Tekton Double Impacts

@charles1dad - You're quite welcome!  Thanks for the kind words. I think it's a very neutral sounding system and not as warm sounding as my original Diavolo SET + Von Schweikert VR2s setup and it lacks a tad of added 3D dimensionality that Von Schweikert is known for. I'd love to tweak or upgrade something to get that added effect back.   I love the Benchmark HGC for the money and the fact it doubles as my preamp which keeps the signal path shorter and hopefully purer.  I am curious if a better dac or tube preamp wouldn't be one of my next moves, but I'm afraid I might muck things up or lose detail introducing a tube preamp or add too much euphonics to the sound.  I love tubes so much and a tad more warmth wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I'm afraid it might get tiring to listen too.  Decisions,  decisions... 

@charles1dad - no my current system doesn’t surpass the Shindo system I had built.  My current preamp and turntable are very good but are not in the same league, frankly.  Shindo presents a very real tone and soundstage that I haven’t heard with other equipment.  My favorite Shindo preamp I owned cost more than my entire current system. Crazy!  I would rather listen to, support and get to know excellent local musicians with my money than buy a $15k preamp again! Anyway, today, I love finding value in stereo equipment and that’s why I like the new Tekton speakers so much!

Sbayne,
I have no doubt that your current system brings you much joy. I however must confess that I really adored your former Shindo based system and would have loved to have heard it. Do you feel your current system surpasses the Shindo presentation? Maybe it all the Art Dudley reviews I've read but I get the impression that Shindo gets to the essence of music's beautyand emotion. 
Charles

Hi Jacarcopo, 
Thanks for taking the time to post pictures of your audio system.  I can easily imagine the beautiful sound of music that surely fills your listening space. Your Art Audio amplifier is a visual treat.
Charles 

@sbayne - 😂 no worries. I’m glad you motivated me to finally post my system. I checked yours out too. You have a sweet setup too and I have no doubts it sounds wonderful as well. Do you have enough tweaks yet? Lol 😂

@jcarcopo - ha,ha now I understand the double runs of Big Silver Oval! +1 on the Art Audio amp. Thanks again for posting the pictures it just makes it easier to understand someone's perspective when you actually see their set-up. 

@mac48025 - Thanks for the kind words.  Eric picked the color and finish because I asked him to after being an indecisive pain in his ass for 2 weeks, LOL! I forget the Pantone number for the color.  I tried to find it on Pantone's website to see if I could jog my memory, but they have so many colors so it's very hard.  I think it's Pantone 180c, but that's a guess.  Regarding the Diavolo, I know right! An absolute gorgeous amplifier just to stare at while listening to.  It's actually my 2nd Diavolo amplifier from Art Audio.   I couldn't find one used when I was in the market a year ago so I bought a discounted demo Diavolo unit from Tom Willis directly at Art Audio for about what I could get for a kidney. They can be found for around $4k-$5k used if you see one on Audiogon/Audiomart/HifiShark.  They are totally worth the money.  They are reliable workhorses that check all the boxes for me sonically and it ended my search for "something better".

@sbayne  -  Thanks, I already had the Big Silver Oval cables from a previous system and figured 10awg of overkill speaker cables dedicated for the highs and 10awg dedicated for the lows would lower the resistance just enough to make me sleep better knowing that I'm getting every ounce of wattage out of the SET amp as humanly possible. LOL Seriously, it's for peace of mind.  I don't worry about cables anymore. I just think they are pretty cables, add some bling, and unlike many expensive cables that act as a tone control, they are very neutral sounding.  Bigger is better, right? LOL, I don't belief in bi-wire cables for audible reasons based on anything I've perceived in listening tests, but doubling the amount of cable going to the speaker can't hurt and only reduces resistance, even if it's just a rounding error. LOL, I realize a SET amplifier doesn't need 2x 10awg cables to carry 8w-13w of power so your question is not lost on me. LOL

@jcarcopo - Very cool and thanks!  Any reason you went with bi-wires on your DIs? 

@david_ten - I just upload my pictures to Audiogon. It seems to work well. Yeah, even just listing your system components would be helpful. We've got so many people contributing to this thread it's hard to keep everyone's systems straight. 

Mac,

So true about having a room all to yourself. I can already imagine my wife's response to the room treatments. 

Once the DI's arrive and treatments are placed, I'll check in with the results.

