Tekton Design's new THE PERFECT SET equals "goosebumps time"

@ ketchup
That's exactly what I am doing is posting what I want as should everyone else. That doesn't change the facts they need to get a life.

First off...two thumbs up for Mapman !


Second … If someone is truly building a speaker for SET low powered amps , why don't they design the speaker with a higher impedance than 8
ohms ? Why not 10 , 12 or 16 ohms ? 


Three...Teajay lists these speakers at 100 db. efficiency , Tekton's website lists them at 96 db. ? Several other reviewers have stated that 
they figure Tekton's to be several points lower than what is claimed by the manufacturer . As someone else has stated , a few points make a big difference in this situation .

Looking forward to reading Teajays comparison of the two that he has recently reported on here . A truly low powered amp friendly speaker for @ $2,000 sure would be nice !

Just saying... please no flames !

ketchup

Anyone should be able to post whatever they want.

To the extent that the post is on topic and not profane, I agree completely.

 ... If anything, it's the moderation/censoring that's a unacceptable.

I have found the moderation here to be excellent and have not seen or experienced anything that would justify calling it  "censoring."

Profane and off-topic posts deserve to be deleted. Otherwise, every thread results in a free-for-all.

 I guess its easier to join than get your posts removed  YAY !

 Why "WAS" BE so bad ? Not so much now?
  As a Consumer I like to be informed on my purchases !

mofojo, Anyone should be able to post whatever they want.  We are all capable of doing our our filtering and taking what we want from the thread.  If anything, it's the moderation/censoring that's a unacceptable.

@kosst_amojan --  I'm just curious how many high end companies you can name who offer a sixty-day trial period to audition equipment, and will pay shipping both ways?

I have auditioned cables, a preamp, an amp, and, if my memory serves, at least one DAC over the years. I sometimes had a week--two weeks at the most--to audition, and without exception I paid the return shipping if I did not wind up buying what I was sent. That seemed fair enough to me. But now it has the Tekton detractors clutching their pearls?

To suggest that this policy somehow reflects poorly on the company is frankly silly.

Yes, and they will always take an extra few hundred dollars off the refund because of dust on the bottom of the cabinet!

I'm not a hater, but I most certainly DID try out a set of DI's with upgrades and promptly sent them back. 300 bucks...ouch. They were alright, but that tweeter array wasn't nearly as clean and detailed as the Ascend Acoustics Towers I was trying them against . No comparison. There was a whole bunch of midrange available, but as my wife proclaimed,  " a whole lot of nuthin" . I ended up with Legacys, and am glad I tried those Tektons. I'm also glad I sent them back …    

Snapsc

That was a nice dissertation from Jim salk on his using the Satori BE. HE NEVER SAID BE WAS HORRID AS A MATERIAL FOR A TWEETER !
 DID he?     This industry has a memory like an elephant.   .

 

 I never said SB has poor drivers. If Tekton uses a $53 midwoofer Retail and it plays their intended pass band so be it. Bigger companies have purchasing power and can have drivers custom made with differing magnets and voice coil winding.

 Huge claims by the pom pomers claiming they beat $30k speakers is Typical Internet sales on these forums. Distributors allow demos and proof by direct head to head comparison. 

 

 

+1 eag618
Haha. Had to screenshot that before its deleted! 

When the big Tekron thread first appeared, I pointed out Tektons past practices and was slammed by the fanboys and I am sure my posts have been  removed. He apparently had a family crisis at the time which seemed awful but a personal crisis does not give one a license to screw people over.  He still owes my buddy some money!

Hmm....if I was researching which new component to audition would I be better off taking advice from internet trolls or teajay?Probably teajay and others who are knowledgeable and are able to articulate the pros and cons of various products without being hateful and snarky.
I'm looking forward to reading the review.I've had nothing but good experiences with Eric and Tekton.

Good God how I love that the Tekton posts draw out the sensitive haters on this board. If Tekton's only disruption in the industry is another 5000+ post thread on this forum, then I wish them all the luck in the world.

@cap
On the issue of using "average drivers" at the end of the day its about achieving the voicing that Tekton wants...and if they can do it with lower cost drivers....which keeps product cost down...and still have a lot of happy customers...no big deal as I see it.  Probably those that spend $3k on a DI know they aren't getting a $20k Wilson...either because they can't afford it or because they can't justify the difference in sound.
As for the BE tweeter....I've been following Jim Salk's thread on another forum and here is what he has to say:
"When the first Be tweeters finally came on the market, we were very excited to get our hands on them for testing purposes. The first sample we got our hands on measured extremely well and we were anxious to use it in the next model speaker we developed. Unfortunately, that company lost the only employee who knew how to build these tweeters and discontinued them.

