Tekton Double Impacts

Well, I have completed the upgrade of my Tekton DI speakers. I purchased them used and they came with the $300 upgrade package. Before my upgrade I preferred my heavily modified Acoustic Zen Crescendo speakers. The Crescendo speakers had more bloom, sonic beauty and what I call refined maturity. I had to decide if I should just sell the DI speakers or take a chance on upgrading them and hopefully loving the outcome. I decided the “bones” of the DI design was so good that I could extract better performance in the areas important to me. I wanted more body, bloom, refinement and bass. I desired more meat on the bones and no hint of thinness at all. I wanted the upper mids presented with a tad more harmonic richness, bloom and flesh.

Make no mistake, the DI speaker is a fantastic speaker as is....period. However, this fantastic speaker needed to better suit me in the areas listed above. I love the dynamic impact and resolution of the speaker and really saw huge potential in these gems. So I sold my AZ speakers and started this 40 hour project that I will outline for all here.

Please know that I use a Lyngdorf 2170 and to my ears it has outperformed every other “system” I have had in my home. The 2170 is a system and works magically with the DI speaker. The combo is very, very special. I can confidently say the DI speaker will sound exactly as the builder intended with the 2170 in your listening space.

After some 40 hours of work and $1800, I can emphatically state the DI speaker, in my home, outperforms every speaker I have owned including my beloved AZ Crescendo speakers.
They best my Crescendo speakers in every sonic attribute I can think of post upgrade. So what was done to the mighty Tekton?

I did what each and every owner has been talking about in this thread. These speakers reveal what’s ahead of them and any small change is easily noticed and appreciated. Folks here are spending good money on amps, preamps, dacs and wire to extract nice gains in sound. The first place to look, in my DIY opinion, is under the hood of the DI speaker. These parts are greatly impacting performance folks. They, like all things, can make a big difference as the DI speaker will reveal their shortcomings or greatness. Yes, just like a nice amp......only far more so.

Your DI speaker use electrolytic capacitors in key crossover positions and are certainly keeping these speakers from sounding their best. Positions such as in series with the all important 6.5 inch midrange drivers. In a very important shunt position impacting the signal being sent to the outer ring 6 tweeters down the line. Sand cast resistors in series with the all important tweeter array. These are noisy and not as refined sounding as a good quality Mills MRA or Path Audio resistor. The internal wire is ok, nothing special. This speaker is the single best candidate I have run across for some DIY TLC. Eric’s design is amazing and brilliant. He really has no choice but to use electrolytic caps due to space and cost constraints that are real and understandable. The 220uf cap in series to the midrange drivers and the 68uf shunt cap just before the array are such big value caps that replacing them with film will cost a lot of money and take up a great deal of space. I had to place the highs/mids XO board externally as the capacitors were so large. The original board is just behind the tweeter array and 6.5 inch drivers. No way the new board would fit there or even in the bass cavity. Placing it in the bass cavity would stuff that area with too many parts reducing the internal bass cab space and exposing the XO components to too much vibration.

The link below is chock full of pictures of the upgrade and includes a diagram of the crossover network in my particular set of speakers. My set used different cap and resistor values compared to a set made several months earlier.My set also contained an additional inductor on the tweeter array not found in other DI speakers. Bottom line is your set may or may not match mine. These seem to be undergoing continual fine tuning which is somewhat understandable.

The top three tweeters are connected to the bottom three in series and out of phase. In my set some of the outer ring 6 tweeters-play slightly differing frequency loads. This was not true of another set made a couple of months earlier. I love the sound of the XO design in my set and the upgrade results are stellar.

Here is a parts list of the upgrade. The diagram included in the link below clearly shows where the parts go. You can certainly choose different parts and get amazing results. These parts were chosen to stay within budget and deliver the results I wanted.

New drivers. (These were purchased from Parts Express on sale and the driver baskets were damped with two layers of Soundcoat damping sheets available at Sound Craft. The pictures show this step.

