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
@tektondesign They are very special to me too. My hat's off to you sir. The Encores have surpassed my wildest expectations. Perfectly executed to these ears.
Basically the only way to infringe your patent (and even that’s debatable) is to claim the same exact nonsense you do. But why would anyone want to do that? Other than that, thousands of other manufacturers can and do use these simple inexpensive Eminence and SB drivers and are free to arrange them in any flower petal shape they desire.
If a common paper cone or textile dome matches the mass of a certain instrument that you claim and has this magical benefit, then we’ve all been doing the same exact thing for over 100 years. This is absurd.
I’m going to ignore the pointless negativity. I honestly believe after doing a lot of research and auditioning my Di’s are giving me performance I could not afford with out Eric and Tekton Designs hard work. Speaking of which I mentioned about 5 weeks or so ago that I pulled the trigger on Aric Audio’s Mother Load pre amp. I’ve had it just over three weeks and it is working out with my DI’s beautifully. Increased clarity, low end punch (which I was not expecting) dynamics, overtones and decay increased as well. The latest development was sound stage improvement. Center tightened up and spacing between instruments began to spread out. I’ve been working out of town on week days so weak end listening is about all I have. I have around 60 hours and I’ve been told it takes about 50 before the Dueland capacitors begins open up so I am excited. Aric’s new and unique push pull might have to be my eventual amp upgrade. Life is good.
To my three Amigos-not Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Steve Martin- but Ezra, Allen, and Mike Wright.
Here's my response to your comments on the ULF Be's comparison to the standard ULF's:
1) All three of you have spent together, being very generous at estimating this number, maybe a total of four and a half hours listening to the ULF's in my system. I have spent hundreds of hours in front of them, along with using many different upstream components to drive them for reviewing purposes and to exactly tune my system to my personal taste. I think this vast experience, compared to your very brief exposure, would give me a more objective take on the differences between the two models then your cursorary experience.
2) Well, my "Golden Ear Amigos" when I went over to get a take on the Ulf Be's and compare an amplifier I have in for review to Ezra's T+A piece, I brought a pair of jumpers and my own speaker cables to use in this process and this revealed that the cables that were in the system were causing a severe malfunctioning in the imaging. When we played a Diane Krall number that has her dead in the middle sitting behind her piano, the system, with Ezra's speaker cables split her voice in two pieces that were plastered on the side walls with no middle image. Hum, when Ezra, Allen, and Mike came to the conclusion that there is a vast difference between the ULF models this was based on a fundamentally out of tune system when they did their listening to it. By the way, Ezra purchased my cables, gave him a great price, and I gave him as a gift the pair of jumpers, so now his system is in order.
3) Listening/hearing what a system or an individual component sounds like is a "subjective art" not an objective measure. Personal taste always is part of the "take" on how anyone experiences what they are "hearing". However, based on what I stated above, I think it's fair to state that my three Amigos are jumping to an arbitrary conclusion regarding that the Ulf Be's is a superior speaker compared to the standard Ulf's. They are MUCH more similar in their performance, and if they are different it's very subtle, indeed. Both speakers are beautiful music makers, if they were driven with the exact same upstream gear, in the same acoustic space I still believe they would be sonicly remarkably close together.
@invictus005 I do not understand your comments and attitude toward a product and designer. I can only assume that you have heard the Ulfberts, or the DI SE? You did not like them? That is perfectly ok but your comments are wacky. I don't know how else to describe them. I have read hundreds, if not thousands of posts on Audiogon and rarely do I see this kind of "over the edge" comments about a particular speaker or designer. What gives? Greg
Four years ago I started a project for my summer home -- to assemble a stereo system that would recreate orchestral music at concert levels. After going through a series of equipment choices, have finally ended up with Emotiva amplification, RME conversion, JRiver/REW file manipulation and DSP, AND, ESPECIALLY, Tekton speakers -- the Double Impacts. Last night, as the new class A amp settled in, was able to have my first serious home concert. Started out with a couple of obscure symphonic favorites by Raff and Spohr, then listened to the entire Mahler 5th by Boulez and the CSO. The latter is very, very bright, clear, and loud. Plus 500 watts loud by the XPA-1 meters. And the orchestras were there right in front of me with timbres so accurate I could easily assess the qualities/strength of the individual sections and soloists. No distortion or strain. All correctly placed in a pristine soundstage. No noise. Repeat, no noise. Go to live concerts regularly and now recognize that my home system offers better fidelity. SO, THANKS ERIC! Your Double Impacts, at their attractive price point, helped make this pleasure possible. This system fulfills my 4 year goal splendidly and, with a cavalier spaniel on the lap, makes each evening a special event.
