Hello all, one of the long time lurkers, first time posters. I'd feel remiss if I didn't post and extend a huge Thank You! to this forum and the many posters. I guess I'm an audiophile novice. I have reached out for help to james_w514 and corelli who both were extremely friendly and helpful in providing knowledge. I was fortunate enough to live fairly close to Tekton and Eric was gracious in letting me visit and audition a couple of speakers (Electron and Ulfberht). Eric came across as very knowledgeable, passionate and had the ability to answer my questions and explain things in layman's terms. He was direct and confident. I had a wonderful experience that day and subsequently on phone conversations w/ both Eric and Karma. teajay's reviews didn't hurt either! I ended up w/ a pair of the SEs in black, high gloss. Could not be happier w/ them. grannyring's posts and info also helped in convincing me to give the Lyngdorf TDAI 2170 a go and it didn't disappoint in the slightest. Many other posters info has been invaluable to me, mac48025, charles1dad, kdude66, aniwolfe and many others that are slipping my mind. Anyway, just had to say thanx and express how much I have enjoyed and plan to continue to enjoy this thread!
P.S. I also found out about from this thread and had excellent experiences w/ audioarchon and rgrost (cables) |
While I've been away from the site for a while it's great to see how civil, impartial and informative this thread has stayed. While I've been reveling in the sound my SE's with Aric Audio's Linestage and 300B amp is providing I enjoy reading others experiences with their equipment.
I too am looking forward to hearing lancelocks impression with his SE's with the LTA UL amp.
Congrats harv! You're in for a lot of happy listening as the SE's will only get better with time. |
mac, it's good to hear from you. I was just yesterday wondering how you and your system are getting along. Hoping your new Aric audio gear is all you were hoping for. Had someone over today who requested an audition of my DI's. I told him how you were instrumental in getting me on board with these great speakers. He left, I believe, very favorably impressed with my modest system and room.
I, too, still enjoy reading about all the amp combinations that The DI/SE's shine with. It's fun to vicariously enjoy these experiences (and cheaper too!)
Did Charles ever get to hear your new gear?
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harv, welcome aboard! It's always a great feeling when you hear form someone who hopefully gained something from this thread. Your jumping in with some great equipment that I's sure will provide you long term enjoyment. I appreciate my DI's now more than ever. Please keep us posted on your experience and how things come together.
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Corelli, yes, the Aric gear is all I could have hoped for.....and more.
Glad to hear I was helpful in you coming to your decision on the DI's. They really are amazing speakers.
I had a great time listening to some great music with Charles. He seemed to be very impressed with the sound.....but I don't want to put words into his mouth. He has a great ear and it's always good his assessment......and a good guy to boot. |
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Thank you very much! Good to finally be onboard. |
@harv1021 Congratulations on the SEs. Great to hear about your excellent experience with Tekton Design. |
Here is a post, copied fully, so we have the information to refer to. This is from @wasson3 and is regarding the Tekton Design Ulfberth Be speakers. Thank you, Wasson3. "Since I purchased the first pair of these speakers [Ulfberth Be] I would like to provide some information. I first learned about Tekton back in December 2017 when I read about the DIs. I became very interested in the Ulfberhts still not knowing what to expect. I booked a flight to SLC and auditioned the speakers at Tekton’s company headquarters. I liked their sound but asked Eric if he was was willing to use upgraded drivers. He agreed on the satori be tweeters as the main upgrade and started building in January. They were delivered and set up last Wednesday. To put my review into perspective: I am generally very skeptical about audiophile hyperbole. Reviews are often exaggerated and I was perfectly ok with a less than great sound. I looked at it as an experiment. I also have no problem (and often do) calling my own equipment mediocre if it indeed is. I don’t care if people don’t agree with me. There are more important things than a pair of speakers. I also have never posted on any forum and will probably never post again. I am only writing this to provide some information to people considering these speakers since mine are so far the only ones around as far as I know. To summarize in one word, these speakers provide the most life like sound I have ever heard. They are transparent and crystal clear without being harsh. There is absolutely no comb filtering, something I was very concerned about since I like a wide open soundstage and don’t want to be limited to a ‘sweet spot’ for listening. They sit in a large 3000ft2 space and when first listening I always found myself looking back or into hallways or peripheral areas as you do automatically expecting to see somebody walking, rustling, breathing until I realized this was on the recording I was listening too. The sound is very 3-dimensional in a way I didn’t know was possible with 2 speakers. I am hearing details that I have never heard before. I am not sure why they sound the way they do. It may be the midrange tweeter hexagon arrays of 14 tweeters per speaker crossed for midrange or the upgrade to beryllium and low moving mass per driver or just the sum of all parts. I am not a speaker designer and don’t pretend to be. I just wanted to give people who are thinking about these speakers some feedback. They will certainly be the last speakers I will ever buy. I know there is owner bias and there are strong opinions about high end audio equipment, I can’t think of any other industry with more BS in marketing than high end audio. This all has to be considered when buying speakers. Hope this helps." |
David, it's probably good you moved this post to where it might actually be useful. Most all of the posts on the two other Tekton threads are largely filled with either uninformed or malicious commentary.
