Tekton vs. Salk Sound?

I have owned the Tekton’s and heard the Salk speakers many times. I think they both sound great. Both are Big Bang for the buck speakers. If WAF is important then the Salk might Nobel the go to. The Salk built cabinets and impressive and superior to the Tekton cabinet work. The Tekton tweeter array in most impressive sounding.

Tekton - what I think of Tekton is a modern day Klipsch in many ways, though with poorer customer service even though it’s a smaller company.

Tekton’s so some things pretty well, they play loud, relatively cleanly. They are relatively dynamic, and can have a bit of a "wow" factor when you first hear them. They are not bad, though they are not the absolute world beaters some here would lead you to believe. If you like what they do, they are fine. What I found is that much like Klipsch used to be - as you move "up" the line in price (and drivers), you get MORE of the same. Having heard much of Eric’s line-up - the Double Impact is the sweet spot. 3k or so, and they do a number of things well, they can play loud etc. IMO a very good party speaker, and is not limited to that.  (but would make a great party speaker also as they can play loud and clean and it's not like it's a spectacular cabinet you might get dinged up). 

As you move up from there, you just a lot more of the same. The law of diminishing returns with Tekton, in my opinion is very very steep. Over the course of a month I had the chance to hear the D.I. The D.I.S.E., the monitors, and the Ulf’s.

The D.I. and D.I.S.E. were in the same room, house, system and music played. It was very, very, hard to tell the difference in the two. The D.I. I thought for a 3k speaker - damn, it does a lot pretty well and is pretty fun. The D.I.S.E. - I felt the same way, and felt there is no way it is more than even 5% better.

I heard the ULF’s at a known reviewers house the same day. Again, very, very similar to the D.I. Which makes sense. But there was absolutely, positively no way in my mind even taking into account that there is ALWAYS a law of diminishing returns, that it was worth 4x more, not even 2x more than the D.I.

I kicked around a set of the Double Impacts because I did feel for 3k they offered a lot, but they also missed a lot. Moving up the line didn’t get me improvements, it got me more.

OHM for instance actually is honest about this in their line-up. Say what you will about OHM, John is very honest. His speakers sound the same, but as you move up the line you get more. Pick the room size and your speaker size (though I think they point you one size too small, but I like bass).

With Tekton the cabinets and finish are average at best, and you can do your own research on customer service, just know that by in large - Eric is never wrong, and it’s never his fault. You don’t have to take my word for it, just search the internet. I wouldn’t say don’t buy Tekton at all, but I would say if you go above the DI’s just know what you are getting into and know the drawbacks. If I were still in college, I absolutely would look for a pair of used Double Impacts. Fun speaker, good value, not overly refined and at that point in my life I wasn’t looking for that.

So, you get a lot of good with the bad with Tekton.

Salk - Exquisite cabinets, top notch drivers, and phenomenal customer service. Downsides might be that right now the SS 9.5 is his top speaker and for some they won’t deliver the absolute bottom end bass and ability to move air that bigger speakers and drivers might deliver. Jim’s speakers sound great, but speaker sound is truly in the ear of the beholder. What I might think sounds great, you might think doesn’t sound very good.

I can tell you with Salk there are clear differences in the line-up, and I can absolutely point to getting more for your money than the big companies by simply looking at the quality of the cabinets and drivers used.

That’s what does amuse me at times about all of this. We all value different qualities in sound reproduction, all listen at different volumes, and have different rooms.

The thing is that once you have good sound at least in someone’s mind then the only other factor is how much do you need for your room. So I like that model in a company very much.  It’s how Ohm markets their speakers.  Don’t know of any others that do that. 

@mapman 

Agree.  I think John is one of the better guys in the business, honest and they have good support.  Jim Salk is the same (and I am sure there are others).

Both are very honest about their speakers etc.

Ok, the original thread was from 2017, but there's still some relevance for someone considering these two brands. I've met Jim a couple of times and he's a great guy who builds top-notch speakers. But other than the Exotica line, Salks need some juice to drive them. In general they're not going to work real well with low-powered tube amps. Tektons are a lot more versatile.