Eminence Beta 10a woofers
Eminence Beta 6a 6.5 inch midrange drivers

Wire,

I used over 60 meters of Duelund stranded copper wire in oil impregnated cotton. 16 gauge on the woofers and mids and 20 gauge on the tweeter array. The speakers are tall and the XO board located externally, thus over 60 meters of wire was needed. The drivers are not wired in a daisy chain manner, but rather each 6.5 inch and 10 inch woofer are wired individually to the XO board. The builder did this right, but more wire is needed.

Crossover parts,

220uf cap - 3 Mundorf Evo Oil caps in parallel (100uf, 100uf, 22uf). These are 3 inches tall and expensive. This is the money cap position folks. This is a large value cap that is very important as it is in series with the 6.5 inch drivers. Money is required here to make these speakers sing more beautifully. Sonic Craft is the place to buy these.


68uf cap - two 34uf Sonic Craft Gen 1 capacitors in parallel. This is also a very important shunt cap position. Sonic Craft is where you buy these.

10 uf and 2.7uf capacitors in parallel and positioned in series with the 6 outer ring tweeters in the array. Here is where you need a good foil and paper cap to get the most resolution, rich tone, and refinement out of the tweeter array. Clarity PX caps were used here originally. They are average caps at best, but inexpensive and nothing special. I used a 10uf Jupiter HT flat stacked and Jantzen Superior Z 2.7uf cap here. The Jupiter caps can be purchased from Sonic Craft while the Jantzen from Parts Express. Jupiter round VT caps would also be perfect here.

Resistors - two Path Audio 3 ohm resistors in parallel. Purchase these from Parts Connextion. They are the most neutral resistor I have heard and very quiet. You can also use Mills MRA for a tad more brilliance. These are also in series with the 6 outer ring tweeters.

1.5 uf cap - this cap is in series with the center tweeter handling the highest frequencies in the speaker - roughly 10k and over. I suggest a very good quality cap here such as Jupiter copper foil or Auydn True Copper. I used the Audyn. A Mundorf Supreme silver in oil would also work nicely here.

Inductors - I used the original ones. I don’t have any way of measuring these for values and don’t know them. I asked Eric for the values and he has chosen not to respond. I will send them out for measuring if Tekton will not help. These are not nearly as important sonically as the caps, wire, and resistors however. Important, but less so than the other parts. I would not change these. If you want, I would avoid foil types as they are brighter and not the best choice for the DI speaker. Solen Perfect Lay would be my choice. They are the warmest and most inviting. I will update my diagram with inductor values once they are known.

Cabinet dampening - the builder uses very little. I am sure he does this on purpose and their is really no right and wrong here. Over stuffing is wrong and should be avoided however. I opted to place open cell egg crate type foam behind the 6.5 inch and tweeter array drivers. In addition, no damping was originally placed on the back wall of the bass cab directly behind the woofers. I decided to place some to tame internal reflections coming back and out of the woofers.

Bass crossover board - I replaced the 100uf electrolytic cap with a nice Mundorf MKP film cap. In addition, I replaced the sand-cast resistors with Mills MRA. The board still easily fit inside the cab...see pics.

This upgrade is not for a novice as you will get lost a perhaps not be able to finish what you started. If you have experience, then you can opted to do any part of what you see here. All the upgrades make a nice positive improvement. I would start with replacing the electrolytic caps for sure. Go as far as you like because this speaker is worth it. The DI is am amazing design and one deserving of the very best parts and layout. Be sure to order parts all matched within a 1% tolerance. Be sure to use good silver solder from WBT or Mundorf. Place all the inductors 4 inches apart outside diameter to outside diameter. Twist all of the wire runs to the crossover to cancel out as much noise as possible. Have fun!

Whatever you decide to do will be rewarded with sonic improvements as this speaker reveals it. My upgraded DI is obviously improved head to toe sonically. The bass is far better, harmonic richness and bloom in spades, better layering, greater resolution, more refined, smoother, and on and on....This is not a couple of percentage points of improvement, but rather another level of sonic wonder. Only 130 hours of break in thus far. 