I meant to say...coffee maker. So much for frivolity.  Sorry, Eric.

Like good coffee, Tekton speakers can produce a product that is warm  and liquid with just a touch of subtle zing.  But I would never want to endanger its connection wiith the LDS community.  lol.

Jcarcopo,
Great looking system and room. That amp is beautiful, I could be happy just looking at it! What color are your DI's? Looks like a satin color. I like it. 

@sbayne

I have tried, but the handshake between Audiogon and Google Photos hasn’t been working for me, at least on my system. It’s the application that Audiogon uses, and Google or my security settings don’t care for it.

I’ve refrained from using a photo sharing site, but maybe it is time to do so.

If you or others have any thoughts on alternatives, especially easy ones, please share.

Your post is motivating. At a minimum, I can list the system components.

Personally, I appreciate reading the thoughts that others have when I know they have well-trained ears for music and present their thoughts in an open-ended manner. We are all individuals that have different tasts in types of music and what we hear within that room.
Thank you grannyring for posting your thoughts, comparisons, and examples of the Tekton Double Impact speakers, and to many other individuals that also contribute to our education.

@sbayne 

Here you go. My audio setup.

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/6723

Kdude,
very interested in your take on the Lyngdorf. Everything I have read points to it being a pretty amazing piece. If I could get rid of a big stack of components and replace with a 20lb integrated with no loss of sound quality and the benefit of room correction that would be the cats ass! 

@teajay , @david_ten , @grannyring , @kdude66 , @mikirob , @jcarcopo, @grey9hound : Thank you for your valuable posts! Can you please post pictures of your systems in Audiogon’s Virtual System pages? ..... "A picture is worth a thousand words"

@charles1dad , @mac48025: Thanks for posting pictures of your systems. I can almost "hear" what your systems sound like by looking at your gear, your room and how you have it set-up.

@kdude66

You,I and possibly others may be a little crazy for loving our old technology SET and SEP amps but here is my take on this.

Kenny, we are definitely not crazy, but I do like to self-deprecate so I can make my point in a less a offensive way.

One way to begin a non offensive post, but still make your point.

Step 1: "It’s not you, it’s me...open with some non threatening self-deprecation."
ie: "Maybe I’m mistaken, wrong, and clearly insane, but I believe I’m right about XYZ"

Now that’s just step 1, there are more steps, but I don’t like giving out trade secrets or boring people with diatribes as I get older, but step one is like getting your foot in the door of a person’s mind and tends to keep it open. Comedians self-deprecate to woo their audience all the time. LOL

the distortion spectra of triodes is favorable, with a rapid fall-off of the upper harmonics.

(This is less true for beam tetrodes, pentodes, or solid-state devices, which are intrinsically less linear and have higher-order distortion curves.)

Ditto, couldn’t say it better if I wanted to.

This performance is with a Set amp running in their sweet spot of output which is 20 to 30% of that particular amps output pwr as a general rule for the very best sound.

This is were the best purity of sound "May" come from for folks that like these kind of Amps.

Again, spot on.

Again this is a highly personal and subjective subject and there is no right or wrong just different flavors of that coffee available to us Individually for our enjoyment of music,that we love,playback in our homes.

This^ is the final step in my guide of how to write non offensive posts and still have an opinion. LOL

I call it Final Step: "Opinions are like assholes, so acknowledge other people’s if you want them to acknowledge yours!" LOL

Looks like you’re playing with a full deck to me, definitely not crazy at all. I will only add that when I learned that amplifying the entire sine wave continuously in class A without decimating the signal and introducing cross-over distortion via the use of a phase splitter in a push-pull topology was like an "Ah Hah" moment for me being very interested in the simplicity and purity of the SET circuit design.

I equivocate it to my "Humpty Dumpty" analogy. Sure you can separate phase and antiphase, but putting it back together again isn’t without some degradation or the introduction of crossover distortion. In other words Humpty Dumpty can be glued back together again, but ends up looking like a mosaic puzzle with cracks and fractures and is now nothing more than a
shell of his former self. (+5 Word Play Points).

Like others here I learn much from the discussions here and find listeners disagreements regarding components sound quite enlightening as it helps me to fully understand my listening preferences and how to achieve the sound I prefer.  I would hope ones dislike of a product wouldn't be taken personally, it's just ones preference......just like I wouldn't take it personally if someone didn't like the lime green shirt I'm wearing ( no matter how hideous it most like is!). As long as I like it's all good!

