Considering the New Tekton Design Encores? AND Owners Group - Experiences/Questions
I am the very happy owner of the first pair of New Tekton Design Encores and I thought I would create this thread to answer any questions anyone might have regarding the Encore speakers, room considerations, and associated equipment. If you’ve order your pair already, please chime in. I really want to hear what other people’s experience are with these unbelievable speakers.
I drive my Encores with both an Art Audio Diavolo SET 300b Tube Amplifier with 8wpc and I switch in my 700w Nord One-Up SE Monoblocks for non-critical listening and some big pieces of music that benefit from the extra power.
Made under U.S. Patent 9247339 with multiple new patents pending
Proprietary loudspeaker design
Ultra-linear frequency response with ±.5dB deviation from 70Hz-20kHz
One single crossover element placed within the tweeter path
@jcarcopo If my Aegirs don't end up working with the Encores I'm trying to develop a working list of other amps to consider. I have heard many good things about the XA25. I know the Tektons can be driven without much power, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the whole MORE POWER IS BETTER philosophy. Again and again people say things like "you can never have too much headroom," etc.
The XA25 sounding great with the Encores seems to run counter to that idea, especially as it only provides 50W at 4 ohms on a speaker that can handle 800W. For instance many people seem to love the Parasound A21+. It's nearly $2k cheaper than the XA25, but provides much more wattage. Have you tried using more powerful amps as well for comparison? Interested in your thoughts on this.
@jsoku I will certainly post about how the Aegirs work with the Encores. I ordered about two weeks after you, but as you say the timing could go any number of ways. I'm curious how you decided to go with Encores. You mention you have previously had other Tekton speakers.
In my case I have DIs and have been saving up to climb the Tekton ladder to one of their flagships. Ulfberhts just won't fit in my house. Moabs are pushing it size-wise. Encores I can do. Plus the descriptions I've seen about the sound profile of the Encores sounds closer to what I want than the Moabs. Anyway, I would be interested in how you arrived at Encores. With the popularity of the Moabs, Encores don't seem to get much attention lately.
" sensitivity is not efficiency" - ok, so it isn’t. but if a speaker’s sensitivity is 96dB 2.83V@1m sensitivity, that’s pretty efficient, no?
" your amps out put is about 3/4 watts to get 96Db not 1 watt" - so, this means it’s even *more* efficient than if it needed 1 watt, right? or, are you saying the amp’s output needs to be 3 to 4 watts to get 96db, not three-quarters of a watt? and you know this because...? even w/4 ohm rated speakers, it will take 2w to get 96db, not 3 or 4w.
" my speakers are 3% efficiency @ 8 ohms so 4 watts is 104 Db @ 2 meters not 96 Db" - so, if your speakers are 8 ohms, that means the sensitivity rating for 2.83V@1m would be 98db, right? 101db doubles the power to 2 watts, doubling the distance from 1m to 2m doubles the power again to 104db. (assuming 2.83v is equivalent to 1w)
" it is also (all so?!?) 4 ohms not 8 so your at a real 90 Db sensitivity " now, i am aware that the 2.83v = 1w is for 8 ohm-rated speakers; for a speaker that sees a 4 ohm load, it takes 2w to get the same output. so, it’s possible (likely?) that at 1m, the encores are rated at 93db for 1w at 1m, not the 96db as stated, but not 90db either. still on the efficient side...
you really should post what others who are reading it, can understand what it is you’re trying to say. and get your facts correct.
JCARCOPO sensitivity is not efficiency your amps out put is about 3/4 watts to get 96Db not 1 watt the spec are miss leading it is all so 4 ohms not 8 so your at a real 90 Db sensitivity 2.83v@1 meter efficiency is in % not Dbs low power amps need high efficiency not sensitivity my speakers are 3% efficiency @ 8 ohms so 4 watts is 104 Db @ 2 meters not 96 Db i am just saying you are happy with your new speakers that great i am not trying to bring you down happy listening
@jsoku I have been running source direct from a DAC happily for 20 years! I did try a Ayon Audio Stealth DAC which has a Tube Preamp in it and I felt like it robbed me of too much detail. That's entirely up to you, some people like to fatten and sweeten and warm up the sound more. I personally want my source pure and only have 2 digital sources and never needed a preamp anyway. That's just me. If you save money and gain resolution, even better IMHO!
