$2000 Tektons, which one for my use?


Hi,

I'm new here, glad I found this forum. I have a receiver from 2007, specifically the  Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH.
I'd like to hook up a pair of stereo speakers to listen to music only, no movie watching. There are quite a few choices in my price range for full-range speakers (Lore, Uruz, Perfect SET, Enzo XL)  I've read through their descriptions and customer reviews on Tekton website, but have not heard any in person. I'm not an audiophile by any means, so exotic specs and ultra exotic amps, DACs, interconnects,... are not in my realm of knowledge. I'm just looking for a fairly good pair of speakers to listen to rock music and classical. My music collection is all on CDs. I do have an SVS subwoofer (cylinder shape, about 4feet tall) that I can pair with the speakers. What would you recommend as a starting point? Should I consider mid-range speakers? Thank you for any advice!
atemoya
As much as I hate receivers, I vote for better speakers now and integrated amp later. You must suffer for your hobby from time to time.
atemoya,

A number of folks have suggested you reduce your budget for the speakers and instead, get an integrated with cheaper speakers.  I agree with them that the Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH should be replaced with an integrated.  If you can wait, building your system incrementally may be worth it and very likely more satisfying in the long run.

Consider buying the best speakers you can afford now, $2k - $3k, then save to buy an integrated.  Depending on how much you want to spend on an integrated and HOW LONG it would take you to save for it is something you might consider.  Furthermore, if you decide to buy Tekton speakers new, (did someone say there is a 12 week waiting period?), those 12 weeks are a wash anyway.  During that waiting period, you could be saving for an integrated.

Let's say it takes you half a year (ie. 26 weeks) to save for an integrated.  And lets assume you purchase Tekton's tomorrow but it will be 12 weeks before delivery.  That means you would be running the Tektons on the Pioneer Elite for 14 weeks only (assuming there is little to no wait on the integrated).  If that's the case, is the trade off worth it to run them for 14 weeks on the Pioneer, only to have a much better system afterward?  Or go ahead and buy cheaper speakers and a cheaper integrated today?

Hope this helps to make the decision process a little easier for you.
I own TEKTON Pendragons....(The Only Tektons that Andrew Robinson has in his top ten speaker list) Every time I listen, I am in Awe of the pure musicallity they produce for their price) Running with 8 watt KT88 Amp and 75 watt SS amp. I just ordered a 2 Watt Zen int. from Decware to run them. I like the 8 ohm version ( Sorry Millercarbon). I think it make them more versatile and you can run them on the 4 ohm or 8 ohm speaker outs. I think Eric's speakers are the best bang for the buck and punch Way over their price point. And they are soooo easy to listen to Classic Rock and cd's that were recorded harshly. It keeps the sizzle but dumps the harshness. Great freakin' speaker.
I think the addition of powered subs has something to do with that high output.
And all with a 20w/channel amplifier.
If it was horns I could believe it, but it just doesn’t add up.
That is loud, with a DBA that's thumpin', and with all those mid range drivers it's pumpin'. Ear plugs and muffs for me.. :-)

I get the ear bone tickle at about 92-95 db.. I have built in "turn it down" ears.
Yes and I had mine made the standard 4 ohm because it sounds better. Mine are run now with a 20wpc Raven Blackhawk, play 106dB at the sweet spot in my large room, and with clarity precision and detail that must be heard to be believed. I would never even think of going 8 ohm.

  • Is that dB(A) or dB(C)?
  • Is it peak or slow SPL?

It seems like a lot of SPL for 20 wpc
I think I read some where that you asked Eric if he change the 4 ohm Moab's to 8ohm?
Yes and I had mine made the standard 4 ohm because it sounds better. Mine are run now with a 20wpc Raven Blackhawk, play 106dB at the sweet spot in my large room, and with clarity precision and detail that must be heard to be believed. I would never even think of going 8 ohm.
I'm going to ask him a similar question. Can you change a 8ohm speaker to a 4ohm?

That's a different question. Because the first one was about Moab, but this time its about "a speaker". The total impedance of a speaker is in part the impedance of each driver, but also in the way the drivers are connected, in series or in parallel. So the answer could be yes, could be no. Or it could be yes but only with different drivers. It all depends on the particular speaker.  



Elac Offers a high value speakers from guru speaker designer “Andrew Jones

Guru implies some stab at being magical… How his bio reads somewhat as a more classical education with respect to engineering.