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Hi Corelli,
Tom wasn’t putting words in my mouth. He graciously invited me to his home to hear his completely revamped audio system. Simply put his system sounds absolutely wonderful and is very musically engaging. We have very similar taste in music (jazz) and his system does it genuine justice. Musical flow, fluidity, tonality, dynamic contrast are all there.
His Auric audio amplification and Concert Fidelity DAC delivered a high quality audio signal that the Double Impact SE handled beautifully. It was indeed a very enjoyable visit and music listening experience. Tom has put together a really fine "natural " sounding system.
Charles |
Hello Charles,
I'm sure that Tom appreciated your input as he put this together and have no doubt it delivers in all the ways you described. It's nice to have another set of ears to validate ones efforts. No doubt you had some serious 300b discussion going on. Can't recall what tubes Tom went with or if he specified particular tubes at the time of his order with Aric.
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Thanks Charles, your impressions are quite valuable to me as it was your systems sound that I was trying to emulate. While none of our components are the same the overall sound signature is very similar......which makes me very happy.
I'm using the Sophia Royal Princess 300B tubes Corelli and while I'm quite happy with them I'll be ordering a pair of EML XLS 300B's that Charles is using and possibly the 80th anniversary Western Electric re-issues when they come out in September. I'll also be updating the caps in my pre and amp to Duelunds ........then I should be set for a while. Maybe. Probably not :)
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Hah! A smile came to my face when I read that Tom!........... I'm still chuckling. Anyway, glad you are so happy with your new equipment. If I owned your stuff I'd be tempted, too, to open things up and start sorting out what could be upgraded. Everyone seems to agree that the Duelunds are the cats meow. So how are your soldering skills? Need me to bring the solder station over?
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I’m not daring enough to upgrade the caps myself Corelli, I’ll leave that to Aric. He put the same caps in the Motherlode preamp he made for Brian. You’re more than welcome to stop by should you ever be on this side of the state......just bring some Founders with you 🍻....or I’ll have some Oberons to enjoy out by the koi pond for you!
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Tom,
Interesting isn’t it? Our systems share no common components yet have similar sound presentation. I’m curious to know if this may possibly influence 300b tube preference. I’ve had the Royal Princess (RP) in my amplifier and thought it was very good although ultimately I preferred the EML. Given your different system the choice could be for the RP. No doubt these two 300bs have distinct characteristics that might favor one system (Synergy once again) over the other. So I look forward to your upcoming listening impressions.
As we discussed when I came to visit, I’m a huge fan of the Duelund CAST copper foil capacitors and believe this is a very wise upgrade decision for your pre and power amplifiers. So far every change you’ve made in your system has resulted in undeniable improvement. The Duelunds will continue this successful trend.
Charles |
Thanks Tom. I just might take you up on that. We have another thing in common. I have a 120 gallon tank with some nice goldfish from Dandy Orandas. They are a premier importer of quality goldfish from China. And they are right in your neck of the woods to boot!
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It is interesting Charles. I believe that both of us utilizing 300B's and having similar DAC's along with speakers that are very transparent has given us very similar sounds. It will be interesting to hear what the EML 300B's sound like in my system. I'm guessing quite good. Once I get the new tunes and caps it will give us another excuse to get together again :)
Nice corelli! I had aquariums for over 30 years from guppies to discus and reef tanks. Now it's Japanese koi, which makes audio seem inexpensive by comparison 🤑 Never had fancy goldfish but they sound cool. Hope you do make it out this way some day so you can see what a 30"+ "goldfish" looks like!