Thank you both. I'm going to wait to purchase the power amp until the Encores arrive which--given Eric's busy backlog--who knows when that will be--I placed my order at the end of June and he told me the lead time was 6-8 weeks but I remember from my previous Tekton order that that can skip. @sid-hoff-frenchman, when you get your Encores, please post whether or not the monoblock Aegirs work out with them. If you just ordered your Encores, I may get mine before you get yours, but in any case, I'd still be interested. @jcarcopo, using the XA25 with the Encores, do you feel there would not be not be significant benefit to adding a tube pre-amp to the mix, like the Schiit Freya+? I was thinking about adding the Freya+ to try out some tubey sound, but if the XA25 sounds good enough by itself, I can just use my Chord Dave as a digital preamp and skip getting a preamp (which would help dull the pain of the $4,900 XA25).
@jsoku I have been using a Freya + with monoblock Aegirs for a year now without any problem with my DIs. I’ve seen people posting that they have the same setup with Moabs without issue too. I just ordered Encores, so we’ll see if the Aegir monoblocks work with them. Sadly, I honestly am expecting that they won’t. The Schiit people said the Aegirs don’t like much below 3 ohms. And Eric told me that the Encores are the most demanding speaker in his lineup. So we’ll see. Either they will work, and that’s great. Or they won’t (at least a single stereo one should) and I will look at other amp options. I wish Jason @ Schiit would design a powerful monoblock Aegir that is stable below 4 ohms, because the Aegirs are really fantastic sounding amps.
@jsoku I come from SET Tube Amplifiers for over 21 years. I love them for their glorious midrange. The XA25 was purchased from Moon-audio.com on a 30 day trial with a 10% restocking fee if I returned it, but my good buddy whose an audiophile said I would really like the sound of it. I read a few reviews by Terry London et al and his equating the XA25 to a SET amp really floored me.
When I got it setup and heard the first 30 seconds even cold out of the box I was speechless and instantly smitten. There's a tonal purity and inner detail in the midrange that leaps out at you with an immediacy that gets your attention right away. The bass is very tight, the highs are sparkly. It begins to open up as it warms up and relax it's presentation becoming more and effortless as bloom on the instruments increases. The midrange is now starling realistic and as good to my ears as the best SET amplifiers. THIS is the cheapest PASS Labs amp XA amp and it has the best damping 500, slew rate 100v, noise 50v, and it's 50w class A power envelope is at only .1% distortion which is incredible into any impedance . It can even do 200w into 2ohm momentarily too.
Only 4 massive matched transistors per side, a completely singled ended class A topology through and through. It's a definite keeper for me.
You can find them used for $3000 and you might find one on Hifishark on there right now if it's still there.
I highly recommend the XA25 AMPLIFIER. IT'S PURE MAGIC!
Anyone have any experience with the Schiit Freya+ and Aegir for the Encores? I read in another thread that 2 Aegirs in monoblock mode was a good match for the Tekton Double Impacts, but I also hear that running the Aegirs in monoblock mode is not a good match for 4 ohm speakers and can trip up the protection circuit on the Aegirs. Jcarcopo, do you like the XA25 with the Encores? I am thinking about the X25 too after your previous reply to my original question about power amps, but $4,900 is a big jump from the $1,600 for the Schiits (or $2,400 for 2 Schiit Aegirs and a Freya+), and with the XA25 I can't go all balanced with the XA25 using the balanced out from my Chord Dave.
@stereo5 Thanks for kind words. My apologies for any misunderstanding on my part prior, I wasn't trying to be dismissive and I didn't know you had heard the Pendragons or had a negative experience. I only can speak to the Double Impacts and the Encores and they fit the bill for what I looking for in a speaker sonically (not so much asthetically, but with the Spanish Tile high gloss finish, I'm pretty please with how they turned out). They are very coherent and the midrange of that array is quite spectacular imho. Unfortunately, my system setup is a bit out of date on Audiogon. I now have some Allnic A6000 monoblocks that use 4x 300bxls tubes in a parallel SET configuration and produce 60wpc. I also have a Pass Labs Xa25 I'm really enjoying that I recently purchased. You can't go wrong with Art Audio though for sound quality, I've owned two of them over the years. I just wanted more power so I moved up to the Allnics.
I checked out your system and it is a very well thought out and put together system. The Art Audio tube amp is really something special. I heard their amps at an audio show and if I was to buy a tube Integrated, Art Audio would be on my very short list.
@sedond The link I provided was provided from a friend who also owns the Encores who had taken his tweeter array apart because he's crazy. (He even sent me a ghastly picture with all them tweeters hanging out, I felt sorry for the array...lol). He sent me 2 links (one was the wrong tweeter) and I probably copied the wrong url.
