My Experience With Tekton


I know this is a polarizing discussion point and was thus hesitant to share unless I could keep it objective, helpful, and concise

I have no intention to be inflammatory, sway anyone’s current opinion or beliefs

I merely want to share information in two specific areas, my results of product performance and my experience with the manufacturer

 

Background and reference point

I replaced a pair of Revel F36. The F36 is the upper end of Revel’s lowest tier floorstanding speakers and retails for $2,000 MSRP per pair

Took approx. 45 mins to unbox, level and connect

Like for like drop-in replacement, same location on the floor as the F36s, the listening position did not change, identical electronics and cables

We’ve all got our preferences, biases, different levels of experience, etc; but share the common limitation that we just don’t know what we don’t know

I’ve not heard a pair of 30K speakers but expect to someday and envy those that own them

In my VERY limited understanding, it’s near impossible to pinpoint how any specific system change will behave and perform across the board, contingent on the variances in electronics, set up and room. These three items alone (electronics, setup and room) make me think that while similar in nature, but at a critical listening level, each combination is unique and a different snowflake or fingerprint

 

Listening results

Product delivers as advertised

Meets or exceeds every performance expectation I had hoped for

After approx. 5 hours of listening over 3 days I tried to characterize the sound. The first thought was neutral, but that was understating what I was hearing. I eventually landed on natural or real. The voices and the instruments sound VERY real to me. This is as close as I have come with my electronics, setup and room to sensing that someone is singing to me or that someone or an entire band is playing for me

To date, each song that I’ve played, is the best version of that song that I have heard in a playback, and I’ve listened to all of them 100s and 100s of times

Some of the improvement was by a small margin, but most songs, 65% conservatively speaking, by a vast margin – night and day, game changing stuff

Chet Baker didn’t sound like a presentation from 1958, it sounded as fresh and real as a new recording with the benefits of 60 years of technology advancements. Exile on Main Street didn’t sound like a home recording from 1972 it sounded like 2022 with many layers of percussion, keyboards, horns and background vocals

Is the sound of this $5,000 pair of speakers comparable to the sound of a $30,000 pair of speakers? I don’t know, as mentioned I’ve not heard a pair of $30,000 speakers.

What I do know is the $5,000 pair of speakers, simply put is the best my system has sounded by a wide margin

Again in summary, it sounds real, like someone is singing to me

 

Experience with the manufacturer

I had hemmed and hawed for 2 or 3 months before placing my order. One day the website mentioned a future price increase but until mmdd you could still order at the current price

I called and spoke with Tammy and told her I wanted to lock in on the current price point but wasn’t sure what product or configuration I wanted

She built an open-ended order with current pricing and told me to contact her when I knew what I wanted

With work travel and other commitments it took me 4 months to finalize which speaker, Moab, which upgrades, beryllium tweeters and Cardas connectors, and what color, white

I was never pressured to make up my mind or that my window for the lower costs was going to expire

Since I was the one dragging my feet, I offered multiple times to pay for the product

Not once did they hint or take me up on my offer to pay in advance

They did not bill me until the product shipped

Once I had made all the config decisions, the build and delivery were again, as advertised

Tammy mentioned a 4–6-week supply chain delay with beryllium, that arrived within her estimated timeframe

Once the beryllium arrived, she said she was waiting on cabinets, eta 5-7 days, followed by build and paint, and shipping approx. 10 days after she received the cabinets

Within 2 weeks Tammy emailed my owner’s manual, unpacking instructions and told me to expect a call from the freight company within the next week

Freight company contacted me on that Fri and scheduled delivery for the very next Mon, Aug 30

The boxes arrived scuffed and with multiple impact points that dented the packing material

There are no blemishes or damage to either speaker cabinet, the packing and packaging worked as designed

Upon unpacking, I didn’t experience a heavy smell of paint or wood, if I put my nose to the cabinet, I could smell fresh paint

The cabinet finish or construction does not appear inferior to anything else in my inventory, KEF, Revel, Klipsch, Paradigm, Polk, and Elac – permission in advance to laugh

Enjoy the journey and happy listening

Respectfully


stevewharton
Glad you are happy with your Tektons and thanks for sharing your experience. This is information that is both helpful and informed.

My experience with both of my Tekton purchases paralleled yours very closely. I was able to talk with Eric and get my questions answered in advance. Everything came off without a hitch.

Here’s more good news. At least for me, the speakers only got better with time. I’m not just talking about break in. I’m talking about long term satisfaction and contentment. I don’t get too much into the "30k" debate as I am too happy listening to music to care. No itch I need something better. I feel they do so many things well it’s a great compromise for me (and most everything in life involves compromise). So I wish you a similar experience with your speakers Steve.

It would be nice for others to know a bit about your room and associated gear and what your priorities might be in putting your system together.
You replaced a $2000 speaker system with a $5000 speaker system and were pleased with the differences. Awesome!
I checked out this post out of boredom while away from home. The OP has only been posting since March of '20 and in his posts he more than once echos Miller Fluorocarbon's thoughts. And then there is this prior post which sound eerily reminiscent of the one above;


While a tired subject and well past ODing on analysis paralysis, what's important here extends beyond the subject matter itself and more about the abundance of irresponsible misinformation

We've got various paper tigers and YouTube alleged industry experts, that are somewhere between an audiophile and journalist, spewing their spin and shaping opinions and purchases of the uninformed with their misinformation

It's difficult to tell how much is an intentional attempt to mislead the general public and how much is something they just don't know

In all cases, we just don't know, what we don't - myself included

When you don't know, I'm quick to offer up the get out of jail free card but when you're intentionally being misleading it's import for those of us that do know the difference to call BS

In Gene's case, my guess is he knows the difference and is thus intentionally misleading the uninformed with irresponsible misinformation

And this where I want to call BS on Gene's, self proclaimed 'once and for all debunking the myth with armed to the teeth measurements'

What a crock of poo