This is a very special speaker.

Copy and paste for pictures and diagram......The first few pics are original XO boards the rest are pretty self explanatory I hope 🙂

http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/grannyring1/slideshow/Tekton%20DI%20upgrade

Sorry for the typos as I used voice activation on my iPad. Ugh! I also forgot to mention the external board will be placed in an attractive wood case in time. The Beta woofer with the upgraded board really improved the bass in my room. You may not need to change the already very good Eminence woofer in your rig.  However, do change out the electrolytic cap! 

I want to caution folks who want to plow ahead and do an upgrade. Please note I said my crossover may be different than your DI crossover based on others who have looked at their parts and values. You must take apart your set and see what is in there. The builder is indeed changing things with time. Dont just order the values I did as yours may be different.  I had an additional inductor that another owner did not have on the array. His resistor and cap values were also different.  Since we don’t know the coil values you may not be able to order the extra one you need to match my board. 

Understand what you have. Diagram it, plan, and plan some more.  I think the earliest sets were changed to what I have.  Did Eric change it more since August/Sept? Perhaps, I do not know. 

@porscheracer

The builder uses custom Eminence drivers and impossible to know exactly what they are. The woofers in the early DI speakers were very similar, if not exactly the same as the Alpha Eminence woofers. However, my set, made in the end of August, used a different woofer that was deeper in dimension and over a pound heavier. Which woofers do you have? Impossible for me to know.

The midrange drivers do appear appear to be the Eminence Alpha or very, very similar.

The Beta mids have better specs, better power handling etc...

I, like Kdude, just like the bass the Beta drivers deliver in the cabs.

I think replacing the XO parts with better quality ones and perhaps better internal wiring is plenty without bothering to replace any of the good quality drivers. This will save you money and I give you the best bang for the dollar! 

Room correction sounds much better on the 2170 in every single room and set up I have knowledge of with the 2170.  Both Kdude and I have had numerous system and speakers reflect this reality.  
I suppose it’s possible to have a different experience as I have learned nothing is ever 100%.  Never.  

I had light bass bass with the original woofers and XO parts, post upgrade all is great in the bass area with room correction. At least this happened in my room. 

@fetguy I looked at units like these, but I am not sure they are as accurate as I would like? I know a guy with the best testing/measurement gear and expert at driver and speaker design. I will use him. Thanks for the link however!


@jcarcopo. Sorry you feel this way. The improvement was not slight, but transformative for me. Cost me far less than the SE version and I am confident they at least compete with the SE. Most confident. Also, think about it this way. If you hold to your thought, then the amp or preamp,  or source, or anything in front of the drivers really would not matter or be worth upgrading. We know this is not true of the DI speaker. 

These parts can be heard through the DI.

I would not use a foil coil 😁on the DI array as they tend to be a tad more bright and brilliant.  To my ear this would not be a good recipe for the DI. Actually the Solen Perfect Lay coils would be a wonderful choice. 

Thanks Greg. Cost has nothing to do with these changes. These changes are for the net Sonic result only. Here is what I have found on the DI speaker. 

I have debated in my mind if I should share this next point. I do not want to cause the builder any problems as I have spoken to him once and he seems like a passionate fellow audiophile. However, I feel it must be shared as this community continues to share experiences with the DI speaker. The fact is we are hearing different versions of this speaker. No way we can share our evaluations of the same speaker. Fact is we are hearing different versions as I will unpack shortly. There are pretty diverse crossover designs and crossover points in owners speakers. Which one do you have? Which one was reviewed by Terry and others? Don’t know. But I do know they will most certainly sound different.

I know the first set I heard had an obvious emphasis in the upper mids/highs and presence area. I commented on this in this thread. The second pair I heard, and now own, did not display this personality. Actually, my set seemed more balanced top to bottom. Was it the gear? The room? Well, these always plays a role, but this difference seemed to me to be beyond that.

