Legacy Aeris vs Tekton Ulfberht vs Triton Reference

Glad I was able to provide some insights. Even before covid it was hard to be able to audition stuff, and of course it has only gotten worse. Sometimes reading and forums are about the only research you can do!

I sit pretty far field from the Aeris - 12-13 feet away and my back is against a wall, so my actual listening field isn't fantastic. I'm in a large 15 x 30 room that has a peaked ceiling and is open on either end - imagine a "Z" with the top and bottom being open to other rooms and the middle being the actual listening room. Anyways, even with all of that, I get a nice deep soundstage. I wouldn't say that the width of it is anything crazy - Roger Waters "Amused to Death" is still a couple of feet within the speakers - but the depth is good. By the way, even with all of that air space, the Aeris can pressurize the room as much as you want them too and do it without straining. 

Character is hard to describe, so let me try to tackle that question a different way. I think the strengths of the Aeris are: dynamics, cohesiveness, flexibility, PRaT. They are not wallflower speakers like some brands tend to be. 

I'm not sure what you enjoy listening to the most. I am all over the board myself - I'm listening to Pantera right now, and yesterday I was enjoying Hugh Masekela. I think I am trying to say that if you really like chamber music, single guitar stuff, or ethereal music, I don't know if the Aeris or Tekton would be my top choice. Otherwise, if you tend to enjoy turning it up a little louder on the good songs, and you want to tap your foot, the Aeris might be for you.

I don't think the Wavelet is mandatory, but the on-the-fly flexibility is pretty awesome. The room correction works as advertised, and the room is the biggest contributor to sound. You can toggle it on and off to hear the difference and once you hear the corrected version, its eye opening. I don't think I would go back to running them without it.

Like all great speakers, every time I have upgraded something in front of them, they have gotten better. Amps, source, cables, vibration control, electric outlets - all of those upgrades were noticeable. 

I've had B&W 802 Nautilus, Infinity IRS Betas, Genesis 500s, Lawrence Audio Violins, McIntosh XRT28s, and now these, and I've gotten to listen to a bunch of others along the way (Magico, Wilson, Burmester, Eggleston, Rockport, Tidal, Kharma, etc.) and I think the Aeris are the most well rounded of the bunch for what I listen to and how I listen. Of course I am biased, but there's probably a reason not too many of them pop up used :) 

As you've probably read, it's a good idea to get two subs rather than one, regardless of how well it performs. They will load the room better and help fill nulls. I'm sure some lucky person will be glad to snap up your Brisance as you evolve the system.

Good luck with the decision!

@koslekt1 
thank you for that input. Super helpful. Been hard to find individuals who own the Aeries and will detail their experience. 
What’s your take on the Aeries ability to disappear in front of you and project that holographic image? How would you describe their sonic character? I know the tektons often are described as feeling “live” and have read many comments on their ability to disappear in front of the listener. Something I can appreciate to some degree firsthand with my DIs. Im sure their Moab, Encore, and Ulfberht share that  heritage. 
Not sure how the Legacy Aeries signature stacks up in comparison though. 
What was your experience concerning their abilities before and after the Wavelet? Or is the wavelet sort of a mandatory item for them?


DSP sounds like it could be a valuable tool to overcome room issues. I’m curious about it but haven’t gotten too engrained with that just yet. I’ll see how my room treatment ideas work first I guess. 
My current room is rectangular. Front wall is 19 ft wide, but with a hallway opening On the right so the physical front wall itself is about 13ft. It’s 12 feet deep and 10 feet high. 
Current listening triangle has my DIs about 9.5ft tweeter to tweeter. And listener position is just about 9.5 feet as well. 
My Tekton Brisance subwoofer is an utterly massive sub takes up a huge space on the front wall currently and I’m considering trying to sell that to upgrade to a smaller  Sub that has more flexibility in positioning and May allow a little bit more space between loudspeakers. 

What I care about most in all of this getting a speaker I won’t feel rushed wanting to upgrade. One that gives me a palpable, noticeable improvement over the double impacts. 
Anyone out there bought the legacy speakers and felt they just weren’t for them for any reason? 


I appreciate all the feedback this has generated. Been a fun process learning, seeing where my interests take things. 

Side note, I’m gonna see the Ulfberhts in person today for the first time. Another forum member was willing to let me check them out at his place. Love that. Glad this forum is a source of people willing to share the passion and help grow others interest.  Very cool stuff indeed. 

I can share my experience. I have the Aeris with Wavelet and have heard the DIs a couple of times since then. The DIs are really impressive given their price, so I have to imagine that moving up the line that the quality gets even better. 

The Aeris with Wavelet is also impressive. The room correction is a quality feature and does work - it isn't as aggressive as Lyngdorf I tried in the past, so music still sounds like music. I like having the ability to use an app on my phone to adjust the contours for different sources and different types of music. The DAC seemed as good as the PS Audio Directstream was, so I sold that and use just the Wavelet. 

From everything I have read, room placement is key with the Tekton speakers. The Aeris are seemingly pretty forgiving. The bass section is powered as well, so you can get a lot of flexibility as far as how you power the Aeris AND you can adjust the output on the fly with the app if a track comes on that is a little hot.

I don't think you can go wrong either way, but I thought I would point out some stuff that hasn't been discussed as of yet.

I would love to have a listen to the Triton or the Legacy Aeries. Just not a lot of opportunity to do so.  Anyone in the south FL area have either of these two sets and willing to audition?
Is there a formal place to ask this question anywhere here?

