I have dedicated audio room 14.5x20.5x9 ft. Currently have Marantz Reference CD/Intergrated paired to Magnepan 1.7's with REL T-7 subs. For the vast majority of music I love this system. The only nit pick is that it is lacking/limited in covering say below 35 hz or so. For the first time actually buzzed the panel with an organ sacd. Bummer. Thought of upgrading subs to rythmicks but then I will need to high pass the 1.7's. Really don't want to deal with that approach.
Enter the Double Impacts. Many interesting things here. Would certainly have a different set of strengths here. Dynamics, claimed bottom octave coverage in one package, suspect a good match to current electronics.
I've read all the threads here so we do not need to rehash that. Just wondering if others out there have FIRST HAND experience with these or other Tekton speakers
@ozzy , I just read this on the Tekton owners Facebook page:
"Listened to two different amps today with an Audiogon member. ATmasphere Mk-60 mono and a Rodger mojdeski built amp. The atmasphere mono amps were very good and drove the DI's nicely. Hardly even a load for them. NIce inner detail, transients and upper and mid range. The DI's will reveal anything put into them nicely. QUite the educational time. My BAT vk500 does most of this very well but the finesse of the ATmasphere tube amp is really superb. I am still interested in the Lyngdorf 2170, the BAT VK55SE, the Aric Audio Transcend seriesKT120SE amp.Good Times tonight"
@nitrobob The link you shared doesn't load and I'm sure it is due to my system/settings. But I can imagine. Given your audigon 'handle' I had an inkling : )
Stfoth , Got my impact monitor, you will not regret it, with sub they are even more amazing...I felt every audiophile should have Tekton speakers at Home,....
Thanks, The audiophiles on this forum sold me, I dont think they can make up there positive experience with the DIs and it's with them that I can safely make a critical choice for my wife and myself without being able to audition them in person. I know were in for a real eye opening jaw dropper. Thanks everyone here.
cliff, I agree with mac. You will just have to try your electronics and decide. I have listened to both SS and tubes. I enjoy both for different reasons. We've all said it over and over--the DI's will let you hear the sonic signature of your electronics. Avoid the temptation to let others decide for you what is best. But you can benefit from great insight and experience from this thread.
I wouldn't begin to predict the behavior of your interesting room other than to say the DI's have a good chance of performing well. Modest room treatment may afford significant improvements as well. (If you want some DIY info here I can help.)
Hope all had an enjoyable and thankful Thanksgiving.
Congrats on your DI purchase cliff, you're in for some fun.
I would recommend trying out all of your electronics with the DI's to see which you like best. While I prefer small SET tube amps with mine others prefer large SS amps with them. The DI's will reveal what is placed upstream of them....for good or bad. The only way for you to find out what you'll like best is to try the different options. Have fun with it and let your ears determine your choice.
While not traditional your angled walls might work out just fine. Hopefully you'll experience less harmful standing waves with those angled walls and ceilings. I'm certainly no expert on room acoustics but with some placement experimenting I bet you'll do just fine with the DI's in your room. For me I've found the more I can get them out into the room and away from the walls, the better they sound. Good luck!
Hello all you audiophiles, I'm new on this forum but have been following it for some time now. I just ordered a pair of DI's with the upgrades. I consider myself as a Audiophile wana be as I don't have any real high end electronics but I do have high end speakers which I kept and still have which are Kef 103.2s (2pair) Kef 105.2s (1 pair) Pasetechnology 10.5s (I sold). I auditioned the GE Tritons but was not completely satisfied. Then I started reading and reading and reading all I could about these DIs, Well I'm sold after hearing all the positive feed back and ignored the negative. I even spoke to Eric briefly. Now onto my electronics, I have a Bryston 4bsst, a Acdcom 5ch 150w into 5ch, and Adcom 860 preamp. I also have a Mac 4100 receiver that's 75w into 8ohms and 100w into 4 ohms and I also have an 80s Tandburg 45w receiver.