This audio journey is quite interesting. I can't tell you how many times I thought I had the most amazing piece of equipment only to hear something else that put it to shame. Charles' Frankensteins certainly come to mind, I didn't realize the sound I had could be improved so much. Now I enjoy what I have to the fullest while keeping an open mind as to how to possibly improve it. Having said that I hope my upcoming purchases of a new cd transport, DAC and amp will suit me for quite a while, my pocketbook needs a break! :)

brotw, you may consider yourself a noob but IMO you're well ahead of the curve by addressing the rooms acoustics. Jim Smiths book "Getting Better Sound" helped me understand the importance of proper room treatment. I'm still learning how to properly treat my room but can confidently say that building a dedicated listening room with bass traps, quadratic diffusers and absorption treatments was the best audio investment I've ever made. When I had the the DI's in my living room they sounded great to me but I heard much more of what they are really capable of when properly positioning them into my dedicated listening room......of course it's much easier placing room treatments in a room the wife doesn't care about ;)

thanks to all for your contributions here,
Tom

ps......welcome Aric. Can't wait to place your amp in my system and look forward to you insights here. 

@teajay @grannyring  - Preparing for the purchase of some room treatments has me studying up on room acoustics. This youtube video addressed the role electronics, speakers and acoustics play in the sound we perceive. I found it informative. Yes, still a relative noob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bbmWd00HYM

Long story short - Acoustics play the major role, followed by speakers then electronics. Bad acoustics can totally destroy the detail and resolution you were hoping to get out of that expensive dac. "All the recording engineers, whose music we are listening to, are listening to speakers that were carefully placed in a room and equalized. Good enough for them who do this for a living, should be good enough for you, as long as you use a good quality equalizer."-Anthony Grimani, MSR Acoustics, President

Personally, I've never heard room correction not improve a room, but that was with sparsely treated rooms. What I've never heard is a well treated room, with full tube electronics compared with and without room correction. 

The new sound I got from the Raven Blackhawk came through my Gallo 3.1s beautifully. No class D like digital nasties or listening fatigue, and far greater texture and tone all while running correction. I'm still open to the existence of artifacts of correction, especially when there are 30dB untreated room mode swings. A crazy looking wideband filter to perfectly counter untreated room effects requires unlimited taps and digital filter coefficients. Think infinite fourier series. In addition the cost function balances phase and magnitude response (digital mixed phase FIR filter from Live Dirac ), so phase corrections can still come at a price of frequency response ripple or vice versa. 

I read somewhere that room corrected tone/timbre, presence and the overall naturallness of sound dramatically improves once treatments were employed. This makes sense to me given the limited resolution of even the best room correction. Fixing the number of coefficients allowed, a transfer function curve fit is orders of magnitude more accurate if the target curve is smoother or better behaved (treated room).  

Live Dirac only cost $400, makes the most dramatic positive changes of any one component I've experienced. I'll turn it off if ever I don't like it.

Anyone see a reason not to use GIK?

Hey Kenny
Can not wait to read your impressions. Best,mikirob

Hi Kenny,
Given your vast listening experiences and ownership of many terrific amplifiers past and present I’m looking forward to reading your opinion on the Lyngdorf 2170. Curious to see how it compares and contrasts with the Aric 2A3 SET, LTA ZOTL 40 and the First Watt S.I.T.push pull amplifiers. Should be much fun for certain.
Charles

Reading teajay’s critique of McIntosh the last impression that I would perceive is that he’s a "hater". He was genuinely describing his listening experience with this brand. Interestingly I share very similar impressions having heard all McIntosh systems on several occasions.

Do I "hate" their products? Of course not! I simply prefer other alternatives more. We all listen to components/speakers and choose what we like best. Taste is all over the sonic map as one would expect given the pure subjective nature of it all.

There is no reason to be thin skinned in this wonderful endeavor, trust your ears and go where they lead you. There’ll always be people who share your taste and those who do not. This is what makes this such a fun passion and results in the sharing of excellent insights and perspective. This thread is proof of this concept.

Gentlemen keep it up 😊
Charles

Hey Kenny,

I had talked to Aric earlier today and he shared that you had gotten the custom SET 2A3 amplifier you had him build for you.  Please, when you have even a cursory take on it, let us know what you think!  If your custom SET 2A3 amp lives up to what I'm hearing with Aric's amp in my house you should be in for a real treat!

