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.
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I hope the Paradigm Personas look better in person than they do in the magazine pictures. 

ozzy
I would agree with mofojo on the looks. Not everyone's cup o tea. The Goldenears were quite nice as well and they actually had me convinced until I started listening to a couple of my jazz reference recordings. first of all, they image too high at the speakers if that makes sense - take the Joe Lovano nonet recording Streams of Expression for eg - the rhythm section is center stage and the horns are panned accross the right and left channels to varying degrees in front of them. Well, the horns sound like they are sitting down (as they are) with all other good speakers I've listened to including the Paradigms - on the Triton refs they sound like they are not only standing up and bunched way together, but that they are all 6ft5in. On my speakers and on the Personas they sound more spread out, bigger and at a normal height.
I noticed a similar effect in a couple other recordings as well. The guy at the store said that was a common finding with them and that even Sandy Gross recommended canting them forward with something under the back of the speaker. hmmm other than those 2 things I really liked them. The Triton 2+ were not in the same league at all of course, but imaged at a more reasonable height. First world problems lol
I didn’t have these guys on my list, but there is a dealer not too far from me that has Piega, Scansonic MB2.5 and Raidho - I will go hear those Nordic beauties next, then it’s on to Vandersteen and Ryan.
I have to say I do love the idea of having Swiss speakers (Piega) paired with my Swiss amp (Job/Goldmund).