Why People Like Tekton

@thecarpathian + 1

Low price shipping inc painted cabinets lots of posts and hype in audio forums. 

Not a Tekton owner, in fact have not yet heard, but have a feeling I’d like … for a while. Maybe I’m just a speaker slut and listen around a lot. I’ve lived happily (for varying durations) with lots of different speakers … none perfect, and none for a LONG time, but all appreciated for what they were, not pilloried for what they weren’t. Maybe that’s also why my attempt to identify an end game speaker is a bit of a fools errand (for me anyway). Used to joke at work I was half arsonist and half fireman … modestly analogous here.

The impact monitors are amazing with my art audio concierto tubes.People like them because they are not expensive.

Have you ever heard or owned this speaker? I have owned the Odyssey gear, so I offered my opinion. I also own Tekton gear. It seems to make sense to offer your two cents on gear you’ve actually had experience with.

I have stated several times that I have neither owned nor heard a Tekton speaker, so I can’t offer my opinion as to their sound. Several times. That’s why I never have. So, what’s your point? I stated my opinion on how I feel about their looks. You know, visual. Do I need to have owned and heard them to do that? Do I need to have experience with them to do that? No, do I. Then, for some reason you take my opinion of their looks personally and come up with the notion of revenge by bashing some gear I own. Why don’t you just push me off the swings at recess.

thecarpathian

You actually made the same comment twice in this thread.... what's the point?

Have you ever heard or owned this speaker? I have owned the Odyssey gear, so I offered my opinion. I also own Tekton gear. It seems to make sense to offer your two cents on gear you've actually had experience with. Otherwise it reads like your just entertaining yourself.

Gosh, how clever. Bash me for the gear I’ve owned.

How shall I ever find a retort to equal your rapier wit?

I’ve never had a problem with any of my fine sounding Odyssey gear. But if I do, I'd implement my unprecedented 20 year warranty.

Maybe yours didn’t care for their owner.

2psyop,

Fair point for the Tempest...appr.  15 years back...we have had some serious hum  issues with 2 different manufacturer in about half of the units out there back then,  that is correct.  That's also when I scrapped the regular Tempest and only offered the Extreme ,  which had the Symphonic Line boards with their proprietary caps and the massive myMetal transformers...problems solved.

AND,  never ever did we have systemic problems with the amps.....that would be a lie...

Anybody else think these things look like a coffin mated with a spider?

That really tops all! Rude.

@roxy54 He's actually copied the identical post into ten different threads.

Five times...that's the limit1

Hello Tekton owners/aficionados, I’m getting ready to take the leap into the Ulfberht club and am looking for anyone within a few hours drive from Northern Virginia who would allow me to hear their speakers.  I heard the Moabs briefly a few years ago at a show and liked them, but really need to hear the Ulfs or the Moab’s again.  I’ve got a pretty decent wine cellar and would love to bring something nice with me to either share or leave for my host.  I’d also be happy to have folks come listen to the Dynaudio Consequence Ultimates I have now as a comparison.

@ghdprentice your welcome, and thank you for the compliment.

@l1975r 

Thanks. Nice analysis.

I have had the Double Impact Monitors for over two years now and put some quality listening time on them. They are really fun speakers for sure.

Construction:

The cabinets are rock solid and clean, though with the flat dark grey paint are fairly plain looking. That said, I do most of my listening in the dark in a dedicated listening room, so it doesn’t bother me too much. The Cardas inputs are a nice touch. As my hobby budget increased I upgraded from a pair of GoldenEar Aon2 stand-mounters to the Impact Monitors – no contest it’s night and day and I am really happy.

The Good:

The sound from these is excellent when material is above 40Hz with rock (Grateful Dead, Rush, Pink Floyd, the Cure, etc.) and most jazz. The highs are clean and pronounced – not hinted at. The mid-range is as advertised, just excellent with any material really. The sound stage is deep enough, but wide and extends beyond the outer boundaries of the speaker. Some nights listening, it’s like you are there! Spooky! The thing that really gets me with these speakers that I think not enough people talk about, and that I feel the magic in these are, is the sense of scale that these produce.

The scale that comes from these, not just at high volume, but at soft night listening volume too is amazing. After two years of listening to these properly set up in a treated room other speakers (in the $1k - $5k price range) just sound thin. Even higher end speakers in the $5,000 range that may have a touch more definition at the very top end (mentioned below) cannot compete with the mid-range or scale produced by these in my set up. It has really changed how I approach systems now, because for me it’s about enjoying the music – not analyzing it. And I do thoroughly enjoy listening to these for hours on end!

