Tekton Impact Monitors

"Speaker placement can indeed make a BIG difference-"

Oh yeah. I spend hours listening to where a new pair of speakers sound best in my room. I've owned a lot of speakers over the years and I can tell you even if a speaker designer tells you a certain placement is ok that doesn't mean its best for your room or musical tastes.

Also pay attention to your listening position. Moving your chair closer or farther from the speaker can make as big a difference as moving the speaker itself. The same is true for listening height. In the past, I've actually used an office chair so I could easily adjust the height of the chair.

@kdude66 (Kenny) - I spent way too much time last night messing with the height of that tweeter array. And, like you indicate, center tweeter at ear height sounds best. That's basically where I started at but, of course, I wanted to be sure. (Ha!). I think I have the positioning dialed-in but I still have to make sure my sub is correctly tuned for these speakers. So still more "preliminary" work to do.

@backsigns - The speaker stands I've had for awhile. I'm not sure of the brand. I can tell you they are solid wood and are very heavy. I had to do a little work on them when I got them such as refinishing and adjusting one of the top plates but really no additional bracing was required. They are height adjustable via removing the center-pin and repositioning the center column up or down. 

REVIEW – TEKTON DESIGN IMPACT MONITOR

PRELIMINARIES

I’ve been reading a lot about Tekton Design’s Double Impact speakers. When a professional reviewer, Terry London, chimed-in a few months ago with his super positive review I started paying even more attention to what people were saying. I stalked the boards and asked a few questions mostly about listening distances and room sizes. I finally emailed Eric. He responded right away and when I called, Karma put Eric on the phone for a short conversation to confirm a few details. I decided on the upgraded Impact Monitors and since he had a pair in-stock Eric promised to ship the same day. I received the tracking number shortly after the call and had the speakers about 4 days later. They arrived well packed and without a scratch. The fit-and-finish of the standard cabinet is excellent. No complaints with communication, shipping speed or quality from me.

I spent considerable time figuring-out where to place the Impact Monitors in my room and what listening distance to use. My listening room is 25’ x 15’ x 10’. I ended-up with them 42” from the front wall and about 5' from the closest sidewall. My listening position is 8’ from the front baffles with the center tweeters at 43"which is ear height. They sit about 9' a part.

I ran them continuously for 5 days. The sound opened-up a little each day but I had a hell of a time getting the lower midrange and bass to sound right. No matter where I placed the speakers, or my REL subwoofer, the low-end sounded weird. It sounded thick/smeared and no way in the same league as the upper midrange and treble. I tried different speaker stands and spikes. I tried different cables. I added a Synergistic Research carbon XOT, which helped, but the sound in the low-end was simply screwed-up. I knew it wasn’t my sub because the problems occurred even with it turned-off. Finally, I remembered “the cheapest but most effective tweak”: tighten the mounting screws around the speaker cones! (Don’t over tighten them just make sure they are snug) Well, low and behold a screw on one of the 6.5” speaker cones was very loose and a couple of tweeter screws needed a few turns to completely secure them. With all the screws firmly in place the bottom octaves snapped in to focus - tight yet with plenty of texture and bloom.

I have a number of tube and solid-state amps that I tried with the Impact Monitors. I really enjoyed a 25 watt Class A amp with them but I ended-up preferring my 200 watt tube mono blocks. I readily admit the choice of amps is subjective so your mileage will obviously vary. Rest assured any quality amp will work well with the Impact Monitors. Even my flea-watt SET worked well. However, remember, in normal configuration, they are 4 ohms (8 ohms is optional) and are rated at 94db sensitivity.

My taste in music is mostly jazz, blue grass, country and rock. For instance, I listen to a lot of Gov’t Mule, Gregg Allman, Neil Young, Holly Cole, Shelby Lynne, Johnny Cash, Nickel Creek, Earl Scruggs, Led Zeppelin, Clark Terry, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. If I listen to classical music, it’s usually solo piano, cello or violin.

LISTENING

Even during the set-up period I could tell these speakers are special. If I were to describe their sound in one word it would be: “natural”. The tone is spot-on and they present a very coherent dynamic sound – much like good horn speakers. They don’t sound laid-back, forward or any other term – they just sound right. There are no overdone highs or lows. When a vocalist sings an “s” it doesn’t sound like a “z”. Bass guitars don’t sound like one note blobs. Violins don’t sound like nails on a chalkboard. As he claims in his ads, Eric has “captured the harmonic spectra of the music being played”.