I have had the opportunity to see what is inside of three different DI speakers and can tell you the XO design differs substantially in each one. The bass crossover is constant and I am referring only to the mids and highs - the upper portion of the speaker. My speaker was built in August and I have shared diagram of the highs/mid board already. The other two speakers are a couple of months older.

I wont share the specifics so as to bore you or get lost in the weeds, but will share enough to make the point. The capacitor value on the 6.5 inch mids varies over 100% speaker to speaker with the same value inductor in each set. Yes this means those drivers are playing differing frequencies. The cap values on the center tweeter and outer ring of 6 tweeters varies over 100% set to set. The number of inductors and resistor values differ from set to set on the tweeter array. The wiring scheme of the array also differs in the three sets. The bottom line is the various speaker arrays will sound different.

I understand fine tuning a design over time, but this seems beyond that? You decide for yourself on that point. My points are these;

1) Understand when someone says they feel the speaker is a tad thin sounding or a tad too brilliant and immediate, they may be hearing a slightly different design. Whatever comments are being made are reflective of that generation of DI. I am not sure what base is for this speaker.

2) I would like to know what the builder has settled on now. Can we expect more changes beyond some tiny adjustments. The differences I saw are not tiny.

Wiithout being flippant I am asking for the real DI speaker to stand up. Some ears will hear these differences as glaring while others will find them slight. I am sure they all sound good and don’t question that. However, we do need to know our DIs differ and some of our evaluations and comments may be born out of these differences.

I understand that the net result of these varying Crossover designs can still deliver similar, not identical, sound. I am sure the builder aims for that. However, I am also sure they do deliver sonic differences as why else would the builder keep tweaking if not for fine tuning and improvement.

@audionoobie.   I removed my own post, not Agon. I find Agon does a nice job of balancing and managing posts they deem inappropriate.  

For years, over years yes. But this much change in the initial intro months? Oh my. The builder has a passion to improve and refine so if substantial monthly changes are common without MK status changes, then we know it and refer to our DIs with birthday dates😊

I suppose the builder has every right to do what he wants and to not share. It is certainly reasonable not to. It is his speaker and his design. I am OK with that actually. Not sure I would want to give up my secret sauce.

However, my post is to bring to light the fact that not all our DIs sound identical . They don’t. We need to keep that in mind when reading comments. Perhaps the design has now settled down and all sets are pretty much the same. I personally think these sorts of changes should have been sorted out prior to introduction. “Fine” tuning slightly after intro is fine and common.

Understood. These changes have nothing to do with price points, cap brands, or upgraded parts like wire and binding posts. Not a question of these things at all. Simply crossover design and wild differences in just a period on months. 1.5uf cap in series with the center tweet vs a cap more than 4x that value! 100uf cap in series with mid drivers vs. 220uf with same value inductor. Additional inductor on some outer tweets not found in other DI sets. All these things CHANGE the sound. Many, many more I won’t mention. Even wiring mids and woofers out of phase on some sets and not others. Trust me I can go on and on. Nothing here to do with price points. Just sharing our DI speakers sound different based on birthdate.  Mine are 08/17 DIs.  

I assume they do to. I agree 100%.  I would still buy from them as I love his spirit of innovation and product.  I do wish the design was more “finished” before intro however.  Again, I point this out so we know we will hear differences in our DIs.  While the sheer degree and amount of change makes me scratch my head, I don’t think it means the DI speaker is not a great speaker. It is a great speaker and one that is certainly evolving in a speedy fashion.  

Yes, you can have differing values. In the cases I point out the change in values reflects a change in the frequencies handled by the drivers they feed. This change in frequencies handled will change the sound especially if all 6 outer ring tweets are playing higher frequencies than another set of DI speakers. This is what is happening depending on the set one has. All will sound good, but the presentation will certainly be different. Some will pick it up fast, others not. That is the world of audio.