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@corelli Low end is fantastic on the Electrons... |
mac48025, are the DI too large for a 12.5 x 20 room? I saw Terry London had reviewed a smaller speaker from Tekton, but can't find his post now. Thanks. |
dj, not to answer for mac, but I would say absolutely not. My room is only a bit larger than yours and they are perfect. Some have had good results in even smaller rooms. Talk to Eric. The Electrons are another option.
see knollbrents recent posts.
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@djtunes, I heard the DIs in a similar size room at Linear Tube Audio. They sounded good. |
@david_ten My apologies for the delay in reply in regard to your inquiry as to how my DI SE's are settling in...you very well that is rhetorical. They have completely broken now and they sound incredible! The fine detail, the deep, punchy bass, the imaging...it is everything I had hoped for when upgrading from the DI's!
Mac-if you think you like the sound of your new Duelund caps now, wait until they break in, which takes a good 400-500 hours, you will see why they are 3-4x the cost of their competitive peer! Aric's Motherlode preamp is in full bloom, and I cannot think of any piece of gear that would better it's performance at any price! At any price that I would consider paying, anyway.
And once again, I have to give thanks and shout out to Bill(grannyring) for opening my eyes and ears to what is possible in sonic improvements from a DIY perspective! A month or so back I was reading on this thread about the NOS Western Electric cable that some people were using with great results in their DIY projects. Of course Bill was one of the voices on this and other forum threads that I ran across as well in researching further. I reached out to Bill to see if he would build me a USB cable using the WE wire and he said yes, but that he would use the new(er) Duelund tinned copper wire, as the results were even better. Suffice it to say that it blew away the rather pedestrian Audioquest USB cable that I was using at the time.
This got me thinking that now with all new gear that I have in my system over the past year or so(Tekton, Aric Audio and Pass Labs), all of my cables are most likely a weak link. Bill said he will build me speaker and interconnects using the Duelund wire, but I wanted to try my own hand at DIY. Bill was gracious enough to suggest where to source, what to purchase and how to construct each type of cable. My first project was a pair of speaker cables, as they seemed to be the easiest to build. I was floored with the result! The Audioquest Comet cables sounded like I was using lamp cord in comparison. I am now in the process of building a shielded phono cable as well as two sets of IC's using the Duelund 20g and 16g respectively.
So what is the moral of the story, said for the fact that Bill kicks ass?!?! For the last 25 years I have been, "chasing the audio dragon", as I like to refer to it as(it is in fact addicting, as you know), and thankfully, my system has never sounded better. And I did it by liquidating all of my expensive, over marketed, heavily reviewed gear in favor of craftsman who are as equally passionate about music and sound as I have become. Not parties who appear(to me anyway now that I have had the opportunity to become involved in the build) to be over engineering the process with low(er) end parts. Just saying...
Cheers and happy listening!
Brian |
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@laaudionut Wonderful to hear how happy you are with the SEs!!!
Brian, as far as "chasing the audio dragon" .... it's far easier to chase (in my opinion).....however, seeing that you have caught up to your dragon, be careful NOT to wake it up!!! : )
Once there, the ride gets far trickier.... Unless one is willing to submit and accept. [Something I am learning / struggling with / and trying to understand better] |
Brian,
Glad to hear how pleased you are with your equipment. I especially enjoy feedback on the DIY aspect of not only of the DI/SE's (which seem to respond very favorably to these efforts) but also your tubed gear. Bill has been a great resource to us in this regard
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Dj,
I'll echo what Corelli and lancelock said as my room is only about 13.5'x17.5'. The SE's/DI's sound great at low or high volume levels and will work in any sized room they can physically fit into.
Brian,
Thanks to you ordering the Motherlode I was inspired to have Aric upgrade the caps on my pre and amp. I haven't done so yet, but will soon and look forward to them breaking in. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Aric pre,the SE's and everything else. I couldn't agree more with you on the SE's. Lastly, right on regarding having passionate builders/designers creating musical gear that performs well beyond their price tags.
