Tekton Electron has been released

lpretiring, they had clearly been on the road for a while, some scrapes and marks, but nothing that indicated that something was going to be damaged. fed ex tracking had them in a delivery truck, "out for delivery," in dc for 2 days. That can never be good. They were scheduled to arrive Wednesday, but came late Friday afternoon.

@aniwolfe
How have you been enjoying your Electrons?  Any feedback on the sound?

@terpstation
Did you get your replacement woofer and if yes, your impressions of the sound?

8 inch driver arrived Wednesday and was up and running that afternoon. As for the damaged driver, who knows how it happened, there is no visible damage to it. I suspect the driver is a factory defective product. When i depress the top of the cone or inner cone gently you can physically hear what i think are the voice coils being scraped...physical contact. When i depress the bottom part of the woofer, thereby pushing slightly up, there is no scraping. In any event, the bad driver is out of there and i am up and running.

I am still breaking them in now. I have about 25 hours or so i believe. The electrons are replacing a pair of b&w cdm7nts. I am using a rotel integrated 1062 and playing music from an oppo bdp95 and project debut carbon (ortofon 2m red cartridge). I am using kimber 8vs speaker wire, a pbj kimber interconnect for the oppo and blue jean interconnect for the turntable. My rig is very much entry level by audiophile standards. However, that is what drew me to the Tektons....getting a speaker that punches way above its weight.

I am sitting about 7 feet from the speakers which are each about 7 feet apart.

After 25 hours of break in, and several hours of listening, my initial thought is that this is a very good speaker. The upper end detail is remarkable. I am hearing much more music than with the b&ws. I have done a few a/b with the electrons/b&ws. As has been said before about the DI, you really can hear the edges of the notes. The electron is articulating much more of the music. The sweet spot is also much bigger and the imaging bigger than with the b&w. The Electrons did require a toe in of several inches, however, to achieve this. When they were firing straight ahead the imaging really decreased.

I do have to echo some of what hifiaddict said on the main DI thread about the bass. On some tracks its perfect. I listened to both vinyl and cd of bob marley’s Survival and it was incredible. So much fun to listen to. Sacd of dylan’s oh mercy song "man in the long black coat" is stunning. The recent vinyl of Gillian Welch’s Harvest and Harrow was also amazing. Again, the edges of the notes of the guitar sound, you can almost feel david rawling’s fingers on the strings. really amazing.

However, on other tracks its almost as if there is too much high frequency sound. Lower bass is there, but lower frequency mid range is perhaps overwhelmed by higher frequency sound. An example is Ella and Louise sacd. Some of the trumpet notes are piercing and uncomfortable. However, Armstrong’s baritone voice is perfect. But when he is not singing the lower end of the music feels a bit overwhelmed by the upper register. Is this merely a reflection of the source? Could be.

All this said i am really enjoying them and i am still early in the break in. I ran downstairs at 7am yesterday morning like a kid at Christmas to listen! my wife is loving this, she has a new babysitter (the electrons)!!

" However, on other tracks its almost as if there is too much high frequency sound. Lower bass is there, but lower frequency mid range is perhaps overwhelmed by higher frequency sound. An example is Ella and Louise sacd. Some of the trumpet notes are piercing and uncomfortable. However, Armstrong’s baritone voice is perfect. But when he is not singing the lower end of the music feels a bit overwhelmed by the upper register. Is this merely a reflection of the source? Could be. "

I now have about 30-40 hours on my Electrons, and this pretty much sums up my impression as well. There is a point in the higher mids where the sound "kicks in" at a level that is, as you say, uncomfortable.  Again I agree that the balance between the bass/mids/highs just seem off.

I'm wondering if 1. Using the SB woofers rather than Eminence, and 2. Using the lower cost domes rather than the triple ring radiators, has altered the "voice" that everyone loves with their DIs?

But the presence and imaging indeed are wonderful. I'm going to continue the break-in for a while and see if these speakers smooth out a bit...I certainly hope they do!

My views on the Electrons need to be viewed as impressions in progress. Possibly the views I state might change, some might not. I am still tweaking and changing things.

The equipment I am using
Transport : Simaudio 260D
Amp: Lyngdorf 2170 (Empirical Audio BNC Digital Cable) (No interconnects)
Speakers : Tekton Electrons
Power Cords: Core Power Technology (2) CPT 150 and (1) CPT 300
Power Conditioner : High Fidelity Cable MC6
Speaker Cabling: Wireworld Eclipse 5.2, WE 10ga and Acoustic Zen Hologram II.

I have about 150ish hours on my Electrons. I would suggest, burning them in for 6-7 days straight so then you will have a better view with these speakers.

I will address something I read. These speakers in my room needed toe-in at the beginning, but now with a lot of break-in they sound great without toe-in. Imaging is not a weakness anymore. Pointing straight out into the room has also reduced forwardness. I invite you to In time when they are broken in, please experiment with placement again without Toe-In. Hopefully you will feel the same as me.

Its been a roller coaster ride for sure. Some days sounded amazing, some days not. But keep in mind, this is part my fault. You get a new toy and you sort of expect it to sound great right away. One of things you hear a lot on the DI thread is, you unpack them, plop them in a spot in your room and its the best speaker you ever heard. Not so the case in my situation. My system was geared towards a much different animal. The speakers I had are the Eminent Technology LFT 8’s @ 83db, friendly 8ohm load and they are Planars (Dipoles). However all the fine tuning devices like receptacle, and cabling have all been geared to those speakers. The ET’s had a different presentation and tonal balance. So once I unpacked the Electrons and started playing, you can imagine it was quite a big difference.

I find the Electrons not to be very analytical. I find them naturally revealing. They have a Studio Monitor type vibe which to me is a very intimate type of sound. I really like that type of presentation especially when the recording is meant for that. It brings a new perspective on other recordings...especially Rock. So when you get a forward recording it can be a bit jarring at first. These are speakers you need to get accustomed to. They are very different. Can I get use to it? Possibly...I hope so.

I also don’t find the Electrons be colored at all, unless the recording is that way. This is what makes this type of speaker to be very difficult for me. I want the Electrons to play those more rock oriented recordings I listened to with my old speakers, to be just as forgiving. So, I luckily have a few different speaker cables, amps and now a new Furutech Gold Plated receptacle to tonal balance it a bit. I was using a Rhodium plated Furutech NCF and while this receptacle is very clean and neutral, to me its not a good match with this Speaker and setup. I recently installed a new Furutech Gold GTX receptable and it seems to have taken a lot of the sizzle out of the top end for me. But, I am still burning it in. I only have about 30hrs on it. Still testing.

Bass has gotten much better. Last night I remember saying to myself, that a sub is absolutely not needed at all. I was hearing room filling sub type bass. Keep in mind, I only listen at about 65db. I still on not sure about bass missing on certain recordings, but I think I know what some people are saying by this. I need to hear more music to comment on this.

Just a few minutes ago I was listening to a very well recording cd and it sounded the best I have ever heard it. Now does that mean the average recording is going to work out?...don’t know. I will report some more in a few after I have more break in time.

This is a speaker that you need to live with for a bit to make a final judgement, that is for sure.