They image as well as anything I’ve had in my listening room. Each performer is properly placed in the soundstage but they aren’t etched in stone – just like live music. Depth, width and height of the soundstage are excellent.

The Impact Monitors “only” play down to 40Hz or so. Based on your listening preferences, or room requirements, that may be low enough. I would avoid pushing them into corners or towards the front wall to augment their bass. Instead, as mentioned above, a subwoofer when properly set-up is a very viable solution if you want more bass. I realize you could buy a pair of Double Impacts or move even higher up the Tekton food-chain but space constraints, cost or even aesthetics in your room my prevent that.

Finally, I need to mention my extensive use of Synergistic Research (SR) equipment. The SR stuff has always had a significant impact on the sound in my system and that was especially true with the Tekton speakers. I listened for a while with the SR Atmosphere/FEQ turned off and the soundstage suffered. Not that the soundstage was bad but it REALLY shines with the SR technology engaged. I highly recommend you try SR with Tekton’s new tweeter array.

SUMMARY

Tekton Design’s Impact Monitors do very little, if anything wrong and enter the realm of unbelievable value when you consider their price of $1,800 ($2,100 with upgraded parts) delivered!

• 94dB 2.83V@1m sensitivity
• 4 Ohm design for optimum performance (8 Ohm available please inquire)
• 40Hz-30kHz frequency response

@david_ten - Thanks. I’m in North Carolina and was honkering-down for the tropical storm this weekend so I had some spare-time to work on this review.

As to liking the higher powered amps a little more, I guess that is turning into a personal bias of mine. I have a pair of 100db horns and listen to SET but it just seems that extra power fully fleshs-out the sound on most speakers. That’s obviously a big generalization but that’s where I’m at for now.

I continue to tweek the Impact Monitors and I’m getting better and better sound. But, I go through a lot of equipment so I wouldn’t be surprised if I own a pair of Double Impacts (or higher) at some point. Let’s stay in touch.

@danoroo - "I listen to a lot of rock music at fairly loud SPLs. The 2.7s are slightly more sensitive and the 8" drivers should offer more impact in the lower mid/upper bass region. Also the the tweeter in the 40.5" tall Enzos is at perfect ear level in my room.   I'll give you guys my opinion of these speakers after I've evaluated them for a few days. I'll have the luxury of comparing them side by side with the Usher Dancer Mini One DMDs I'm using now."

What are your impressions of the Enzo 2.7s?

Thought I'd pass along this assessment of the Impact Monitors found on the Audiomatters blog:

"The monitors delivered.....tremendous body and detail, and provide stiff opposition to many other monitors at the $2k price point. I could easily see a great music system being built around them."

http://audiomatters.blogspot.com/2017/10/rmaf-2017-part-ii.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium...

Here is another one!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/herbs-rocky-mountain-coda

"It was not subtle. The $1800 Tekton Impact Monitors were doing it all: singing, drumming, shaking the air, drawing me in, and making every CD or LP pure pleasure to listen to. A little soft…but not too soft. Imagine a gentle but guiding touch with a most perfect sparkle—and then firm and impactful when necessary."

"What does 'blew me away' mean?" John Atkinson would surely ask. Well, for starters, the sense of three-dimensionality on my CD of Lou Harrison's Violin Concerto was astoundingly good, and the impact and color of his wacky assortment of percussion were simply superb. Soundstaging width, height, and depth in the nearfield were tremendous, with the computer-generated/symphonic music by Mason Bates, recorded by Jack Vad and released on SACD by San Francisco Symphony, astounding in its depiction of particles whirling back and forth in a Fermi particle accelerator. In addition, the speakers totally disappeared on a Michael Hedges LP, and the sound was extremely smooth.

Richard Schram of Parasound contacted Tekton to arrange a joint demo after his friend, Warner Bros. Records VP Michael Howe, told him that he uses both Parasound and Tekton equipment in his studio. This was wise move on Richard's part, because the Parasound–Tekton pairing sounds stupidly good. And not just for the price. It sounds STUPIDLY GOOD, period.

Yes, I'm resorting to capitals, because I want you to take notice. If you can afford this system, you must hear it. Its sound, at least during my admittedly brief audition, far surpassed any number of systems costing way more. A notable achievement, worthy of both review and acclaim."