REVIEW – TEKTON DESIGN IMPACT MONITOR
PRELIMINARIES
I’ve been reading a lot about Tekton
Design’s Double Impact speakers. When a professional reviewer, Terry London,
chimed-in a few months ago with his super positive review I started paying even
more attention to what people were saying. I stalked the boards and asked
a few questions mostly about listening distances and room sizes. I
finally emailed Eric. He responded right away and when I called, Karma put Eric
on the phone for a short conversation to confirm a few details. I decided
on the upgraded Impact Monitors and since he had a pair in-stock Eric promised
to ship the same day. I received the tracking number shortly after the call and
had the speakers about 4 days later. They arrived well packed and without a
scratch. The fit-and-finish of the standard cabinet is excellent. No
complaints with communication, shipping speed or quality from me.
I spent considerable time figuring-out
where to place the Impact Monitors in my room and what listening distance to
use. My listening room is 25’ x 15’ x 10’. I ended-up with them 42” from the
front wall and about 5' from the closest sidewall. My listening position is 8’
from the front baffles with the center tweeters at 43"which is ear height.
They sit about 9' a part.
I ran them continuously for 5 days. The
sound opened-up a little each day but I had a hell of a time getting the lower
midrange and bass to sound right. No matter where I placed the speakers, or my
REL subwoofer, the low-end sounded weird. It sounded thick/smeared and no way
in the same league as the upper midrange and treble. I tried different speaker
stands and spikes. I tried different cables. I added a Synergistic Research
carbon XOT, which helped, but the sound in the low-end was simply screwed-up. I
knew it wasn’t my sub because the problems occurred even with it
turned-off. Finally, I remembered “the cheapest but most effective
tweak”: tighten the mounting screws around the speaker cones! (Don’t over
tighten them just make sure they are snug) Well, low and behold a screw on one
of the 6.5” speaker cones was very loose and a couple of tweeter screws needed
a few turns to completely secure them. With all the screws firmly in place
the bottom octaves snapped in to focus - tight yet with plenty of texture and
bloom.
I have a number of tube and solid-state amps that I tried
with the Impact Monitors. I really enjoyed a 25 watt Class A amp with them but
I ended-up preferring my 200 watt tube mono blocks. I readily admit the choice
of amps is subjective so your mileage will obviously vary. Rest assured any
quality amp will work well with the Impact Monitors. Even my flea-watt SET
worked well. However, remember, in normal configuration, they are 4 ohms (8
ohms is optional) and are rated at 94db sensitivity.
My taste in music is mostly jazz, blue
grass, country and rock. For instance, I listen to a lot of Gov’t Mule, Gregg
Allman, Neil Young, Holly Cole, Shelby Lynne, Johnny Cash, Nickel Creek, Earl
Scruggs, Led Zeppelin, Clark Terry, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Ella
Fitzgerald, etc. If I listen to classical music, it’s usually solo piano,
cello or violin.
LISTENING
Even during the set-up period I could
tell these speakers are special. If I were to describe their sound in one
word it would be: “natural”. The tone is spot-on and they present a very
coherent dynamic sound – much like good horn speakers. They don’t sound
laid-back, forward or any other term – they just sound right. There are
no overdone highs or lows. When a vocalist sings an “s” it doesn’t sound like a
“z”. Bass guitars don’t sound like one note blobs. Violins don’t sound
like nails on a chalkboard. As he claims in his
ads, Eric has “captured the harmonic
spectra of the music being played”.
They image as well as anything I’ve had in my listening
room. Each performer is properly placed in the soundstage but they aren’t
etched in stone – just like live music. Depth, width and height of the
soundstage are excellent.
The Impact Monitors “only” play down to 40Hz
or so. Based on your listening preferences, or room requirements, that
may be low enough. I would avoid pushing them into corners or towards the
front wall to augment their bass. Instead, as mentioned above, a subwoofer when
properly set-up is a very viable solution if you want more bass. I realize you
could buy a pair of Double Impacts or move even higher up the Tekton food-chain
but space constraints, cost or even aesthetics in your room my prevent
that.
Finally, I need to mention my extensive use of
Synergistic Research (SR) equipment. The SR stuff has always had a significant
impact on the sound in my system and that was especially true with the Tekton
speakers. I listened for a while with the SR Atmosphere/FEQ turned off and the
soundstage suffered. Not that the soundstage was bad but it REALLY shines with
the SR technology engaged. I highly recommend you try SR with Tekton’s
new tweeter array.
SUMMARY
Tekton Design’s Impact
Monitors do very little, if anything wrong and enter the realm of unbelievable
value when you consider their price of $1,800 ($2,100 with upgraded parts)
delivered!
(If you want to see pics I've posted them in my System page)