Yes, few would pull apart a Magico 😟.  I would however......

Very nice of you to come on the thread and answer the questions Eric. I am glad to hear that you have fine-tuned the speaker to exactly where you want it to be now.

I will just assume then that my late August set has pretty much the same design as the crossovers being made today and reflect where you have landed.

lol Eric, the 10 inch driver is but one small change in the list of many as you know. How do you know which woofers I had? These have also changed over the months as you know. The biggest improvements, yes improvements, came from wire and crossover parts upgrades. Most notable are improvements gained by replacing key position electrolytic caps with quality film caps. The list goes on from there. All these combined upgrades did in fact improve the sound of the speaker in key areas such as resolution, imaging, tonalily, refinement and everything else one would expect from better XO parts.

I did not improve your design, I simply improved the execution through much better quality parts, spacing the inductors further apart (they are too close together in the small cab space) , better wire, damping etc..,

These are things you would do if these sold for $6000. Wait, you do some of this in the SE.

Eric I wish I had your knowledge and skills as I greatly respect you as a designer. By the way that LOL statement in my last post was an error. I use voice activation on my phone not sure where that came from. Just wanted you to know that as I don’t want to disrespect you.

I like the fact that you come on here and discuss things with us openly. I like your attitude and open spirit. I enjoy your speakers. They are your speakers and all I am is some DIY Hobbyist that shares the same passion as you. Thank you for the kind words regarding my boards as that really means something to me coming from you.

The woofer question is interesting. My speaker did not have the Alpha woofer, but a much deeper dimensionally and over one pound heavier woofer. For me, this is a personal taste thing. The woofer played the deepest notes when there, but bass above say 50-60 hertz seemed missing too much of the time. It seemed like a gap to my ears.

The Beta woofers are spec’d on paper to not go as low as the Eminence bass guitar woofer I think is being used. However, in cabinet performance is a diffferent thing. I did have a chance to A/B both drivers and found the Beta more musical with plenty of mid bass. I happened to find the deep bass satisfying also. Perhaps not quite as much deep bass foundation at times. Eric is right that the Beta has more mid bass. In fact so much so that I found adding some damping to the rear cab wall really helped tighten up things.

When I upgraded the in series cap to a film Mundorf, used thicker gauge wire (Duelund) and damped the back wall of the bass cavity, then the bass became tighter and even more pleasing.

Eric uses a very good stock woofer and frankly I would spend my money and time on the Mundorf and Mills parts along with great thicker gauge wire and back wall damping. For damping you can use acoustic foam egg crate style or even poly batting. Just cover the back up to the top most brace ( right below the upper array sub cabinet)  and be sure to leave the ports free and open.

Eric is also spot on in that I use DSP to boost bass from 20-40 hertz. Now I have plenty of beep bass and nice mid bass.

@corelli.   I will contact you directly for these kinds of questions so as to not flood this thread with these details both in respect to the thread and Eric. Thanks. 

Just loving my DI speakers so much. Listening to music, all kinds of music, and experiencing new levels of realism. I hear voice inflections, details, recording space nuances and lyrics with newfound levels of resolution and realism. What is most enjoyable to me is the fact that all this “new”information is served up in a natural and unforced manner.

I also must admit that at times I crank up the music much louder than I have in years to marvel at the bass and dynamic impact. I feel like a teenager at times cranking it up just for the sonic experience. Ha! The bass is remarkable really. The speaker’s ability to hold it all together when played very loudly is stunning. Just a fun and engaging speaker all at the same time.

They are also fully engaging at very low volume. My current rig does explosive dynamics and engaging, low level listening with equal proficiency.  

Spot on James as I also learned the 2170 sounds best all on its own. Goodness you should hear the 2170 with the upgrade I outlined.

Cannot classify all Class D amps as sounding a certain way anymore than you can say all tube, class A or Class A/B amps sound the same. Listening to 4 Class D amps, or even 10, and then suggesting no Class D amp is your cup of tea is not logical or correct.

