NEW Tekton Design Speakers - The Bonnevilles

@carlsbad2 I am not a fanboy of any brand...

But, you gotta give some credit when it’s due. When I briefly owned the Double Impacts, I tore it down and it took me quite a while to simulate it/understand what he’d done with the crossover, etc..even the small I delay I thought he had in there to mimic a baffle curve, etc. There is no unnecessary complexity, but he made it work ingeniously.. I’d rather not get into it too much of what i recall...on a open forum, as it is their in-house design.

It is funny watching the ’all knowing’ hater van criticising the array all day, as if it were the stupidest thing on earth.

Here’s monitor audio trying to do the same now. It looks like the monitor audio engineering crew has been busy tearing down a few tektons and studying it...

https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/blog/introducing-m-array/

Get prepared for the sticker shock though when monitor audio reveals the price tag on their plagiarized offering.

I am certain there’s a razor thin margin on Tekton speakers or he barely makes any money selling his speakers. In consideration of an underdog non-greedy (fatalistic even) brand made in the USA, I’ll willing to keep the hater van in check from time to time.

He’s maybe the American version of Andrew Jones.

Good to see the Tekton haters are still thriving here but also nice to see the Tekton supporters aren’t afraid to post like ther were a few years ago.

Jerry

@deep_333 I don’t think he has such razor thin margins when it gets to the bottom line. He makes the speakers to be 98% function over form. He builds them to sound good first, and keeps the form simple and paints them himself with relatively inexpensive paint. He has a strong following, spends very little on advertising and doesn’t do shows. People who hear them at friends homes go buy them. This keeps his bottom line healthy. Keeping prices down doesn’t appeal to the high end audiophile, who likes to brag about how much his system costs. Not putting $10K of hardwood into a $5K speaker doesn’t appeal to those who have to decorate their listening room to look like a mansion in a movie set. But for a lot of high end users, they fit nicely. And except for here on Audiogon, they are generally accepted.

And oh yeah, is is a very sharp guy (technically) who designs a great sounding speaker. I’d say his biggest flaw is boredom. He keeps designing new models because that is what he enjoys. He has too many models.

His small driver midrange is one of the best sounding out there. too bad to see it being stolen by others. I don’t know enough about patent law to really comment on that.

Jerry

@carlsbad2 Monitor Audio is a UK company, no recourse for a US ...well... don’t know if he went through the hassle of EPO for Europe after his US patents were granted, not to mention the Brexit complication, etc

I agree on "many models" in the catalog as well and not much guidance provided on what’s what for the curious onlooker....There is a category of persons who need to stay busy pretty much all day...or they’d drive themselves nuts

I’d say his biggest flaw is boredom. He keeps designing new models because that is what he enjoys. He has too many models.

His small driver midrange is one of the best sounding out there. too bad to see it being stolen by others. I don’t know enough about patent law to really comment on that.

Jerry

No matter if you are an old fart or a family driving a minivan (who would drive such a thing) or own any type of car, looks are a big part of the purchase. I own expensive sports cars and there are ugly sports cars for hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars or great sports cars that look great for $100k on up. 
I thought the old tektons were ugly, but these new 1’s are even uglier. 
I’ve never liked their concept of putting many tweeters in an array to make them midranges. All my speakers have 1 or 2 midrange drivers, 1 tweeter and 1 or more woofers in an enclosure.

Is this OP really MC?

While Tekton has popularized the concept with their unique implementations, the general idea of using M-array (multiple drivers array) to achieve specific sound characteristics  such as enhanced imaging and dispersion predates Tekton or the US patent 9247339 Tekton applied in 2016. 

The most recent examples are (1) the Tannoy VLS 15, a passive column array of transducers introduced around 2015, and (2) the McIntosh XR100, first manufactured in 2012.

If you review the details of patent US9247339, under which Tekton speakers are made, the specific hexagonal M-array design that Monitor Audio (MA) adopted for the tweeter/midrange component of their Hyphn speaker was not explicitly documented. Furthermore, MA’s array is embedded well under a cover and does not resemble a hexagonal shape. The overall speaker design is significantly well more innovative above Tekton.

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ef/3b/8b/91cfa120a70f05/US9247339.pdf

@lanx0003 Oh, yeah what’s this??

http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f7/df/0c/5a092b768e0704/US10805715.pdf

Nice try, but, you knew very well this was out there , right?

While Tekton has popularized the concept with their unique implementations, the general idea of using M-array (multiple drivers array) to achieve specific sound characteristics such as enhanced imaging and dispersion predates Tekton or the US patent 9247339 Tekton applied in 2016.

If you review the details of patent US9247339, under which Tekton speakers are made, the specific hexagonal M-array design that Monitor Audio (MA) adopted for the tweeter/midrange component of their Hyphn speaker was not explicitly documented. Furthermore, MA’s array is embedded well under a cover and does not resemble a hexagonal shape. The overall speaker design is significantly well more innovative above Tekton.

Really? monitor audio put it under a cover and got real innovative, huh?.... hogwash, you couldn’t spin it any other way. At least, they are trying to hide what they stole a bit.

Can not open this...

http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f7/df/0c/5a092b768e0704/US10805715.pdf

Also, I mean the "overall" (read more carefully) speaker design is more innovative than the boxy Tek. Isn’t it.

He seems to have well more than one patent.

Start with this one.. (download pdf, RHS)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US10805715B2/

and here's a list.

https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Eric+Jay+Alexander

Can not open this...

http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f7/df/0c/5a092b768e0704/US10805715.pdf

Also, I mean the "overall" (read more carefully) speaker design is more innovative than the boxy Tek. Isn’t it.

O brother. Monitor Audio should not be mentioned in the same sentence as these Home Depot monstrosities.

Now I see.  Thanks.  The website only mentions "Made under U.S. Patent 924733".  That is why.

Well, just as you mentioned earlier, Eric only applied for a US patent, which is not applicable worldwide. This means it has no bearing on whether MA infringes on his intellectual property. Additionally, it seems Eric registered the entire 'embodiment' of the components, including the MTM and woofers, for each speaker model in the production line, rather than the individual MTM. It’s unclear whether mimicking just the MTM portion would infringe on the patent rights.

I would wager that the sonic comparison would be that of a mack truck running over a pretty li'l pinata.

But, it's better to go with the pretty li'l pinata than making alimony payments, i suppose.

O brother. Monitor Audio should not be mentioned in the same sentence as these Home Depot monstrosities.