@tektondesign the dealer where I bought my Gryphon amp also carries B&W, during the auditions I was doing with various amps, the 801 D4s were among the speakers used, some others were from Sonus Faber, Estelon, YG Acoustics and Borreson. I didn't end up buying the 801s only because they were too big for my room, FYI they competed easily with speakers twice their price. BTW B&W make their own drivers and cabinets, even some of the crossover parts. That you feel it necessary to denigrate the 801s and by extention B&W generally to persuade us that Tekton is a superior manufacturer is a big red flag for me. Prior to your comments here I would have been open to auditioning Tekton speakers if easily accessible - now you couldn't pay me to.
Stereophile review of the $30,000 tekton speakers
We have had many discussions/arguments over tekton speakers in the past, mainly involving a couple posters who thought their $4000 tektons sounded better than the highest price Wilson’s and other high budget speakers.
In the latest Stereophile magazine, they did a review of the $30,000 tekton’s. In this Steteophile issue, they rate these $30,000 tekton’s as class B. When you look at the other speakers that are in the class B section, you will notice most of these speakers range in price from $5000-$8000. So it looks like you have to spend $30,000 on a pair of tekton’s to equal a pair of $5000 Klipsch Forte IV’s sound quality.
If I compare these $30,000 class B tekton’s, to some of the class A speakers, there are some class A speakers for 1/2 the price (Dutch & Dutch 8C, Goldenear triton reference), or other class A speakers that are cheaper (Magico A5, Kef blade 2).
Showing 2 responses by kairosman
@dayglow yup, and the underlying dig is that 5 out of 10 audiophiles who like me would still choose to spend $50K on B&Ws instead of $8K on Tektons are audiophools of the highest order given the obvious cost savings for a "superior" speaker. The arrogance and ignorance are truly breathtaking, borderline narcissism actually. One thing I want to share with the community about my eventual choice of speaker after my extensive auditions is that I ended up buying the 804 D4s for less than $12K new from the dealer. It ended up being one of the few speakers that didn't overload my room. The other speaker I had narrowed down the choices to was the YG Acoustics Vantage 3 at $50K. It was a toss up paired with the Gryphon amp I bought between the 804 and Vantage sonically speaking for my ears, the lows and highs are more resolved with the Vantage but the 804 has a more substantial midrange, and for my musical tastes it was a better fit. The D4 version of the 804 is on another sonic planet from the D3 and at the time I purchased it was one of the very best values in hifi for speakers, of course just my opinion lol. |