TEKTON IMPACT MONITORS

1) Was any time spent listening to
your loudspeakers? If so, what was the reaction?

Yes, actually on both days my speakers were given a generous amount of time to listen to. My wife actually proclaimed that after listening to Tracy Chapman on vinyl it was the best sound she'd ever heard.
I will admit when we got outside I was angry at her blanket statement and asked her if it sounded better than a live full piece orchestra at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center? She said it was her favourite reproduction of Tracy Chapman she'd heard and she's no audiophile and I must say,
the Tekton Moabs with his turntable and valve amp did sound very good, lively, and enjoyable.

I have a pair of speakers designed by an unknown Australian legend, using composite materials, HD3 from New Zealand which is 1.6 times denser than MDF and waterproof (used by the Australian government as public toilet walls, because it is very resilient against vandalism), a birchwood plywood baffle brace on the tweeter end of the baffle. It also has 4mm sprung steel plates laminated on the inside, with both cast iron rods and silicone filled hard drawn copper rods as side wall bracing.

On the second day, my Lenehan Audio ML2 were connected to the Raven amp and his record player, and we got some time on that. I asked him if I could leave his amp in, and Jeff Smith from Silversmith Audio let me use his RCA development cables to connect my digital front end in. To be clear, I did not design these speakers, I build them from components while I was working at Lenehan Audio, building for them. I do have a reasonably good understanding of the technologies involved, and can readily discuss them.

Fidelium cables - Jeff said that the cables would make a difference with hours on them or not, they had maybe three days before bouncing across America to Washington. Jeff himself wasn't too worried about the hours, it seemed his geometry, materials and design worked without needing hours to settle in, and it did sound very clean and the sound was sharp and fast.

2) Was any time spent listening to the Moabs without the distributed bass array, so visitors could get an idea of the Tektons without bass augmentation?

I don't recall so, and the first day I did use the bass array with my diminutive stand mounts in his much larger room. There's simply no way my pair of 6.5" bass drivers supported by a port were ever going to energise a room of that size, with any sort of authority. Any cabin gain that is realised in an appropriately sized listening room for my speakers certainly wasn't going to work here. They are tiny but mighty, just not a large room solution.

The array in my perspective did not hurt the overall presentation, and yet, I will admit I didn't get to hear it without DBA though. Honestly though, I had no problem with the mc sound, perhaps as another had stated it wasn't the critical listening regime that a reviewer would make over months of assessment, we had a weekend to have a listen, get impressions and it was supposed to be fun - not work.

A totally funny moment was when Mike Levine (oh and when I do get time, I'd like to write about our visit to his place) went to place the back of his hand on Chuck's Moabs to discern the cabinet's involvement in the overall sound. Though he was gentle (this guy by the way is a totally classy bloke) the speaker did yield with compliance at his hand gesture, he quickly reacted to try and stop it toppling over, but as he did put his hands either side to attempt to cradle the large speaker, it rocked back the other way. And so he was moving back and forth, exactly in tune with the rocking of the speaker. The room burst with laughter, nothing was harmed, and Mike was a totally good sport about it - yes speakers on good sprung isolation are compliant to the touch, which is a major reason it works so well actually.
Welcome to the wacky world of Townshend Audio, springs and such!

The Focals - They were traded in, I will have to ask for the actual model though. Mike ran a sweeping white noise signal through them, and I heard multiple nodes where the cabinet rang out. This is absolute high end audiophile testing, this is not to say they don't sound good or present well. These are $16k speakers in Australia, with from what I recall, good reviews as well. I'm not here to disrespect Focal owners, just conveying my experience. The Focals were traded in twice, the second owner bought Lenehan Audio ML5. I will get back with the model, soon as I ask my old employer.

@rixthetrick,

Yes, actually on both days my speakers were given a generous amount of time to listen to. My wife actually proclaimed that after listening to Tracy Chapman on vinyl it was the best sound she’d ever heard.

That’s quite a statement! Also, speaks to the front end, and amplification.

I haven't seen any listening impressions posted about your speakers from the get-together, so this is nice to read. Kudos to you!

Regarding Mike L. causing the Moabs to sway, I recall a moment when a local high end cable fabricator came over to help install some long interconnects I had purchased. He had not seen my system before, and at the time my speakers (+ stands) were on Townshend podiums. He too touched the speakers, which caused them to sway. It caught him off guard, for sure.

@rixthetrick

Rick, thanks for your informative, genuine, non-self serving  and balanced posts. No surprise though, as you always post that way

I had a pair of Impact Monitors. They were not my cup of tea. I heard none of the magic that others report from the seven driver array. But that's ME in MY room with MY electronics. Hats off to others that love them.

On the modification of professionally designed speakers... I worked for one of the big upper mid-fi brands in the 80's and 90's. I spent a lot of time with the engineers because my job was to translate the technology to the lay person for marketing and training purposes. These engineers would sweat all manner of things - tiny details in every aspect of materials, design, and manufacturing. And they had anechoic chambers, and various technologies to help them. 

The idea that the average person can take a finished, well designed product, and buy a random component off the rack and expect it to improve the product is kind of strange. I like to make the analogy to the motor oil additive industry. Take Quaker State, Castrol, Mobil, Shell, etc. They spend an enormous amount of money and manpower on R&D. Folks with Ph.D.s in chemistry, etc. They come up with a formulation for a specific application. What's the chance that an average person can walk into a Pep Boys, buy a random additive, and improve the performance of their motor oil? Possible? Sure. Not likely.

My guess is that if you want to tinker, buy a kit and build some stuff on your own. It will be more rewarding and productive. I did and it was a blast! But I still have professionally designed speakers in my main listening space.