Comparisons:

Like most who are interested in “audiophile” accoutrements, I have had the chance to listen to some very expensive systems in my time and plenty of cheap ones too. While I won’t claim that these $2,000 monitors can hang with the Nagra, VTL, Wilson XVX; or Audio Research, Sonus faber Il Cremonese; or McIntosh, Bowers and Wilkins $60k Nautilus “shells” systems I heard in demo rooms (because they can’t)… I will say they outright trounce the Wilson TuneTot, Sonus faber Sonetto II and Olympica Nova I, and any B&W stand-mounter (though I’ve only heard up to the 805 D3, not the new 805 D4). There is no contest here in terms of mid-range sound and scale of presentation. Where the Olympica Nova I and 805 D3 did pull ahead was in terms of bass definition (more on that below). The TuneTot was clean to perfect musically and tonally, but gets easily swallowed up even in a small listening room. If I had $10k for desktop speakers, those would be it – but they didn’t fit the bill for main-system speakers. While the others were prettier to look at (Olympica Nova I) and the Wilson build quality was insane for a small monitor, the overall sound of the Impact Monitors was just better in my opinion. I think this is again because of the scale presented by the Impact Monitors. In fact, the scale presented by the Impact Monitors is far better than any $2k - $4k slim tower I’ve heard. In a way the Impact Monitors have ruined other speakers (within their reasonable price range) for me because now even clean sounding or tonally perfect don’t do it for me if the scale isn’t there. I also think that’s why those super-expensive systems mentioned above are so amazing – they do perfect tone and musicality at massive scale… if you can afford it, which unfortunately I can’t.

Critique:

The only place where I feel the Impact Monitors do fall down a bit in my experience is in the lower bass. Note, I am not a “bass head”. When I play albums (vinyl guy here) such as the opening to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band, Jon Batiste’s We Are, or any Amy Winehouse; the drivers seem to bottom out on the low bass notes creating a mechanical sound that can be annoying at normal listening volumes 60 dB to 72 dB measured. It seems to happen on “artificially low notes” below 40 Hz. This has left me wanting better bass on these. If I turn it down to night listening levels the problem goes away, but for someone who has come to enjoy scale this is a bit annoying. Albums such as Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories are unlistenable at volume. That said, I can crank the hell out of Credence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, INXS, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, etc. and the sound is great at any level. So be wary of the type of music you will feed through these. But again, 99% of the time this is not a problem. Though that 1% of the time it is noticeable and distracting and has caused me to switch albums.

Final Thoughts:

These are really enjoyable speakers for most music, and rock in particular. In a small room like mine with the right equipment these beat anything in their price range in terms of sound. If you want something pretty to put in a main living room, these may not be it, but in a dedicated audio room like I have (and a lot of you too, I’m sure) that doesn’t matter. I can tell you that the prettier stuff mentioned above will give up quite a bit of sound quality in the mid-range and every bit of scale to the Impact Monitors though. If you are making your decision based on sound alone in this price range, in my opinion these are the best speakers – which is why I bought them and would highly recommend them to anyone who isn’t a “bass head”.

That said, once again I am fortunate to have an increased hobby budget, and am considering upgrading to get better bass. I like Tekton, but for my $5,k budget am wondering if there is better out there? I am looking at either the Double Impact SE, Sonus faber Sonetto V, or Salk Song3-A...

@milpai 

Sure!  I actually have two rooms.  The AG's are in the larger room, the Tune Audio and Tektons in another. I am moving along a pair of Shinjitsu Audios and bringing CLX's. :)

First, I need to figure out how to turn off location services on my iPhone for the photos.  :)

^^^^^^^^^^ Quite ^^^^^^^^^^

My current stable of speakers includes avant-garde’s, Tune audio, Martin Logan, and Tekton.

@bouncehit ,

You must be having a real nice big room. Would love to see it with on the System page, with all these speakers. Care to post a pic?

I am a coherent sound fan.  Ohm Walsh CLS and KEF UniQ do it for me.   Many drivers spread around work against that especially in rooms the size of most at home.

Explains the smeary timing and disconnect as a whole of the Tekton midrange

How can Tekton have a patent on the Mid/tweeter array when McIntosh has been doing that for 20+ years?

Because McIntosh uses the tweeters as tweeters, Tekton uses them as a mid driver. Completely different designs.

Or he snorted a Xanax.