The Lyngdorf 2170 is not a Class D amp. It is much more than that. It is a system and not designed at all like the other pieces you mentioned. Again, great big system world out there with possibilities you have not experienced. I have heard many Class D amps and digital systems including one in your group of three and they do not, cannot possibly, represent the complete population of digital system offerings.

I am fine with with you saying those three amps don’t float your boat. That is as far as you can or should go. The Lyngdorf is as far from Hifi sounding as I can imagine. The synergy with the DI speaker is amazing and while not perfect, no system is, it certainly makes music with the DI speaker in a magical way. Yes, I know an audiophile who sold the very Pass Labs amp you love Plus a preamp and dac for the Lyngdorf. Most who have experienced this won’t post here as they don’t want to deal with the Class D/digital system discrimation and fall out that ensues. 

I am sure there are other powered dac solutions with room correction that are also very special with the DI. I just need to experience them.

As a tube amp lover, tube system lover, I simply cannot let over generalizations about digital system solutuions go unchecked. Why? Because there are options out there, like the 2170, that actually please tube lovers more than many tube systems. We owe it to the community to not close the door on digital system possibilities with the DI speaker that are sublime.

Lyngdorf 2170 owners I have experienced an upgrade/modification that any good local tech can accomplish for you. The upgrade is not cheap, $350 in parts, but the result is stunning. I was so overwhelmed by it that I told the manufacturer. I would be happy to share with owners, but it will void your warranty.

It improves the resolution and all important “inner glow” of the piece.

The unit uses two .47uf caps at the output to filter out noise. These caps are not in series with the output, but parallel. However, they influence the resulting sound tremendously. Lyngdorf uses two Wima or similar quality caps in this key position. Replace with two .47 uf Jupiter copper foil caps and two .01 Duelund silver foil bypass capacitors. By bypass I mean just paralleling the two caps together. That’s it. Space is tight so some skill is needed to execute well.

The result is just wonderful 2170 owners. This upgrade impacts your sonic enjoyment more than a cable or even piece of gear upgrade. Very substantial.

I have done more to my unit, but this one is by far the most important.

It involves desolding/removing the Wima caps from the circuit board and then soldering in the new caps. It takes some time to disassemble the board from the chassis to access the bottom of the board. In fact, this step and reassembly represents the majority of the time and effort in this upgrade. Not that difficult at all however.

The unit sounds tremendous in every way without this upgrade, but reality dictates the builder must control costs to sell this unit through dealers at its reasonable price point. Adding $350 in parts cost would most likely increase the price of the unit well over $1000. 

Good question Charles. No hostility on this thread, but yes here on the Gon. My comments are actual quotes from several 2170 owners/members and not my own “sense” only. Hope this helps.

We disagree it seems Terry. I read your post several times and as a reviewer your posts have meaning and impact on many. I stand by my response as a Reasonable understanding of yours and more importantly a reasonable understanding of how others will take your post. Just giving balance here and both of our comments are great for the community when taken together.  

This is a wonderful thread and I am confident it will stay that way. 

@aniwolfe you like a Lyngdorf 2170 system.  Your pleasure is not with a class of amps, but with a particular brand and design of a powered dac.  I don’t like broad brush generalizations, but rather think we should share on individual pieces.  Agreed?

James, did you use the 2170 as a total system or do you use an outside dac, amp, or preamp? Thanks. 

Ozzy it seems we all want to “help” you. Lucky you 🙂. To that end here are more considerations. I think you are spot on wanting an external crossover. Did you ever get an answer on that? If I did not buy my set used, then I was going to ask Eric for an external board.

Looking at your systems over the years and your propensity for DIY and upgrades the DI with outboard XO boards would be fantastic for you. Best sandbox you could ever play in regarding speakers. The problem is you won’t be able to return such a “custom” set.

