TEKTON IMPACT MONITORS

Grant after following your recommendation? It’s the interconnect probably it’s loose .

If that’s true, then excellent news!

If you have some contact cleaner/enhancer, then now might be a good time to clean your interconnects and apply some contact enhancer. Something as basic as CAIG DeOxit, or rubbing alcohol would work. I like Stabilant22; NATO approved for avionics and other electronics applications.

BTW, if you haven’t yet gone through the troubleshooting steps, I know the process looks daunting. It’s not. Just break it down step by step.

Using the same recording, and same track on the same source component...

Swap your amplifier interconnects at the preamp. Left IC to right output, and Right IC to left output.

Does the scratch follow the swap? If so, it’s not the amplifier. It’s upstream, or an interconnect cable. If the scratchy sound remains in the right channel, then the cause is your amplifier (or a bad tube, or something else).

Swap the amplifier interconnects, so you have the right IC on the left channel preamp output, and the left channel amplifier input. Connect the left interconnect to the right channel as above. Play the track. Does the scratchy sound follow the swap? If so, it’s the cable, or a poor connection. If not, then the scratchy sound is caused upstream.

Restore the interconnects to normal.

Swap the source interconnect at the preamp. Left IC to right input. Right IC to left input.

Play the same track. Does the scratch move to the other channel? If so, it’s either the source component, or it’s the interconnect cable, or it’s on the recording.

Restore the interconnects to normal.

Try a different recording. Does the scratchy sound still occur? If so, then it’s your source component, or the interconnect cable. If not, it points to the recording.

Swap the interconnect cables. Put the right IC on the left channel. Put the left IC on the right channel.

Play the track. Do you hear the scratchy sound? Which channel?

When you hear the scratchy sound, are you adjusting volume using a volume pot on the preamp, or with a remote control?

If one uses Tekton Design’s sensitivity specification of 94db 2.83V@1m, and enters into this calculator 150w (peak power output of the Tsakiridis Apollon Ultra amplifier), at 1 meter, speaker away from walls, the calculated decibel level is 115.8dB.

If one does the same calculation using John Atkinson’s sensitivity estimate of 87.5dB 2.83V@1m in his Stereophile measurements section of the Impact loudspeaker, the calculated decibel level is 109.3dB.

Both results are below the loudspeakers’s 120dB power handling limit (per Tekton Design’s specs).

Hopefully, Van L will provide some expert analysis to explain why the tweeters failed.

@rixthetrick,

Yes, actually on both days my speakers were given a generous amount of time to listen to. My wife actually proclaimed that after listening to Tracy Chapman on vinyl it was the best sound she’d ever heard.

That’s quite a statement! Also, speaks to the front end, and amplification.

I haven't seen any listening impressions posted about your speakers from the get-together, so this is nice to read. Kudos to you!

Regarding Mike L. causing the Moabs to sway, I recall a moment when a local high end cable fabricator came over to help install some long interconnects I had purchased. He had not seen my system before, and at the time my speakers (+ stands) were on Townshend podiums. He too touched the speakers, which caused them to sway. It caught him off guard, for sure.