Tekton Double Impacts

Hey everybody,

I just spent the last six hours listening to a pair of  Ulfberhts that are in for review.  Setting them up on Sistrum speaker platforms is a two man job and I want to thank Allan for all his help ( Allan was an early supporter of the DI's and hosted the Chicago Audiophile Society meeting at his house a few months ago to have the members hear the DI's).

First impressions:

1) These are BIG speakers that need a lot of acoustic space to breath and be able to preform to their maximum potential.  Fortunately, I have a 30 foot ceiling, the speaker is 7 feet off the front wall, 6 feet off the side walls and the back wall behind my listening position is another 15 feet.  

2) I'm driving them with the Micro-ZOTL preamp and the Triode Lab SET 2A3 amplifier and get to higher sound levels with ease with less gain on the volume control.

3) Eric has taken the basic magic of the DI's to a higher level of refinement/finesse in this speaker.  It gives you even more transparency, more effortless overall dynamics, more liquidity, more precise layering and placement in the soundstage, and the bottom end is much more extended and powerful.

4) Remember, these babies are not close to be being burnt-in, I'm assuming everything will get better in the next 50 to 70 hours!

5) Since I believe that these are even a more pure conduit then the DI's you better be very careful with what you drive them with.  My pair have an extra set of terminals on the back that you can insert different resisters to slope off the high end if the amp you are using is to "hot" sounding.  My own personal taste/bias is to use tubes and the combination of low power SET amps with the Micro-Zotl is an absolute killer on this speaker, just like the DI's.  The top end is beautiful with this gear, so no resisters are necessary.

6) Do the Ulf's  make the DI's irrelevant, not at all, the DI's are still great.  If you have the right acoustic LARGE space to house the Ulf's and have deeper pockets then indulge yourself with this great speaker, indeed!  Remember, our great mad scientist Eric is coming out with DI's SE, baby Ulf's , so what will these creations sound like in comparison to these will be a treat to find out in the coming months!

All of the above is my cursory first take on this speaker.  I again feel honored that Eric picked me and hometheatereview.com to receive/review the first pair of Ulfberhts for professional evaluation.  

Maybe, Allan will post his impressions of these speakers when he has the time to.

While Eric is at it, give a pair to Stereophile and the Absolute Sound:)

Terry
I was actually just wondering earlier today if you had gotten your Ulfs yet. So far, it sounds great. I don't have the room (nor the money) for those, but your review is really welcome. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about these.

Terry, thanks for the pre-review, review. Lots of us are jealous out here. Would you tell us the overall size of your room and what you would think would be the minimal size for the Ulfs to work well. I've actually had this conversation with Eric and he doesn't think my 12 high, 14 wide, 20 deep dedicated media room would be a problem. We even discussed the necessity of having them a foot from the side/rear walls with bass traps behind them. This is necessary to keep them from being in the way of the HT screen. I'm sure there are better positions, but again, he doesn't think my set-up would be problematic. 

Hey bullitt5094,

I'm very lucky to live in a post and beam open design house.  Besides the amount of wood running through the whole house the totally open space is Height 30 feet / Width 30 / Length 50 where the system is located.  

I would think you would want at least 5 feet off the front wall, 3 to 4 feet off the side walls.  I do not have to use room treatments, however if someone knows what there doing I'm sure you could get the speaker to work well in a somewhat smaller environment.