@whacky, I would measure for you, but I can't locate my tape measure at this moment. I'm also dealing with cleaning up the aftermath of a nearby lightning strike which took out my modem, switch, router, Roon Server, and UPS that I know of. I have the Isoacoustic Gaia Titan Theia (they were a demo pair and cost about what the Gaia I cost and totally overkill, but maybe I'll buy the 1812 one day, lol!) I'm always in a reclined position when listening and therefore seated lower and everything sounds great to me so I wouldn't worry too much about the treble tweeter height being a tad higher. If I find the tape measure I will let you know, I misplaced it when I installed room treatments a couple of months ago and I just need to clear my mind and retrace my steps. :-)
Its definitely a curious thing about these tweeters.
Really really want to pull the trigger on a set of Ufs these days, but ultimately I think I may have to "settle" for the Encores based on size. I literally have carboard boxes sitting on top of my Double Impacts to mimic the size of the Ufs and Encores. Left is is Encore and Right is Ufs. And to think I thought the DIs were overkill when they showed up.
Either way, there is a 0% chance I will be disappointed in either. But I may always wonder if you could have managed the big boys.
Out of curiosity, could someone measure the height of the tweeter from the base of the Encore cabinet? I calculated the distance based on photos and ratios of the overall cabinet dimensions. Based on my calculations, the Encores tweeter actually sits higher by a few inches over the Ufs. Can anyone confirm this?
I'm wondering what that will do for my overall listening positioning in relation to tweeters. I sit relatively low in my modern style couch.
Slapping the Encores on some Gaia feet, or other vibration isolation, and/or speaker platforms and suddenly the tweeter goes up another 4-5"
jcarcopo - definitely better tweets in the di/se's than the standard di's. per what i said, i suspect these are the same as what's in the encores, and i think the moab's, ulfberht's, and the prefect set's also use this same tweeter, tho w/different waveguide.
and i see nothing on the p/e website that looks like the bigger waveguides in the moab's and the ulfberhts. and nothing on wavecor's site w/5 perimeter screws...
it's possible (likely?) that eric can get custom drivers, as he is ordering in quantity. even for a single pair, ha ha!
@kingdeezie I just realized you said you do like nearfield. I think you would be okay, you just need to mess with the toe-in more aggressively. You should be okay technically.
@kingdeezie Well, I'm reclined at 10'. I'm at ~8' unreclined which is more intimate and revealing. The soundstage of course shrinks a bit though. 6' is pushing it, but not undoable. These aren't exactly bookshelves 😁, but maybe I'd call and ask Eric for advice. He might suggest a different speaker. See, it really depends on how you like to listen IMHO, I have a friend who likes to listen more nearfield to his towers. He likes the effect.
Are you at 6' by choice or because you have no choice? 😁
@sedond You might very well be right on the tweeters for the Moabs/Ulfs since I’ve no idea, but I always wanted to believe he used better tweeters in the DIs SE vs the standard DIs, but I may be totally wrong because my memory is not very good. I thought it was an eminence tweeter in the regular DIs? It’s been years since I sold my DIs. I always wonder what the premium price was for the SE and figured it was for better tweeters.
Do you think there would be any problem in sitting closer? I have been kicking back and forth trying a pair of Tektons.
I generally enjoy a more nearfield experience. Specifically, I sit about 6 feet away. Curious to see if the drivers have even a remote chance to blend at that distance.
@stereo5 Touchy? I'm not sure what you read that you took the wrong way, but I think you're reading entirely too much into my reply. I would ask you to please keep politics out of the thread, it's off topic, serves no purpose, and just causes problems.
Touchy, aren’t we? All I said was I bet they compare to my speakers, I do not care who gives up expensive Speakers for the Tektons. I owned a pair of Pendragons 5 years ago, they sounded like crap and Eric gave me a hard time when I wanted to return them after owning them for 10 days. They were also very cheaply made and the shipping cartons were a joke as both new speakers arrived damaged with no apparent marks on the shipping cartons. My made in China speakers had no problems.
jcarcopo - i suspect the tweeters are the same in all these speakers, except for the waveguides being different. the encore's and the di/se's seem to have the same waveguide, while the ulfberht's and the moab's have the same waveguide. and, while i'm not sure, i also suspect the spacing has to do with the adjacent woofers/midwoofers. the smaller waveguide tweeters are adjacent to the single midwoofers, while the tweeters w/the larger waveguides are adjacent to either 12" woofers, or a pair of midwoofers. (or 10"/12"/15" woofers of the perfect set's).