I would caution you on the 4 ohm version with Ralph’s wonderful amps. My experience is that particular impedance combo will cause a frequency Imbalance that is not ideal sounding. This is just speculation, as Eric does not show impedance curves as you know, but I bet the impedance is lower in the highs possibly dropping to 3 ohms or so on some frequencies. This is not an ideal or even good situation for your amps as you well know.

Not even sure you receive the same trial period on the 8 ohm version? He may consider the 8 ohm version custom? Not sure.

I use a 70 watt (into 8 ohms) SS amp in a large room and the DI speakers certainly uses it on some recordings. It is not even close to being overkill.

I see.  Thanks Ozzy. I can understand why he would shy away from that. 

Oh well. No resistor in series with the 6.5 inch midrange drivers in my set or any other set I have seen the insides of with builds thru September. Seems he is padding them back a tad with some resistors? Interesting. Right now just 220uf cap in series and an inductor.

Like to know the value of the resistor he decided to add in series.  If someone finds out please let us know.  

LOL @jcarcopo

Place your crossovers outboard, upgrade the drivers to Beta woofers and finally upgrade to Alphalite midrange drivers. This will shave off  about 8 pounds per speaker and deliver better sound quality 🙂

No. Not at all. Neodymium mid driver is nice. Most likely what is in the SE. Smoother response and same effeciency. Crossover parts and wire are most important however . Can now use the Gaia II more safely😁

There have been more changes to the crossover with the same drivers (over time) than would ever be needed with these upgraded drivers.

I use the Beta woofers and mid units.  Will be trying the Neodymium Alphalite soon.  Both are drop in replacements no problem at all. 

@mac48025. You will want to mod the SEs as they will have the better drivers. I can assure you the crossover parts can be upgraded in the SE reflecting more of what I used.

Duelund would not be possible due to the crazy high cost. Remember the cap values are as high as 220uf, 68uf, and 10 or 12uf. Sure in the 1.5 uf cap on the center tweeter. A 12uf Duelund CAST cap costs $1300. A 40uf Duelund cap costs $3300. A custom 68uf and several combined caps to get you to 220uf would cost some $10,000 per speaker! Oh my! If you go this route have a master woodworker make you a great set of new cabs and outboard crossover boxes. Two inch thick front baffle and works!

No worries, great choices beyond Duelund here!  On values up to 15uf you can use the wonderful Jupiter copper foil or  Jupiter HT Aluminum foil caps in wax. On the large value caps I used Mundorf Evo Oil to make up the 220uf cap. The best sounding large value cap I know of is the Mundorf Supreme Evo Silver & Gold. It is expensive, but nothing like the cost of the Duelund. The stock SEs will not have parts of this quality. Also go with Path Audio resistors. All of these are too big for the cab and will placed externally. 

These parts are better sounding than the electroltyics or lower range Clarity film caps used in the stock and SE speakers. 

No. They are more resolving. The electrolytic caps used in the DI are dark sounding. That is the sound quality of electrolytic caps. The parts I used opened up the speaker, made them more resolving, improved imaging, greater weight and body and most importantly......more natural sounding. The nervous or slightly ragged edges are gone and music is now flows with more focus, fidelity, and smoothly. Please do not take refined to mean dull and dark.

The Duelund wire is a lively wire full of life, but never too forward or bright. Also understand that better parts make a speaker more quiet....that is less noise. Great caps and resistors can reduce noise. Noise you don’t know is even there until you hear the difference. This is the refinement I am talking about.

No worries on the tweeters. First off no need to rewire all of them for the upgrades.  You can just deal with the tweeter connections to the crossover. Use this heat sink as @jcarcopo refers to....

https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-ST-23-Heat-Sink/dp/B00R6SQGG6

Easy and you will not ruin the tweeters. 

LOL! Agreed. Imagine also using Duelund inductors in the DIs! They are the best and very costly. Then wire it all up using the wonderful  Mundorf silver and gold wire placed in a silk and cotton sheathing.  Oh what a DIY fantasy dream! 

