Tekton Double Impacts

@corelli ,

The UL sounds amazing top to bottom. It grips the bass better than any tube amp, maybe better than any SS amp I’ve ever heard. In fact it has many of the positive attributes of SS and yet a beauty that only tubes can produce. Absolutely no noise, no haze, no veil just the purest, blackest background. I am not the best at describing what I hear in words so If you haven’t seen this review by dodgealum here it is and I concur.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-linear-tube-audio-lta-ultralinear-amplifier

Nice system! Like that older CD  player also.  

After speaking to Erik at Tekton, we decided my room would be better suited for the Electrons and even as a "Mid Tower" they're no slouch. I've got them hooked up to the McIntosh 402 amp for power and the Anthem MRX 520 is handling the rest with the amazing ARC. Old Aloia CDP, Mac Mini server with tube dac and a Piega Mk11 sub. 

The Electrons sound damn good for $3000. Damn good!

So Lance, can you comment on what the the new LTA amp brings to the table?  It sounds like you are very enthusiastic about this product and am just curious on what it does that other amps have not. 

Glad you made it back to THE Tekton DI thread.  It's a shame to see how a couple of these other threads deteriorated into name calling/personal agenda tirades that offer no useful information about Tekton speakers.  (Most of the issues brought up were things that were discussed when this thread first posted.  We all have moved well beyond Eric's patent, grill issues, etc.   For those that don't like these issues, Eric's business model, or his style, please just buy something else.  I don't think any of us have an agenda of "converting" any others out there who are uncomfortable with the above.   Eric offers a very unique product(s) with a phenomenal performance for the price.  Just do some math on the parts cost of a DI and how he offers that shipped for $3000 dollars.  He has some very unique design features here, all covered long ago in this thread, not found elsewhere.  It all adds up to great performance at a great price.  And some of us like having the choice of the standard Model T black finish.  You can spend you money how you would like. A nice option.  If you want a 2" thick cabinet of whatever with an immaculate veneer, there are many other choices out there--buy that.  So do I agree with everything Eric has said or done. NO.  But what I do know is that some of the harsh Tekton critics out there have really missed the point. The vast majority of us have never said this speaker slays all others up to XXXX dollars!  But we have been enjoying great music reproduction by the DI/SE/Ulfs in our homes for some time.)

@lancelock   I figured as much. : )  Which is why I posted here. I am very curious and excited to learn from you, firsthand, how the Ultralinear and the SEs pair. All the best.

@david_ten 

My comments were meant for this thread but there are so many Tekton threads so it’s a little confusing. Yes, I can’t wait to hear the DI SE. I will use the LTA UltraLinear. This is the finest amp I heard so far. Besting all of the other LTA amps. I have not heard David Berning’s 75K mono blocks and have not heard 2170 either.

Your recent amp adventures; are these Lyngdorf 2170? Am much intrigued with this option, especially since KDude has embraced the efficient design. Cannot reconcile, however, my discouraging experience with Class D amps last year.

@craigl59 the 2170 isn’t a class D topology. At least not what you’re thinking of as class D. Kenny and Bill encouraged me to audition it against some pretty good tube and SS separates. I didn’t expect what I heard from it and it remains in my audio rack and the others were returned. I encourage you to give it a trial if you’re in the amp trail stages. Both my DIs and now my Ulfs absolutely love it with Digital and, unexpectedly, Analog inputs. I was especially flabbergasted when the 2170 sounded better than an LTA system on Analog. Digital, I could get my head around. But not Analog. But there was no doubt in my mind. But if you love tube warmth/distortion as opposed to detailed, analog accuracy, it won't be your cup of tea. My favorite description of is is a wire with gain. Everything in front of it and the Ulfs is reflected in the final sound characteristics. Even playing with USB cables and hearing the difference was a blast.

@lancelock   Saw you mention that your SEs are on their way to you. Can't wait to hear what you think of them with your gear. 