Eventually, at some point in the journey, you may get tired of listening to the singer’s saliva and chairs creaking and just want to relax and hear music in a more natural manner.and not with your ear 6" from the singer’s mouth

leaving aside tekton’s, which have a place in the expansive market for domestic loudspeakers with their own set of attributes, some rather polarizing, i would make a general point that i have observed over the years

music lovers who get into hifi deeply travel on a bit of a meandering road, but a road with certain definable arcs... one important one is to experience the great detail that high end systems can provide... first exposure to this quality can be really powerful, a wow moment, then some (many) actually chase that aspect into more and more expensive gear... but depending on the person, his/her exposure to music (listening or performing), whether they like to enjoy their music in their private spaces for long stretches of time and frequently... at some point the chasing of readily apparent detail gets old, seem quite tiring, and then makes a turn and one heads to more natural sounding speakers, like the many bbc-heritage descendants, vandersteens, magnepans and so on

the analogy i use is for one to be outside on a hot clear summer day at high noon - everything is so vivid but the contrast becomes a bit much after a while, then one reaches for sunglasses, or a seat in the shade, comfort...

Many people liked Bose too.

02/1/2022 

“ I own AG Duos, Tune Audio Marvels, and Shinjitsu Acoustics.  I’ve also recently owned late model LavScalas.   i’ve also owned Pipedreams Model 21’s, MG 20’s, Sound Lab A1’s, B&W 801’s,  Martin Logan 15a’s, etc. My good friends own Alsyvox a... “

I recently purchased a pair of Moabs. I am still running them in, but so far have been favorably impressed with the sound.

I recently purchased a pair of Moabs. I am still running them in, but so far have been favorably impressed with the sound.

Perhaps even more impressive, Mine arrived with a missed threaded canister for one of the footers. Although I had received them on a Thursday, the opportunity for set up had not arrived until Saturday afternoon. I sent an email to Tekton and within a few hours Eric Alexander responded, first by email and then by phone call! 

Yes, Eric Alexandra himself called me on a Saturday afternoon to help me address a minor issue with my new Moab speaker. What’s more, grateful for this fact, I didn’t want to take too much of his time (respecting  the fact it was after all Saturday afternoon) but he was very warm, friendly and helpful.  Eric not only coached me on how to re-thread the footer barrel, but give me some tips on setting up the speakers in order to hear them at their best.

i’m with him, trying to respect the fact it was after all Saturday afternoon, but he not only coached me on how to re-thread the footer barrel, but gave me some tips on how to best install them in order to coax the most performance from the speakers.

This kind of responsiveness from a manufacture is no small thing. I have owned ultra expensive Audiophile speakers that for one reason or another were  prone to all manner of malfunction. On more than one occasion I was left hanging for months in order to get them repaired, with multiple telephone calls and emails necessary to accomplish what seemed a relatively straightforward repair  (and yes, this was many, many years before the pandemic and the current supply chain issues).

On more than one occasion I was left hanging for months in order to get them repaired, with multiple telephone calls and emails necessary to accomplish what seemed relatively straightforward (and yes, this was many, many years before the pandemic and the current supply chain issues).

 My current stable of speakers includes avant-garde’s, Tune audio, Martin Logan, and Tekton. They are all very enjoyable in their own ways. I would certainly not call the Tekton Designs “less than” any of the others when it comes to sonic performance and the enjoyment of music. They certainly are different, and true, the Tekton  cabinets are unimpressive. But when it comes to making joyful music they are quite good.

Best,

BH

Everybody cant like every thing out there...

@tomcy6 Excellent video. This was very I formative, and thank you for sharing. 

How can Tekton have a patent on the Mid/tweeter array when McIntosh has been doing that for 20+ years?

 

sid-hoff-frenchman

28 posts

01-28-2022 10:46am

I think on posts about components and speakers there should be a filtering question: “Have you actually heard it?” and if you click “no“ it redirects you to a completely different forum post, perhaps titled “Uninformed Drivel.”
 

CAN I GET AN AMEN!!!!!!  I own Tektons and stay far away from these clickbate topics. 

Tektons have one tweeter? Sure looks like they have MANY from the pics on their website…… I’ve never heard them & I’m all for smaller manufacturers to compete with the often overpriced big names. I’m just curious about their design & how some manufacturers claim is to put one tweeter inside the midrange or woofer to create better “point source” listening experience & others like Tekton have them spread out??? 

@thecarpathian + 1

I think on posts about components and speakers there should be a filtering question: “Have you actually heard it?” and if you click “no“ it redirects you to a completely different forum post, perhaps titled “Uninformed Drivel.”

Since I have never owned or even auditioned any of Tekton's line of speakers, I can't personally comment on their quality or sound, but much of what the Thomas & Stereo video expressed, regarding the Tektons being affordable and musical, I can appreciate.

A few years back, in a friends large, well dampened audio room I auditioned a quite expensive pair of two way speakers on dedicated elaborate stands. At first listen, I was very impressed with their mid range punch and detail and crisp highs, but after a half hour of listening, at only moderate levels, my head and ears hurt. For comparison, we next set up a small pair of Gershmans and then a pair of 1.7 Maggies. I quick decided that I much preferred the sound of the little Gershmans and the little Maggies and both were less than 1/4 the cost.

