An Objective Review of the Tekton Double Impact Speakers

Bland, hyped and don’t believe the BS.
Sound familiar?
Of course all you can do is audition and decide for yourself.

Interesting on a number of counts. Sounded small, bland, weak highs, poor QC, and combative manufacturer.

Flavor du jour

Please, there is nothing OBJECTIVE about this man's opinion of the Double Impacts. Most of the video is hype regarding his sax mouthpieces. Another attempt to say that since he's a musician he has the right "ears" to come to his position regarding their performance. Well, most older musicians have damaged hearing to begin with and personal taste is not objective. We don't know what he drove them with regarding the type/quality of his upstream equipment and where he attempted to place them in his acoustic space, all of which can effect dramatically how a speaker performs.

I guess you guys missed the fact that the video was made by the OP. And he has them for sale here. Nothing like a good marketing video to sell your product, eh?

Do we really need anorher post of these junk speakers...i think not 

In case anyone is confused from the video here’s the written assessments

May 10 – Phil – Tekton vs Klipsch Thread

I feel greatly let down by my Double Impact speakers and the service I received from them. The women there didn’t know anything about speakers and the owner was rude. When I received them I couldn’t believe how disappointed I was and I paired them with a PrimaLuna EVO 300, a four-thousand dollar amp. I tried different placements but nothing and I listened to a ton of different kinds of music. Even BB King with a full horn section wasn’t exciting. For me, the sound doesn’t travel but rather it sounds like something is happening across the room. They’re better at high volumes but there’s still know definition in the sound. The highs aren’t high and the bass isn’t defined or low and they sound sort of like surround sound speakers.

I’m selling them since it’ll cost me $375 EACH to send them back and I purchased a set of Klipsch Forte 4’s to replace them. And you can bet your life that the people at Tekton know that you won’t send them back when you find out what it costs.

Don’t believe the hype, it’s baloney. All those people reviewing them are getting incentives and to compare them to speakers worth 10 thousand dollars and more are snowing us. In the end, just believe your ears.

Have a wonderful day, Phil

May 11 - Phil – Tekton vs Klipsch Thread

I might have already commented on this so forgive me if this is a repeat. I’m so grossly disappointed by my Double Impacts it’s pitiful and I’ve tried everything imaginable to get them to work. My amp is a PrimaLuna EVO 300.

I’m a musician (Local 802) and made hand-made mouthpieces for some of the greatest sax players who ever lived for almost forty years, am fairly respected and let me tell you, these speakers suck and if you believe people like Steve Guttenberg who gets all kinds of perks from the audio companies then you might want to reassess your source of information because ALL those guys get something in return for their reviews. Several of these guys said that the DI’s are as good as speakers costing 30K! Do you believe that?

When I called Tekton to ask for help, Eric Alexander was rude to me before I could even get a work in and told me to return them but ALAS, it costs $385.00 to return EACH speaker! So, in reality, if they cost that much to send them to me then they’re really only a $2300 speaker. So I’m dumping them and have already bought a pair of Klipsch Forte 4’s. If you can’t audition a speaker, then don’t buy it

May 14- Phil – Tekton vs Klipsch Thread

I recently received my Tekton DI’s and am utterly dismayed by how they sound when compared to the press they get. First, they’re not a three-thousand dollar speaker, they’re more like a twenty-three hundred dollar speaker when you take off the shipping and if you want to return them, in my case it’s $385 each.

I find with my PrimaLuna EVO 300 they don’t project, lack clarity, lack lows, lack dynamics and they almost sound like surround sound speakers, okay for a restaurant or department store and if you listen to muzak.

Also, the recording must be excellent or they’re flat and generic but on really good recordings some people may find them okay but not great unless you’ve been listening to like a hand-held radio.

I’ve been in the music business forty years and let me tell you what happens. A company puts some money behind a mediocre product with advertising, gets a few fans to feel loyal, maybe with perks, gets a bunch of inexperienced customers behind it that think it’s god’s gift and gives incentives to the knucklehead reviewers and it sells like crazy but they always peter out, always.

Oh, and the customer service at Tekton sucks the big one. I didn’t mind waiting 3 1/2 months but when I thought I was doing something wrong the owner at Tekton became defensive and combative. They don’t return emails or phone calls. It’s a mess. But, let’s not forget, Eric Alexander IS a drummer so maybe we should excuse him..

