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Former Tekton owners: What have you moved on to?

I owned the Tekton Lore Reference for about a year and a half and they were great for the price. I ran them with a 50w tube integrated and it was a nice combo. For $750 I had no complaints except perhaps that the paint was cracking on one of the rounded corners. I ended up buying a pair of Gallo CL-2 for an office system on closeout direct from Gallo for $390/pair. After they were broken in I found myself listening to them more than the Tektons after awhile. I was getting addicted to the CDT tweeter.

Based on that experience I ordered the CL-3 refurbished for $650/pair shipped (crazy steal) and they were on a different level than both of the above. Sonically, one defining moment for me was listening to Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now. (I think the Track was You’re My Thrill. )
During the intro there is a brief flute soli. With the Tektons it sounded like a really nice flute section that was very homogenous sounding and blended. With the Gallos I could hear each individual flute player and their unique tones and vibrato. The bass was also deeper and tighter on the gallos and the imaging was just amazingly holographic and wide and deep.

I know the timing of this is interesting as the Tekton hype train seems to be at full tilt right now with some of his higher models and I am curious to hear them. The 2 things that would give me serious pause and keep me from moving up the Tekton line are 1) the size and aesthetics 2) The very much "in your face" house sound that can get tiring to me.  Just wondering what others have moved on to from Tekton and what they heard that moved them in that direction.
128x128clarinetmonster2
djdonis
9 posts
 
I own early Tekton OB4.5 that i've been listening to for the last 6 years. "Upgraded" them numerous times only to go back to them over and over. Eric had some unique designs and interesting ideas.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,404 posts
 

I have never owned or heard the impacts or Double Impacts. For one, my wife or I wouldn’t want them in our living room, they are too large and quite unattractive to me. Thats not to say they aren't gorgeous to someone else. To each his or her own.

I did own a pair of new Pendragons for a week but back they went. First off, they were much bigger in person then the way they appeared on the web site. Second, I kept asking myself, "where is the bass?" I schlepped those monsters all over my second floor audio room and no amount of placement made a bit of difference. They sounded sterile and hollow. To add insult to injury, the top corners of one of the speakers were damaged and the box was fine. The cheap styrofoam corners had disintegrated in the shipping container and when FedEx used their hand truck, it damaged the unprotected corners.

For a week I ran the Isotek burn in cd for 24 hours a day for 7 days. They sounded no better after 160+ hours of burn in than they sounded cold. At the time, I was using a Classe 15 amplifier which was a 3K piece that output 175wpc, a tube preamp, Esoteric SACD player and all Shunyata cords and power conditioners. There was nothing cheap about the system. So, back they went and shipping was the tune of 250.00 via FedEx ground.

To sum it all up, the bass was almost non existant, midrange was hollow and highs were ok, not dull or bright. Sound staging was decent but honestly I kept thinking that these weren’t high end material. After I shipped the Pendragons back, I purchased GE Triton 2 speakers and was very happy. This Summer I bought new GE Triton References for the living room system and brought the GE Triton Ones upstairs to the music room. I sold the Triton Twos. The System is now powered by all McIntosh and sounds fantastic. One thing I did mention to Eric Alexander was how flimsy the shipping boxes were, had the cardboard been sturdier, the speakers probably wouldn’t have suffered shipping damage.

So there you have it, that’s my take on all of this.

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clarinetmonster2's avatar
clarinetmonster2 OP
201 posts
 
stereo5

Nice choice! I am a fan of the Goldenear line for sure and have thought about purchasing a pair at some point. In general I have found that I am a fan of good ribbons, amt and of course CDT tweeters. The best domes I have heard are in Magicos and now that the A3 is coming out and is under $10k, I will seriously consider a used pair in the next couple years as well.
213runnin
914 posts
 
James above said that people shouldn't have to defend disliking a product, but I think he has a short memory.  He attacked me for repeating my dislike for Tekton speakers and went so far as to mock my system, and now I see he sold his Tektons.

I've still got my Rainmakers, James, if you want to poke fun at them.  

Anyway, it's as I observed, Tektons are big ugly speakers that use cheaper off-the-shelf woofers and their frequency response tends to be anything but flat.  And the owner of the company goes to great lengths to keep their frequency response specs nowhere to be seen.

Obviously they are not for everybody.
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