My most excellent audiophile brethren,
I couldn't pass up on an opportunity to chime in on such an interesting thread, such as this one, concerning the Tekton Double Impacts, especially since I have heard them perform 3 weeks ago in TJ's system and 2 weeks ago in Allen Richard's system. First let me say that anyone just starting up a system, and have not decided on speakers yet, the Double Impacts should definitely be on your short list. I can't think of anything better at or around its price point. If you are looking to upgrade speakers at around that price point, and maybe up to $5K-8K, they still should be on short list of speakers to consider. You get an awful lot of sound and performance from the Double Impacts that's very hard to beat by anyone else's speaker.
The Double Impacts sounded really good in TJs system, though as I told him then, as much as I like how they sound I would have to get more familiar with them before I decided whether I wanted a pair or not. When I heard the Double Impacts in Allen's home, he really drove the heck out of the Double Impacts using a $3400 PrimaLuna 26 watt tube integrated and easily reached life-like levels of volume and dynamics with all kinds of music. I don't recall if TJ used a sub-woofer or not but Allen did use one. After hearing them in Allen's system, I was more convinced of the great achievement Eric made with this speaker. Mike Kay (Audio Archon) puts on a good demo and will show the Double Impact's sonic capabilities with the Linear Tube gear as well as with the likes of Pass Labs.
It would be interesting to see how our planar speaker brethren, especially those who love electrostats feel about the Double Impacts. I want to reiterate, before I'm called a heretic in this thread, that the Double Impact is a wonderful sounding and performing speaker, especially at its price-point and beyond. Personally, I like my Wilson Sashas much better, especially for doing audio reviews with, but in my opinion, the Double Impacts are one of the best values in what's available today for speakers.
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Wow! This thread still lives? I must confess that I usually do not go out to chat rooms and post. The post I made here a few days ago is probably my first or second time posting here since I have been an AudiogoN user. Usually, when a review of mine is posted, I get a bunch of emails afterwards and that's generally enough going back and forth regarding something I said for me. Readers tell me I'm either a good writer and that they were enlightened about a piece, or they'll say I'm a total idiot. Actually I do enjoy the reader's emails because at least I know they're reading my reviews and I respect that they have their opinions whether they agree with me or not.
In terms if the DI "challenge", sure, I would love to have the opportunity to put them through their paces and evaluate them in my system. I need to add here, though, that VAC has informed me that they are sending me an amp and preamp for review and that I need to put 200-250 hours on them for break-in before I do any serious evaluation. I have also been asked to contact a couple of distributors who want gear reviewed that for possible opportunities. So keeping that in mind, you'll have to tell me if you are wanting me to do a review of the DIs or if you want me to spend a weekend listening to them and coming back here and sharing my findings. We can discuss.
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Just wanted to add to the validity and seriousness of Mike Kay's Archon Blue power cords. Recently finished reviewing the VAC Signature 200 iQ power amp(s), I had two so I reviewed its performance in stereo and as mono-amps. I had the VACs running in mono, using the highly thought of Entreq power cords that I borrowed from my brother, driving my Wilson Sashas and the sound was exceptional. However, my beloved brother, who came by to do some listening this particular day, shared with me that on some of the tracks I played, the bass sounded a little lighter than what he's used to hearing at home (on teajay's old Magneplanars no less ). I was a little surprised by that. Seeking redemption, I played about 4-5 tracks whose lowend pressurized the room and felt vindicated. Still, there had to be a reason for my brother to speak up like he did.
The next week, I borrowed 2 Archon Blue power cords from Mike Kay to put on the VAC amps and right away there was very noticeable improvement. With the Archon Blue power cords on the VACs instead of the Entreq power cords, the sound was more natural sounding, across the board, without sounding soft or rolled off, and the low end became much more authoritative and extended. Musical became more musically satisfying all around. Visitors that came back by after the power cord switch noticed the difference almost immediately. Suffice it to say, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Archon Blue power cords and can't think of anything performs as well at their price point and beyond. Now I'm ready to bring the Double Impacts in-house and see what all the hype is about. j/k :-) |
Okay sports fans, here we go with the comparison of Double Impacts that teajay has been listening to with my Wilson Sashas. Keep in mind, my Stereo Times publisher, Clement Perry, is working on the Double Impact review and I don't want to get in the way of what he has to say. With that being said.......