Hey grey9hound,

I would not describe my position as a "hater" of McIntosh gear.  I have tried for at least twenty years to understand why listeners liked this brands house sound because I never got it.  Many of my friends had McIntosh amplifiers driving Maggies, Thiels, B&Ws, Vandys, and virtually all them left this brand for either great SS like Pass Labs or other tube based gear from other companies.  

Just like I never liked the house sound of Wilson speakers, which finally got rid of that lousy tweeter and replaced it with a silk dome in all their models, Magico, Y&G Acoustic these brands never appealed to how I experience music in the real world.  Does this make me a "hater" I don't think so, but a listener who clearly knows his personal taste of likes and dislikes.  And if you do not care for the brands that I find quite wonderful I would not label you a "hater" but someone with very a different sense of taste from mine.

McIntosh always surprises me that they are still a going concern at their excessive price point considering how they sound to me at various times that I've heard them setup over the years. I think it's well made and very attractive gear, but I wouldn't own it based on their sound quality and my own preferences of what I like to hear. 

Dennis, I hope you meant the above mostly in jest....

I know it's difficult to work through the words and the back and forth in these forums. I don't believe Terry means anything negative, if you interpret it as such...I see it as sharing a perspective and where he's coming from ---- just as you are with a system you love and enjoy. 

In fact, when things get direct and are put in stark relief as happens from time to time...I find the posts during those periods most informative.

I'm a fan of the ST100 and would love to hear your system as much as I would like to hear Terry's in person.

@grey9hound   Thank you for the specifics. It's good to understand the front ends of our systems. I'm working on some changes and knowing what's being used and the resulting impressions is helpful. 

It's also terrific that you opened up your home and system to Bill.

Wow , a Mcintosh  hater. I understand now .

Hey grey9hound,

I heard your MX151 in the context of total McIntosh system driving Sonus Faber speakers in a well set up room.  To be frank, I'm not a fan of McIntosh gear and find their tube amps kinda grainy and not very refined sounding.  Therefore, I did not hear your piece in isolation, but as a part of this total system.

Musicality to me is a very subjective term trying to convey that the overall timbres/colors, the 3D imaging of real instruments in space, and lastly that you can relax and emotionally relate to the music as it flows into your room is present when listening to a system.  I do not get this experience with McIntosh preamps/amps, regardless of what speakers I have heard their gear with.

I just want to say that I do not think the DIs or McIntosh or Purist Audio is forward sounding.I think there is more of an immediacy, live , in the room with you ,sound from the DIs and the Rogue St-100
When i was using the Purist usb and purist digital, with  the Mcintosh, I thought that the sound was a little  too distant.
Although once I changed to the HDMI, things did sound more forward.
I think it has to do with the cheap HDMI i am using.
??
I was probably turning it up too loud for Bill, as he was in the Sweet spot and i was not. I think that also may have contributed to his feeling of a forward sound.

Hey Grannyring,

I have a very strong assumption that your taste and mine are very similar in what we want our systems to sound like.  Of course I want micro-details and an accurate rendering of the leading edge of the note, but not so sharp it cuts my ears, and I want the full body of the harmonic with natural color/timbres. My Cello's provided that to a wonderful degree and I have found your Crescendo's to have the same overall signature that's why they are one of my favorite speakers.

However, both speakers compared to the DI's and the Ulf's do not have the same speed/aliveness/prat that the Tekton's offer.  When you shared how you were "tapping my feet & rocking my head" I found this harder and harder to do when I went back to my Cello's regardless with what I was driving them with.  Now, here's were personal taste and synergy come in, I find it hard to imagine what the DI's would sound like with just OK solid state dacs (Benchmark) or solid state amps (Bryston) driving them. It would be a very unpleasant experience for me.  The polar opposite would be driving either the Cello/Crescendo with overly warm, euphonic, old school tube gear, boy would that sound rotten because of their inherent warm/fullness would turn to slow and muddy.  

 I wish you could come to my home and hear the DI's/Ulf's with plenty of breathing room being driven with great NOS tubed SET amps, preamp, and DAC.  You would then hear all the body and the lingering decays of the notes with that easy liquidity/flow, you won't feel rushed at all, that you experience with the AZ's plus the "aliveness" and kick that is lacking in both the Cello/Crescendo presentation of the music.  As I stated above, I really wanted to keep my beloved Cello's of five years in the reference chair in my system, but the DI's matched all their beautiful tonality and warmth, with the right electronics, and the Cello's sounded kinda dead/wimpy regarding the dynamics/PRAT of the music, along with the DI's pulling a better disappearing act/sound-staging.  