I have 2 questions to whoever can steer me in the right direction since I cant upgrade any of my electronics for a while.
Which of my electronics do you think would work best with the DIs with what I have ? I was also thinking about running my Bryston through my Macs preamp Then trying just my recievers hooked up to the Did, any suggestions will help greatly. I would like to go tubes in the future.
Now my 2nd question, which is a beauty, I live in a large A-frame house, my listening space is my living room which is almost but not quite a perfect triangle. Its 24'L x 24'W x 22'H. I have no choice but to use the angled wall to place the speakers on because one end wall has a double door an a large window on it, the other wall is open into the dining room and kitchen. That leaves me only with the angled walls to use for my speakers,
Now when I place the DIs against this angled wall being 54"s tall they will be about 3"s away at the top of the speaker and about 3' away at the bottom. That sort of tells you the angle of the wall, But they will be 3 1/2 to 4ft away from the side wall and the other will be opened into the dining room.
So the question is what do you think of the placement vs reflections, I hope I don't sound ignorant here but like I said I'm a wana be audiophile.
Also to note, it's midrange and higher frequencies that damage our hearing, lower frequencies (like earthquakes) don't seem to present much of a threat.
I know, I hear that... ( or maybe I won’t LOL ) . But I’m getting up in years , and have been around loud all my life . 43 years in a food manufacturing plant, 20 plus years of racing cars .. If that hasn’t deafened me by now, it better hurry up ..Actually, I just retired, but the plant tested our hearing every year... And I always passed with flying colors, unlike a lot of my younger co-workers...Good genes I guess.. Here’s a video link from inside my race car. If you think this stuff is loud, you should try this....
If trypophobia bothers you don’t think of them a holes. Instead, think of them as multiple eye balls. Like a lovable spider just watching you. Waiting for you to fall asleep.
Thanks . I also have 2 PSA 1801 18 inch 750 watt subs that I'm not real sure how their going to fit into this picture . Might use one and cross the DI over at 60, use the PSA's(s) below that... I doubt I'll need both . But these DI will see plenty of 112 -113 db levels with concerts. I like it punchy ...Just have to see
Will be interesting to hear your comparison since Ascend is known to be a Big Bang for your buck product. I have a pair of Vapor Stiff Breeze with the Raal. They impress the hell out of me in a lot of ways. They only stayed hooked up for about a week before I put the DIs back in. I could see though how someone could prefer one presentation over the other. Trying to figure out room for a second system for them. Give them 50-60 hours to break in. They sound great out of the box but a tad edgy IMO.
Eric said they would go out in the next couple days . He had them in stock . I believe Utah is 3 day shipping from Ohio .. I'll keep you all posted on comparisons
I just talked to Eric this morning and ordered a set of Double Impacts/w upgrades. I currently have Ascend Raal Towers ...I really like the Ascends, just thought I would buy myself a Christmas present ...
A couple of people here such as mac48025 have the DI’s and also have the DI SE on the way. I am waiting patiently for his take on the differences in sound. My purchase will probably rest on Mac’s opinion.
ozzy, I asked Eric to check this thread and respond to you, give him a call and be sure to ID yourself, you will get through to Eric. @csmgolf , SE version uses made to Tekton spec'd drivers instead of off the shelf, I think better crossover parts than the DI w/upgrades, and I believe the cabinet is just a little bit bigger.
I cannot go through all of the posts on this thread. I believe this has been asked but I don't remember it being answered. What is the difference between the DI and the SE version? The website says nothing. What makes up the $3000 difference in price? If it is different drivers, what are they using? Last question, does anyone know if there will be an SE version of the Electron model?
David, After experimenting with different tubes and cathode bypass switches the amp is sounding wonderful. I now understand what all the talk of SET magic is about. I got a taste of it with Charles' Frankensteins but experiencing it daily is a real treat. The Aric Audio 300B is amazingly powerful sounding, very dynamic, exceptional tone, beautiful midrange with a huge 3D soundstaging. The musical realism is addictive and I find myself spending a lot more time listening to music now. This is with EH 300B tubes, I can't wait to hear how it will sound with the EML XLS 300B's I'm ordering tomorrow.
