kdude66,
That's good info. Again, in the interest of context, can you tell us what speakers you have owned and used in the past?
That's good info. Again, in the interest of context, can you tell us what speakers you have owned and used in the past?
Tekton Electron has been released
As expected, the Tekton Double Impact received a 5 star rave-up from Home Theatre Review. The reviewer made mention of a smaller version for those of us with smaller rooms. I shot Eric Alexander an email at about 8:30 last night and was surprised to receive a reply a few minutes later. He said that the scaled down version, which he named the Electron, had just gone live on his website a few minutes earlier.
I haven't heard any of his speakers yet, but I am really curious, especially about this one. I'm sure that conspiracy theorists will have plenty to say about the reviewer, and the weird patent (they already have savaged the patent, and I don't really blame them), but I am not as suspicious as some, and I think these speakers must be pretty good, or they wouldn't keep getting such enthusiastic reviews from users as well. I want to hear these speakers!
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I am running my Electrons with a Lyngdorf 2170 integrated amp. All digital, with room correction software built in. http://hometheaterreview.com/lyngdorf-audio-tdai-2170-integrated-amplifier-reviewed/ |
Roxy, I will give a partial list from the last 10 to 12'yrs.Acoustat 2+2,Maggie 1.7,legacy focus SE,b&w 104d,Zu defs 4,Zu Druid V, Devore orangutan,Janszen Valentina which were recently sold after 6 months.My wife and I within the last month listened to a demo pair of Magico Q5's. The most recent is the Di's and I will keep my Zu def's,moved them too my smaller 2nd system. My sonic impression,granted I have only had them 1 day, 1.Tone/Timbre/Harmonics is just right for me,fast, plenty of clarity,coherence,and midrange meat. 2.Overall slightly warm from neutral and not bright. 3.Excellant overall bass and dynamics without being overpowering in our 20x25 living room. 4.Appearance and color match the rest of the decor of the room,according from my wife has said,and she likes the sound as well. I use a bel canto pre3,and a set of bel canto ref600m,with a ps audio direct stream dac.I also have a Wilson bensch circle table with a zyx,airy3 cartridge. I almost always upgrade my speakers with better passive parts and internal wiring,the di's will probably be a good candidate,even though they sound pretty darn good now. The playback of music in the home has always been quite subjective,and what I like you may not. There has been a lot of hype about the Tekton speaker line in general,but I took a chance with the di's and I really like them. I really think Eric has truly designed something special. My music preference is most forms of jazz,classic rock,some new pop and rock,and some classical,mostly piano works. Kenny. |
Tekton posted the picture I sent of my Electrons. They are off white and now situated at the bottom left of the gallery. That will change as pictures are added. http://tektond.weebly.com/customer-gallery.html |
Charles, They are especially when you spend some time tweaking them. I will keep them in my 2nd system for backups for now. The Zu's have a lot of pluses and really just a few negatives,I used them for almost 4yrs.I had a pair of Janzen Valentina's that I recently sold here,just wasn't a good match for my room or me.Very nicely made speakers otherwise. I really love the DI's truly a great sound for me. Kenny. |
Roxy54, Some people who are quite familiar with the Coincident speakers believe that the Total Eclipse II were one of their very best efforts ever. I’ve had mine for 8 years and they’ll be with me to the end. They rarely appear on the used market. I get the feeling that the Double Impacts are as good as their owners tout. I do understand the healthy skepticism some may feel. High End audio always seems to introduce a new darling of the month product with overblown hype. My gut feeling tells me that this Tekton DI is the real deal. If I didn't have my current Coincident based system I'd be thinking à Tekton DI and Line Magnetic 219ia or 508ia combination. Charles |
Charles, If they wouldn't overload my room, I would buy them, but they would, and I would also be too close. They are amazing speakers. I'm not interested in the Partial Eclipse. As I have said, it's torture not being able to hear them, because I am also seriously interested in the Spatial M3 Triode Master, and I can't hear them either. It's like feeling your way around in the dark. |
gb9746, I'd be interested in speaking with you offline if you are willing. I am interested in the Tekton Electrons and would be driving them with the Lyngdorf 2170 integrated I bought back in January. Furthermore, the past speakers you've had include some that are on my audition list. You are in a unique position to talk shop with me, it seems. Frankly, I am as interested in hearing you thoughts on the Lyngdorf compared to others you've used as I am the speakers. I could not figure out how to contact you directly outside of this discussion. Apologies to all. Thank you. |
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Just received the new re-design Electrons with the 8" drivers. I have not hooked them up yet to listen. However, one thing to note, they have a dome tweeter instead of the SB Ring Radiator Tweeter as noted on the website. I assume Eric prefers these? I would love to hear why he changed that? I will post impressions when I feel I have them broken in a bit. |
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Just received the new re-design Electrons with the 8" drivers. I have
not hooked them up yet to listen. However, one thing to note, they have a
dome tweeter instead of the SB Ring Radiator Tweeter as noted on the
website. I assume Eric prefers these? I would love to hear why he
changed that? I will post impressions when I feel I have them broken in a
bit.
