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
Yeah, weird that people can bring the whole forum down a level with having to jump in and trash a brand any chance they get but then sometimes our posts get deleted because of?????  I think I cursed, I’ll control that from here on out, get worked up. No explanations from the mods, I have a feeling they are okay with the trashing of a DTC brand. They get more advertising from the big brands. 
But jjss49’s comment was (at worst) a backhanded COMPLIMENT….

mmmm….weird.
The vitriol is entirely from one side. It goes like this: someone says they really like something, and then comes the vitriol. There is no moral equivalence. To say otherwise is deluded.  

That is by the way a factually correct and uncontroversial statement. When the day comes it is vitriol to call a spade a spade, then on that day we are all in a world of hurt. Certain ones of you are working full time getting us there. That you are doing it unwittingly does nothing to change that, not even a little.   

Or in other words: 
man, such nonsense when the topic is tekton... ridiculous... some serious brain damage here

and
Wow it’s weird how much emotion the mention of Tekton stirs.
 and
Yeah, weird that people can bring the whole forum down a level with having to jump in and trash a brand any chance they get

So a lot of the newer members get it. Now if only those of you who have been here messing things up for so long would figure it out. No one cares that you have been here for years. All we care is how you are acting now. And it ain't in our best interest.
Actually I’ve been here for 20 years, just never posted because it’s not a friendly place. I haven’t helped I guess because it’s not like complaining about it arguing is going to make a change. 
This week I’ll be posting my thoughts on the DI’s, not sure how that will go, never heard them but I’ll have them Wednesday. 
Wow it’s weird how much emotion the mention of Tekton stirs.

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AS you guys know,, I’m not into xover box designs..I’m the Wide bander fan-atic addict.
Here’s how i see the situaion.

Its difficult to determine based on hear-say, if a speaker lives up to the hype or NOT.
Might be the real deal,, might be fluff, ,,,



The only way to etermine how a Tekton really sounds is to have a high end horn on one channel and Tek’s on the other,,at the turn of the balance dial, it will become obvious if the Tek’s are real winners or Hyped Frauds.
No such thing as personal taste.
Thats a myth.
Either a speaker has neutral high fidelity or it does not.
Bass and highs aside, as we all know any speaker has bass and highs.
I’ve not heard 1 speaker in my life that can’t make some decent bass and sufficient highs.
A tweeter = a tweeter.
30hz-100hz, all sound identical on any speaker Low bass = low bass.
I get that.
Its the rest of the fq’s I;’m concerned with.
When My tech stood at the door way, just trying to exit my listening room so he could go about his busy day,, I saw his look on his face staring at the Thors with new Mundof Caps.
I could read his mind FRom that *eh,,* reaction,,i knew I had to go do some more homework.
Here is when my journey into Wide Bands began.

There are about 10 positive reviews on the Tek’s at Youtube. Hype? can’t say.
Put a good horn on one channel and Tek’s on the other,, and lets have a few bonifide seasoned audiophiles make a rating on the 100hz-4khz range.
Now we’ll get some bonifide honest opinions on how the Tek’s perform.

I’m glad I took a look at the Tek’s,
The design gave me another idea that i had brewing in my brain.
Adding YET!! another Wber to my WBer8+WBer4.
Gonna add a WBer 3.
I’ll just follow Tekton’s scheme.
More is better.
Only if the W3 is up to same mids as the 8+4.
Which I assume it is,
I’m counting on Tang Band not to let me down on their W3.


Hi End Horn vs Tekton.
This is the only way we’ll ever get to the truth of Tekton’s performance of the critical 100hz-3khz.

It was via this shootout with the Seas Thor/Mundorf vs cheap WBer 6 inch (Diatone, crappy, yet 91db sens is all it had going for it) that I found the Thors laying on the ground all shot up.
Its was a bloody mess.

Can the Tek’s outshoot the HiFi Horn?


Note one of the comments, 3 months ago,, guy says some Tek's designs  have a  3 month waiting list....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yg_EQh_6yY&t=579s