Respectfully, you are woefully misguided and incorrect. I'm right in my patented claims. If that offends you... feel free to go on thinking the earth is flat over being proven round. What we're doing is called progress in the art and science of loudspeaker design.
Fact - we're producing loudspeakers the have the electro-acoustical 'slight edge' over every loudspeaker produced today and it's how we get $1000 loudspeakers to measure and sound better than loudspeakers costing 10X more. Reference the Stereophile review for example.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread - Alexander Pope. The "angels" in my case are my industry peers that remain silent on the topic because they know I'm right, the worlds foremost AES engineers, the professional audio reviewers, and the audio magazine owners that refuse to broach the topic for all the right reasons.
Concerning my dear friend Tejay, I appreciate you just as much as my two amigo's though I never counted them as that. But I count you just as close as they, Therefore I count you as the fourth Amigo,- not Jim Cary. seeing that you and I have been friends the longest.
Respectfully, again... the claims are not "absurd claims". You can't just come on here to defame and slander people/products. If your posts are being deleted it's your own inflammatory writing style that's getting it done.
Ezra, I'm looking forward to making the trip to Chicago next week. I am also looking forward to getting those subs dovetailed with Ulf's and taking your system to the next level.
See the new August Stereophile for a very positive review of the Tekton Impact Monitors by Herb Reichert. I’m very happy with my pair, the 2nd pair ever made (serial# 0003 &0004). Herb says: "Few speakers can play every musical genre with the Impact’s level of ease, acuity and, uh ...impact. Add to these virtues the fact that few other moderately priced audiophile speakers can play so loud without distortion ... I doubt that many pairs of stand mounted speakers could fill a larger room as powerfully or effectively as these did mine" Well said! Congrats to Eric Alexander for a very successful and musical sounding design-
Hello everyone I have been looking at the di s and I was wondering if anyone has tried them on Ss amp. I have two emotive 2gen 2 amps 500watts a channel at 4 ohms. is this to much power for the di s before I buy a pair and blow them up
Not at all. Have used Emotiva XPA-1L monos to drive the DIs for over a year (500 watts) and just upgraded to the XPA-1s (1000 watts). What is more important in terms of performance is Class A power. The XPA-1s have 60 watts of class A and this is enough to make the DIs sing. My XPA-1s deliever more than 500 watts of power to the DIs (can tell by the meter) and they do not mind at all.
Emotiva amps have a strong and deserved rep in the studio world but are not popular on this site. Nonetheless, they are very accurate and match particularly well with the DIs.
I have a friend who actually has too many speakers. He will sell his DI’s for $2500. They are orange, have low miles and look great. I saw them today. Send me a message
I have a pair of Double Impacts in a salmon reddish soft gloss, upgraded, 10/10, for $2500 and they for local pickup in Raleigh NC. I have them listed on fb groups for sale. Check my system for images on Audiogon.