" Is just the center one a dome tweeter and the six others the SB Ring Radiator? |
I also received Electron's yesterday. The whole array are dome tweeters as described by Aniwolfe. The bad news for me is that a woofer is blown on mine. Very distorted sound coming from one of the bottom woofers. It must have been damaged in shipping. No visible damage on the speaker though. I called Tekton, spoke with Eric and Karma. They were very nice, apologetic, and sorry it came damaged. They are sending me a new woofer to try and replace. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but will give it a shot. |
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. |
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)!! |
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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. |
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@aniwolfe @terpstation @cordobaman Very informative and helpful posts. They have been a fascinating read, especially when put in context to the Double Impacts. One equivalent, from my experience with the DIs, is that with some cables I hear/heard similar inconsistencies --- if I understand what you are (I believe) referring to. This applies to speaker cable swaps and cable swaps on the digital end. My analog signal cabling has remained constant, but given my findings fore and aft, I’d speculate the same from cable changes there. |
@tektondesign cordobman wrote: "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?" I wonder if Eric will ever explain in some detail why this choice was made, especially regarding the tweeter array? The Electron 6" Woofer design used the Triple Ring Radiator Tweeters (same tweeter as the Di’s). Why was this changed for the 8" version? Was it to save money, lack of stock or does he feel its a better fit? Personally I like a smooth top end. This newer tweeter array is testing my patience at times. If the DI’s tweeters are smoother then I want them. Eric can you please answer the concerns that your customers are questioning so we can put this to rest? If it’s too personal to discuss on this forum please me know and I will call you. I hope with more break in and tweaks I can get to a balance that will allow me to listen to more cd’s in my collection. |
@david_ten I believe everything in your system has a huge influence with these type of speakers. I have a Primaluna Integrated amp that I will setup with the Electrons soon and report my findings. I just want to run the course with the Lyngdorf and see if I can get it to my liking. With my previous setup I was able to enjoy all my cd's pretty much, I feel I am getting closer with the Electrons. I might need to try a copper based Digital Cable. Maybe something like Purist Audio or the Acoustic Zen Absolute Copper Digital Cable. If you have recommendations, let me know please. |
@aniwolfe It will be interesting to hear about the differences between the 2170 and the PrimaLuna. I'm fairly sure the Electrons, if like the DIs, will 'highlight' each. No recommendations because I feel these choices are so system and personal preference dependent. I personally prefer copper cables and have Audience Au24 SX speaker cable and Cardas Clear Reflection XLR ICs. I've also had Cardas USB adaptors, etc on the digital side, but am currently evaluating a set of 4 USB cables. For my Focal Utopia headphones, I use DanaCable Lazuli Reference which is also a copper cable. |
@david_ten Comparing the Primaluna and Lyngdorf. is a bit unfair especially with Electrons speakers in a untreated room. The room correction in the Lyngdorf puts it at a much higher advantage. If I had a well treated room then I would give a respectful comparison. In an untreated room the Primaluna and the Electrons were terrible and it should. The bass was extremely boomy and the soundstage was shot. With the Eminent Technology LFT 8bs (dipoles) which love tube volts and a room that is alive, the Primaluna was amazing. Great amp...just needs the right room and stuff around it. |
@david_ten I have not considered external software and the reason is that I just want to get back to listening to tunes. I am a music person first. I have been experimenting too much and it is just too exhausting to continue. I did play both without room correction and they both were equally blah. Honestly if room correction didn't exist, then I would probably have kept the Primaluna and the Eminent Technology Speakers. At least with the Primaluna I can tube roll to fix tonal balance. So if anyone is looking for a Primaluna Dialogue Integrated or Eminent Technology Speakers.let know :) |
@lula It is here... http://www.tektondesign.com/electron.html No wait, it says 6"... But the picture is definitely with the 8" woofers and dome tweeters. |
The Electron is a total gem! Today we got news the Electron SE was awarded a RMAF 2018 Best Systems Award - 'Best System at RMAF under $20,000. The link is here: https://www.tektondesign.com/professional-recommendations.html We have the Electron and Electron SE models honed, refined, and sounding better than ever. The dome tweeter array (doing all of the mid-range) is identical to the Impact Monitor and Enzo 2.7. The Impact Monitor, with it's identical array was recently tested by Sterophile magazine and the speaker produced the best 'averaged horizontal polar frequency response' ever measured in the stand mount/bookshelf loudspeaker category. A second-rate speaker isn't capable of this As the designer, I did produce a few early sets a year ago that probably had the highest frequencies a bit too hot by +1dB. This is no longer a topic or a problem - it was addressed quickly. These types of things are very easy to adjust too - the easiest in-home method is a simple toeing of the speakers outward. Eric Alexander - audio designer |
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Seriously?! The cabinets are solid - I repeat they're solid from every facet. And... don't take my word for it go to this months issue of Sound and Vision Magazine and read the Impact Monitor with my new Tesla Valved Subwoofer review. https://www.tektondesign.com/professional-reviews.html Now, if you're looking for a stunning visual design incorporated into the speaker I might not be your guy. Although, we do offer piano gloss finishes and metallics. Eric Alexander - audio designer |