and yes, if you were to build the encores w/a woofer at the top, you would want a taller cabinet; i believe the custom encore i heard about was installed in a cabinet similar to the taller moab cabinet. of course, you could always raise the cabinets. years ago, i owned a pair of coincident victory's, (great speakers, btw), and they sounded better when raised ~14" - which then had them mimicking the super-victory's but w/o the additional side-firing woofers. raising those speakers considerably enhanced the soundstaging, and i'm certain the same would apply to encores w/standard 62" cabinets, but one woofer at the top of the array... if my calcs are correct, the center of the present encore's middle tweeter is ~44.6" above the floor, or a mite higher if the speaker has spikes or feet.
@stereo5 Great, thanks for stopping by. Many people who have owned speakers costing many times the price of the Tektons, own Tektons. I am one of them. Reviewers have said as much as well, but I understand since you haven't heard them. I can only compare them to the dozens of brands I have heard while selling high end, visiting trade shows, or spending time at fellow audiophile's homes over the last couple of decades. If you enjoy your Tritons that's great.
While I am sure the speakers are all everyone says they are, they all are just way too ugly to go in my living room. I could never own them (not that I want them) and I am willing to bet my GE Triton Reference speakers will give them an excellent run for the money. I am talking about comparatively priced Tektons
@sedond @whacky I always thought the woofers were simply placed on the bottom of Encores so that the treble tweeter height would be ideal. If he located the woofer and the midbass driver beneath it it push the entire array down considerably. The only way around it would be to make the speaker taller which wouldn't make it a mini Ulfberht, which was the intention.
Regarding the tweeter. He uses a very good Wavcor tweeter that retails for $95 on Parts Express, so yeah that's $3000 in tweeters in the Encores, alone, but I'm sure Eric gets quantity discounts 😁 because he uses so many tweeters. I do not know what tweeter he's using in the Moabs, but I would have to think he's using a more practical priced driver to reach the lower overall price point. The Ulfberhts tweeters are likely even nicer than the Encore tweeters, but I don't know what model he's using in there. I doubt the amount of mounting space between the tweeters is germane to sound quality, he just used the Wavcor tweeter because it was a very good driver for this application at the price point for the speaker. No other manufacturer gives you over 50% of your money in speaker drivers alone and thats not even including the crossover parts, cabinet, paint, labor, shipping, and a reasonable profit margin. Most dealers make 40%-50% profit on highend speakers and high end speaker manufacturers multiply their raw costs by ~500% to reach their pricing. Tektons are a steal, but you all already know that and I digress. 😊
whacky - the benefit of having the woofers high & low, as opposed to having both at the floor, is more even room loading of the bass. different locations of the bass drivers means low-end standing waves are more evenly spread out in the room, with a smoother in-room response.
it does appear that the tweeters are a bit different in the encores than in the moabs and the ulfberhts; i'm also curious about this. it could be just the tweeter's surround and spacing is different, but maybe not? and what does the different spacing achieve in one vs the other?
@sedond can you, or anyone explain to me the benefit from having the woofers in the top to bottom orientation compared to the Encore in the double on the bottom?
Another random question, but are the tweeters for the Encore, Moab, and Uf all the same? just spaced differently apart in the Encore.
Or does the Encore use different tweeters than the Moab/Uf?
what i's like to see is a mini-ulfberht, with the moab's tweeters and woofers, and the encore's two 7" mid-bass drivers between the woofer and tweeter array, like in the ulfberht's, which use four of the 7" drivers. maybe, too close in size/cost? or at least a mini ulfberht w/the 10" woofers of the encore, instead of the 12" woofers. i do believe someone custom ordered a pair of the encores that way, w/the woofers top-n-bottom, instead of both at the bottom. i'd definitely want the encores that way, were i to order a pair...
haha harass away! Curious if he releases any teasers.
Wonder what the 2112 will turn out to be. Something like the 1812 given the same naming?
I did reach out on the Tekton Owners Group. Its a great resource with more photos and personal input which is super helpful given the inability to see/hear many of these speakers in person. Unfortunately I don't have a FB account at present time so I'm borrowing an account to pester people for their impressions.
I reckon either speaker are reasonable deals presently. Though I bet Eric and company are swamped with orders at present time.