Hey recluse,

My reference SS amps, until the XA-25, were the XA-60.8 mono blocks.  So, for all intent and proposes they would sound the same as the XA-30.8.  The XA-25 does not sound like a series .8 amplifier for the details either read my review on hometheaterreview.com or Six Moons excellent review of the XA-25 directly compared to the XA-30.8 amplifier. 

Teajay,

I was also impressed with the First Watt J2 and Tekton DI's.

Since you are impressed with the DI's and the xa25 , have you by any chance also auditioned the 30.8? Or do you think they are basically the same or very close?

Thanks

Thanks, guys. These kinds of responses show the thread working for everyone and I will benefit from your knowledge.
KLH007's response has me thinking about the 2170 again although I just got the new RME ADI-2 DAC for the summer place. It has been demoed with the DIs, and they sound incredibly clean and transparent together.
Will think for one week then order.
David_ten: great stuff on your amps and thanks.

@craigl59   Great that you have been able to connect with @teajay   Hopefully Alfred will be able to help you as well.

The Valvet E2 is not a common amp and it is relatively new so I doubt you will be able to get direct owner feedback with it paired to the DIs. As you know, a leap of faith is probably in order. : )

I have not explored the Lyngdorf 2170 to the full extent that I would like to. At some point, if I can get a unit to demo, I'd love to. As for my amp adventures:

The SEs made me realize that investing more in my system was justifiable and would be rewarded (and it has in major ways), so I changed my budget for amplification.

I brought the Lyric Audio Ti140 Mk II (Push-Pull KT150) in for testing out whether I wanted to move to tubes (vs solid state as represented by my Pass separates at the time).  I chose to go with integrated options to get more value for what I was planning and applying the savings from one less power cord, interconnect, and isolation platform and a set of footers into upping the budget for the integrated.

The few tubed options I had in system repeated a pattern (for me) - terrific and hard to beat for vocals and acoustics, with glorious mid-range performance; but they fell short vs solid state options (again, for me ONLY) on low midrange to low bass frequency performance and in not offering a balanced, even and consistent 'spotlight' across the entire frequency range of music. 

I tried the following in my own system: a tubed integrated (Mastersound and Lyric), a solid state integrated (T+A), a hybrid integrated (Ypsilon); all vs my Pass Labs separates. Other integrated options were Vitus, Gryphon, and Grandinote, all which I was unable to audition as my trip to do so (to NYC/NJ) fell through. All of the products I had in system are great performers and I can see someone choosing one over the other for any number of reasons.

I ended up going forward with the T+A integrated which ships from Germany next week.

On another note, and a surprisingly good development for me, the SR signal cabling I am using has nudged system sound towards being more 'tubelike' than my Audience cabling (in this system configuration).

Hey Guys,

The Valvet V2 uses the same approach as the First Watt SIT 2, one transistor per side SET design.  The First Watt SIT 2 uses VFET transistors that Nelson had built for him which are different devices then what are used to in Valvat V2.  But, it makes complete sense to me why the German amplifier could be a wonderful sounding piece.  I Emailed Jerry (10 Audio) to see if he had ever heard the XA-25, so he could compare the two, however he never got back to me.

I found the XA-25 to be the best sounding SS amplifier I have ever heard.  It also is much more powerful, both in watts/current then the German amplifier.  However, if you are looking for a SS SET design Nelson has just come out with the First Watt SIT 3 which still uses the SIT transistors with a different type of loading scheme which offers much more power, around 30 watts per channel I believe, and sells for 3K.

All of the above amplifiers would be beautiful partners with the DI's.  I found that the Ulf's worked with lower power SET amps both tube and SS. However, the XA-25 was the match made in sonic heaven, my hunch way this is so is because it offers much more watts/current that the 21 driver big brother to the DI's needs to really perform at its best

Craig59, Jerry (10 Audio) called the Valvet V2 the best amp he ever heard and purchased the review unit, high praise. The 2170 is not a Class D amp, it is a direct digital topology like the Exogal Comet/Ion pairing and shouldn't be lumped into the Class D sonic category because it sounds glorious, as does the Comet/Ion.