The Audyn true copper caps are also very good indeed. I have them in my DI. Not quite as good as the Jupiter copper foil, not as rich or resolving of micro details, but very good indeed. Jupiter copper foils are very expensive however.  

Agree 101% The Clarity TC caps are wonderful in power  supplies.  

Oh my. Building a 845amp? 

I did not.  I guess I am happy keeping them for now.  I am going to pass your mileage marker 😁

I think something at play here is the cabinet. It is only .75 inches thick even on the front baffle. It is NOT the most inert. At db levels of 110 dB they will undoubtably cause all kinds of vibration induced distortion and smearing. That is very, very loud and not something I would ever recommend for mere mortals. Anyway, put Star Sound Apprentice platforms under the DIs and you will hear a very different speaker at both low and very high listening levels. These speakers really need a footer of this quality to sound their best. I highly recommend Star Sound Apprentice platforms. I have no doubt they would have cleaned and sorted out the music much better. Food for thought.

Secondly, as I have said before the DI is a tad, just a tad, forward in the upper mids in stock form. I use Roon DSP and shave 1.75- 2 dB off the upper mids and find that perfect. I find this is needed more the louder the speaker is played. I understand the builder is now putting a resistor in series with the 6.5 inch mid drivers to accomplish the same thing. I find this interesting as I have been doing this since day one.

We don’t know the value of the resistor, but it is most likely 1.8-2.2 ohms. This would shave some 2 dB on an 8ohm speaker.

@aniwolfe “If your interested in DIY route. You might want to search for "DIY Roller Blocks" ”

Thanks for this tip as I built a set for my Lyngdorf 2170 with great results for under $50. I am building another for my server/player and BPT & CPT balanced conditioners. 

@backsigns. The Alphalite 6A is exactly the same dimension as the Alpha 6a in the DI. Exactly the same in terms of fit. It is a 6.5 inch diameter driver per the spec sheet. I have not used it as I am using the Beta 6a. I think it would sound nice based on the specs. I “think” it is being used in the SE version. I am not 100% sure. The SE marketing verbiage and pics certainly point right to it.

You guys can’t mean turned outwards toward the outside side wall?

I think once your speakers have 500 hours on them you will no longer toe them out. Let us know as this has me more than scratching my head 🧐. I shall try this just for kicks.  

My DIs are on Herbies gliders right now so this was so easy to try. Strange looking and I must close my eyes to make an unbiased comparison. Ha! Here is what I heard, but will give it more time.

A little hollow in the center and one other noticeable change I think is coming through with this placement. This speaker’s slight achilles heal, at least in my opinion, it it’s slightly forced upper mids. No speaker is perfect folks, but this is certainly a sonic signature I have found with this design. By toeing out this tendency is tamed and smoothed out a tad. That is why some will like it in my opinion. I would think lively/hot rooms and/or fresh out of the box DI speakers would certainly lend themselves to this placement option. It is certainly a reasonable placement option that sounds very smooth.

My particular set of DIs and room finds toeing out to sound a tad hollow between the speakers and ever so slightly out of phase. Both of these are slight. The upper mids are attenuated and smoothed around the edges in my room. I accomplish the pushing back of the upper mids using Roon’s DSP so toeing out is really not needed. 

Others should try this if you have ever found the upper mids a little forward or a tad pushed.   Nice option. 

They sound rather good this way ..... toed out. Very surprising really. I do like the smoothness. Takes a little getting used to, but it is pleasing and nice.  This speaker is really fun to play with as it responds to everything one may do.  The upgrades I have done to both the speaker and my system are revealed wonderfully with this speaker. 

I am letting folks on this thread know that my set of DIs are available for purchase if interested.  Why? I love them and love working on Tekton speakers as they respond so darn well to upgrades. I am working on another set of Tekton speakers as I type here and hope to start yet another Tekton project soon.  Mine are stunning in sound quality and must be heard.  I live in the Nashville area if anyone is interested. Can’t ship as no boxes. 

Congrats! You will enjoy them.