Does not equal
All the best,
Nonoise
Some thoughts on ASR and the reviews
I’ve briefly taken a look at some online reviews for budget Tekton speakers from ASR and Youtube. Both are based on Klippel quasi-anechoic measurements to achieve "in-room" simulations.
As an amateur speaker designer, and lover of graphs and data I have some thoughts. I mostly hope this helps the entire A’gon community get a little more perspective into how a speaker builder would think about the data.
Of course, I’ve only skimmed the data I’ve seen, I’m no expert, and have no eyes or ears on actual Tekton speakers. Please take this as purely an academic exercise based on limited and incomplete knowledge.
1. Speaker pricing.
One ASR review spends an amazing amount of time and effort analyzing the ~$800 US Tekton M-Lore. That price compares very favorably with a full Seas A26 kit from Madisound, around $1,700. I mean, not sure these inexpensive speakers deserve quite the nit-picking done here.
2. Measuring mid-woofers is hard.
The standard practice for analyzing speakers is called "quasi-anechoic." That is, we pretend to do so in a room free of reflections or boundaries. You do this with very close measurements (within 1/2") of the components, blended together. There are a couple of ways this can be incomplete though.
a - Midwoofers measure much worse this way than in a truly anechoic room. The 7" Scanspeak Revelators are good examples of this. The close mic response is deceptively bad but the 1m in-room measurements smooth out a lot of problems. If you took the close-mic measurements (as seen in the spec sheet) as correct you’d make the wrong crossover.
b - Baffle step - As popularized and researched by the late, great Jeff Bagby, the effects of the baffle on the output need to be included in any whole speaker/room simulation, which of course also means the speaker should have this built in when it is not a near-wall speaker. I don’t know enough about the Klippel simulation, but if this is not included you’ll get a bass-lite expereinced compared to real life. The effects of baffle compensation is to have more bass, but an overall lower sensitivity rating.
For both of those reasons, an actual in-room measurement is critical to assessing actual speaker behavior. We may not all have the same room, but this is a great way to see the actual mid-woofer response as well as the effects of any baffle step compensation.
Looking at the quasi anechoic measurements done by ASR and Erin it _seems_ that these speakers are not compensated, which may be OK if close-wall placement is expected.
In either event, you really want to see the actual in-room response, not just the simulated response before passing judgement. If I had to critique based strictly on the measurements and simulations, I’d 100% wonder if a better design wouldn’t be to trade sensitivity for more bass, and the in-room response would tell me that.
3. Crossover point and dispersion
One of the most important choices a speaker designer has is picking the -3 or -6 dB point for the high and low pass filters. A lot of things have to be balanced and traded off, including cost of crossover parts.
Both of the reviews, above, seem to imply a crossover point that is too high for a smooth transition from the woofer to the tweeters. No speaker can avoid rolling off the treble as you go off-axis, but the best at this do so very evenly. This gives the best off-axis performance and offers up great imaging and wide sweet spots. You’d think this was a budget speaker problem, but it is not. Look at reviews for B&W’s D series speakers, and many Focal models as examples of expensive, well received speakers that don’t excel at this.
Speakers which DO typically excel here include Revel and Magico. This is by no means a story that you should buy Revel because B&W sucks, at all. Buy what you like. I’m just pointing out that this limited dispersion problem is not at all unique to Tekton. And in fact many other Tekton speakers don’t suffer this particular set of challenges.
In the case of the M-Lore, the tweeter has really amazingly good dynamic range. If I was the designer I’d definitely want to ask if I could lower the crossover 1 kHz, which would give up a little power handling but improve the off-axis response. One big reason not to is crossover costs. I may have to add more parts to flatten the tweeter response well enough to extend it's useful range. In other words, a higher crossover point may hide tweeter deficiencies. Again, Tekton is NOT alone if they did this calculus.
I’ve probably made a lot of omissions here, but I hope this helps readers think about speaker performance and costs in a more complete manner. The listening tests always matter more than the measurements, so finding reviewers with trustworthy ears is really more important than taste-makers who let the tools, which may not be properly used, judge the experience.
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He is a great example because he is the uber version of you all. He is a member here and you can question him if you like. And his experience in this test is fully documented and not some folklore you are repeating.
You certainly don't have the truth because you don't follow the simplest protocol to make sure the results are valid and indicate fidelity as perceived only by your ear. Further, plurality of people confused doesn't make them right. People lack awareness of how their perception works. By not reading and learning the science and engineering, they are easily confused. See this video for example:
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@mofojo - I am pretty sure all DACs are mostly Chinese these days. There are, of course, cheap Chinese DACs and properly engineered Chinese DACs and "engineered somewhere else, but coded, manufactured and tested in China" DACs. |
Don't confuse playback equipment with content. No one is showing you analysis of your music but rather, cold, engineered hardware with zero awareness of what it is playing. It is an engineered piece of hardware which can trivially be examined using engineering means. You on the other hand, make a super lousy fidelity meter. Your mood changes. You take into account your life experiences to evaluate something. You don't know your biases. You let your eyes override your ears, etc. We can turn you into a decent fidelity meter by using proper protocols. For music enjoyment, we don't need any of this. Indeed, non audiophiles are just as good as you in determine what music sound good to them vs not. Different domains. |
I don't doubt someone enjoyed it and, as I said, I thought the SMSL DACs were just fine, but the D90 III sounded like poo to me. I compared the D90 III directly against the SMSL SU-9 Pro, VWV D1se2 and even a Yamaha RX-A8A. In theory, they should have all sounded exactly alike, but they were only 'similar' with their own noticeable faults. Any one of the numerous differences could account for what I heard and, of course, the unit I received could have been faulty. I'm not willing to live with something that I gave a fair shot and didn't enjoy.
Firmware updates can be found on Topping's site, but not SMSL's. There are exactly 0 DAC firmware updates listed via SMSL's site. I am aware they're buried in dark corners of the internet, but they're not exactly easily accessible.
I'm am huge fun of MBL because their North American CEO invited me to a private audition then gave me his entire evening to listen to their flagship products, which was nearly a $1mil room! I have his business card and can message any time for support, which they'd coordinate with Germany for me. I bought their 6010D preamp ($32k MSRP) shortly after because it sounds great and I like the big shiny gold knobs. It's also a simple design that has remained relatively similar >30 years. Am I wrong for spending my money any which way I please? I'm financially very comfortable in my early 40s, it didn't come out of investments and have $0 in debt.
I'm happy to call out Apos, an authorized seller for those DACs. Nowhere on their sales pages nor listings do they mention their refurbs are "final sale items." You would have to have foresight to actually check their FAQ by specifically searching for their policy, which should be listed on the listing itself: Apos Certified Refurbished Page
What happens if the unit dies after the return window? Plenty of stories online with people waiting months and paying costly international shipping to get their Topping/SMSL repaired or replaced. |
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