David_ten:
Your recent amp adventures; are these Lyngdorf 2170? Am much intrigued with this option, especially since KDude has embraced the efficient design. Cannot reconcile, however, my discouraging experience with Class D amps last year.

Thanks, David_ten.
Have checked with Teajay and am awaiting a call back from Alfred. Would, ideally, like to have return privileges in case the first chosen amp doesn't have the power and will check first with High End Audio.
Again, if any others on this thread have heard the DIs with the Valvet, would appreciate your experience.

@craigl59  As you probably know, the Pass XA-25 is now @teajay 's reference and is driving his Ulfberths. I would reach out to him to get his take on it.

As for the Valvet E2, Alfred Kainz of highend-electronics is the Importer and will be really helpful if you reach out to him.

I also found the reviewer from 10Audio (they recently reviewed the E2) approachable and helpful. This was over email.

Unfortunately, I don't have direct experience with either since my recent amp adventures took a turn I wasn't expecting and led me in a different direction. 

Based on the reviews and personal first hand experience/impressions shared with me, I think you will be able to drive them to the levels you are expecting (in your large room) and maintain grip, etc. to give you the density/textural feel you are looking for.

David_ten et al:
Am finally ready to upgrade my DI amp for this summer's listening and am looking at either the PL XA25 or the Valvet E2 -- noted by David above as interesting candidates for the DIs.
Has anyone actually heard the DIs with the Valvet amp? Wonder if there is enough power for dense orchestral textures in a large room.
The PL XA25 appears to have plenty of power but am a little confused about a push-pull topology in a Class A amp. Will this be less exact than a SET style as in the Valvet?
Thanks.

Wow. Just got caught up on a parallel thread "Just want to auditon DI" and it seems all hell broke loose!  Sad to see that.  Glad this thread never  went in that direction (to that degree). Nothing wrong with disagreement but unfortunate when things become personal and uncivil.  Will post some further thoughts on all that tonight.

Eric must never sleep.

I wonder if Eric managed to do something different with the beryllium speakers, kind of like he does with everything else. He seems to think outside the box as a rule. 

Anyone interested in the $25K Ulfberht Be (beryllium)?

http://www.tektondesign.com/ulfberht-be.html

I have the Tektons approximately 60" from rear walls and 130" apart with approximately 6 ft . to the side walls , i sit 135 " away in the sweet spot, im using homemade horn loaders each on the inside of ea. spkr at about 60 degrees to out, helps seperation . I also have a Akai GX 635D 10" RTR and  Pioneer 900 cassette deck with a DBX 224 to encode / decode my high bias tapes, completely eliminating hiss, RTR does this w/o the DBX because it has a pinch roller pressing tape to head where as the cassette deck just glides across producing the hiss, i cant distinguish my encoded cassettes from the cd's! And the RTR just kicks musical ass all over the place. I got a chineese Shuguang 845-300b 21 watt S.E.T. intergrated amp as well , all tubes upgraded to z types. This  amp sounds extremely good, on Tektons 98 db @ 1watt on the 8 ohm taps .

@yohimey  Welcome to Audiogon! It's all about the music and one's enjoyment. No matter what the path or gear. Great to hear you are loving your system and sound.

