“Invest” in Tekton?


I’ve been a member of Audiogon for a while but haven’t really had the need to utilize the forums until now... I’ve perused the forums pretty extensively the past couple of days but haven’t really found my specific question.... First some background: I’ve had my current system for quite some time (PSB image: 5t, 9c, 2b, subsonic 6; Denon AVR3311 as preamp; and a NAD T955 amp) and have been pretty happy with it... yes, I tend to hold on to my stuff for a while.... I recently decided to explore the option of upgrading/updating my speakers and was pretty interested in some midlevel stuff (SVS Prime, Emotiva, PSB X2T, Paradigm 8, 9, or 10 something…) but ultimately decided the $2000-$3000 price tag wasn’t worth the investment as they were all roughly in the same league as my PSBs... Somehow, I stumbled upon the review of the Tekton double impacts... don’t even know how I found it but there I was... I kinda chuckled to myself when the reviewer started comparing them to $20,000 speakers and then started calling them better at some things... I was a little pessimistic about the review because in my aforementioned research every speaker was the greatest thing since sliced bread.. (To be honest, in my eyes, the professional reviewers lost some credibility because every speaker was just great, couldn’t find a bad review no matter how hard I tried...) Anyhow, the comparison to speakers 7-10x in price piqued my curiosity so I started snooping around for any Tekton reviews I could find and lo and behold, everyone loves them and the comparisons to speakers multiple times their price were plentiful. Ok, so the Tektons are good and now I’m more interested than I should be…

So here’s the rub… I’ve never even considered spending $5000-$6000 on a speaker system (5.0-5.1). Never in my wildest dreams… I’ve always had a theoretical limit of $3k and never gave anything above that a thought. Along comes Tekton with speakers that are in the 5-6k price range (5.0-5.1) but are being compared to speakers $20,000+ and the fact people are putting them in the same league as speakers in that price range, and saying they are better in some instances, is intriguing…

So here’s where I am asking for some assistance. It seems the Tekton lineup is a unique opportunity to acquire reportedly superior sonic performance with apparently unparalleled value. However, $5-6k is a TON of money in my world.. It won’t break the bank but admittedly, it bends it pretty significantly and spending this kind of money on speakers definitely wasn’t a consideration even a week ago… Personally, I am seeing this as a once in a lifetime purchase (am 43 and would expect these to be the last major speaker purchase of my life) but I do need to justify to my betrothed. My original sales pitch to her included the analogy “it seems they are selling Lamborghinis for the price of a Mustang…” and “I really don’t think there will be another opportunity like this” (when did I start selling timeshares???!!!) There are other barriers with her as well (e.g., “They’re how big?!”) but she does have somewhat of an understanding of how much I like music and stereo stuff.. somewhat…

So my actual questions:

  1. To those that have actually heard the speakers, (transducers?)… do you really feel they are leaps and bounds better than typical speakers in the 3-6k range (generally speaking…)? For comparison, I liked the SVS Ultras but due to price and size (yeah, I know how big the Tektons are..) I put them in the “maybe someday” category. To be clear, I’m not asking is “x better than y?” but rather “Do these $3000 speakers really belong in the same class as $20,000 speakers????

  2. In your humble opinions, is this really a rare/unique opportunity with unparalleled value that is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” or are situations like this (incredible value for the money) more common?

  3. I can’t even claim to have a basic understanding of electronics, I’ve read up on ohms and what not and my eyes glaze over.. I spoke with Eric and he, without hesitation, stated my NAD T955 would be plenty sufficient to run whatever options I went with. Thoughts? I intend on using the NAD until it dies (hopefully no time soon) and will deal with next steps when the time is right…

  4. I am super nervous about ordering something so expensive unheard, If anyone is interested, I would like to have a discussion relating to my type of music and listening environment/levels.. (not including in this post to keep size down..)

  5. Any other relavant information I haven't considered, particularly in the area of justifying a purchase such as this?

There are probably 100 other little tidbits I could include in this but I am trying to be as brief as possible and I still wrote a novel… Anyhow, any productive assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

la10slgr
I am beginning to feel the same @missioncoonery . There is another thread asking recommendations for $25k loudspeaker pair. One of the "handful of owners" responded with Tekton Ulfs on 07/03. The OP, nor anyone else in the thread responded to that. So one of the "handful of owners" made the same recommendation for the same loudspeaker yesterday.
I have not heard the Tektons, but that huge thread and the same people recommending the speakers over and over again is making me suspicious. Not sure what is going on here.
No need to be suspicious here. I have a pair of the Double Impacts breaking-in. In my 2 channel/HT system and they sound very good. They do compete well with higher cost speakers. They replaced my Monitor Audio GX300's and sound much better at half the price.

in my dedicated listening room upstairs I have JansZen zA2.1 hybrid electrostats with the very similar tube amplification from LTA. The DI's do not top my Janszen's in sound quality but the DI's do their own thing very well and if you don't have 4x the money for the Janszen's then the DI's really are a bargain.

Lance
Milpai, I recommended the Ulfberhts because they met all of the OP's requirements, and sound mighty damn good while doing it. Maybe you should try them before bashing them....
I dont believe the poster nor me is "bashing" them.Im just saying (and I think he is as well)that a flavor of the month comes and goes thats why they are called "flavor of the month"..and if the same posters completely dominate,salivate,go on and on makes me  think..ok here we go again...Maybe they are as good as speakers costing 10 times or more,maybe not,wouldnt know until heard and since they are online sales only as far as I can see makes one wonder..I did read on another site the comments are not as overwhelming in the postive and are more what one would expect considering the cost and look.Maybe if the manufacture would actually do some measurements we could see,that might help.
Whenever I hook up an older pair of "cheap" speakers to my newer much better (than what I used to run old speakers off of) electronics the results never fail to impress me. My 40 year old OHM Ls ($400 a pair in 1978) never sounded better and compete with much more expensive modern speakers.

I think Billy Joel may have gotten it right. Older speakers are often bigger and can be much badder than modern often undersized big brothers that cost way more, when fed equally well and set up right. Inflation is a bugger!  Plus I am much better able to set these things up well these days than I was many years ago after years of trial and error and learning.