Stereophile review of the $30,000 tekton speakers

joyeuses Paques, Mon Ami!

A case can be made that any speaker with great swings in impedance is not a well designed speaker as a whole. Yes there are solid state amps that will drive a 2 ohm load, but why limit the user to solid state and why design in this fashion? Makes little sense to make a 95 db efficient speaker that goes down to 2 ohms. Attract the tube crowd with high efficiency and then alienate them with poor impedance performance. Check out the impedance swings in much of the Wilson line. Funny thing about Wilson is that the best I have heard them sound was when being driven by a low powered tube amp.

Just added two REL T9x to my already great Tekton Double Impact SE speakers. I have had many nights of listening enjoyment with these speakers. I also have Vandersteen speakers in another setup. I really like both systems. Not sure what is the fuss about Tekton speakers. If you like them great, if you don’t …who is forced to buy them? BTW I have had (as mentioned before) great customer service from the company and Eric as well. I personally believe too many speaker companies are asking too much money for the product and service (or lack of) they provide. Life is too short to get worked about about speakers.

Of course you are correct. The problem, at least from my perspective, is singing accolades ad nauseum regarding the latest and greatest giant killer components. This never ends up being the actual case. Reviewers are among the worst in this regard. 

I would love to demo a pair of Tekton speakers. I don’t know anything about the science of speakers, xover slopes, time alignment or any of that stuff manufacturers load their marketing pitch with, but I do know markup on speakers can be insanely high for some very popular brands. Lets suggest the manufacturer needs to double his manufacture cost to turn a buck. lets say the Salon 2, very popular, costs Revel $5k to make{speculation) they sell to retailer for $10k then have to put an msrp of $20k to entice a retailer to invest in inventory and floor space, not to mention top dollar items don’t really fly out the doors, It’s reasonable to think it’s standard practice. Tekton eliminates the middleman and tbh looks to pass some of the savings on to the consumer. Remember when PS audio went mail order? I kept waiting for the savings to get passed on to the rest of us, but they never did! not a slam on PS audio, just an observation,

I remember raising a family doing carpentry in right to work states and Tekton would have been the only brand [vmps too, back then) I could even dare dream about owning. Polarizing brand for sure.