That being said, I waited about 9 months for my double impacts 3.5 years ago.
I've never heard the Ulfberhts, but I'm absolutely sure they have several pluses over the Encores. I pushed Eric to build me the Encores 2 years ago because I wanted a more room friendly and more asthetically proportioned speaker similar to the Ulfberhts at a more affordable price. I paid $9k for them at the time with a gloss finish when the Ulfs were selling for $12k.
If you're on Facebook you should join the Tekton Worldwide Owner's Group. Then send a message to Jon Jonsyk and get his impressions because he has owned both Encores and Ulfberhts.
If I had the room for them and the additional funds lying around I'd possibly upgrade to the Ulfberhts too, but I'm more interested in his 2112 speaker project since it's been quite a long while, they're shrouded in complete mystery, and it hasn't been released yet which has me curious like I was when people whispered about the mini Ulfberhts which became the Encores.
Anyone out there have their Encores and wish they had more from them? Or found nitpicking issues with them?
I've seen a few people who have traded them in for the Ulfberhts, which I guess is understandable given that is Eric's top of the line offering. I've heard from some of those people who comment about how the Ulfberhts seem to produce more of that live sound Tekton is becoming known for compared to the Encore. Not sure what that means as far as the Encore line however. Or what kind of sound they create comparatively.
My only hesitation on the Ulfs is their size obviously. I can probably manage it, but how much more performance are you getting for that size trade off?
Out of curiosity, I looked at the tweeter arrangement and noticed a few differences and am curious how that pans out for soundstage, imaging, etc. To me it seems the Encores, being slimmer, use a different tweeter housing which has a smaller diameter than the Ulf. (5 screws opposed to 4) so Im guessing the tweeters are spaced out more in the Ulf/Moab line. What effect that makes for placement differences, idea listener positioning/seating height, etc. between the two.
Basically how much more performance can you really get out of the Ufs over the Encores in a reasonably setup room with high quality, highly reviewed electronics/amps/connections?? Or is it just a a slightly different overall sound presentation. More than a personal taste difference?
I called Tekton the other day. Haven't had a chance to talk to Eric himself to see what he would recommend for my situation, or what he would say about Encore vs. Ulfberhts (If anyone has had that conversation and cares to comment, please do) but the lady on the phone said someone recently sent back their Encores in exchange for the new Moabs, which are also getting a lot of critical praise for their ability.
Yes, as a current double impact owner, I think you I cant go too wrong with any option. Just waxing details here before I ultimately buy one of theses to upgrade the DIs.
yes, good transformers are important. but it's not like the transformers in the decware zen taboo were shoddy. https://6moons.com/audioreviews/decware/taboo_2.html it was simply that they're set up at 4 ohms, and have unusually low input sensitivity. this should have been a red flag, and steve deckert could have been more forthright when i queried him about how they'd match w/my 14 ohm speakers. but in fact, it seems his answer will depend on who's asking the question, and what steve wants them to hear. i have emails from steve about this; when i told steve about my results, he said he knew why my set-up wasn't working (w/my high-gain preamp), and added:
"
The Taboo is ideally suited for 8 ohm speakers. It will do 4 ohm and 16 ohm, but would rather see 16 ohms then 4. I’m not sure how the 6 moons review got listed as lower is better. While that is true with many of our amps, it is not true with the Taboo."
i explained to him that srajan got those results w/the taboo working better on his 6 ohm vs 12 ohm zu's, and that steve told him it was to be expected. so, i asked him i'd love to hear why he thinks the taboo's didn't work in my set-up. i never heard back from him. ;~)
Thank you for your informative reply. It is a true compliment that those inexpensive tube amplifiers worked so well with your two high caliber resolving speakers. Once again an example of the importance of a well chosen output transformer.
amps i used to drive the coincident victory’s to loud enough to drive you out of the room worked because they were not 4 ohm only amps. a true 4 ohm 4wpc amp (like the decware amp i tried) will put out a little over 1wpc into a 14 ohm load.
two amps were custom-made home-brew amps i got off ebay - one made by a hobbyist in germany; the other by a chinese gentleman living in australia. (if you do a websearch on "mcchanson Web Page" you’ll find the aussie’s work; the german has a webpage - http://www.goldstrom.de/ )
digging thru my old records indicates it’s the zen taboo amp i owned; rated 6wpc into 4 ohms, not 4wpc; which means that it’s putting out something like 1.7w into 14 ohms. even srajan ebaen, who reviewed this amp, said it didn’t drive his 12 ohm zu’s very well, much preferring the 6 ohm model.
pricewise, the zen retailed for ~$1k, the almarro for ~$800. my other amps were way less; $300 shipped for the german amp being the most expensive. they all crushed the decware in performance, all sounding absolutely fabulous. they all also sound great on my oris 150 horns, w/fostex drivers...
