Tekton Double Impacts

David,

Both Terry and Michael have given you excellent advise on speaker placement. Sounds like you have things pretty well worked out. For me about 5 1/2' apart has worked best with my listening position about 6 1/2' back. I was quite surprised having them that close together ended up being ideal in my room. I started about 7' apart and moved them in 6 inches at a time until the speakers totally disappeared. I then moved them in 1" increments until they sounded best to me. I like Herbie Audio Giant Threaded Gliders under the speakers.....quite stable, sound great, very easy to level and move the speakers. They will sound very good placed just about anywhere but if you can give them room from the back and side walls they will reward you. Bass traps can really be helpful along with some diffusion at the first reflection points on the walls, floor and ceiling. Your wife will be rolling her eyes about now :)

bradcor, compared to the Legacy Focus SE's I found the DI's to be much more dynamic, less bright and the bass as good, if not better. That's saying a lot as the Legacys have some impressive bass to them. The Legacys highs may have been a bit airier but the DI's tonal balance was more to my liking. Both speakers are seemless from top to bottom. I fully expected the Legacys to be my two channel speakers with the DI's going into my theater system. After a couple of days of going between the two it was readily appearant that the DI's belonged in my dedicated listening room and I sold the Legacys. This isn't a knock against the Legacys, it's just that the DI's are THAT good. 

Mike of Audio Archon,

The Tektons must have the threaded spike holes filled or bass will escape through them and as you found out they don't sound very good. I made the same mistake with my first pair as it's easier moving them without the spikes. That's why I like the Herbies threaded gliders.

Please tell me what LTA gear you have available to audition. I'd like to hear the MZ2-S, ZOTL 10 and ZOTL 40......or two ZOTL 40's as Monoblocks! I'd be willing to make the trip from Detroit to Chicago to do so. 

Come me join the fun corelli, are you close to Chicago?

I just spent four hours listening to the DI's being driven only by the Micro-ZOTL preamplifier/amplifier, instead of the ZOTL-40 Micro-ZOTL combo in my system and it significantly out preformed the pair!

Across the sonic board- sound-staging, imaging , timbres, etc. the Micro-ZOTL was better, but what really shocks me is that the overall dynamics and the quality of the bass frequencies are better then the forty watt amplifier.  As I said when I heard this in Mike's system it might be the "purist" reproduction of music I have ever heard.  Well, it is a SET using the great 6SN7 TongSol Black Glass Oval Plate NOS 1940's tube, which I find to be one of the most beautiful input tubes of all.  Now I know what it sounds like as a power tube. 

So, at least with the DI's the LTA preamp/amplifier is all you need to get beautiful reference level quality sound without out any downsides regarding volume levels/macro-dynamics.  The only other factor that Mike and I discovered is that Micro-ZOTL and DI's combo sounds great with a reasonable good DAC, however it jumps up to another level when being driven by the Concert Fidelity-battery powered DAC.



 

Teajay,
Given the 1 watt power limitation of the Micro ZOTLhow does it present complex symphonic orchestral music? I could imagine that with acoustic jazz (what I listen to 90 % of the time) it could be pure organic bliss. This suggests that a high quality SET of 6 to 10 watts may be a very viable option.  I'm surprised that the DI is so easily driven given its 4 ohm nominal impedance. 
Charles

Thanks for the update teajay. Like Charles I'm surprised the 4 ohm DI's could be driven by 1 watt. I'll have to give it a try though. I find my 24 watt Decware to sound sublime for 95% of my listening but crave more volume for live recordings. Guess I could use the micro-ZOTL for most of my listening and either switch to the ZOTL 40 for those times I want more volume or forgo the ZOTL 40 all together and use my SS theater system for louder volume listening. Using only the micro-ZOTL would save me enough money for some sweet NOS tubes for it. This hobby never seems to lack for options!