Aside from sounding like a maniac today (forgive me and thank you very much) let me make one suggestion, DON’T buy a speaker unless you demo it. Now, does that make any sense?

Question:

Which is it Phil, do the speakers and the company in general suck, or your better half doesn’t like the look and you only played them for 5 hours a la the ad? Seems like transparency needs to come into play; to be objective one must also be credible

Yeah definitely some differences in opinion between the ad and the review. I can get it if you just didn’t like them...... tone or whatever. Also said they lack lows and in the video he said the bass was great. The other one that boggles me is the statement they lack dynamics. IMO they are dynamic monsters! Sound like a serious placement issue, equipment mismatch or faulty pair. Do I think they sound like 10k plus speakers? Yeah, in some ways. My current speakers retailed for around 10k and they do most things better than the DIs IMO and I was one of the guys posting how great they were. I listen loud sometimes and you could definitely hear the cabinets at high volumes with bass heavy music but low to medium high volume they were really nice. I still believe them to be very good especially in the price bracket. 

I do think there is something to the array concept. With high end drivers, better cabinets and crossover parts they may have the potential to rival anything out there. We shall see. 

Good post @facten The audiogon ad is definitely in conflict with everything that has been posted in the forum. A smarter guy would have waited until after the sale to drag Tekton through the mud in public on the SAME site as he is trying to sell the speakers.

Oz

What the OP is probably going to realize is that he will probably not get the $3,000 he is asking, more like $2,300 - $2,500. So it will most likely be a wash between selling and eating the shipping costs sending them back. Sending them back is a sure thing. Selling can be a PITA. Having guys show up to your house, listening to them, kicking the tires, sales falling through.  I hope I'm wrong for his sake. I do empathize as I purchased Tektons and Spatials and ended up sending them back. No more un-auditioned speaker buying for me. Probably didn't do himself any favors by trashing the same speakers he's trying to sell. 

The audio game is expensive no doubt, so here's a tip Op- buy nice tube amps in the heat of summer and list them in the fall. That's as close as you will come to profiting in audio, the rest is a gamble.  

🍿I just waiting for class action lawsuit.

I have no particular interest in Tekton speakers -- I have Sonus faber & B&W speakers, and no reason to change, and find Tektons visually unappealing in any event.  But I'm posting because I think Mr. Barone should be commended for his frank evaluation of the Tektons, for two reasons.

First, he's apparently a professional musician with considerable experience, as well as an audio enthusiast.  This puts him in a better position to evaluate equipment than most forum members, because he has expertise re: how instruments should sound -- tone, timber, presence -- that most people, even experienced listeners, lack.  That doesn't mean he's authoritative -- but it does mean he has an extra degree of credibility in this area.

Second, he has posted an evaluation of the Tektons that is adverse to his own financial interest, since he's evidently trying to sell them.  In my view, this adds further weight to his evaluation.

This kind of honest, credible evaluation is part of what makes this forum valuable.

I have no skin in the game either. The only Tekton speaker I have ever owned or heard is the Pendragon, and I didn't keep them long.

I think his review is honest too. What's not honest is the description in his ad. I understand that most ads don't tell the whole truth about why an item is for sale. But if he's going to be frank in this forum about his Tekton experience, do the same in the ad copy. Now THAT would impress me the most.

I Try to have a listen before purchase. 
      Would like to hear some of these tekton speakers, and the huge array of tweeters producing some guitar riffs by megadeth, forbidden, y&t, onslaught, assassin, Kreator, etc.......PLUS, these accordion style surrounds and their ability to produce kick drum and double kick drum.

  Until I can sit and listen to them, I will not make assumptions. 
   Saying their cheap is not fair, I still use a current (5-6 yr old) BIC Venturi dv-64 pair for some listening once in a while. They are as hollow as hollow can be, a wrap on them and it echoes, hahahah
   But, they sound very airy, and have such a nice treble (a bit bright for me, yes) it is very accurate, voices are produced extremely lively and smooth at low volumes. Which is why I taped a double layer of a cut cotton tshirt to the inside of the grill, it dampened the high volume treble. They are cheap speakers, but for I think it was on sale for 98$ each years back, what the heck, why not. 

    I try to listen before I buy. Not ridicule stuff.

ONLY stuff I ridicule is what I have heard and dislike. But, I have made mistakes...
😁
   

First, for a few of you, "when you point a finger, three point back at you". A) Yes, I wanted to sell them and did what anyone else would have done knowing that one of the resident "experts" would like them.  Would you say they suck if you wanted to sell them? 