I do like detail and dynamics, but not at the expense of being musical and enjoyable to listen to for long periods without fatigue. My little Maggies seem to fit the bill for me - being both musical and detailed and I can see the OPs point, regarding the Tektons and other speakers mentioned that lean towards their sound......Jim

I have a low opinion of the Tekton design principals.  It is flawed in many ways; however, the above claim ("build your own clone") truly devalues the work in the design of these speakers.  The designer in essence has created a a coxial driver without some of the design problems exhibited by some coaxials (the movement of the mid affecting the dispersion of the tweeter).  His solution has obvious flaws, but clearly many like his solution.  The crossover design for the "coaxial" driver the design creates is clearly not a simply design that any diy hack can just implement (unless they have access to the actual x-over used by the speaker). So arguing that one can just build their "own clone" suggests that you have a poor understanding of the design.

Did you notice how there is a $5600 tweeter up grade available for the $3150 Double Impact?  The upgrade costs more than the rest of the loudspeaker.  If the stock loudspeaker is so good, why do you need an upgrade that costs 150% more?

What you've got here is a big painted box with a pile of low cost drivers.  Remember at $3150, they have to make money, so they've got about $600 worth of drivers in the whole package.  That's 14 tweeters, 4 mid bass drivers and 4 bass drivers.  I suggest that you go to Parts-Express or Madisound and price out what it would cost to build your own clone.

Big boxes with cheap drivers.  Looks impressive.

Why wouldn't an audiophile want to hear everything on the record that was created by the artist? You certainly hear them it at a concert. My goal is to get the sounds as close to live music as possible or at least feel like I am in the studio with them? That doesn't mean it isn't musical. Bright I guess means distorted or harsh, which nobody likes.

I've owned  a pair of upgraded double impacts for 2 years. (pencil gray color) Listen to just R&R, 69 YOA , in a shop area 20'x30  ' tractors, motor cycles etc, no special treatments, Peachtree amp 500, Benchmark LA4 Line amp, Their DAC3B, audio lab 6000 CDT, SVS 4000 sealed sub,   stream Amazon HD. Listen at about 95spl, Def leopard, AC DC, Eagles, Rush , Pink Floyd, etc.

Everything is obviously subjective.  I can only attest to R&R listening, WOW you feel like you are there. I don't know why my acoustics are that good, but they are. Just very impressed. Robert TN Dynamic, accurate!!!

The DI are big, ugly, and look intimidating in your living room, but if you can handle that they will send in missiles of pure sonic bliss straight into your ear canals.

i would never consider Tekton because of the ugly factor.  We have a beautiful living room and they would goober up the look.  I listened to a pair of Revel Performa speakers.  They really were detailed and lively.  I also like my Harmon Kardon sound system in my car.

Ride Of The Valkyrie section actually made be burst out laughing 

I’ve owned the Double Impacts (both regular and SE versions) along with KEF Reference 5, KEF 107, Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1, and Duntech Crown Prince. I love the Tektons comparatively. The KEF Reference 5 was more detailed but came across as brighter at the same time, probably because I listen quite loud.  The Wilson was very bright and detailed and I got sick of fussing with them about placement.  Sold.  The older I get the more I like a laid back sound that can still rock.. Bye to big horns, the Tekton is more pleasant at higher volumes with just as much kick A. Now, the KEF 107 tones down the detail a bit but has it’s own beauty that is similar to the Tekton and a deep soundstage. Of all these, I probably would rank in this order of audio happiness:

Duntech Crown Prince

Tekton Double Impact SE (maybe regular version too)

KEF 107

KEF Reference 5

Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1 (titanium tweeters)

I am sure they are okay, visually they’re not my cup of joe. 

I had a pair of Tekton Impact Monitors. They are everything that the manufacturer states. I function-forward design using a unique approach to multi-driver arrays. I don't understand what people are talking about when they say that the build quality is crap. I completely disagree. The basic box is the intension. Mine were very nicely built. Any resonances that the cabinet did have, were engineered to be outside the range that would affect the sound. 

They perfectly matched a custom paint color from the Benjamin Moore catalog... on a one-off order. For like $50 or something. A very good value. You can argue about whether the sound is right for you or not. Every speaker at every price point is subject to the same. But I don't think it's fair (from my experience) to say that there is some hoax going on or that Tekton's customers are being duped. Tekton - or at least the 7-driver array - is flavor. Some will like it and some will not. BTW, I did not find the Impact Monitors to be overly bright or analytical. 

We all put way too much emphasis on equipment!  A great recording can sound awesome on just about any decent equipment and speakers. A crappy one sounds crappy on everything and maybe more crappy on highly revealing speakers.