Tekton Double Impacts

The Ulfs are in the house! Well... they are in the garage at any rate. Now I need to get two, 200# 83" tall boxes though a 6.5ft door, across the house, up a 20ft high circular stairway, up a couple more steps in the upstairs gameroom entrance, through the 6.5ft theater door, around the HT seats, and down two more steps in the Theater. Then unbox them. All without damaging them, the house, or most importantly, any humans. It would be nice to know which side of the box is the front where the transducers are so we don't lean it on that side. That isn't marked and the box is square. So I can't even tell which are the sides. But they are boxed similarly to the DIs. Those were very well protected so I'm not too concerned. And Eric/Karma also sent some specific unboxing instructions similar to what comes with the DIs. Help is on the way tonight.

Awesome nitrobob, have a fun day of listening!

bullitt, it must be painful looking at those boxes without being able to move them until tonight. Looking forward to hearing you impressions of those beasts. Steve McQueen would be proud of such speakers! 

 corelli thanks, can I ask where abouts are the ports located? Just thinking how the bass will inneract with the angled wall behind them.

nitrobob I envy you, I ordered mine last tuesday around noon and also got the upgrades and grills. The only difference is mine are a costom color so I'm sure mine will take longer.

Cliff not be rude. But questions like this can EASILY be found by just typing in Google Search. 

"tekton double impacts picture" in google search. Picture of the ports!

aniwolf, just when I thought I'v seen every picture, I missed that one.

bullitt, it must be painful looking at those boxes without being able to move them until tonight. Looking forward to hearing you impressions of those beasts. Steve McQueen would be proud of such speakers!

Ulfs are in the garage and they can't get out! They are indeed going into "Bullitt Theater". Large Bullitt poster in there too. My daughter actually found a french one just to be different.
I still have my DIs too. Eric actually wanted me to do a comparison before I sent the DIs back to him. I need to get some hours on the Ulfs first though. Such drudgery! But some sacrifices must be suffered.

Did you get the Shelby GT paint job for your Ulfbehrts, bullitt? That would actually look sweet. Wasn't the Bullitt car white with blue racing stripes? I need to watch that movie again, it's been forever since I last saw it. 

Bet you never thought you'd have speakers that made your DI's look puny!

I currently own the Lores (which have been great) so I'd like to ask two questions to those of you that might own the DI Monitors, the Electrons or the ENZO 2.7s (the DIs are just too big for me).  First, the Lores throw a massively wide soundstage far beyond the with of the speakers...how do the DI Monitors, Electrons or 2.7s compare?  Second, the Lores are not as tonally accurate/clear when playing piano, strings, voices, etc. as the Maggie 1.7i's or the Kef R 500s...how do the DI Monitors, Electrons or 2.7s perform in this area.  Thanks in advance for anything you can share from your experiences.

Well I just got a call from Tekton telling me Eric just got done painting my DIs and will ship to tomorrow.

@mac48025 The car in the movie was Dark Highland Green. When they released the first Bullitt Edition Mustang in 2001 they offered it in the original DHG, a medium blue and black. Mine is black because dark green ranks just ahead any shade of yellow as my least favorite color. I still enjoy the movie. The part fits Steve's real-life, anti-social, don't bug me, personality perfectly. Sgt. Friday he wasn't.

When I was a kid, my dad would take me out to the Mojave desert to ride dirt bikes with a bunch of his police cronies and their kids. McQueen was a frequent rider in with the group. I didn't know he was famous until years later when I saw him in a movie. In that desert setting, he was anything but anti-social and never had a "don't bug" me attitude. Probably because he was just one of the guys and treated that way.....

anxiously awaiting your evaluation.....  try hard to be objective.   Everyone thinks what they have is the tops.   Understand that it will take a while before it sounds right....getting the room set up, etc.  I know its fun.

@sbayne -  thanks for the heads up.  I'm hoping that anyone on the forum who has owned or seriously compared maggie 1.7i s to the DI Monitor, Brilliance or electron can chime in as to clarity and tone....Overall, it would be easier to just talk to Eric but as many have noted, he is so darn busy (good thing) that he is hard to get through to.  I have noticed that he follows and comments from time to time on Audigon @Tektondesign so maybe he will see this and offer some thoughts.  I suspect there are a lot of people who would like to hear about what differentiates the DI, DI Monitor, Brilliance and Electron from each other.  I'm certain that musicality was the goal for all four of them but what are the nuances that make them different?  It is these nuances that allow people to choose the Brilliance instead of the Electron for their system with less concern about having to make a return.

@snapsc - The OP (corelli) had Maggie 1.7 with REL subs so check-out his posts. Seems like the main difference in the models is not the tweeter array but the bass drivers and size of cabinet. That's one of the reasons I went with powered Rythmik F8 subs and the Impact Monitors.

