Tekton versus Klipsch

I own Tekton Encore and Klipsch Forte III loudspeakers. I find them both great speakers. That said, the Encores are in another league. 

Cornwall IV owner here. 

I'd be super curious to hear a Tekton product.  Boy, do they spark up hot debate.  It seems one thing that might be a downside to them is build quality and construction.  That said, the cost of admission is pretty reasonable. I'll hold my subjective views on their looks aside, as they are just that--subjective. 

As to the CW IV,  this is not a squawky/shouty/shrill horn speaker. It must, however, be paired with the right source and amplification to hear their capabilities.  

Unfortunately, the CW IV is a bit cumbersome to just try out in the home.  Even though dealers allow 30-60 days trials, getting them back to the dealer if you do not like them is more expensive given their size. 

Folks above are exactly right about the CW IVs amazing dynamics.  It can be startling at first.  Just as important to note is the size of the musical image they cast--with the right recordings they sound simply huge, delicate and delicious--those are qualities I had trouble getting with systems running smaller drivers.  There really is something special about what those large drivers do, giving you big, full bodied but not bloated sound. 

And, folks are right, these are not bass mongers.  They do have tuneful, lifelike bass.  I do use an REL T9i to round out that lower octave.  

With the disclaimer that it's a video, check this out-- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXdQ_2oKN98

Having this in my room has given me shivers and smiles during late night listening.  

I feel greatly let down by my Double Impact speakers and the service I received from them.  The women there didn't know anything about speakers and the owner was rude.  When I received them I couldn't believe how disappointed I was and I paired them with a PrimaLuna EVO 300, a four-thousand dollar amp.  I tried different placements but nothing and I listened to a ton of different kinds of music.  Even BB King with a full horn section wasn't exciting. For me, the sound doesn't travel but rather it sounds like something is happening across the room.  They're better at high volumes but there's still know definition in the sound.  The highs aren't high and the bass isn't defined or low and they sound sort of like surround sound speakers. 

I'm selling them since it'll cost me $375 EACH to send them back and I purchased a set of Klipsch Forte 4's to replace them.  And you can bet your life that the people at Tekton know that you won't send them back when you find out what it costs.  

Don't believe the hype, it's baloney.  All those people reviewing them are getting incentives and to compare them to speakers worth 10 thousand dollars and more are snowing us.  In the end, just believe your ears.   

Have a wonderful day, Phil

@jbhiller

glad to hear you are impressed and are really liking your cw4’s... there seems to be emerging agreement that the driver upgrades have really helped the cw4 outperform the earlier versions, addressing the prior gen’s shortcomings

what are you driving your cw4’s with? it is amazing to me that despite the size of the speakers they still need some lower bass support from subs... but no big deal though, if it gets the music just right

as for tektons, i heard a set in a friends home they are definitely ’live’ sounding, and like the larger klipsches they can present some aesthetic issues with their form factor/bulk... as i get older, silly as it sounds, i prefer smaller speakers, lighter amps, than i can handle without risking tweaking the back and making joints sore!

no doubt both speakers have their ardent fans as well as critics... excellent gear does that... really pushes the buttons of users and thus engender love/hate, rarely indifference...

Perhaps the lower bass issue has to do with the use of pleated paper surrounds on the woofer.  These types of surrounds do a terrific job of damping vibrational energy of the cone, and thereby make them sound very clean in the higher frequencies that the speaker is called upon to reproduce, but, they also limit the excursion of the cone so that for any given diameter of cone, they cannot produce as much very deep bass. 

I happen to like the sound of woofers with pleated paper surrounds, but, I am not one to insist on gobs of very low frequency energy.  My speaker runs twin 12" woofers with pleated surrounds.