B) Am reaching an agreement with Tekton now to take them back and would like to take the ad down but don't know how.  

BTW, to the guy whoever said that my post was just about hyping my mouthpieces, I don't make them anymore, I'm semi-retired and only have my own line saxophones now and am available to offer free advice on gear which I usually discourage people from buying because there's too much emphasis on it, like on here!  You might also consider that it's safe to say that there's few if any sax players on here so there's that. Add that to the fact that I never gave a crap about money and what have you got.  

Also, to the guy who feels that musicians don't have better ears than other folks, when you can play something back or write it down after you hear it, that's better ears and it doesn't matter if it a million dollar rig or airpods.  

Most of these hyped HiFi speakers, IEM’s, Headphones have very little to do with how instruments sound in real life. Most have Bass that is too elevated & slow, timbre that has nothing to do with reality.
I had to discover this on my own as well, and personally I felt like I was living in bizzaro land when I auditioned some the most highly regarded equipment out there for myself.
Most musicians have different ears than people who just listen to music for a hobby.... In my estimation this kind of HiFi sound is an acquired taste, and has very little to do with accurate playback.
If most of the "reviewers" like a product, that product is something I now actively avoid.
First hand demoing is the only thing I now trust :)
I sympathize with Phil, It’s no fun falling for the never ending hype of the reviewer circuit.

If big is better and more is better then ...

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get past the first few seconds of the self indulgent bragging.

In any case, is there anything wrong with landscape? Surely he knows about televisions. 

From what others have said, it seems to be a completely subjective review and not at all objective.

@pedroeb To me he sounded like someone who was legitimately disappointed by the speakers... At least that is what I got from watching the whole video. 
His "credentials" sounded more like someone trying to explain that they had years of experience in the music scene, than mere bragging.
And aren't all reviews subjective? 

Have not heard Tekton speakers ...although I was interested in them once. I think the lesson here is "hype". A product may be good or bad or even closer to average but hype and advertising really does not mean anything. It’s easy to begin a fabrication in ones mind about a product being "really good" if you want to believe it. That hype, that word of mouth praise, those fabricated thoughts of sublime sound and a deal of the century..... does not necessarily make it so. BTW it is also easy to be brutally honest about a bad experience with a product. I think forums should have more of these frank opinions. It really is about 98% great, good , best component I ever had kinda of posts by people really happy with their gear. I have done that (haha). And lets be honest thats SELLS alot of gear. Just ask Mr. Alexander. But I am not sure why someone gets attacked when they share an honest opinion that is negative. I would be willing to bet anyone who wants to buy Tekton speakers has to wait many weeks because he is backlogged with orders. One negative and honest experience will not kill his business.

Hmmm...millercarbon is suspiciously missing from this discussion.  He owns a pair of these.  Maybe all those Synegistics Magic Dots and magnetic mousepads cured them.

🍿I just waiting for class action lawsuit.

 LoL not enough $$$$ in it. How many speaker do these guys sell? 
Not enough to make it worth a lawyer’s time.

Hmmm...millercarbon is suspiciously missing from this discussion.

He owns a pair of these. Maybe all those Synegistics Magic Dots

and magnetic mousepads cured them.

Thought he was in the middle of throwing $$$$ at the crossovers in those things. Fool and his money....

fuzzrone
so you would give an A plus rating on Absolute BS 

Pasting this from another forum... Isn't anyone familiar with this... people have speculated that Captain Moab of AG fame has been getting perks from Tekton, given his constant bloviating over them. Decide for yourself:

Again, not my words, just pasting....

"If the title is too editorialized on my part, I apologize.
This is from the review channel on Youtube called New Record Day. The reviewer's name is Ron. A good deal of this wacky drama is found in the comments. It kind of amounts to a "he said/he said" scenario, but as you scroll down Eric Alexander get more and more crazy with the situation. For those that don't want to watch the whole video or read all the comments, I'll try to summarize.