I’m considering the LTA MicroZOTL but had a few questions. I’m hoping those who have heard or own the MZ2 can help.

I am torn between getting the PSU upgrade. It’s a lot ($600). Is anyone using it with the stock PSU? How much of a SQ upgrade do you think the LPS+ is? Do you think it’s worth it?

I’m also a little confused on the output impedance. There was a discussion a couple pages back about the output impedance of 2 ohm for the MZ2 and 1.8 ohm for the Frankenstein. But the Frank is an amp. I associate output impedance with the pre and input impedance with the amp. Is the output impedance of the MZ2 amp 2 ohms? Or is the 2 ohm value for pre? I will be mating this with a Halo A21 with 33Kohm input impedance.

I also happen to be lusting over the Aric Audio Transcend pre and the Don Sachs pre. Right now LTA is having 10% off through Dec 4. Probably could through a dart and not go wrong.

I would also like to thank all those who have contributed to this thread. I have learned much and never would have found all these game-changing/price-competitive technologies. Thanks.

Treebeard1, regarding your question about output impedance, it was said earlier in the thread that the three pairs of outputs of the MZ2 (left and right preamp outputs, speaker outputs, and headphone outputs) are wired in parallel for each channel, and the same signal is provided to each of the three corresponding connectors. So the output impedance is 2 ohms regardless of whether the MZ2 is used as a preamp, as a 1 watt (into 4 ohms) power amp, or as a headphone amp.

And it will have no problem driving your Halo A21.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks Al. That's exactly what I wanted to hear! I didn't fully understand the previous conversation. 

I auditioned the MZ2 with the standard PS and the 10 with the new. upgraded power supply. They were impressive. Thing is, you can buy the upgraded PS for the MZ2 later for what not much more than the upgrade costs initially. So I was going to buy the standard one and upgrade later if I felt so inclined. Then you basically have a spare PS. Call and talk to Mark if you haven’t done so. I’m sure he can give you some insight and is a wealth of information, and fun to talk to anyway. Plus it looks like they are on sale right now.

I've figured out how to make the DIs look small. Put an Ulf next to it!

Finally got them upstairs last night and in break-in mode. So far, I'm very impressed.

I've used the upgraded LTA power supply and the Vinnie Rossi mini pure DC-4EVR power supply with the MZ2. When using the MZ as a pre amp and the LTA power supply I experienced some noise but it was dead silent with VR power supply. Thanks to Mike at Audio Archon for recommending and selling me the VR power supply. 

Looking forward to your report bullitt, even though I'm quite sure we already know it will be a glowing report as teajay and jeffrey are in love with theirs. Would love to see the DI's next to the Ulfbehrts. Maybe if I stand next to the Ulfberhts I won't look so big!

OMG My Grills Shipped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Bullitt, congrats!
I’d be interested on how you got those 200 lb. behemoths up those dang stairs of yours!
Bill M

@lmswjm I have a friend who’s a weight lifter. Not kidding. Really is. We strapped the box to my heavy duty hand truck. He pulled the hand truck up the stairs a step at a time and I lifted from the bottom. Still wasn’t an easy task. He got to pick the first music to christen them. I think he was more excited to hear them than I was.
@mac48025 I have some pictures of the Ulfs, the DIs and my B&W 804s in the room. I would have posted them already but the Agon forum software is not user friendly for posting anything but words. I think the 1990s wants it’s software back! I’ll also post my impressions after break-in and living with them for a bit. I’m interested in an A/B with the DIs myself. Hopefully Eric will allow me to keep the DIs for a couple more weeks. Plus my wife is wanting them, and their associated boxes, out of the house before the family arrives for Christmas. I’ll get to it though. All said, I still think the DIs are awesome. Especially for $3K.

I've been looking at the DI's as well. My first question is regarding my music room. It's only 13.5'x11.5' but it is carpeted and being on the top floor of my house it has a curved ceiling. Is this large enough for the DI's or would you recommend a smaller speaker?
I'm also wondering if anyone is familiar with the Tekton Design rear and center channel speakers. Are they worth it or do you know of a good alternative? 
My current system is:
Yamaha RX V1
Meridian 565 sound processor 
Oppo DSP 93 CD/SACD/DVD A player
POLK RTA15TL mains
Polk RTA11T rears
Polk PSW 650 sub
Polk monitor 10 center channel 

Thanks in advance for your input. 

@bullitt5094
Thanks for the feedback. That’s a good idea about having the extra PSU if I go the cheaper route up front.

@mac48025
Thanks, I looked up the Vinnie Rossi and it’s looks like a great piece of equipment. A little disappointed to hear about the hum though, especially with the upgraded PSU. Was the PSU and MZ close to the amp?

