huge number of speakers at the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Nothing I have heard at this show produces the audiophile sound with the sheer output of the 1812 Model V’s. These really are the ultimate super speakers.

So it seems they were maybe aimed at 2 channel / audiophile listeners too? Anyway, there are no professional reviews of the 1812's anywhere which is a shame. Hopefully there will be more reviews of the Ulfs coming up, it’s always nice to hear multiple opinions from different sets of ears.

Cheers,
Luke

@latebloomer   Source first, so to speak  : ) ....Eric is good at guiding one through the options and the pros and cons. 

You could also reach out to Mike Kay @audioarchon and Terry @teajay  who may have more information.

It would be cool to have detail on the 1812s. If you find something out, do post.

I see there is a 8 ohm version and I was wondering has anyone tried the Tekton Double Impacts with Atmasphere M-60 mono amps?

ozzy

Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to share that I have in for review a product from Dignity Audio out of Hong Kong that is imported by TAS Audio located in Brooklyn NY. TAS Audio is owned/run by Allan who's a good guy and offers great products at very reasonable prices.

The product in for review is called the PPT-50 (power purifier transformer) which only can deliver around fifty watts, therefore you only use it with pre-amps, CD players, and DACS, not power amplifiers.  It weighs around 2 pounds and has a nice black case with the on switch on the front plate and on the back plate one outlet for the power cord to your piece and another for the power cord to the wall socket.  

I found more impact when I put it on the Micro-ZOTL, using Audio Archon power cords, then my CF-010 DAC. It added a touch of more air around individual players, a slightly larger sound-stage with more space between players, and added a smidgen of image density.  It did no harm, but added on these postive changes.  Not a sonic earthquake, but when I took it out I missed what it was doing and put it back in.

Now, the PPT-50 costs a whopping $150.00 plus shipping, with a two week trial period!  I have spent more on NOS tubes with less of a positive change.  I have a hunch, since my pre-amp and DAC are tube based the positive changes I heard might be even greater if your front end is solid state. Either way I'm keeping mine because of what I shared above.

As stated before the Elf's and DI's are conduits, so any changes upstream will be easily heard through them. Highly recommended!

  

Regarding the 1812s, this is from the Tekton Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1155318634486153&id=238064226211603

There's a post on the Tekton site with a pic of it being used by a band:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1050156538335697&id=238064226211603

I recall Eric saying something along the lines that the 1812's deliver better dynamics (understandably), and the Ulf's yield a more ideal hi-fi accuracy. 

As the creator of each... the 1812's have a 'slam-factor' that delivers 'live rock concert' dB's in audiophile grade fidelity. The Ulf's deliver the audiophile attribute of 'realism'.

Eric Alexander - audio designer      

I thought my original Enzo's had an amazing slam factor......until I got my DI's and they took it to a whole new level. I imagine the SE's I have on order might have even more slam factor and I can't even begin to imagine what the 1812's provide! What's really impressive about all of these speakers is that while they are very adept at delivering that slam factor, they are also detailed, nuanced and nimble with great tonal balance.

Appreciate the answers guys. I’d imagine the Ulfs are "easier" to place in a domestic music room too. With the sideways-angled drivers on the 1812’s they most likely are more naturally suited to outdoors use, or a huge music room placed well away from side walls. Only Eric could really confirm that though :)

1812's will work perfectly in a smaller sized rooms - I'd suggest a minimum room dimension would be 14' wide x 16' deep. They key to getting everything sounding right with a speaker like the 1812 is perfect room symmetry.  

Hi Erick,

Could you give your suggestion of minimum room size for ulfberhts optimal performance, as you did for 1812's? We have been given excellent recommendations by teajay on this regard, it is just that I would greatly appreciate hearing from the experience of the mind who conceived it himself.

Hi Eric -

They key to getting everything sounding right with a speaker like the 1812 is perfect room symmetry.  

I think this statement is much overlooked, but holds true for many speakers!

Thanks!

Anyone know what Tektons will be demonstrated at Capital Audiofest this weekend?

@mapman , the standard Double Impacts with upgrades will there.

Lance is correct, the DIs w/upgrades will be driven by LTA tube kit.

Lance am hoping to make it on Saturday maybe.  Maybe will see you there?

I hope to run into you Andrew, I will be there Saturday and Sunday. I’m bringing friends from out of town. This show just gets better every year.

@greg22lz  Thanks for posting the cable update.  Much appreciated.