Apparently, Ron from New Record Day was provided with a sample of the Tekton Impact Audiophile tower speakers. He released one video of a multipart review and wasn't overtly kind in regards on certain points.
Now, according to Ron, this is where things went south, and where he makes an admission. According to him Eric Alexander approached him and there was some sort of deal on the part of Tekton to pay for this review. Eric hasn't addressed any part of it publicly. Also, according to Ron, Eric didn't like the treatment of the Impact Audiophile in the first part of the review, and stated he "was never going to sell any of that model now" and that maybe the whole review should just be called off. He also supposedly expressed the backlash "if anyone ever found out about the payment for the review". Ron seemed to take this as a threat to expose the nature of the deal. Ron also seemed to think the rest of the review should go forward. Meanwhile Eric pulled the Impact Audiophile model from the Tekton website. It gets more complicated from there on out, but, at this point Eric is claiming slander and malicious intent on the part of NRD and Ron. Later Eric states this was all and attempt to expose Ron's paid reviews...by creating a speaker, sending it to Ron for review, paying him, having him criticize it, pulling the model, and then making comments about it on his channel? It just seems far too bizarre of a scenario, as Eric defends the speakers at times and claims Ron was doing measurements wrong on purpose, and then later claims it was all a ruse to expose Ron. Nothing adds up here.

In any case, it's a mess. But I posted it to show one of the pitfalls of the modern internet based audio world. Tekton ONLY sells direct through their website. Reviewers often do get paid for their reviews in either straight money, or being allowed to keep the products they review. Youtube reviewers also often won't release a review of a product if they feel there are too many compromises to recommend it, which kind of begs the question of; how useful are reviews that are only praise? If a reviewer makes a critical review, it can often make companies leery of providing samples. One reviewer, NoAudiophile, has been so critical of many budget offerings that he's supposedly been outright blackballed by a number of manufacturers, and has to purchase or borrow any review samples himself."

Tekton Impact Audiophile Loudspeaker Review | Measurements and Final Thoughts - YouTube

Phil,
I hope you get it sorted and find the right speaker that works for you.

That’s why I bought real speakers made by the oldest manufacturer of such, Tannoy....I try to avoid buying Junk from the new guy on the block with little experience who throw mud at wall to see if it sticks...10 tweeters, really? How bout one that works and works well? Plus , they are gargantuan coffin like structures with little visual appeal. I’ll stick with old world furniture like craftsmanship any day. Tannoys are like an heirloom you pass on to the next generation. No bloated bass, and no ear fatiguing highs...smooth and satisfying.

@philbarone Hopefully Eric will take them back.

I understand that an ad is designed to sell the item, not to give you an honest depiction of what the owner thinks of the gear. But you've shown your true colors and were caught with your pants down. Personally, I'd never buy anything from you as a matter of principal. Like the old adage goes, "lie to me once....."

Better luck with your next speaker endeavor.

I totally agree I have heard the top 3 Tekton designs 
Eric is a very weak minded designer and without question the drivers are low quality the Xover even worse , having electrolytic in the Xover is a big red flag 
a noise bucket I would never buy a pair period ,I have owned 2 older models 
after hearing the hype then going to audio get together ,the refinement vs a speaker with well known named drivers ,not the Chinese that are in all but the top Tekton , and Xover parts sadly cheap just pull a driver and see for for yourself .
pin no way shape or for are these refined audio instruments.
a wall of sound yes ,a giant Bose 901, IMO.that’s mine and many others opinions 
why do you think the big mass of buyers 3 years ago to msybe 1/4 that now 
more drivers of maybe average quality x12 doesnot make it better distortion wise 
compared to a seas,or scanspeak driver ,not even close 4-5% distortion per driver ,+ cheap Xover = nothing in the true Audiophile quality world.

anyway it's fun...I own a pair of 10K dynaudio C60 which sound really awful. Wen i posted my "objective review" regarding my dynaudio experience everyone was saying that i'm crazy or that i have the wrong gear to drive them. BS. 
By the way i'm waiting for a pair of Tekton Moabs...I will post a side by side comparision video. 

anyway it's fun...I own a pair of 10K dynaudio C60 which sound really awful. Wen i posted my "objective review" regarding my dynaudio experience everyone was saying that i'm crazy or that i have the wrong gear to drive them. BS.
By the way i'm waiting for a pair of Tekton Moabs...I will post a side by side comparision video.

Make sure when you post them on here for sale that you mention how your wife told you they are too big.

ozzy62, Did you hear the Moabs?

No. I briefly owned the Pendragons a few years ago. Not the same caliber as the Moabs from what I understand.

Few are.

I have to agree, not the best idea to pan a product on the site you are trying to sell them on. 

...a wall of sound yes , a giant Bose 901...