The MZ and VR power supply were about 18" from the amp so that might have been the noise issue with the upgraded LTA power supply. Al mentioned earlier that could be the case. I'll have to get some longer interconnects to see if placing the amp further from MZ and PS makes any difference. 

Hello all -

The Tekton Double Impact Special Edition (SE) has arrived at Audio Archon!  When first hearing the speakers at a local customer install about two months ago, my initial read was more refined on the top end and slightly fuller (more visceral) sound overall compared to the standard Double Impact.  Even fresh out of the box, I heard the same as at the customer's house immediately!

More later...

Mike
Audio Archon - Tekton Dealer

@audioarchon, I look forward to hearing your opinions on the Double Impact Special Edition (SE) as they break in at your store. Hopefully, you are able to keep the speaker for others to experience.

@audioarchon Terrific! Looking forward to hearing more.

@bronxer Your room is large enough for the DIs. I cannot say whether it is large enough for a DI surround system.

Minimally, I would highly (near absolutely in this case) recommend that you match the Center to the DIs, given the tweeter array.

@audioarchon   Granted they are "fresh out of the box" but based on what you hear initially,  how would you describe/compare the DI-SE mid and top end to planars and electrostats...relative to clarity, liquidity, size, and sounds like live music??

Hello everyone, I am truly interested in the Double Impacts. My current setup is a Rotel  RA-1592 Integrated Amplifier with FOCAL ARIA 936's. My questions are:

1. Can the Rotel Amp [rated@4-8 Ohm] handle the Double Impacts?
2. Will I hear huge difference specially clean Bass that I don't get with the Focals with the Double impacts?
3. I haven't read all the responses, but is there a place I can go to around Toronto GTA that I can listen to these?

As you all can see I am on a budget and cannot spend any more on updates. 

Regards
Don

donny
Your Rotel integrated will drive the 4 ohm DI's with ease.  I have not heard the Focals but will say the bass on the DI's is very nice.  Tight, clean (but not lean), and nicely extended is my take.  Do they take you into subwoofer territory?  Not in my room, but others would never consider subs.

Just pulled the trigger on the MZ2.  Went with the stock PSU, which I can upgrade to later for the same price.  Plus, according to Mark, the Absolute Sound and Stereophile reviews were based on the stock PSU.  It will replace a Rotel RC-980BX (my first pre), which I purchased in '94.  Should be a massive difference and let my A21 and DIs shine. 

Congrats treebeard, I think you'll be VERY happy with the mz2. It's a remarkable product. I would definately suggest that you try some NOS tubes as the MZ will reflect the character of the tubes used. My fav combo is Tungsol round plate 12sn7's with Sylvania gold brand, gold pin 12at7's. Have fun with it!

Larry the problem before they breakin at Audioarchon place , they are sold.iam interested to hear them too. Since I have the impact monitorupgrade I will have a bit of idea where the DI Se are.will see if I will have a chance to hear them..Iam looking forward to buy the ULfs too...

mac,
How are things with your new 300b?  Do you know what output transformers he used in your build?
You've listened to a number of amps.  What does the 300b bring to the table that your other amps did not?  Do you feel, driving the DI's, there are some types of music in your collection where you are less impressed?

Corelli,

The 300B from Aric sounds great. I had to work through some strange noise issues which turned out to be from my Vinnie Rossi power supply being too close to the amp. Now that I moved the power supply I'm enjoying music again! I still have a slight hum coming from the speakers that I'm trying to eliminate but it's nothing major. A preamp with more gain might be the cure for that but I'm loath to replace the MZ. 

This amp is the most musical amp I've owned. It very much brings me the performance I remember Charles' Frankensteins providing when he brought them here and that's exactly what I was after. The textures, tone and richness of the music is so natural and real. The air around notes is enhanced. Vocals are amazing and the soundstage is so open and three dimensional with more space between performers. It's also amazingly powerful for 8 watts. 

Going from the Raven Blackhawk to the Decware Torri mkIV to the MZ2 to Aric's Transcend KT 120 to Aric's 300B has been a pleasurable journey. It's rewarding knowing that the 300B is my favorite and I have no regrets replacing the others with it. They are all great amps that I've enjoyed but the 300B is where I want to be. 

With the DI's it's a perfect amp for me. I tend to listen to acoustical performances, female vocalists and jazz and this 300B delivers them beautifully and effortlessly. This current system of mine probably isn't ideal for metal or hard rock but once my SE's get here ( hopefully in two weeks) I'll move my DI's to my tv system with a SS amp and I can rock out there. 

I believe all of the transformers are Hammonds, albeit very oversized ones, but Aric can correct me if I'm wrong. 

