Just hilariously funny.
But actually I have to agree.
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
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dabel352 posts10-12-2021 6:50pm@mozartfan, only classical?! Okay, I can respect that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WEll this term *Classical music** is such a generalized broad catchall tag which really is only for convience sake. Nothing more. My music starts at Debussy and of course includes Mozart, Wagner, pinch of Vivaldi (Only his minor key concertos, ONLY, so within V's concerto grossos, I skip the major tracks, and only listen to the minor tracks. = 1/2 of the cd... Henze, Schnittke, Pettersson, Carter. Classical composers? Very unlike say Brahms, Dvorak, Mahler. My collection is complete with say 15 composers represented on my shelf, quickly losing interest in Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Time changes us. Replaced with Schnittke, Henze , Carter, Pettersson. 15 composers represented, thats it. I love Szymanowski and do not like Chopin. Thats how my collection goes. I hear superior music in Szymanowski and so *Get* my Chopin in Szy's music. But superior, new style, Chopin I hear as dated material thus a bit boring. So classical fan? Not really, My new speaker designs have me listening to Diana Krall all the way though to the end of the cd. Diana's voice has taken on such charm and magic with my added WBer W4 DavidLouis. WOW factor off the charts. Going for more will add the Tang Band W3 2178 in late Janurary for possible more wow factor. The Dayton W3 did not work in as i figured it would not. The TBW32178 absolutely must be not same but superior to DLVX8+DLW4 if its going to work in. And I looked at the specs/db sens hz chart looks just wonderful . hanging very close to 90db and w/o any major dips , peaks , valleys. Its 4x's the price of the other TBW3 but a superior speaker. This is how i designed my Wide Bander Trial and error. Tektons look like they've been working with the same ideas i have = more can be better. |
jasonbourne521,137 posts10-12-2021 6:59pmA speaker is just a box with some drivers and a crossover. That manufacturers can make and sell them for the price of a luxury car is ... rather appalling, eh! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Its long been common knowledge among seasoned audiophiles especially the DIY campers that speakers are grossly overpriced. No news there. I just read that opinion on a DIY board some weeks ago. This idea hit home after I made up my speaker system. I had no choice. The Seas Thors upgrades cost me a bundle and did not transform the speakers into Super-Thors. Tried to go 3 way with a Seas high tech DEDICTAED midrange. Tech said *you gotta be joking* Thats all he said. it was at that very moment I dumped xover speakers and put my full 100% attention into these *odd strange unusual* WBers. |
thyname1,397 posts10-13-2021 5:50amHi @mozartfan. I think you missed my point. It was hilarious as he posted two different things on speakers in the same day. Above on this thread (speakers are just some boxes with drivers and crossovers) and the one I quoted on another thread ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK got it. Well glad we have another jokester on board, Keeps things light and adds humor into this discussion this way keeps things not serious. I like the way Jason expresses his ideas Straightshooter kind of a snakeoil buster type audiophile. Thats kind of how i see xover style speaker. Boxes with speakers and xovers. To me they all have their very own house sound and so I lump them all into one big pile. Xover styles do not at all sound like big hifi horns. Thats a fact. My speaker project was all about trying to get as close as possible to a big hifi horn system Adding in the DLW4 the other day brought this system a little bit closer to the horn system soundstage. I know it was a success as Diana Krall's CD When I look Into Your Eyes turned up the magic. Diana never sounded so good. So yeah, Jason is a big voice here. Guy knows his stuff. Tektons might very well be *the real deal* = horn like. But we will never know for sure until we get a horn geek to give them a listen. Horn geeks don't listen to xover box styles so we will never know this answer. All speakers are judged against a hifi horn system. |
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