Is that what they call damning with faint praise?

All the best,
Nonoise

Actually it’s what we call misinformed. And that’s being nice. The "wall of sound" was a technique of Phil Spector who liked to create a sound stage wide and flat and in your face. As such it is a recording technique not a speaker characteristic. Speakers cannot create a wall of sound, they can only recreate the wall of sound if present on the recording. Bose used 9 drivers in a configuration designed to create wide diffuse sound, the opposite of a wall of sound. The drivers are midrange not tweeters. Eight of them fire at the wall, not towards the listener. As such the Bose 901 is totally incapable of creating a wall of sound, even if one is there on the recording.

So as you can see this is not at all damning with faint praise. 

I think that pretty well does it for tearing that one apart.

MC...Please ,your shilling of Tekton is as obvious as your lack of knowledge of true quality audio speakers..Tekton is junk!No idea why this site allows you and the rest of the clown posse to post such bs. 

Speakers must of been nasty  manufacturer has removed the video   Or someone else did   

Speaker look like first grade project using refrigeration boxes. Maybe compare to box store junk they maybe better but who have time to open up replace part and bracket inside to make decent product.
op need lesson on what is objective meaning. What happened video? 

I've had my Tekton DI monitors for a year and still love them, listening to all kinds of music, every day working from home they continue to please. Dynamic room filling sound with lots of detail and soundstage.
Haters gonna hate but I love my Tekton DI Monitors

Most likely OP removed the video after Tekton agreed to take the speakers back, perhaps offering a freebie like no shipping fee. Mission accomplished!!!

I am not an attorney but I think the phrase "60 Day Risk Free Trial" in the FAQ section (and elsewhere) could be construed as a misrepresentation.
The risk is that if you do not like them you will be $750.  I tried the My Pillow pillow (before I new anything about the owner) as their abundant TV ads said "What have you got to lose... nothing"  Well, they make you pay to return their (awful/horrible) product.  Consumer Reports made a point of this and the FTC got after them.

The interwebs sure are fascinating, aren’t they? Not long after they got big I recall a guy in W Germany was arrested for trying to find someone willing to be killed and eaten. By the time he was arrested 6 people had applied! All it takes to spread your tiny little micro-niche point of view all across the planet is an internet connection. Wonderful.

Just to put things in perspective, we got guys here so nuts they do nothing but troll and blather all day, until they get banned, and then come back again and again under different names. Not saying this is the OP. Again, just providing perspective.

We got people so incapable of understanding even a single word they post on here that I am conspicuously absent, AFTER I have posted on this very thread! They say I have DI when I have Moab. And when I did my Moab review thread we had someone make up some fake story about his awful experience. How do we know it was fake? Because I asked and found out.

Teachable moment: what we can learn from this in order to build better systems. It has to do with how to read reviews. People wonder how have I been able to buy one thing after another for going on 15 years now never once having auditioned or even heard the thing anywhere before. How do I do it based entirely on reading stuff off the web?

Well I have tried to explain from all kinds of angles and this brings up another one: plausibility. Something I am always asking myself when reading reviews, or anything really: how plausible is this, really? Related question: How credible is this source?

Here we have some speakers, Tekton Double Impacts, which not only have won more awards than you can throw a stick at but boast the most perfect measurements Stereophile has ever seen. Ever. How plausible is it they are as bad as claimed here- and no one else noticed?

That’s a question. We report, you decide.

They may seem very different, but how I read a review to find the good components is just the same as I read threads like this one to try and get at the truth. I ask the same question all the time: what is the most plausible explanation?

Give it a try.

I took the video down in light of the fact that I realized that it might be a setup problem but in the meantime I replaced them with Klipsch Forte 4's and I'm playing those now while the Tektons sit in my garage. 

In a couple of weeks when I finish evaluating the Klipsch, I'll setup the Tektons again and, break them in, work on setup and see what happens.  

Eric has been paid in full and we're both in a good place.  In retrospect, given how much I spent and my inexperience, I might have reacted too soon and expected too much.  

Anyone willing to offer setup suggestions please feel free to PM me.  I understand they have to be far from the wall and I have some space limitations.  

Everyone have a great weekend! Phil

i believe all the reviews here represent a trend. nevertheless, if i was richer than dreams of avarice, i'd buy a pair and add it to my menagerie of music makers, a living speaker museum, if you will. i really want to hear how they sound with MY music in MY room, just to know.