I build speakers all day long. Anyone wanting to communicate with me is going to have more success via phone call. I can work and talk with a headset but have found it difficult to work and type. Calling us is always preferred.
Eric never replied to me. The girl that I spoke to on the phone finally emailed me about the external crossover possibility with a simple no. No response about the 8 ohm version.
jayctoy,
It looks like it will never happen, but thank you.
Lak,
An hour away? We will need to plan a visit regardless.
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.
Ozzy I know your passion is music, your reasons of not buying the DI is totally undertandstable, I get it.And I respect it. I still feel you deserve to have the DI, Good luck again moving forward....
Sorry Steve, I missed your earlier post. I would think the DI's would suit your needs more so than the Legacy Focus SE's. I found the DI's to be more dynamic and more "live" sounding. I listen mostly to acoustical music but occasionally like to rock out and the DI's handle both with equal aplomb but are especially good for rocking out to. The Legacys were great speakers but to me the DI's could to everything they could do with added dynamics and slam.
Thanks Al. I'll need to get some longer IC's and try moving the MZ further away.
Tom (Mac48025), my congratulations as well for this excellent improvement to an already very fine system. And kudos to Aric for making it possible.
Regarding the hum/buzz issue, I don’t know how you have the components physically arranged, but if your MZ2 is in close proximity to the amp or to any of your other components, including its own external power supply, you might try repositioning it to increase the distance between it and everything else in the system.
I particularly suggest that because in looking at photos of the MZ2’s innards it appears that its output signal grounds are directly connected to its chassis. Which I’m thinking might result in a small hum/buzz voltage being applied to the input ground of Aric’s amplifier corresponding to whatever small AC-related voltage may be magnetically induced onto the MZ2’s chassis by a nearby component.
As you are probably aware, use of a cheater plug as a long term solution results in a small but non-zero safety risk. (Note Aric’s statement above that the cheater plug was suggested "as a test").
Aric, Your description of the cathode capacitors explains the seeming high gain Tom has. Good to know that the gain level is adjustable. This sure seems to be a very well engineered amplifier and exceptionally good sounding based on Tom's sheer joy😊.
Tom, Just let me know when you're ready for me to come over again. Im really looking forward to it. Charles
The chassis is 18.5" wide X 13.5" deep x 3.5" tall, with the power transformer sitting about 4.5" above that (with the tops of the 300B’s extending above those about an inch). Weight is just under 55 lbs unboxed- closer to 60 lbs packed. The amplifier uses two 5U4 rectifier tubes and independent transformers for each circuit in the unit. Best, Aric
Thanks for the kudos Tom- I'm glad you're enjoying the 300B! Just a note for anyone curious for more detail regarding the amplifier. It uses a single 6SN7, that uses one triode of the tube for the input signal gain, and the second as the driver for the 300B. Each stage has a defeatable cathode bypass capacitor, which boosts the current coming from the stage. Up, or "On" enables the cathode capacitor, and Down removes it (allowing a current-dependent "feedback" and lowering the gain of that stage). With both of them up, the gain architecture of both stages is quite high- and as such is susceptible to noise (especially with the gain control of the amp at full tilt- or close). These can be adjusted depending on the preamplifier's gain used, and allow you to "tailor" the gain architecture of the amp. It can also be used as an integrated with both bypass switches set to UP- and driven directly from a source (DAC, CD player, etc.).
Regarding the "cheater plug" suggestion, it was suggested as a test to determine whether a ground loop may have been present or not. All audio gear has some sort of signal ground reference to circuit ground- some are isolated and some are not. I isolate the chassis from ground via an RC circuit, however another component may try to find "ground" through the signal. Sometimes moving a component to a different AC circuit, or lifting a ground somewhere in the signal path can eliminate AC-induced ground noise.
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