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What have other owners of Tekton Design Ulfberht Speakers discovered?

Now that I have lived with the Ulfberht's for close to a year I would like to share some assumptions about them with GON members, and see what conclusions that other Ulfberht's owners have come to based on their listening experiences. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Ulfberht's are the most lifelike and musical speaker I have ever had in my reference system.  To think that a seven foot 21 driver speaker completely disappears in a totally accurate sound-stage,  (how large or small is based on the recording) like a small two way monitor is still a remarkable feat, indeed.  Many listeners to my home find it hard to believe how cohesive they are top to bottom and speak with "one voice".  Many large speakers can do "big" power music, but sound "big" on all music.  They can also blow out of proportion the size of individual players.  Not the Ulfberht's, they present any music in a natural manner, never exaggerating anything out of proportion.  Other special qualities of this speaker is it's overall "ease/effortlessness" regardless of volume levels, thunderous dynamics, its ability to pressurize the room with deep accurate bass frequencies and a sense of "aliveness" that you find in live music.

Some guidelines to optimism the Ulfberht's performance:

1) Get them at least four feet off the front wall and two/three feet off the side walls. My dear friend Ezra has his pair in a relatively small space, yet they sound beautiful.  Still, his pair is about five feet off the front wall and two feet off the side walls. 

2) I believe in most rooms a very slight toe-in gets you the the best center image, without narrowing the width of the sound-stage at all. The center tweeter should aim just on the outside of your head at your listening position.

3) Just like all Tekton Design speakers the Ulfberht's are a conduit, anything you put into them you will hear it.  Be prepared to use the finest source and amplification to tailor the sound of your system to your personal taste.

4) Even though the Ulfberht's are an easy speaker to drive, they love high current amplifiers to get the best out of them.  Right now, I have in for review a brand new model from Coda Technologies called the Number#8, beautiful looking with blue lighted meters, which has the current capability of 150 Amperes on a peak!  Without a doubt the Coda Number#8 is a superlative amplifier, you will get all the details when I write the review for hometheaterreview.com, and might be the best amplifier that has ever driven my pair of Ulberht's.  I have have tried six highly regarded amplifiers, they are all excellent in their own right and sounded great on the Ulberht's.  However, the synergy with the Ulf's is very special in many ways.   

   
teajay
kasof
1 posts
 
Hello All,

I have had my set of Ulfs since June 2018 and absolutely love them! I came from a set of the Tekton DI-SE's which were great in their own right but the Ulfberhts are on a completely different level. As Teajay described in his first post, they really do "disappear" in regard to the spaciousness of the soundstage and ability to be "conduit" to the music. Mine are positioned a little closer to the back and side walls, 2 feet from the back and only 5 inches from the sides due to an "enclosure" where my projector screen is. They are toed in about 30 degrees but the driver array comes out past the sidewalls approximately 4 inches into the room which I am sure helps with the imaging. Speakers before the DI's and Ulfs were Def-Tech Mythos ST-L Super towers, and I auditioned Golden Ear's Reference, a variety of Maggie's and others before settling on the Ulfs. I also have an Ulfberhts center channel and am driving all three of the Ulfs with Wyred4Sound SX1000R Mono-blocks X 3. 
sutts
700 posts
 
Can the Ulf's be driven by a 10-watt 211 SET amp?
lwin's avatar
lwin
570 posts
 
I have several amps I use with my Ulfberhts one of which is the Pass Labs First Watt Sit 3 which is rated at 18 watts into 8 ohms and 30 into 4. The Ulfberhts are rated at 99dba efficient into 4 ohms which I think is a little generous. For almost all my music the SIT 3’s will drive the Ulfberhts but some recordings which are recorded at lower volume levels just don’t have enough volume for me. What the SIT 3’s do play sounds simply wonderful. To answer you question sutts I think you will encounter the same issue but what it does play at sufficient volume levels will probably be magical. 
jujubeez
9 posts
 
 After 1 month of owning the Ulfberhts with a Lyngdorf 3400 powering these big speakers I am a very happy listener.
 I experimented with getting a wider sound-stage, as I am a sociable person, and usually have 2 people.
 With much persistence, I tilted the speakers forward approximately 1/2 inch and the sound-stage immediately widened to accommodate 2 people.
 Question: I jury rigged the raising of these speakers with whatever i could find.
 Is there more professional way of just raising the rear? 

david_ten
5,480 posts
 
@jujubeez  Congratulations, first and foremost. Happy to hear that you are a "Very Happy Listener" now. 

Depends on the isolation solution you are using. I can see doing so with IsoAcoustic GAIAs, Herbie's threaded Giant Gliders, SoundoCity outriggers, Townshend, etc. etc. (as some examples).
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