I too use the Duelund wire for IC's and speaker cable. 16 ga for the IC's and 12 ga for the speaker wire. Thanks to grannyring's and Jeff Days blog for all the info regarding this great sounding wire. It's fun experimenting with the different wire gauges. The thinner the wire tends to add more sparkle to the high end while the thicker wire is a bit warmer.
David,
Thats a tough pill to swallow......finally being content with ones system and submitting to the musical joy it brings rather than continually chasing that dragons tail. I think I'm there. Well, probably not, but I'm close at least! BTW, I'm enjoying a night of music by Walter Wolfman Washington, Jon Cleary and Water Seed......all New Orleans musicians as I'm sure you know.
Tom |
Tom, you are in good company. Charles is the only one I know who has tamed his dragon. I'm sure there are others, I just don't know them personally. My point was in jest, but also has truth to it (at least for me).
Great to hear so many enjoying their Double Impacts and SEs. |
The DI SE is in the house. Since today is my 20 year wedding anniversary I will wait until tomorrow to unpack and start playing if I know what’s good for me. |
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Oh yea.....almost forgot. Happy Anniversary!
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@lancelock Hey man, you got it ALL WRONG!!! YOU say you got them for HER and you set them up and both sit down for a romantic evening!!! Think man THINK!!!
Best,
Greg |
@lancelock Congratulations to you and your wife on your 20th Wedding Anniversary! |
Thanks guys, I will report back tonight.
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OK, they sound great right out of the box and I can also tell they need a little breakin. There is a little brightness that I’m sure will subside. I think that the UltraLinear will be a good fit. The UL brings out the bass in a spectacular way. The paint job is beautiful. I will get some pictures for my system page shortly.
I would also mention to anyone who has the task packing their old DI’s to send away should be well versed at solving a Rubik’s cube. |
That would be great Lance. It's fun getting a look at other peoples toys. Would you throw in a few closeups of the drivers and cabinet finish? Did you sell your DI's yet?
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I just noticed these are listed as a four-way to sign, but I only see three driver types. Where is the extra crossover? |
Nickwin,
The center tweeter crossed over at a higher frequency that the surrounding tweeters. So it is a true 4 way design even though the tweeters are all otherwise identical.
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@corelli thanks, that was my guess.
Whats the dispersion like on these? |
@corelli,
I made a deal with Eric early on to swap them. When I called him originally Iminquired about the DI SE and they were not ready so he offered to trade them in when they were available.
I will get some more pics on the page. It’s also really hard to see the paint in the basement light. It’s a very dark almost burgundy and I can’t even remember the name of the color.
Imam also waiting for some Sound City outriggers and IdoAcoustics GAIA I |
I use the same outriggers and like them. Hint--so as to not mar that beautiful finish, I place black felt as an interface. But then I obsess. And I don't even have the premium finish you do!
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@nickwin In spite of the large tweeter array, dispersion if better than you might think. The fact that not all the tweeters are in phase mitigates this a bit so I do not find that these have restricted dispersion. Compared to my prior Magnepan speakers, they are of course superior.
Now I'll be clear. I'm a sound stage nut. So there is a very clear sweet spot for me and I would never listen seriously outside of that. But I would say the same about the vast majority of speakers I've ever listened to.
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@lancelock Great that you have your SEs in system! Looking forward to the photos.
Reasons you chose to go with the outriggers plus the Gaias? Thanks. |
@nickwin I'll echo what @corelli says. Dispersion is excellent. |
I have added a few pics to my system page.
The outriggers because they are so tall and I worry about them accidently getting knocked over.
The IsoAcoustics GAIA because I believe in isolation and have had good experience with such products in the past such Mapleshade. I also have read good reviews of the GAIA but in my descision making even more weight is given to the members here who have shared their positive experience.
Lance
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The GAIAs are 'sticky' in their contact to the flooring and the I's are fairly wide. Which is why I asked. I'm sure you will try them in both configurations. Let us know how it goes. |
@david_ten
I bought the carpet spikes that go with the GAIAs.
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Understood. Photos are great. Thanks. |
Lance, thanks for posting the pics. Your new SE's and system pics look great! Please give an update once they break in.
I've always liked the stability outriggers afford. Have used them to good effect in all my floor standing speakers over the years.
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