@david_ten
The JRiver files were ripped as .wav files and they are sent over to the Mx151  on HDMI as PCM files. So the DAC in the MX151 is the one doing the Digital to Analog. I had jRiver upsampling everything to 64Bit 192KHZ. We actually turned it off and played regular .wav files and some mp3, with no upsampling, but there was no difference in sound .
The MX151 does not and will not play a pure unadulterated analog signal without doing an A to D conversion.
This is because of Roomperfect.
@teajay i feel that the MX151 is Musical and one reviewer said that it was lush sounding.I do not think it is overly warm or colored like some pres might be.
Also it may not be as musical as some dedicated 2 channel pres, obviously.,but i would not say that it is not musical.
What does Musical mean to you ?
I had the Mx121 and thought it was not nearly as good .
What other equipment and did you have with it .

Terry, you may be correct regarding utter transpancy, at least in part. I found the instruments and voices all clear, clean, and so close I could reach out and touch them. Sometimes all of this impact was all on the same sound plane. All of this marvelous resolution and bass impact was just a tad too stark for me. The recodings were put out before me in a stark way compared to Harbeth, Crescendos, and other speakers I have owned. Hope you understand that. Again, a personal thing. Yes, I notice you Tekton and now I want some privacy is how I felt at times. Other times I was having a ball tapping my feet and rocking my head.

It is, in my estimation, part of the DI speaker’s sound and personality. Sure, different gear upfront will add, subtract, tame or heighten the inherent personality of a speaker. However, based on my experience, a speaker will not completely stop being what it fundamentally is with gear and wire changes

I don’t like my gear too fast. I know this flies in the face of what many like and shoot for. The Crescendo lingers longer on notes and rolls along in a more romantic way. This is not just a reflection of the gear I front of them. Is this accurate? Who knows. I like it. They have this personality relative to the DI speakers. The Crescendos are not slow at all, but relative to the DIs they may be. Too much speed and resolution makes me nervous at times. 😊

The very name of the speaker implies exactly what the builder was after and designed for. He succeeded in a big way. This speaker has impact from head to toe and it does not go unnoticed. More impact. More.

I still need to hear them in my room with my gear to really know how they play on home field.

Jccarcopo,

You,I and possibly others may be a little crazy for loving our old technology SET and SEP amps but here is my take on this.


Eighty years later, vacuum tubes, and especially triodes, continue to be the lowest distortion amplifying elements ever made. No germanium or silicon transistor, JFET, Mosfet or Sit has ever approached the distortion performance of the direct-heated triodes, with indirect-heated triodes following closely behind. In addition to low distortion in the absolute sense, the distortion spectra of triodes is favorable, with a rapid fall-off of the upper harmonics. (This is less true for beam tetrodes, pentodes, or solid-state devices, which are intrinsically less linear and have higher-order distortion curves.)

This performance is with a Set amp running in their sweet spot of output which is 20 to 30% of that particular amps output pwr as a general rule for the very best sound.

This is were the best purity of sound "May" come from for folks that like these kind of Amps.

Even though I enjoy all kinds of different amps,including a Lyngdorf 2170 which I will get in about a week to try,my ears always have lead me back to certain kinds of Set amps.There is just a magical engaging sound that no other topology can quite match.

I have recently found that I like the JJ 2a3-40 new production single plate tube vs several brands of nos dual plate 2a3's,even more natural,organic,level of purity.

When it comes to solid state amps,my FW sit2 push pull and the F7 are the closet and best sounding SS amps that I have owned or ever heard yet.

So in about a week or so I will be able to directly compare my new Aric audio 2a3 set that makes 8 watts vs the 2170 in my system.

If I keep the 2170 for my main system I will use all tube gear in my man cave smaller system.

Again this is a highly personal and subjective subject and there is no right or wrong just different flavors of that coffee available to us Individually for our enjoyment of music,that we love,playback in our homes.

I greatly appreciate the maturity level on this thread and I personally learn and gain knowledge from all the different opinions even though I may not always agree either.


Kenny.