well... his speakers are actually replicating what a very light transducer (microphone diaphram) is recording... but i am down with the tekton¡ i want some impact monitors¡
I've putting my Encores through it's paces with a pair of Nord One SE Hypex NC500 400 wpc NCORE based Class D amplifiers and the results have blown me away. I've been loving the performance with my Diavolo 300b 6 wpc amplifier, but with 400 wpc at my disposal using the Nords the improved dynamics and tremendous bass slam is incredible. These amps are on the neutral to slightly warm side because of their amazing input buffer stage. They sound more like my SET amp than different, but the macrodynamics and the bass is truly incredible without giving up anything in microdynamics. These are nothing like the Double Impact woofers as they are long-throw and not paper cone and they produce some of the most prodigious, cleanest, tightest, and deepest bass I've heard with a few rare exceptions (JBL). They pretty much slaughter the double impacts in that category hands down, it's no contest. I would love to here the new Pass Labs on these speakers, but that's a down the road dream at this point.
I'm torn that the slight drop in efficiency on these speakers seems to call for more power to get them to really let loose, but I will try my 300b xls tubes and adjust my tube amplifier to output 13wpc and see if double the wattage will recreate something closer to what I'm getting with the Nords in the bass department. Don't get me wrong, playing Kodo drums is very satisfying even with 6 watts, but theirs a dynamic slam and chest hit that's absent even if all the bass context and texture is intact. I'll report back soon. Again, I can't recommend this speaker more if you are in the market for sub $10K speaker!
Am very interested in your speaker assessment AND your information about the Nord monos. Bought the Nord Stereo UP version from Colin last year and it was mediocre in my system. After a week one of the channels blew and I went back to an Emotiva monoblock that sounded 10 times more accurate for acoustic instruments and voices.
My question to you deals with tonal weight. One reviewer of the Lyngdorf 2170 repeated my Nord experience: he kept increasing the volume to reach a satisfactory level and never quite got there. It wasn’t because the volume increase wasn't there, it was; it was because the tonal weight for the instruments wasn’t present.
So, my question to you is one I have raised with several others on the Lyngdorf thread: do you feel that the weight (or body) of acoustical instruments is portrayed accurately with the Nord amp? Good instruments to check this are the cello and double bass. Do they sound natural and full?
What is the maker for the Encore woofers? Am a bit unsure about 11 inch drivers. Is this one available on the market if you blow one?
As mentioned above, have just upgraded to one of the last Emotiva XPA-1s and it has 60 watts class A and 1000 watts class A/B. The DIs do incredibly well with these amps and they draw, easily, 500 watts on large orchestral crescendos.
So I second your description of the value of plenty of power.
@craigl59 I purchased the Nord One SE UP NC500MB Monoblocks for about $2800.00 with both Op-Amps for each monoblock a few months ago from Colin; a very nice chap to do business with. I tried both op-amp input buffer boards and ended up preferring the Sparkos Lab version over Sonic Imagery op-amp board. The Sparkos was more dynamic and less veiled while still retaining a slightly warm sound signature that I prefer whereas the Sonic Imagery felt like the additional added warmth was getting in the way of the music. I sent these amps to my audiophile friend in California to try out as an alternative to him running Threshold CLASS-A monoblocks and he enjoyed them, but ultimately said he felt they were slightly 2 dimensional in comparison to some older Class A Pass Labs monoblocks he had also just recently inherited (What a lucky guy!). The reason for this experiment was to see how they fared against some very formidable Class A amplifier competition. In the end he liked them compared to his Thresholds, but not as much as the newly acquired used pair of single-ended Pass Labs Monoblocks which have a very magical sound quality that is hard for many amplifiers to best and that I witnessed first hand while visiting him a few weeks ago while traveling back to CA to see my friends on the west coast. He was hoping the Nords would be good enough so he wouldn’t have to contend with the heat, hvac, and overall higher electric bill from running the Class A amps round the clock for extended periods to keep them sounding at their best. He’s retired and on a fixed income, in poor health, and electricity costs in California has got to be the biggest ripoff in the nation for electricity rates. I was very adamant that he keep the Pass Labs over his Thresholds and that he not give them back to his friend because he felt they were better than his friend’s Bryston amps (4 pairs of the biggest ones they make). He felt guilty keeping amps that were better sounding to the both of us, but luckily the other mutual friend was adamant that he keep them and that he would buy more new pass lab amps in due time. BUT, I DIGRESS...Terribly sorry for that, but I figured a little back-story might be helpful!