I own a pair of Tekton Lores i paid extra for the upgraded caps and wiring and beefed up speaker lugs, i dont have what you have for electronics so at best this is apples to oranges. I have a scout 2 (VPI ) T.T. a Audio Technica  ART 9 mc cart,  Morrow solid core ph-1 interconnects feeding a Rouge Audio Perseus Magnum preamp, rolled to 1950's Holland Amperex BugelBoys 12au7's ,it came with jj's fine sound but bland compared to B B's .More Morrow ma-1 solid core interconnects feeding into a Rogue Audio STEREO-100 amp, rolled the 2 12au7 wich were also jj's to  Tesla nos 12au7's,  and believe it or not the amp is feeding the Tektons via .17 cent a foot solid core 24 ga. furnace stiff wires! by the way i have expensive stranded terminated spkr wires but these hard stiff penny per foot solid core wires put them to shame. Digital duties are a Playstation 1 w/ the rca output jacks on rear, again it puts my 500.00 marantz cd6005 to shame for musicality. in a room approximately sloped ceiling 15 ft center sloping to  12 ft at ends meeting the walls, by 22 ft wide by 40 ft long, hardwood floors  with a large rectangular rug on the floor. I like the sound!

@teajay  Congratulations on the trifecta!

Any word on The Ulf expecting? : )

Thanks for bringing Marilyn Moore to my attention. Playing her via Tidal/Roon as I type. BTW, I love Sketches of Spain.

Hello gentlemen,

My review on the Impact Monitor speakers just went up on hometheaterreview.com.  I nick named them the "baby DI's" because Eric was able to take the performance of the larger sibling down to a stand mount for smaller acoustic spaces.  It's a terrific speaker and its my new reference in my smaller system.  Hope you enjoy the review.

@grannyring  Bill, Thank you! I'd love your thoughts on it, given your extensive background and experience. I'll PM you so we can stay on topic with the Tekton speakers here.

I just pulled the SEs out of rotation for the first time in months! Have the gorgeous Italian Chario Academy Sonnet Monitor speakers (with bespoke/dedicated stands) fired up for the first time in over a year. Bi-wiring with two different brands/types of speaker cables, one of which needs run in time. I'll post summary findings vs the full range SEs, should anything stand out.

@david_ten 

I just read up on your new integrated amplifier. That is a fantastic looking build and design. Serious power supply and build construction is just the start with this piece. Congrats on your purchase. I bet your system sounds amazing! 

I’d like to point out and reinforce how well the Tekton SEs scale. This has become abundantly obvious, based on the gear I’ve had a chance to evaluate over the past four months.

Can other SE owners and those who have heard the SEs comment on this?

I’m confident I’m not close to their outer limits.

@charles1dad   You were instrumental to the process and helped me sort through those critical final 'bits' leading to my choice. Thank You!!!

David,
Congratulations the new T+A integrated amplifier. I know you conducted an admirably thorough audition with it compared to other excellent and highly regarded competitors. Given your objective and preferences you made the best choice in my opinion . I believe that it will mate exceptionally well with the high resolution yet natural sounding Double Impact SE.
Charles

@corelli They want to sell CD players to people who don't own their other products. Perhaps it was no real extra effort or they didn't go to great cost or length to fully implement their DAC with an analog output.  I do agree though they probably should sell a dedicated stripped down transport for purest using their dac/amp.

Thanks for the comments jcarcopo. I guess my point was why would Lyngdorf even bother with a DA convertor when you would just feed the digital output into one of their amps. I suspect the vast majority of their cd-2 players end up paired with their amps so for my money I would have just focused on building a better transport.  But that's just me.  An old school disc spinner I admit.

@corelli Blue is in. : )

Thanks. Things are coming together. I will update once the system is settled....nearly there.

@corelli I’m confused wouldn’t you just go digital out of the CD player into the Lyngdorf? I have redundant blade servers that store my music in lossless flac, so I’m not interested in a transport or CD player, for my front end and I’ll be streaming music over the ROON RAAT protocol over the network where it will be converted to analog from pwm directly in the amp.

CD players? They still make them? 😂 Last time I checked they all have sp/diff and toslink or aes/ebu digital output to feed the Lyngdorf. You're correct that theirs not a conventional DAC in the Lyngdorf because pwm is converted to analog sound directly, bypassing an entire stage in the D to A conversion. 