Andrew studied physics and acoustics in university, plus quantum mechanics and other subjects that were perhaps not fully relevant to speaker design.

Elac Offers a high value speakers from guru speaker designer “Andrew Jones is Vice President of Engineering for ELAC America. During his illustrious career in hi-fi, he has designed speakers at KEF, Infinity, Pioneer, and Technical Audio Devices. Many audiophiles consider his $80,000 TAD Reference One to be one of the greatest speakers ever made.”
millercarbon,

I  think I read some where that you asked Eric if he change the 4 ohm Moab's to 8ohm?
I'm going to ask him a similar question. Can you change a 8ohm speaker to a 4ohm?

atemoya,

I normally would never tell anyone to sell or get rid of their sub, but I’ve owned the

SVS 25-31PC (circular sub)
SVS 20-39PC (circular sub)
SVS 16-46PC (circular sub)

And they all had cuffing. Especially the SVS 25-31PC, more so than the others.

I have since moved on to Power Sound Audio subs. But I want to make this clear. I want (Tekton) a pair of speakers that do not, I repeat, do not need to add an outboard subwoofer. I’m hoping maybe the Perfect Set with 12" woofers will get the job done.

As the Perfect Set should musically play the entire Linear 30Hz-30kHz frequency response. That is what I want to listen to for awhile.

And maybe later, blend in my subs.

P.S. you picked a very unusual looking and very vanilla sweet fruit, for your moniker name here on agon. The first time I ate the fruit was in Brazil, in the middle of the Copacabana retail and restaurant district trying to find a place to eat, and along comes the fruit man with a large cart.

I bought every fruit I could from him that I didn’t know what it was and he let me try each one before I bought it.

Até logo!
That is as good a way of looking at it as any. When I was close to buying Ulf I called and talked with teajay who immediately said don’t, get Moab instead. He said there is hardly any difference between Moab and Ulf, and you can buy an awful lot of stuff for the difference in price.

There are of course differences between all these models. Between many of them however the differences are less than putting one on Townshend Podiums. For the difference in price between Moab and Ulf you could get a Raven Blackhawk, or Podiums, or a serious crossover upgrade like I did, or even some combination thereof. These are all bigger improvements than what you hear between models.    

Whatever you do decide, when you finally do get it home I think your reaction will be like mine the last time I bought a TV many years ago. After spending an inordinate amount of time researching and agonizing over the tiniest differences between models, when I finally got the damn thing home it was so startlingly obviously amazingly better than what I had before it was like, "I coulda thrown a dart!" lol!
atemoya,

I’m also almost ready to pull the trigger on the Tekton speakers so very close to the one’s you mention in your post.

This is the email I sent to Eric at Tekton: 10/16/2021 and I’ll rereport back what he says.

Hi Eric.
I have a Clayton S50 full class A amplifier, The Truth preamplifier. And I’m interested in the Perfect Set, the Perfect Set 2-10 and the Enzo 2.7. I need your opinion on which speaker to choose out of the three since I have a solid state amp.

Am I right to assume that the 2-10 has more bass clarity, tone and slam than the Perfect Set and the Enzo 2.7? Or should I choose the 2.7 because of the 6 Ohm average impedance?

I really do like the 2-10 but if the bass is not as dynamic or have more slam than the Perfect Set or the Enzo 2.7? And is there a problem with high powered solid state amps with the 2-10? This is where I have to ask you to help me pick.

My sense of good bass sound may be similar to yours. The sound of the kick pedal strike mallet hitting the bass drum. Hearing the fingers on the strings and colored tones being heard coming from an acoustic double bass itself and the opening of the bass, to the sounds of the fret play on the double bass.

Here is a link of an earlier Tekton discussion about which Tekton to buy?
It is a must read - for you. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/which-tekton

Right now, I’m more inclined to purchase The Perfect Set with the 12″ Ulfberht Transducers after reading Terry London’s review of The Perfect Set and it’s $400 less than the The Perfect Set 2-10 and use the savings getting the upgrades. Terry London’s review here:

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/tekton/?fbclid=IwAR0eVGEdTbCzVI6h0XbVyoAtdecM-1PviVbZgrnCJXw...
@atemoya
There are quite a few good sounding speakers in your price range. It’s always best to demo the speakers for yourself because preferences are highly subjective. Asking forum members for speakers suggestions will get you multiple answers which can give you a list to further research and/or lead to confusion.

If you want to purchase without listening then it’s simpler to stick with Tekton which is a price/performance bargain.

