Any thoughts or experience with Decware Amps?
Considering the New Tekton Design Encores? AND Owners Group - Experiences/Questions
I am the very happy owner of the first pair of New Tekton Design Encores and I thought I would create this thread to answer any questions anyone might have regarding the Encore speakers, room considerations, and associated equipment. If you’ve order your pair already, please chime in. I really want to hear what other people’s experience are with these unbelievable speakers.
I drive my Encores with both an Art Audio Diavolo SET 300b Tube Amplifier with 8wpc and I switch in my 700w Nord One-Up SE Monoblocks for non-critical listening and some big pieces of music that benefit from the extra power.
I drive my Encores with both an Art Audio Diavolo SET 300b Tube Amplifier with 8wpc and I switch in my 700w Nord One-Up SE Monoblocks for non-critical listening and some big pieces of music that benefit from the extra power.
- Made under U.S. Patent 9247339 with multiple new patents pending
- Proprietary loudspeaker design
- Ultra-linear frequency response with ±.5dB deviation from 70Hz-20kHz
- One single crossover element placed within the tweeter path
- Ultra-linear, entirely time-invariant minimum-phase mid-range section
- Proprietary patent pending 15 dome radiating hybrid MTM high frequency array
- Two 6.5" mid-bass patented ’overtone & harmonic’ transducers
- Dual 11" low-frequency transducers
- 96dB 2.83V@1m sensitivity
- 4 Ohm design for optimum performance
- 20Hz-30kHz frequency response
- Dimensions Width 13.25" x Depth 15.25" x Height 62"
- 800 Watt power handling
- Weight 175 lbs
- ...
- 381 posts total
@bourcier I've only oggled their website a few times. I was drawn to the 25th Anniversary Super Zen Triode 6wpc monoblocks (how could you not want a pair after reading that marketing material, 😁), but I fear atleast15wpc might be really the minimum the Encores need to sound decent with enough low-end extension. I never looked at his other offerings, but I kind of like the guy. He's very passionate about audio and it shows in his product information. |
@bourcier - i had a very bad experience w/steve deckert a few years back. at the time, i had some very efficient 97db/1w coincident victory's. steve assured me that one of his low power ~4wpc amps (i forget which model) would have no problem driving them - even tho his amp was 4 ohms, and the victory's were 14 ohms. it seemed to me that his amp would only be making ~1.3w into a 14 ohm load. well, i was right; fortunately the amp i bought was used, and i was able to unload it w/o taking a bath; but it was a total waste of my time. the amp wouldn't even get to normal listening levels when fully cranked, let alone loud. and i had three other 4wpc amps to compare, that had no problem driving the speakers to louder than comfortable levels. i can't say i trust deckert all that much... ymmv, doug s. |
Hi sedond, I'm curious. Were the 3 other 4 watt amplifiers bigger/heavier than the 4 watt Decware amp? I suspect the more capable 4 watt amps had beefier power supplies as well as larger and better quality output transformers. Were these amps SET, SEP or push pull? A 'good' quality well built 4 watt amp should be able to drive a 14 ohm load/ 97 db sensitive speaker to at least reasonable levels (As the 3 other amps were able to do). Charles |
hi charles1dad, amps i used to drive the coincident victory’s to loud enough to drive you out of the room worked because they were not 4 ohm only amps. a true 4 ohm 4wpc amp (like the decware amp i tried) will put out a little over 1wpc into a 14 ohm load. two amps were custom-made home-brew amps i got off ebay - one made by a hobbyist in germany; the other by a chinese gentleman living in australia. (if you do a websearch on "mcchanson Web Page" you’ll find the aussie’s work; the german has a webpage - http://www.goldstrom.de/ ) the aussie amp is ~4.5w set w/6v6 valves; i had the builder add 16 ohm speaker tap from the x-former (add’l speaker tap not shown in builder’s original pic: https://photos.google.com/search/custom/photo/AF1QipNFC9OKiWe8u2-mHtNG1bf4GZ1Qtw3IbGCTLrVh the german amp is 3wpc el84 set amp; it was built w/5 ohm x-formers; w/info from the builder, i swapped them out w/16 ohm x-formers: https://photos.google.com/search/custom/photo/AF1QipM5chUDTvm2YJ7APEN684nrbqaupF96Iv4zRmRf these ~4wpc el84 set amps were pulled from an akai m8 r-2-r tape deck; 8 ohm taps: https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipM_-qPgUAuLEbhBym1VjgNTE0xZHO95-3rMarKp finally an el84 sep commercial product - almarro a205a mkii; ~5wpc; output tap rated 8/16 ohms: https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipMWSYxNls1meOmyBbt1PW7vqjX97ZguaGm5gXWG digging thru my old records indicates it’s the zen taboo amp i owned; rated 6wpc into 4 ohms, not 4wpc; which means that it’s putting out something like 1.7w into 14 ohms. even srajan ebaen, who reviewed this amp, said it didn’t drive his 12 ohm zu’s very well, much preferring the 6 ohm model. pricewise, the zen retailed for ~$1k, the almarro for ~$800. my other amps were way less; $300 shipped for the german amp being the most expensive. they all crushed the decware in performance, all sounding absolutely fabulous. they all also sound great on my oris 150 horns, w/fostex drivers... doug s. |
- 381 posts total