@aniwolfe  Yes, I was aware of this product.  But when used in an all Lyndorf system, why would you want to convert this to analogue and back to digital?  Do the Lyngdorf's have/need DA convertors if the conversion takes place at the output stage?

@corelli

Lyngdorf does make a CDP/Transport

http://lyngdorf.com/cd-2/

Almost forgot---GO BLUE!

Sounds like the both of you are in for some very nice listening indeed. 

@david_ten    Will be very interested in how things all come together David.  That integrated looks absolutely beautiful!  In time hope you fill us in on all the pieces you auditioned and how you arrived at your final decision.

@jcarcopo  The Lyngdorf gear is very interesting.  Now if they would just make a matching CD transport.  That would be so clean looking.  Not sure why they make a conventional CD player.  Why would you want to convert to analogue and then back to the digital domain??  Or am I missing something here?

@wig   Thank you! The T+A is a very special component. Dave / Audio Doctor @audiodoctor has described it in detail within some of his posts, in case you are looking for more information.

I'm looking forward to learning more about your SW1X II Std DAC. Congratulations on your Don Sach's and SW1X gear!

Found out on FB that my Ulfberhts are getting primed today.  Getting close. Hoping the new Lyngdorf 3400 ships from Denmark soon.  When I hear of extended wait times and I notice even established companies like Lyngdorf get back ordered too I learn to be patient, because I'm not a patient person at all.  At this point Eric is ahead of schedule.  I was originally told 6 weeks, but it's only been 3 and they will probably ship in a week. Very excited. 

@ david_ten 

Congrats on your new Integrated Amp! Once you hear the right combo, it's hard going back.

Enjoy,
Wig

Update: I just concluded a very successful and compelling audition / demo of some truly terrific and exceptional amplification components.

I ordered the T+A PA 3100 HV integrated amplifier, which will now serve as a central piece in the system driving the SEs.

This has been said before but I will repeat it once again: The SEs are uber revealing of what is upstream of them.

@stelo   I will echo David's comments.  While I also prefer my DI's well out into the room, others have had good results otherwise.  Depends on the room and your priorities--bass response, sound staging, etc.  I also prefer the speakers toed in (see my pics   https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7021) so I'm not so far off axis of the central tweeter.  I find the DI's overall very well balanced and extended (but certainly not hot--a quality I loathe).
OBTW, I have a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP which drives the DI's in either triode or ultralinear beautifully.  What output tubes are you using?

@laaudionut  Any further updates on your SEs?

@knollbrent   Brent, congratulations on your move to the Double Impacts as well. 

Looking forward to hearing more from both of you regarding your experience with the DIs.

All the best!

@stelo  Congratulations on the Double Impacts!

That's a significant replacement in terms of speakers  & type+subs.

Regarding placement, folks are doing it differently based on individual needs. You will get varying feedback on this. What you are doing to optimize placement and position for your room and needs is the best way to go about it.

I personally feel that out in the room is best. I had them (all approximate) 5 feet from the front wall, 5 feet from the side walls and about 8 feet apart with the listening position 8-9 feet from the center plane. I preferred strong toe in and kept them as such, but I was also fine with them pointed straight ahead.

Others have them closer to the wall, closer together, and sit closer or farther away.

Thanks to this long thread, I ordered and received my DIs a couple of days ago. They replace a pair of B&W 805D3 + REL T5. I am driving the DIs with a PrimaLuna Prologue Premium Integrated (Chord 2qute DAC). They are definitely a very different beast than the B&W. I never liked the hotness of the high frequencies on the B&W, but I got used to it and now it feels like the DIs tweeters are not as good. I am loving the mid-low frequencies, and I know that the speakers still have to be broken in.

Any suggestion on the placement? Distance from the back wall? Distance between them? Toe-in or not? I will experiment (it is part of the fun), but I would appreciate hearing about your experience.