The Satori tweeter we eventually used was from a company (SB Acoustics) with some very good engineers and a reputation for producing great drivers at reasonable prices. So we jumped on the Satori Be tweeter as soon as it became available and never looked back.

It turns out that the speaker we happened to be working on at the time was the Song3 BeAT. That is why this model ended up with the Be tweeter rather than the RAAL we would have used in other circumstances.

Imagine the accuracy and sound of the RAAL with the off-axis response of a dome tweeter. That, in essence is what you have. Both are GREAT tweeters and we wouldn't hesitate using either one of them in a new design.

There are some applications that would benefit slightly from the Be tweeter and some that would benefit slightly from the RAAL tweeter. But I look at them as being more similar than different in terms of performance."
So...I think as a designer...Eric has a right to change his mind...especially if he hears something that he think will improve his products....and no doubt, he probably had some customers that wanted a Be tweeter...and so he found a way to give it to them.

As for the stated db...if you believe Stereophile...almost all loudspeakers have an overstated sensitivity....again...not that big of a deal.

From an overall perspective, it just seems that the value perspective for those that don't prefer any of the Tekton products would be to flip the narrative and spend a lot more energy on the positive aspects of the products they do prefer...just sayin...
Bottom line...I'm headed to the Florida Audio Expo this weekend....and I'm sure I'm going to hear a lot of really great products....no guarantee that they will sound good in my home....no guarantee with my equipment that they will sound better than what I already have....but in spite of what a reviewer says or what I read on various forums...I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I have to be able to try it in my home (and return it if I don't like it) before I'll buy it...with one exception, Audiogon preowned...the risk then is all mine.

Snapc
 That post was removed ! HMMM ..
 I guess its a fine line on how you word your truth on here ! 

   I guess you need to as they say "Read between the lines"

 Lets just say that under   very controlled  conditions . All 4 of us foolish audiophiles were not impressed with them, One did go listen to the same model at another place with high current amps and left less than impressed. Their claims of HIGH db is way off ! They use average drivers that are off the shelf. I know the SB guys well and have dealt with some of their best drivers which they do not use. Tekton  DID have a page long Diatribe about BE being a inferior material as a tweeter and SUDDENLY , THEY CHANGED their tune .

  I guess selling with no distributors , one needs a platform somewhere !

your all way to serious,
I have the Tekton Impact Monitors used in my secondary rig. 
Paired with Pass XA25 and LTA Pre and modest sub
sound is really enjoyable. checks all the audiophile boxes for me,as
well as being Musical And Just plain Fun to listen to.
IMHO they are great Value at 2K. 

Just ny 2cents Thx

@Cap
Serious question...why would Teajay...or anyone else for that matter, give up their $20,000 speakers just to get a $4000 discount (estimated) on speakers that weren't as good?  Presumably, he could afford the $20,000 speaker (maybe they cost him $13,000) but even so, why would he or anyone switch to something that isn't as good.

As you will see if you look up my profile...I own Tekton Lores which I purchased several years ago....love them...sound much more like live music than the Quads I owned before them...but that's just a change in my preference over time.
I see you own Wilsons...great speakers that everyone acknowledges are great speakers....so what is it about Tekton that bugs you so much?

@teajay, so how does Zu compare to the Tekton ? Also how different will my 12wpc SEP sound Vs a true SET ? This is pretty vague question , but I’m asking with sincerity , Mike B. 

I traded for a like new pair of Pendragons a couple of years ago (with all the upgrades it was around $4,000 retail).  You can see my pair on Tektons facebook.  Its the pair with dual 14" woofers, with the owner standing next to them. I got brand new boxes from Tekton.  Tektons packaging is the absolute worst packaging I have ever seen on a product in this price range.  I never knew cardboard can be so thin.  They use a super thin cardboard box, about 1" of styrofoam around the whole speaker, and a plastic bag around the speaker.  Thats it.  Styrofoam even seemed cheap, as it was broken into pieces when Fedex delivered the speakers to me. Surprisingly speakers arrived in great shape.  The finish was really nice Mercedes pearl black.  Pretty much flawless.  I used them for about a month, and sold them.  Took awhile to sell them.  With all the Tekton fans out there, I was surprised nobody wanted them.  I basically gave them away to a local buyer.  Two things I couldnt stand about them.  One is they have no bass whatseover.  I cant understand how a designer can build such a large speaker and have no bass.  Two is the efficiency was nowhere near what was rated.  If I remember right, they were around 95db efficient.  I had another speaker that was 94db efficient in the same room and played much louder at the same volume level.  The guy that bought them from me, didnt like them either and put them up for sale.  He couldnt sell them, and eventually one of the tweeters blew, and I believe he was never able to sell them, at least that was the last I heard.  For the money, Tekton speakers are ok.  They are built nicely, and had a real nice paint job on them.  They are made in the USA. They just sounded too thin for a speaker this large.  Packaging doesnt mean much, other than to get the product to you safely, but it shows how much a company cares about its products when it is packed well.  Efficiency was not what was stated.  There are lots of speakers I would rather own.  They definitely dont beat, or even come close to any speakers in the $20-$30k range like some people are saying.  Theres actually speakers in the $4k range I would much rather own.  

