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
I have the ulfs and been wait8ng a couple of months for the center channel to show up before I install them. Also did the Be tweeters on all. 
@speedbump6  Interesting...wonder what the timeline will be for Ulf's?? I am up in the Bering Sea at the moment but should be home in a month....Also I wish there was a way to know if the Be tweeters are money well spent?! Obviously we know it is the material of choice on most top speakers other than diamond layering....Just wish there was a way to listen....Oh well! Like I say, I'm going with just the main high freq. tweeter in Be. No matter what I am certain I will love this speaker! 
When I ordered was told about a month, but it’s taking longer for the center channel. I heard their times are more like two months now, and I’m a bit past that. I did just the high frequency ones myself. Eric seemed to think it was a worthwhile upgrade when I asked him. The center channel is a special one designed specifically for the ulfs. Had a member on AVS forum who had just recieved his Ulfs tell me about it, so I made sure to ask for that also. 
@speedbump6  so what do you think of the ulf beryllium  ?
Also for those that heard them how do they compare to other speakers from well known makes at similar prices?
Imagine how much better the speaker would be if you fully modded the xover.....OMG times infinity! Very hard to remove (hot glued in) but if you removed it and moved it outside the speaker and upgraded every part on it.......OMG. In series with the midrange is an OK cap, an OK inductor and a OK resistor (I believe, that is what a person who looked inside his Encore told me). OK to superb is a big distance. If I were ordering this speaker I would have Eric hang all the wires from the drivers out of the back of the speaker and the stock xover could be then soldered to it.  With the stock xover already outside the speaker it will already sound better without the vibration of the speaker effecting it. Then you could take your time and mod the xover part by part and go into Nirvana one part at a time.....would be fun.