To your point, when I compare the sound I had from my Art Audio 300b Tube Amplifier to the Nords they sound more close than different and it’s hard to discern a clear deficiency tonally, but they definitely slaughter the tube amp in the dynamics and weight/bass department. There’s a bloom the tube amp has that is missing from the Nords, but I really don’t notice much if any deficiency in tonal weight of instruments and maybe my tube bias for flea powered amplifiers color my assessment to a degree. I do use judicious amounts of EQ to correct for any room anomalies of which there are very few in my very modest sized 16’x14’ room which limits how far I can pull the speakers away from the wall (about 2’) and my listening position which is relatively nearfield and about 2’ from the back wall. I would say in my system with the Encores I’m just enthralled with the sound that I am getting and unless I could spring for a pair of Pass Lab monoblocks, I feel very content with where my system is at sonically which may very well be that the Encores are just so damn good sounding over my double impacts that I’m on a bit of a honeymoon period and am not being critical enough to discern much of an issue with tonal weight presently. I really think I may just be lucky with a room, amp, speaker, DSP, and total system synergy that it is very satisfying to my ears, but maybe I will be more critical of the sound over the next few months and change my opinion at a later date. I’m just having a ball listening to music and enjoying myself immensely at this point. Hope that helps you some. I know it’s not much to go on. Edit: I do not know the OEM for the bass drivers, but they are quite impressive sounding.
Thanks for your excellent response and the time it took: the thread continues to work.
Had exactly the same experience with the Nord opamps and would have kept the unit had the left channel not died. Colin is a fine professional and refunded the entire purchase price.
BUT, AGAIN, when I went back to my earlier monoblocks I was shocked at the difference in timbral accuracy. Sounds as if your CA friend had a similar, but less strong, experience.
The Pass labs amps are highly touted but I have used Emotiva amps for years in the home and studio and the few complaints levied against them -- too bright, too accurate -- are pluses for me.
My next audio project is to upgrade the speakers in my winter home -- currently am using there the Emotiva T1/C1/E1 5 channel set. They’re great for the money but Tekton speakers are a whole ’nother league.
SO YOUR COMMENTS about the Encore are very helpful and my approach is to base purchase decisions on owners who report actual experiences. In this area your posts are extremely helpful.
Perhaps Eric, or one of his helpers, will post the specific bass and midrange speakers he uses for the Ulfberhts and Encores. This is a big plus for those of us who want to ensure we can replace blown transducers down the road. Have identified the ScanSpeak tweeters he uses and they are available from Madisound.
@Craigl59 I can see how a person who wants accuracy and detail for studio use would definitely have a clearer understanding regarding timbral accuracy and tonal weight and body. I think I'm more forgiving and more interested in hearing a warmer, smoother, and richer sound that lacks accuracy because it can make enjoying poor recordings easier and long listening sessions more enjoyable. I like 2nd/3rd order distortion because it rounds things out sonically. I can't quite grasp how the Nords simulate a tube amplifier, but I assume their input buffer stage is to blame or praise depending on the intent of the user.
@soundsrealaudio I concur and 15 Tweeters is better than 7, LMAO!
(I'm really just trying to make my post long enough to get this thread to the 100th page!)
@craigl59 @jcarcopo I'll be writing up a 'journey' review which will, among other things, shine a spotlight on why I chose solid state and more power for my system. I believe it will address some of the things you have been working on and trying to achieve. It's been really nice learning more about what each of you has worked through and is trying to accomplish.
@david_ten I’ll be writing up a ’journey’ review which will, among other things, shine a spotlight on why I chose solid state and more power for my system. I believe it will address some of the things you have been working on and trying to achieve. It’s been really nice learning more about what each of you has worked through and is trying to accomplish.
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