Tekton Impact Monitors vs Buchardt S300Mk2 and/or S400

No one?

There are several other Tekton threads on the front page of this forum. Why don’t you ask there?

Zero Fidelity and Thomas and Stereo on Youtube have both posted reviews of both Buchardts and the bigger Tektons (may or may not interest). Very well thought out and worth taking a look.

I've viewed those reviews.....there's no comparisons with the Tekton Impact Monitors.

The Buchardt’s are relatively new to the market. There’s very few reviews of them, and certainly few, if any, comparisons. Give it some time. 

Reach out to Steve Guttenberg via Youtube or CNET. He has heard both.

I have discovered that Zero Fidelity in his Youtube review has now answered the question....he prefers the S400 over the Tekton Double Impacts and Impact Monitors, as well as the S300MK2.

Hey lula,

First, I do not find the information that Shawn prefers the S400 speaker over the Tekton models in any of his statements in his videos.  I made the Double Impact Monitor one of the products of the 2018 year award winners for hometheaterreview.com.  If you have not read my review on this speaker, take a look, its an amazing performer.  Two other websites also selected it for their products of the year. You should also consider that the Tekton is a much easier speaker to drive then the Buchardt's.   

teajay
Have you listened to the Buchardts; if so any impressions?

Teajay,
Shawn's "Bigass..." S400 review....he replies to Mike Manilia re:Double Impact, and further down replies to Nick Reecy re: Impact Monitors. I have read all reviews of the latter, including yours. I've been torn between the Tektons and Buchardts.

Hey Lula,

I never speak out of ignorance.  I have not heard the Buchardts, therefore I cannot comment on them.  Shawn is a very good reviewer and I respect his opinions.  The DI monitors are killer speakers and do something different then other speakers because of Eric's break through design.  If you love speed and a sense of aliveness, pure tonality, great transparency, and very extended bass for a stand mount speaker you will love the DI monitors. 

I auditioned the Buchardt S300 two years ago, and I've had the Tekton Impact Monitors for about a month.  I have not heard the S400.  It's been a long time since I heard the S300, so I can't give you a lot of detail, but the general impression was that they were quite good for the price.  The Impact Monitors are twice the price, so they should sound better, but they're really, in my humble opinion, in a completely different league.  For all of the reasons that teajay lists above, and more, I am thrilled with these speakers.  My speaker search is over, for the forseeable future.  If you have the room for the Tektons, I'd say that it's well worth giving them a try.  That being said, people seem to be over the moon with the S400, so that speaker may well deserve an audition as well, particularly if space is an issue.  Both Mads Buchardt and Eric Alexander and his assistant Karma were a pleasure to do business with.  Good luck in your search!

Thomas and Stereo stated in his review that the S300 and S400 shouldn't even be in the same series as they are so different, the S400 should be W400 for waveguide.  I'm sure the op has researched but this would be something a bit different, a rather directional but not "shouty" sound.  Also, the rest of the review had a great chart with responses from audiophile friends.  Now the trick would be figuring out where he Tekton would fit into that.

Here's the stereophile vertical response measurement of the Impact Monitor:

https://www.stereophile.com/images/718TekIMfig5.jpg

Tekton's are way more height sensitive than a normal monitor speaker due to the lobing effect of so many tweeters. You really can’t be more than 5 degrees above or below the tweeter array or you will be outside the sweet spot.

Whereas the Buchardt S400 is going to be the complete opposite. With the waveguide it will be much less sensitive to speaker height and will radiate sound in a more uniform fashion on the vertical plane.

Here’s the Revel M106’s vertical dispersion which has a similar style of waveguide to the Buchardt S400. You can see it’s much less sensitive to vertical placement.

https://www.stereophile.com/images/914Revelfig5.jpg

Plus Buchardt seems to be a more professionally run outfit.

I heard the Buchardt S400 SE speakers in a friend's excellent audio system in Italy his summer and was totally blow away with the sound of them.  They have remarkable bass response, tonally almost perfect, and have an immense soundstage.  A fair side-by-side comparison would be Dynaudio C-1's or Joseph Audio Pulsars, but the S400 SE's are 1/3 their price.  

I just ordered a pair today to compare to my Spatial Audio M4 Triode Masters, the greatest speakers I have owned in my 45 years in the audio world.  The S400 SE's might be better...

25 more were made available on Jan 2nd.  Some still available as of the 3rd.