But if you’re still looking for speaker brand suggestions I’d recommend checking out the GoldenEar Tritons- lots of positive reviews.

Home theater AVRs sonics cannot compete well with a quality 2 channel integrated amplifier. If you want a significant upgrade in sound, then swap/trade your Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH for a quality 2 channel integrated amplifier.
If the OP says where’s he is, then maybe someone with Textons near him/her would let them have a listen?

@atemoya
Personally I have always purchased speakers after hearing them… except for my center channel and surrounds… which I bought used.

If there are measurements of the speakers, that helps for remote buying. I have seen Elacs, and maybe the others, including Textons, have some measurements? If so that would help. If not then you probably need to listen to them in order to be more sure.
As you have a sub already you can buy a 2 way speaker and use the sub.

That Said:

Elac Uni-Fi Ref -$1,200 new.

LSA Statement or Signature 10s. Available used.

Golden Ear BRX $1,600 new.

All good. All slightly different.


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Tvad,
Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense.

Dill,
I agree

missioncoonery,
As I stated, you just dug further into it than I did. Can’t blame you for doing that though... They do make a good product & if I were actually looking for a new pair of speakers, probably would have done the same. All the best with your speaker search!
Dill...we are just pointing out yet another lie by the Tekton talking heads...just tell the truth , pretty simple
Boxer, what is really interesting is that they invest so much time defending their position.
I think a lot of those used Tektons for sale is the speakers weren't the original buyer's cup of tea.

They probably figured it was easier and less costly to sell out right rather than go through talking to an indignant Erik Alexander and going through a tedious "making like new restoration" so as to get all their money back in case of a return. I've heard he has taken money off the return price for things as little as finger print smudges. Wow...
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missioncoonery & tsushima,
Sorry guys, I didn't go any farther than the link tvad added above, which showed (& still shows) 5 for sale. You guys are apparently bigger fans of Tekton than you are leading us to believe, since you dug further into it. 

Yea, I normally think of that level of dislike as resulting from someone being personally offended in some way.
Someone said their Tektons were better than the speakers those guys have. You don’t think that is personal? What would you do in that situation? Any self respecting audiophile would get butt-hurt and go on a never ending mission to crap on any thread with any mention of Tekton.
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Can one imagine missioncoonery & tsushima1 in the same room?

Hmmm. Come to think of it, I've never seen them together at the same place and time. Interesting........
Yea, I normally think of that level of dislike as resulting from someone being personally offended in some way.  Not so much from an inanimate object.
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I own the Tekton perfect set , for my taste, I love them.You see I blew my impact monitor Tekton speakers tweeters, when I brought them for  repair at Van L Speakerworks who also design speakers, He told me my impact are well design speakers.I don’t know how long is the waiting now. Sometimes they have in stock, just check Tekton website.
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And were one to examine the Sold/Expired tab and follow up the first few listings we find a strong pattern of *expired* rather than *sold* ergo one might construe that sellers appear to have given up on trying to shift them .
 ( 955 )

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=tekton
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DI was the speaker that really made Tekton famous. Buy the DI for $2200 at HiFiShark and you'll never be sorry. SET is designed for tube amps, and your Pioneer is not one. Have had DIs for three years and they're awesome. 
I would sell the receiver, buy a used Set of speakers for $1,500 and then buy an integrated meant for 2 channel listening. 
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Leverage: a means of multiplying your work to achieve results far greater than expected from your small input.

Example: say how impossible something is, knowing full well this will trigger certain others to prove you wrong, ultimately accomplishing your true goal without you having to do any of the work yourself.

Rent: free.
Good luck finding Tekton used.


If you go to Hi-Fi Shark, there are more than a dozen pairs of Tekton speakers for sale used. Here, USAM, EBay and other sites. I had plenty of luck finding them for sale. It took less than a minute. You just have to be willing to try.
Good luck finding Tekton used. They are 12 weeks wait for a reason. There is no wait for the speakers others recommend for a reason. Only thing is the reasons only become clear once you actually buy a pair and hear them. At that point you realize the long wait was worth it, and you understand why so many go through it, and why they hang onto them. So really the choice is do you want now speakers or good speakers? No right or wrong, just now or good.
Another option —bookshelf rather than floor speakers — is KEF LS50.  They are highly regarded and would pair with your sub.  Would need stands if not on shelf.  Just saw new pair for less than $1700.

Note: I have not personally heard these speakers, but I have seen only positive reviews of them.