I've been sitting on a fence post recently contemplating selling my DeVore 0/96s, Tekton Lore, Tekton M-Lore, keep my Harbeth SHL5 and take the plunge on one of the DIs with upgrades. Or, take the plunge on one of the Ulfs. I already own a LTA Mz2. Plus, Aric's KT88 might also be a great sounding cost effective measure to make beautiful music with Tekton. I'm always on the hunt for "best bang for buck" audio and designers like Eric and Aric provide ample opportunity to accomplish that goal. I suppose I'll be standing on this fence post awhile longer. Looking forward to the further comments.  Best, mikirob

@grey9hound  and @grannyring 

JRiver, ripped files, and cabling are mentioned, but how are they delivered and processed?

Can you share: Server setup? Specific convertor? DAC? etc so we have a better feel for the front end.....

Thank you very much for your write-ups of your audition. Your impressions and the follow-up discussions are very helpful and informative to me.

Hey mikirob,

Thanks for your kind words and disagreeing with jetter's comment about my post.  The only reason I share and love to post here is that we all act like gentleman and have fun sharing and at times disagreeing with each other with no malice at all.

Hey jetter,

I'm always very mindful on my posts to be very respectful towards other GON members and never put things on a personal level.  I'm blunt and clearly give my opinion and at times disagree with some one's viewpoint, but do not attack the person.  So, were does your hyper-sensitivity  come from stating my response to granny's take on the DI's was, "slightly over the top"? What do you base this on?

Of course the bottom line is that everything in audio is based on personal taste to begin with, than you try to add on objectivity based on experience and comparing different gear to each other.  Here's a question for you?  Have you heard with your own ears both the DI's and the AZ speakers in order to make sense of what grannyring and I slightly disagree on? If so, please share what your take is on this matter.  I still think he's confusing utter transparency with a forward sound compared with his AZ's slightly warm/full presentation.    

Oh come on now, nothing teajay stated was an affront to grannyring; and I consider grannyring a magnificent knowledgeable poster, among the absolute best on Audiogon. Plus, I have purchased several of grannyring's superb power cable builds. I also think that between grannyring, teajay, charles1dad, and dare I say myself, the way we hear and what we like in recorded music is closely aligned. The nitpicks that differentiate us is interesting and worthy of discussion. I personally applaud the gentlemanly banter and appreciate the knowledge gained from it. The conversation has been respectful beneficial to all reading this excellent thread. Best, mikirob

Terry

I agree -- I think I would really enjoy that aspect of the job too. Now I just need to find your counterpart for HT.

Problem is that I don'\t even know if "boutique" players exist for processors because of the complexity, various licensing for different multi-channel playback, etc. There may be some for multi channel amps but the processors are (IMO) a tough product for a one person setup to do the R&D on and stay current.

actually, your critique of granny’s review was slightly over the top. I know granny has no skin in the game and I have read many of his delightful and always polite posts. And he said the speakers were great, just not his cup of tea. The idea that a speaker with a number of tweeter sized drivers used for the midrange might have a "slight" forward tilt does not seem out of the range of possibility.

Just wanted to share,

Since I had the great luck to become a professional reviewer about five years ago, one of the most rewarding/pleasurable aspects of this work has been seeking out boutique companies that cannot offered advertising or the "payola" needed to get their gear reviewed.  I only took this reviewing job when I was assured of two things: 1) I had the freedom to approach any company I was interested in.  2) My reviews would never be censored because of other manufacturer's advertisements on the website.

Virtually all these boutique companies are owned by very creative artesian's who hand build beautiful gear with quality parts.  My experience, with a very few exceptions, is that they are very good people who care about making the best equipment they can and having very satisfied customers.  They tend not to be great "business people" because they do this work because of their love for music and the gear they create to produce it.  Another aspect of these boutique saloon's are that they charge extremely reasonable prices for gear that out performs significantly much more expensive advertised equipment. (Think DI's at 3K)

I wrote some of the first reviews on the following companies gear that fit into this niche: Raven Audio, Backert Labs, Tekton Design, Linear Tube Audio, MG Cables, Role Audio, Krono Design, Triode Lab, AricAudio.

Because of the work of these gentleman the music lover can really put together a reference level system for the price of some power cords on the market today!

Just think, right now I'm driving the Ulf's that are superlative with the Micro-ZOTL/ AricAudio SET KT-88 amp to a level of performance that's just beautiful-yet the combo only costs $3,600.00.