Allen Richards and I got together for this listening session and as was mentioned previously, we were listening with the VAC Renaissance Mk V preamp, two VAC Signature iQ amplifiers run in mono ( so that's 200 watts per amp) and I'm running Asus laptop with Fidelizer Pro (maxxed out at the "audiophile" level) and a custom NOS DAC built for me by Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle Audio. I had been using Klee Acoustics cables throughout but discovered another little inexpensive gem from Tellurium Q called the Black II that I have been using on the speakers. Mike Kay's Archon Blue power cords are used on the amps and the preamp.
Allen and I bought the DI's in the house and laid them down as we began to listen to music on the Sasha's. We each took two tracks to listen to, and once we were done, we set the DI's up, if you want to call it that. Nothing too serious. The DI's were set up with the side of each speaker five feet from the side wall, seven feet between the speakers and the front of each speakers was ten feet from the front wall. They were spiked. We re-listened to the four tracks we listened to on the Sasha's. Initially, the sound from the DI's was uninvolving, bass was diffuse from the midrange and the highs, and pretty much just not a good listen. The Sasha's were clearly the better sounding speaker.
I shared with Allen that before I passed judgement on the DI's, they needed to settle into the carpet with the spikes, that I needed to spend a lot more time setting them up, remembering that we had merely set them up where we placed them when we bought them into the house, and that I need to do more experimentation the taps on the back of the amps. We were listening to the DI's on 2-4 ohm tap which is where they work best with the Sasha's and I suggested we listen on the 4-8 ohm tap. Allen didn't want to wait until later so I made the tap change right away. The improvement was immediate and it was not subtle at all.
We started off with the four tracks we listened to on the Sasha's and the DI's and the music sparkled with life and energy. There was a sense of verve and reality, with the music seemingly being performed "live" within the landscape of my listening room. The Sasha's has these attributes as well, but not to the same level as the DI's. What's remarkable to me is the DI's ability to sound effortless like a horn speaker, have the ability to "see into" the performance like good planars, and the the ability to convey the life-like realism of dynamic speakers, all at the same time. Though they do a fine job, the Sasha's couldn't quite match that.
The Sasha's deep bass performance exceeded that of the DI's if that type of thing is important to you. I need to move the Sasha's to the side, do my due diligence and devote some time doing some serious setup experimentation for the DI's in my listening room (25' X 16'). One last thing to add; I noticed a lot of you like using the SET or small powered tube amps to drive these speakers. That's cool. The sound of these amps has been quite impressive at teajay's on the DI's and Ulberchts. I just want to lend my two cents and say that the DI's can sound just as compelling with 200 watts/channel as they do with the lower powered amps. That's just my opinion and probably Allen's too. YMMV. |
Just to be clear on the statements I made about the DI's and my Sasha's a couple of months ago; the DI's, overall, did outperform my Sasha's. From the mid-bass up through their hi frequency performance, they were more enjoyable and more musically engaging than the Sasha's. The level of performance and achievement, especially in the all important lower mid-range to upper bass region of the DI's, is exemplary. Eric Alexander and his team should be lauded for what they have accomplished. To gain this level of performance is commendable for a speaker at any cost, but at $3,000??? It should have been interesting, sitting around the Tekton board-room table and hearing Eric discussing the lofty design goals he had for the DI's, then share with his confidantes that he could do it all for around $3,000 retail. I'm sure somebody snickered and said "Yeah right". All I can say is interested parties should get their speakers soon before Tekton figures out what they have on their hands and puts their speakers thru a well deserved pricing restructure. |
Teajay,
My most excellent brother reviewer and audiophile friend. I take issue with your remarks:
"With much love to both my brothers, Michael and Allan, they both adore FREAKING loud volume levels when listening to music."