I did, however, find someone gracious enough to host me over to listen and see the Ulfberhts in the area. Very excited about that. 

I need to see with my own eyes their size and determine how much trouble I would be in with the wifey if they mysteriously showed up on the doorstep one afternoon. 

Admittedly with this process I think I am leaning the Tekton route for some of the above mentioned reasons. I may even consider their Encore speaker if the Ulfberhts are just too massive for my taste, space, or spouse. 

I am getting a lot of positive feedback about those as well. Not much bigger than my Double Impacts. 

You are pretty going to be best off with the most efficient speaker if you are sticking to the Prima Luna (which I don't see any reason not to). The Tektons you have are rated at a 99 dB efficiency, so if you look at a speaker that is even 96, it will be noticeably more quiet.

The Tekton stuff is all pretty similar in efficiency, I would stick in that range if you like the DI's. Going down to 95 dB on the Aeris or 93 for the tritons would probably be pretty noticeable.

-Geoff

I am the oddball here as I own the Triton Reference speakers. I have had them since July 2017 and love them more each and every day.  The bass is to die for and you get that large presentation you can’t get with smaller speakers.  The only other speaker I would be interested in but no way could afford are the Legacy Valor speakers. I heard them at Audio Classics with a 300wpc McIntosh amp and a McIntosh tube preamp.  It took like a half hour to get my jaw off the floor. I think it’s Bill Duddlesons masterpiece. 

Legacy Aeris - just very few speakers which can compare at any price and are my speakers (one of many). And since they’re semi-open baffle they have a superb soundstage.  Hard to beat their ribbon tweeters, and the Wavelet DSP resolves all room issues.  

Though... If I were going to spend that kind of money (literally), I’d prolly be considering the https://gtaudioworks.com/speakers (Maggies on steroids with dynamics and bass).

Or... the ATC SCM100asl if you value accuracy and resolution over soundstage (used by the professionals).

I was able to find the Legacy Aeris at a bargain price, which is why I say "if I were going to spend that kind of money" (MSRP).

The Encore's are more refined than the Moab's. Erik will tell you this himself. I have a pair of Encore's but havent used em yet. Definitely a 2 Man operation at about 150 Lb's each. The FEDEX driver was looking at me with Murder in his eyes when he had to drop those off  :)

A consideration; were you to get the Legacy Aeris configured as my Legacy Whispers,  with capacity to be run either active or passive, perhaps even hybrid, you would have a wealth of system building options. Whisper peakers reviewed for Dagogo.com 
Having entire system configurations at your disposal is an advantage not available to most speakers.  
Feel free to see my system and inquire through message.  

Size difference to me seems an insignificant few inches here or there. Compare dims they are pretty close. My impression is the top three are close enough electronics matter more and so you would have to have them side by side in the same system, and even then its no guarantee which one any given person would prefer. Terry does like the Ulfs more, and unfortunately we never even talked about Encores. If you are really close I would ask teajay and then ultimately maybe even call and ask Eric. Hard to see how you go wrong with any of the three.

The others, without hearing any of them I go by reviews and impressions, and sensitivity is a biggie, and so those others never even made my radar. Or at any rate not memorably. Search around though I'm sure there's comments from people who have owned them all. Its just a matter of sifting through all the threads....

@millercarbon 
So did you end up buying the Moabs? 
Either way, that is super helpful insight. Thank you for sharing that info. 
The UFs are physically massive and would be quite a stretch for my significant other to swallow in our average sized 19x12  x 10 ft ceiling movie/listening room.

Now after checking the Tekton website, I'm curious where the Encore model fits in between the Moab and the UFs sonically...and more importantly, how either the moab or encore fare against the above mentioned Triton and Legacy units. 

I'd narrowed my search down to Ulfs. Was pretty much ready to order Ulfs. Called Terry since he had a pair, and had also reviewed Moabs. Immediately he said get the Moabs. Very nearly the same in every way just the Ulfs have a tiny bit better bass, in the small mid bass region covered by the extra drivers. Doesn't regret having his but just not worth the 2X upcharge. Pestered him with questions. Like I said, pretty much had my mind made up to get Ulfs. Terry talked me out of them. Not by saying anything negative about the Ulfs. Simply they are twice the price but only slightly better. 

I got a similar impression, albeit indirectly, from Eric. Rather than asking about a direct comparison I was asking him about the drivers and caps etc used. He said the Ulf does use a better tweeter. But also said you would probably not be able to hear the difference- but its there. His exact words. 

Consequently as I put it to Terry, the Ulf is better. But for the same money I could have Moabs and a Raven Osprey, which together would be better than the Ulf with my Melody. So its the classic yeah its better but do you want the best in value or a little better but twice the price?

Either way they are all a huge step up from DI.

Yeah, I've definitely read those reviews which makes them seem like a very viable option. Hard not to think such thoughts when professional audio reviewers have such raving reviews and decided to purchase the speakers themselves. 

But how much better would they be over the other options, or even their little brothers the DIs. 

Some great choices, so not sure any is a wrong one. I own, but Havnt yet heard the Ulfers, I had considered the Tritons, and also thought about the Legacy's, which I’d also get the Wavelet if I had gone that direction. Two professional reviewers thought enough of the Ulfers that they each purchased their review samples. One, Terry London post in this forum regularly under the name Teajay I believe. You could always pm him for his thoughts with your choices, he always seems willing to help answer questions.