 



 

   
Gentleman,

My take on the difference in Sound between the DI's and Bill's crescendo's equate to the obvious difference in design and the drivers covering the majority of the midrange.I do believe that the crescendo's would'nt have the perception of speed but may offer a touch more bloom in the sound that Bill may prefer and likes better.

But Offcourse room size,toe in,distances from wall,and other variables can greatly effect the sound of any speaker as we all know.

I personally find my DI's not lacking anything for my tastes and most certainly don't find them fwd or lacking depth.I don't like a too laid back speaker and I greatly enjoy the transparency and speed that this design has.I enjoy zero toe in on my speakers I have tried many positions in my room and I found the best comprise in overall sonics by having them straight ahead.

At the end of the day we all should go where are "Individual Ears" lead us.No right or wrong either way.


The DI speaker for me bring many great qualities from other speaker topology's to my sonic presentation preferences table without the shortcomings of other designs that I have owned and heard in my 36 yrs in this hobby.

Kenny.

Jcarcopo, I hate to burst your bubble but I doubt there's any hope for you and you are indeed crazy.......just like the rest of us here 😂 I will be getting the Aric Audio Transcend SET KT-120 very soon and trust in teajay's glowing appraisal of it as he hasn't steered me wrong yet. As a matter of fact I'll have the same DAC, transport, pre and amp as he does soon but I'll have to settle for the paltry DI's while he has the Ulfberts ; )

Grannyring, thanks for sharing your findings with us. I too will say that having the DI's only 18" from the rear wall will indeed decrease the depth of the soundstage and make them seem more forward. Having said that I trust and respect your opinion that they sound forward to you.  My DI's don't seem forward to me, especially since pulling them well out into the room, but maybe they are and I like a slightly forward sound. In the end it's all good as many here have speakers/systems they love. I wish I had the knowledge/courage to modify speakers like you have, I bet your speakers sound amazing. 

Agree, we disagree and that is fine. I like the voice of the singer to be attached to the body with the tone that comes with that. It is not just the gear in front that makes this happen as all speakers have a voice and perspective, even the DIs.

My Crescendos with a class D amp have this tone. These are relative things and impossible to untangle in a forum. Make no mistake however, the DIs do have their own sound and personality. They can be seasoned with gear, but they will always be what they are because of the design.

The DIs are certainly one enjoyable and fun speaker. Enjoy your music all! 

Hey grannyring,

One more point I forgot to share is that it makes prefect sense to me way you can drive your AZ's without a tube in sight, and get the beauty you want in your system.  The Crescendo's are slightly warm and full, therefore, the synergy you get with a more detailed/transparent upstream set of gear is a great balance.  You "seasoned" to get what you wanted out of your system like a great chief uses different flavors to get the meal to taste the way they want. 

@teajay I put a 😂 on the end of that sentence, because I was being a bit facetious. I wasn't singling you out, per se, but I won't lie and say that your mention of a kt88 set amp didn't prompt my post, but it's comforting that you at least felt similarly in the past until hearing this particular amplifier.  I'm not totally crazy then and there's still hope for me. 

Hey grannyring,

Between two old timers who have been at this a long time, we will agree to disagree regarding the DI's being, " just lean, on the forward/analytical side of things".  I think they are dead on neutral and not in anyway analytical, that's way its so important what you drive them with. 

Historically, I have disliked very much many of the Magico/YG Acoustic/Wilson speakers because I found them to be analytical and did "everything right" but make music, sound like music. 

My reference of five years was the Cello's, which I believe are very close to the overall sonic signature of the AZ's, which I loved having in my system.  Both the Cello's and Crescendo's are a smidgen "warm/sweet" which I like very much and I do not found them fat or euphonic in their performance.  However, when I got the DI's tuned in both in room placement and what to drive them with I got all the musicality/beauty of my Cello's plus "aliveness" dynamics and speed with no edge at all and could not go back to my reference speakers any more with out missing what the DI's were providing.

A final note,  I still have not heard a system, and I have heard many indeed, that I can really say that I thought was great that uses a room correction device.  I totally accept that they can help greatly to overcome shortcomings in the acoustic space, and it might be significantly better then nothing at all in certain rooms, however they still do something I find slightly "artificial" to the music to my ears.  Regardless, if its correction done to OB speaker designs, Legacy's device for their speakers, or general room correction it just does not "sound" like a great natural acoustic space to me.