When were you ever at my home, listening to music with me, and felt I was listening to music so loud that you had to ask me to turn the volume down? Other than my wife complaining, no one has ever come over to my home and said I listen to music too loud.
Now, I will say that I'm used to listening to music in rooms that are a little more intimate in size than in your large room. It very well could be that when I'm in that large room of yours, listening to music, that I don't feel I'm hearing everything and is why I ask you to turn it up. It could be that I want to hear a particular passage of music better, or I'm not following an instrumental line, or want to get a better idea of a performer's placement on the stage. That may be why I ask you to turn it up. So I can hear things better in your system.
Allen, on the other hand, being a DJ and knowing how he feels certain selections should sound, has his moments when he really wants to feel the music and turns the music up. He has come over to my house and asked for the remote and I brace myself just in case. Not with everything he plays, but just with certain tunes where he feels he needs to.
Whereas you, on the other hand, who spends 30 seconds or more, setting the volume for "seemingly" every CD and every selection where you want to hear it or where you think visitors want to hear it. Again, this is a subjective observation, and you're entitled to your opinion, but I do not listen to music loudly and do not adore "FREAKING" loud music.
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I have been listening to the DI's that teajay reviewed and will be writing a follow up to Clement Perry's review for The Stereo Times whenever it's posted. I have been listening to the DI's with the tube based VAC Signature 200 iQ as a stereo amp (100 watts per channel) and two of them in mono (200 watts per channel). I have also recently been listening to the DI's with the Class A solid state Bully Sound Company m100 mono-amps. I will have a few very interesting items to share with readers. Should shake the tree a little but will be fun. More to come.
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I can't believe this thread is still going. It has to be a testament to the achievement and popularity of Tekton speakers. Just to amplify what Allen said about the Ulfbehrts, and I've heard Teajay's system and Ezra's system, the Ulfbehrts with the Beryllium drivers are a definite improvement over the regular Ulfbehrts. I'm not wanting to get into or start an argument because Teajay is a friend, but in my opinion, it's not a subtle improvement. Teajay's Ulfbehrts sound wonderful but the beryllium drivers take the Ulfbehrts up another level. Seriously, if I owned Ulfbehrts and heard Ulfbehrts with the BE drivers, the only thing I could say, or think, would be DAMN!
The real reason for my joining in here, however, is to give Eric Alexander, and his guys, kudos for what they have accomplished. I first got into the beryllium driver craze back in the mid-2000's with the Usher BE-10 and BE20 speakers. The beryllium drivers in those speakers were very revealing and could go from sounding musical, with an open, detailed soundstage, to being bright and aggressive from one track to the next. I felt this was consistent when listening to speakers with beryllium drivers. Suffice it to say; I would not want a speaker with beryllium drivers in it. I was pretty much concerned Ezra was going to be well in over his head and making a big mistake getting Ulfbehrts with beryllium drivers and kept urging him to reconsider or to please go to Teajay's home and listen to his Ulfbehrts before deciding. Then again, maybe Ezra knows more than what he gets credit for.
The only thing that gave me pause was Eric. I thought if he could pull off these designs using his arrays, maybe he can figure out how to deal with the aggressive sound of beryllium drivers. Actually hearing the Ulfbehrt BEs was a total game-changer for me. At no time was there any brightness, or aggressive sounding sonic artifacts. No matter how loud Allen played music. That was just a subtle dig at Allen because I actually played more music than he did and some of it was a little bit loud and some not loud at all. The sense of the music sounding life-like with in-the-room authenticity, with macro and micro dynamics that were off the hook and bass that was outstanding. To make it more interesting, all of this was done using a T+A integrated that I'm not really a fan of. It's a nice enough piece of gear, just not my cup of tea, me being a tube fan. I'll end with this; beryllium drivers in the Ulfbehrts made a significant improvement and takes the performance of that speaker to another level. I have no idea how Eric did it, but he has accomplished something very special.
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