Stereophile review of the $30,000 tekton speakers

You go out of the country for a while without internet and people ask where is the OP.

What else is there to say? You have a magazine that would probably still give the Bose 901’s an A rating because they never say anything negative about a component. I only use the trade magazines to see what’s new. 

I’ve been attending audio shows for over 25 years (CES/THE SHOW, RMAF, Tampa Expo, and others. I heard the tekton speakers at rmaf before covid hit. It happened to be in a room where we left after a couple minutes because we didn’t like the sound. I can’t remember what source equipment was used but the speakers had a dozen tweeters and a couple of woofers.
Then later on, you had a guy on agon claiming that any tekton speaker would fit in perfectly into anybody’s audio setup, recommending tekton without even hearing them 1st.  This same person was claiming that his cheaper tekton speakers were better than the $1M Wilson’s which he never heard. So when I read the review of the $30k tekton’s and saw the rating group the magazine put it in, not only did the $30k tekton speakers fall short at competing against some of the best speakers made, it has a lot of competition from speakers costing 1/4 their price.

Even without hearing these $30k speakers, I would disagree that they sound exceptionally good for the price, and the magazine rating confirms this too. That was the saying for most tekton speakers, tekton sounded good for their price. I have listed in the past many speakers I thought sounded better than the tekton’s I heard at rmaf, and most of the speakers I like better are cheaper.

As for using beryllium, that’s not new technology. Ushers had beryllium tweeters over 15 years ago and I didn’t buy them back then because of the tweeter. As soon as usher started using the DMD diamond tweeter, I bought a couple pairs. Usher now uses a diamond midrange which is a game changer in their newer models. 

I don’t agree with the poster that states audiophiles buy expensive speakers mainly for their looks. I would disagree for a number of reasons:

1) if you can afford a pair of $30k speakers, you probably have a dedicated audio room. I buy audio components for their sound quality 1st, looks come in around 4th or 5th reason. You have system synergy, speaker to amp compatibility, speaker to room size, etc.. before looks comes into the picture

2) most of my listening is done in the dark. 
3) there are some speaker designs that would never get spousal approval and they are some of the best sounding speakers in the world, for example the top tier Wilson’s, Magico, and others.

On the other hand, there are speakers that are very very good sonically and gorgeous to look at: Usher speakers for example. 

When you go to an audio show, you better bring your “A” game, no excuses. You are saying that if something sounds bad, it’s not the fault of the product? 

I also want to bring up the multiple reviews done by other audio reviewers that actually tested the specs of different Tekton speakers and were found they measured bad. So in 2 of these cases that were done this year, Eric from Tekton threatened legal action against them stating the measurement was done wrong. If it was done wrong, Tekton never told the reasons why they were done wrong. The issue with the feet, I don’t buy that either because 2 favorable reviews of the same model didn’t have the feet installed and Tekton posts these accolades on their website, or they did. In this YouTube, they indicated this has happened before.

Look at this YouTube, a must watch:

I don’t care about measurements, nor do I care about reviewers opinions, I use my ears. I do look at specs from the vendor and it’s me that determines if theirs synergy amongst the pieces. 
I’m glad that these 4 guys came out with this YouTube video. I also looked at the positive reviews of these speakers that were talked about and the positive reviews did not have the feet installed, but the negative reviews were in question because there were no feet installed. You don’t get it both ways.

I have seen prior rebuttals from vendors that disagreed with some of these reviewers but they came back with valid reasons why it measured the way it did. Then the customer can decide who they will side with. I never heard of a manufacturer threatening a reviewer. All reviewers must have an umbrella insurance package to make sure they won’t go under from these frivolous threats.

“Like anything in life, value diminishes as you go up the ladder.”

You must not have heard any good speakers. I can list numerous speakers in the $3k-$10k range that would blow away the double impacts.

I suggest that you attend a few good audio shows that have good systems starting with a few grand and work your way up to the $250-$500k systems and then tell me if there isn’t a huge difference in sound quality. I have speakers in the high 5 digit range and there are some very good speakers in the low 6 digit range that are better.