Guess I'm not the only one tired of you promoting this speaker line.on Audiogon...Give it break,please!

Just to be clear, there’s a lot of difference between 96 dB and 100 dB.

Oz

I’ve heard Tekton’s once (double Impacts) at CAF 2017 and they sounded good enough to definitely rate as contenders in their price range. Their unique thing is physically a lot of tube-amp friendly speaker for not as many bucks as other "high end" contenders which is a nice value proposition for many tube amp loving audiophiles. Yes and made in the good old USA.

BTW Zu prices seem to have  really skyrocketed in recent years.  Am I off base there?

Based on the patent wording (According to additional implementations of the invention, a very low mass mid-range and high frequency type transducer is specifically dedicated to reproducing efficiently the overtone spectra contained in music) I'd say that what is being Protected/Covered by the patent is (polygon-oriented, triple-ring radiator high frequency array).

Reading through the various Tekton threads...its clear that some people like this new array and are buying Tekton products...others don't....no big deal and no surprise...not everyone loves Wilson or Goldenear or Manepan or KEF or (fill in the blank here....).

What is a little weird (compared to other product threads) is that those who dislike Tekton are so vocal....and at the same time don't spend a lot of time promoting their preferred product.....again, no big deal...but maybe a little frustrating???


We all know that just because Teajay likes it doesn't guarantee that it will sound good in our rooms....but any time someone does comparisons with other products...WE all now have more points to triangulate to help make better decisions.

Why is that a good thing?  Because if like me, you live 2000 miles away from a guy who is going to ship you big speakers you may not like...you may save yourself $400 in return freight after the 30 days are up.

I'm with Mapman thinking we should all be more open to reviews and comparisons that may help us keep costs down....and again...keep products made in America!!!


One more thing....you might have noticed that people who have reviewed multiple Goldenear, KEF, Magnepan, Tekton, etc. and like one of them like most of their other products....probably because of similar voicing and not because of something  nefarious.

Yeah that's what I thought at first too. But I kept wading on through. Buried in all the lawyerly boilerplate and tedious patent lingo is the real substance. In plain English, its an array.

In astronomy, an array of relatively small radiotelescopes performs better and at lower cost than one large radiotelescope. Same goes for conventional optical telescopes where an array of cells are aligned to perform as one much larger mirror. It costs a lot less to make the smaller mirrors, they can be made more accurately, and with less risk per mirror.

If this seems unrelated, well stop and think about it. The bigger mirror has the same problems of maintaining precisely the same shape as the cone of a driver. Mass needs to be kept low. Stiffness and stability high. You want both to perform as if they are big, when the laws of physics dictate smaller is better. 

They'll be some details to work out. Like the radiotelescope array where they have to correct for what theoretically should be one big curve being on a flat surface, there will be some timing details to perfect. According to the OP they've already got it working pretty damn good. Which considering its such new technology is encouraging.  

I read the entire link and snooze alert, it sounded like a lot of gobbledygook to me. This is coming from a guy with a degree in mechanical engineering. 

Wow!  Low-mass drivers.  Amazing how nobody ever thought of that before.

I think this is it:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9247339B2/en

In the face of Tekton's massive sonic superiority (their 100-strong R&D department cranks out new designs like hotcakes), all other speaker manufacturers should just surrender, pack up shop, and slink away.  I can see no other alternative...

So we're 25-30 posts in and nobody has mentioned what this "breakthrough technology" is.  I guess it's safe to assume that there is no "breakthrough technology".

Hyperbole and comparisons aside, SET owners should be happy whenever any vendor provides a new, more affordable, good quality, high efficiency, easy drive speaker option that is designed specifically to be used to best effect with a SET. The good options are limited and tend to be relatively large and pricey.