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Tekton Double Impact & Comb Filtering

Like many of you, I have been pondering purchasing these speakers but am very curious about the unusual tweeter array. I asked the smartest speaker person that I know (he is a student of Sean Olive) about the design and below is what he had to say.   

"In theory it could work, but the driver spacing means that the crossover point would need to be very low.
He is using the SB acoustics tweeter which is 72mm in diameter, center to center on the outside opposing drivers is around 5.7 inches, which is about 2400Hz. This means that combing would stop between 1/4 to 1/2 of the wavelength (between 1200-600Hz) is where the outside tweeters should start playing nice with each other.
Since he is not using low enough crossover points he has created a comb filtering monster. Now while it's not the great point source that was promised, it's no worse than most line arrays and the combing will average itself out given enough listening distance.

The MTM spacing on the other hand is ridiculous. Hopefully he is cutting the top end off on one of those midrange drivers to avoid combing."

seanheis1
213runnin
914 posts
 
Tektons are like a box of chocolates.. until you try them you never know what ure gonna get.

Exactly, and that is the main problem with Tekton speakers.  Forget about the plain cabinet and low budget looking woofers.  Forget about the bombastic ad copy that Tekton chooses to use on their site.  Forget about the comb filtering issues.  Forget about the badly vibrating cabinet that Stereophile discovered.

Tekton will not tell you how their speakers perform across the frequency range.  Oh, they'll tell you a given model will go from 30-30,000 Hz, but not how close it stays to flat across that range.  And as Stereophile found out, the Enzo measured REALLY badly.  Will a given model have a big mid range dip as the Enzo does?  Will it color the sound to the extent that a given piece of music sounds completely different?  Who knows.

grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,467 posts
 
Well, you don’t know, I don’t know, but the happy owners know.  You must buy and try.  Simple stuff here.
lpretiring
463 posts
 
Finally, clarity on the subject. 
Thanks Bill

   LP
seanheis1 OP
623 posts
 
This was a good response from another thread on the Tekton phenomena. 

shadorne5,843 posts08-23-2017 9:13am@stfoth

I suspect your reservations (BS meter) are worth following. Why not wait and see how Tekton fairs over time.

When Zu took guitar cabinet speakers from Eminence and then made a full range speaker by claiming small mods to these designs can work full range (instead of what they were designed for) there was a huge buzz. Zu was the darling of these forums. As a musician I know how little the drivers for guitar cabinets cost and how the designs have more in common with PA than high fidelity but for sure I can see how these high sensitivity drivers are ideal for tubes as most guitar amp heads are tube driven. So my background knowledge raised alarm bells but I recognized that Zu had some advantages with tubes.

I recommend to wait. There is always a buzz when there is something completely new especially an unconventional approach (7 tweeters!). I read somewhere that the DI sounds like a panel but with much higher sensitivity. This seems to be what they bring to the table and it makes sense that comb filtering from a large star pattern of tweeters is going to sound more like a panel than a conventional design with one tweeter.

So my guess, not having heard them, is that they will sound like a panel but with a high sensitivity that allows them to be driven by a modest tube amplifier. Like Zu I see this as fulfilling a niche for those who like modest tubes but are looking for something more dynamic than is typically available in audiophile soeaker designs which tend to subscribe to low distortion and full range flat frequency response and even dispersion (the kind of things Stereophile's Atkinson would focus on).


kdude66
1,200 posts
 
"Well, you don’t know, I don’t know, but the happy owners know. You must buy and try. Simple stuff here."

I would agree and so glad I did pony up the measly 3K.

I'm still searching for that comb in the filter haven't found it yet.

Kenny.
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