They are all great amps that I've enjoyed but the 300B is where I want to be.

+1

@corelli - Indeed the transformers are Hammonds, and the output transformers are 30 watt SE units. I've compared them head to head with some others that cost twice as much (I won't name names), and there hasn't been any discernible differences I've found under lots of extended A/B testing. 

Also that slight bit of hum occurs at higher gain settings- with the amp's volume near max and the two cathode switches flipped up. This was my first 300B build, and as such I based the front end on the popular two stage 6SN7. The 6SN7 is a current master- but a voltage weakling. As such it needs the cathode bypass caps engaged to give the extra 3 db per stage (unless your preamp outputs close to 2 volts). In future builds, I would opt for a 6SL7 in the first stage with it's voltage strengths- to drive the 6SN7, with no cathode bypass caps. That would give plenty of gain and really push the noise floor down to nil. 

@mac48025 - If you ever choose to go that route, I'll cover the mods if you want to be without her for a week and ship her back. 

Best, Aric

My Tekton Design Double Impacts Special Edition (SE) were delivered yesterday evening. The build and finish is gorgeous. They are getting run in. More on the sound later.

Hi Aric,
I really appreciate your technical explanations and insight on this forum as they’re consistently educational. Your comments regarding the 6SN7/6SL7 tubes caught my interest. In my Frankenstein 300b SET the builder chose the 6EM7 as the input/driver tube. Apparently it’s a dual triode , One side is high current/low gain and the other half of this tube is low current/high gain. It seems there’re various ways to successfully drive the 300b.

Hello David,
Congratulations on acquiring the DI SE speakers and I look forward to your  listening impressions.
Charles

Hi Charles, Thanks for the kind words and sharing the driver info on your 300B.. It appears the 6EM7 was used to drive vertical deflection circuits in CRT TV's and can even be used as a power tube in a 1.5-2 watt amplifier. Definitely a lot of similarities to a 1/2 6SL7 and 1/2 6SN7- the best of both worlds it would seem. Best wishes, Aric

Hi Aric,
Roger Modjeski owner of Music Reference Audio builts/offers a 6EM7 amplifier in single ended and push pull versions. I’m really looking forward to hearing your 300b SET amplifier when Tom is ready to invite me over again.
He feels that it’s the best amplifier he’s owned to this point, I believe him. 300b implemented to a high standard is special as Tom has happily discovered.
  
BTW Aric the modification offer you made to Tom is both classy and kind IMHO.
Charles 

Thanks Aric, I appreciate your generous offer and shall take you up on it. Your amp will be sonic perfection with a dead silent background. I'll give you a shout to set it up. 

Can't wait to have you over again to hear the amp Charles. Once I get it back from Aric we will plan it. I should have the SE's by then too. Fun, fun!

Congrats David. Looks like Eric is cranking the SE's out in good order. Audio Archon got theirs last week, you got yours this week and hopefully I'll get mine next week or the week after. Looking forward to hearing your impressions of them. 

"BTW Aric the modification offer you made to Tom is both classy and kind IMHO."

Yes, it most certainly is. +1 to Aric. Also, +1 to Charles for pointing-out the 6EM7 tube to Aric!

There are still some good people left in this world!

Exciting news  for many of you.

Tom, I'm glad you have found your amp for the DI's.  Appreciate the nice review of what the amp is capable of in your system.  With the type of music you most enjoy I can see where a  300b based amp is a great choice.  While I really enjoy both my current amps, I still have an interest in 300b SE amps.  Not at all because I feel wanting with my current gear, but rather because all amps bring a different set of strengths and it's fun to rotate in a different amp now and again depending on what CD's I'm spinning.
I seem to keep looking at the Audio Note Kit 300b/10th  anniversary edition with it's C core transformers.  It's on sale right now for just under $3000 and seems crammed full of high quality components.  Honestly I'd love to put one together.  No doubt the nostalgia of it all--bringing me back to the Dynaco/Hafler kits of my youth! (What do you think Charles?)
On the other hand, Aric has treated you great and I certainly applaud  his offer!
David, looking for ward to your review of the SE's!  Wonder how these would stack up to Bill's revamped DI's.
Lots of fun.

Sbayne and Charles,
Yes, Eric is a class act and I never had any reservations in having me build this amp or whether he would totally stand behind his work. As you can tell from his posts he is totally competent and knowledgeable but more importantly to me he's a stand up guy......a joy to deal with. 

corelli,
You're so right, there are so many good amp choices for the DI and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I'm looking forward to hearing my DI's with a SS amp once my SE's get here. With the 300B with the SE's and my old Proceed amp with the DI's I'll get two different but great sounds. The fun never ends!

Thanks very much, I appreciate the kind words! Best, Aric