@lancelock - any chance of providing a room number?

Thanks in advance

Robert - Star Sound

Room 130, LTA, Tekton, Wolf, Mytek, Audience

If you see me there, I'll be attending all 3 days, stop me and say hello, my name tag will be; Kemper Holt, EnjoyTheMusic

Update on grills for you folks still waiting: they are shipping now. Just heard from Tekton.

333jeffery
well, that is good news. Been waiting a couple months and was wondering when they might ship out. Called karma repeatedly and no firm date was given so resorted to calling every week!
greg

Here is how my Amp shootout has gone over the last few weeks with the Tektons. I brought in an Odyssey Candela Pre and Kismet power with all upgrades available. I brought in the newest LTA offerings. The MZ2 and the ZOTL 10 Mark2 also fully loaded, and the Lyngdorf 2170 on the recommendation of Kenny (kdude66) and due to Bill (grannyring) comments on it. Everything was dutifully broken-in.
First, the Odyssey was a total mistake. Both on a customer service and performance basis. I don't want to sling too much mud, but for me, it was a really bad choice to even call them. If you would like the gory details, PM me please.
Next, dealing with Mark at LTA was just the opposite. Customer service was over the top. The units were well made and just cool looking. I really don't like the "light bulb farm" look of most tube amps, nor the sound coloration. The LTA had neither of those characteristics. Plus Teejay seems to love them too, so I chose them to represent the Tubular faction. In testing I can't understand how anyone could listen to just the one watt of the MZ2 in a reasonable size room unless you listening to camber music or something like acoustic guitar or piano. The dynamics on anything else just isn't there for me. But, that's just me. Now with the ZOTL 10 inline, it is a totally different story. Even with just 10-12 watts the difference was dramatic. Very clean, detailed and dynamic with the Tektons. I wholeheartedly recommend anyone "amp fishing" to give LTA a listen. Unlike Odyssey, Mark made his product trials very painless. Just do it. 
But alas, the winner was the Lyngdorf. It was just a step better than the LTA. Wendy and I went through extensive blind testing. This included the LTA vs the Lyngdorf with both a roomperfect corrected output as well as an uncorrected mode against the LTA. It also included both Digital input and Vinyl. Consistantly over many types of music the LTA was always third, the room corrected 2170  was generally second and the uncorrected 2170 was most often first. I would have bet the LTA would have come out on top with the analog/vinyl input, but even with the Lyngdorf doing an A/D conversion, and the LTA path being all analog, the Lyngdorf sounded better by a similar margin as with the Digital input.
I was surprised by the Lyngdorf. I never gave much credence to Class D, but in my room, in my chair, both my wife and I preferred the Lyngdorf. And I honestly was rooting for the LTA since it is much cooler looking than the 2170, which is closer to the excitement level of a clock radio. Calling Mark to let him know the LTA stuff was coming back was really tough too. Again, if I hadn't heard the 2170, I would have been totally please with the LTA performance. But side by side, the Lyngdorf is noticeably better sounding. The DIs really do reflect what's in front of them. They seem to love the 2170.
This is my opinion, take if for what it's worth. It and $5 will get you half a cup of bad coffee at Starbucks. I don't carry a lot of clout in this forum, don't claim to be an expert, haven't owned every piece of equipment ever made. I hesitated for a long time posting anything because this thread is getting very testy at times. But I thought I could open some minds to other possibilities. And Kenny and Bill are also huge fans of the product. Those two carry a bit of clout in my book, and I appreciate them opening my mind to other possibilities. Very much so.

Thanks for your update bullitt. Very informative and interesting. The Lyngdorf seems to suspend traditional belief......how can one seemingly innocuous unit perform so well on so many levels? And do so at such a reasonable price? Very intriguing to say the least and I appreciate you sharing your experience with it. Looks like I need to try a Lyngdorf next year. 

I agree with your assessment of LTA's products and service, both are top notch. I'm enjoying the MZ as a pre amp with my Aric Audio amp. Sorry to hear about your experience with Odyssey, I was fortunate to have had a great sales experience with them. 

Great to hear different perspectives on driving the DI's. Thanks again for your appraisal.

@bullitt5094

Consistantly over many types of music the LTA was always third, the room corrected 2170 was generally second and the uncorrected 2170 was most often first.

Thanks for posting your findings between the three amplifier choices you made.

I'm curious about the above. Why do you feel the uncorrected TDAI performance came out ahead of the room corrected one?