Tekton Impact Monitors


Hi All,
I'm relatively new to Audiogon but have trolled the discussions for a few months. I have been listening to Spendor LS3/5As driven by a Quad 34/306 combination since the late 1980's and decided that it was finally time to upgrade my speakers. I love the Spendors but they are very limited in dynamics and scale. I auditioned the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers and while they brought some additional scale they simply didn't have the sweet midrange that I can't live without. I listened to some open baffle speakers (Emerald Physics) and loved them, but their size and need for space worried me, and I found them less satisfying at moderate and low volumes, where I do a fair bit of listening. I was fascinated by all the discussion regarding Tekton speakers and was considering getting a pair of Enzo 2.7s, but after a short discussion with Eric I followed his recommendation of the Impact Monitor with upgrade. They have the 7 tweeter array and a pair of 6.5" woofers and are rear-ported. I use a pair of SVS subs (the sealed variety). The Impact Monitors are simply amazing. The midrange is oh-so-sweet (very similar to my Spendors, but with more air) and the detail, even at low and moderate listening levels, is superb. The imaging is even better than my Spendors managed and the scale is huge and is much more music-appropriate. My system is really quite modest but now when I walk into my listening room (doubles as our living room - thankfully my wife appreciates Hi-Fi) I get the audio-show feeling of "being there". I have a Denon DP59L turntable with a DL110 HO moving coil cartridge running through an Emotiva XPS-1 phono preamp and the Tektons are absolutely incredible with classic rock on vinyl. I'm not sure how Eric managed it, but these speakers are superb, even with my 30 year old Quad electronics. I believe they are basically the top 24" of the Double Impacts, but are rear-ported rather than front ported. I can heartily recommend them and Eric and his team are great to work with. I'm not sure how many other Impact Monitors are out there since the pair I have are S/N 0005 and 0006!  
ky1mag
Lurker here, appreciating all of this discussion.  I want to be very careful and just stick to the facts here. Unless I'm missing something, this comparison of Impact monitor vs. Emerald Physics is pitting:

a 24" tall, 10" wide monitor speaker with 2 six-inch woofers

against

a 39" tall, **22" wide** speaker with a 12-inch mid and a 15-inch woofer

?

These differences are .... significant.  The result that the far larger speaker has better bass and dynamic scale is pretty much "to be expected", no?

I’ll be interested in what Herb Reichert has to say about the Tekton monitors. There was a very recent video on the Stereophile site with Herb "demoing" the Joseph Audio Pulsar monitors that he’s currently reviewing, about which Herb wrote:

"I personally thought it this was the most transparent, detailed, and effectively neutral system I have assembled since starting as Stereophile."

Hopefuly Herb will talk about how the Tekton’s stand against something like the Pulsars. But then, Herb apparently said he "hates writing about comparisons" which isn’t a terribly helpful attitude for a reviewer.

I’d sure love to hear the Tekton speakers, but no way to do so in Canuck-land. (I’d never buy them on looks/aesthetics so it’s mostly curiosity about their sound).

Hukkfinn, I have daul 15 in subs that I used with the monitors. Should of helped level the comparison. I mainly wanted to hear the new hyped tweeter array to get an idea of the Tekton sound. I liked the sound, but not enough to want to try the DI or other bigger Tekton models, for various reasons.