I'm curious. Were the 3 other 4 watt amplifiers bigger/heavier than the 4 watt Decware amp? I suspect the more capable 4 watt amps had beefier power supplies as well as larger and better quality output transformers. Were these amps SET, SEP or push pull? A 'good' quality well built 4 watt amp should be able to drive a 14 ohm load/ 97 db sensitive speaker to at least reasonable levels (As the 3 other amps were able to do).
@bourcier - i had a very bad experience w/steve deckert a few years back. at the time, i had some very efficient 97db/1w coincident victory's. steve assured me that one of his low power ~4wpc amps (i forget which model) would have no problem driving them - even tho his amp was 4 ohms, and the victory's were 14 ohms. it seemed to me that his amp would only be making ~1.3w into a 14 ohm load.
well, i was right; fortunately the amp i bought was used, and i was able to unload it w/o taking a bath; but it was a total waste of my time. the amp wouldn't even get to normal listening levels when fully cranked, let alone loud. and i had three other 4wpc amps to compare, that had no problem driving the speakers to louder than comfortable levels. i can't say i trust deckert all that much...
@bourcier I've only oggled their website a few times. I was drawn to the 25th Anniversary Super Zen Triode 6wpc monoblocks (how could you not want a pair after reading that marketing material, 😁), but I fear atleast15wpc might be really the minimum the Encores need to sound decent with enough low-end extension.
I never looked at his other offerings, but I kind of like the guy. He's very passionate about audio and it shows in his product information.
@cooThe Audio Mirrors @Sedond/Doug recommends are another high powered SET option as well. They're made in the USA at a very fair price. I've not heard them yet personally to offer any input on them delivering SET-like goosebumps and magic especially utilizing that russian 6c33c pentode being ran in triode mode. They are very beautiful amps though and definitely are a well thought out design considering their necessary protection system to prevent malfunctions if the tube decides to malfunction. I considered a similiar pair using that tube made by a one-off manufacturer in NJ. The amps were made in Vietnam, unbeknownst to me, and were very poorly made, even after a tech went through them and getting them working he just looked at me and told me to return them because they were of a poor design and were highly distorted way short of their rated power. It was at this time I noticed the Audio Mirrors. I reached out to the builder's Audiogon ad, but didn't hear back and around that time I discovered the Allnic A6000 Monoblocks and I decided to pounce on them.
If you go that route please chime in and let us know how you like them!
if you want to bi-amp, the way to do it is with an active crossover set at 40-100hz, (depending on room and speakers), and a pair of subwoofers driven by solid state or class-d amp. unless a conventional speaker's normal bi-amp x-over point is 100hz or less, i'd stick w/identical amps if bi-amping...
imo, of course. 😉 and, if you have room, i'd recommend going to actively crossed subs even if your main speakers go deep. that's because most speakers that can dig even into the 20 hz frequencies have their first x-over point anywhere between 300hz-1khz. and if they don't have to see that last 40-100 hz, the mains themselves will sound better, as well as the low bass sounding better. and the amps driving the mains will also thank you! probably a lot, if they're set amps? 😉
@coot Well, bass is subjective. I'm not a bass head to begin with. My Allnics provide ~10db of feedback and possesses ~10db damping to produce very tight, accurate, and even prodigious deep bass on thunderous deep house or on kodo drums for instance. It's quite gut punching good. Most SETS are zero feedback designs, so they may approximate the deepest bass without the absolute control and slam that solid-state has to offer. If your budget allowed I'd highly recommend the Line Magnetic 508ia 48WPC 805 SET amp for about $4600. It's a premium quality piece with gobs of SET magic and way more power than you'll get from most low powered 300b SET amps. Again, the Encores are 96db sensitive and 48wpc will get you plenty of amplitude whether it be bass or otherwise. I really enjoyed that piece and at its price point its a relative bargain for such powerful SET amp. Taylor at Goldprint Audio can help you. He's near me in NC, but maybe theirs a dealer closer to you. If I can get by with 15wpc, you could be in hog heaven with 48 glorious watts per channel. Regardless which way you go, I'm sure you're going to love the Encores, regardless. Glwys ☺
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