Tekton Open Baffle Speakers

@ricevs I agree with your analysis.  I've heard some similar priced full range open baffle speakers whose designers took into consideration time alignment through physical and/or electrical (crossover) design.  Tekton apparently does neither.  Some engineers say that my EAR 912 and 890 gear have cheap parts and poor design.  Yes, but the designer was brilliant and still achieved high end results creating unique products which alleviate additional parts count such as huge power regulation to remove ripple effects. 

From hearing and reading about Tekton's, I'd rather own Duntechs/Dunlavys.  Since I prefer a multi-listener experience, I desire a wide dispersion speaker such as a Von Schwiekert whose goal is a disappearing speaker which creates the live performance rather than a rendering or recreation of it.  I'd rather own a B&W speaker, used and older than a Tekton for the same price

My current Legacy Signature IIIs are superior (and really inexpensive).  They have good, not expensive crossovers which permit this speaker to speak linearly, with one voice.  Quite a feat for a 4.5 way, eight driver speaker.  Deep, textured and dynamic bass like a decent separate subwoofer.  That new Tekton won't do that.  It physically can't.

Nothing comes up for me with those links.

These people are late to the OB party. Better late than never. We built these from solid wood frames of Ash, Maple, and Mahogany back in 2010 or so. Didn’t turn out to bad.

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The Siegfried Linkwitz "Orion" speakers are natural sounding and superb examples of open baffle design. Check "Linkwitz Lab.com" for more info.

I run two sets of Speakers myself at present, Stacked ESL's and Floor Standing Cabinets housing Audax Carbon Fibre Drivers for both Mid and Bass with a Audax HD P4 Gold Dome Piezo Tweeter. 

The Cabinets are a coloured sonic compared to the ESL's but in comparison to typical Cabinet Speakers are on the transparent side.

I have the Cabinet Speakers mainly for adding a increase to the Richness of Tone to my sessions of listening to Blues Music, especially the performers who become mainstream as Chicago Blues Artists. 

Additionally, I have a full set of drivers stored to be used to produce a OB Speaker.

Drivers have gone through the roof in purchase prices in the past few years.

I certainly would not own all the drivers I have at present in storage if I were to collect them in todays market.

 

@pindac,

I really enjoy my EP speakers (I think they're the 2.8's with 2X 15" Carbon woofers, a 12" Carbon mid and a concentric tweeter, upgraded wiring and stock external crossovers). My only complaint would be the tweeter could be a little smoother, but that's nitpicking, really. Yeah, quite a score.

I listen to mostly classical, hard rock and jazz, and I have no complaints. I do run a Rythmik dual 12" servo sub, too. Overall, the presentation is very good. I would describe the setup as extremely musical.

At this point, I don't think I could go back to a box-type speaker. At least not one I could afford. (BTW, I also own a pair of Tekton Enzo XL's w/ upgraded Beryllium tweeters. Honestly, there's no comparison. 2 entirely different speakers with 2 entirely different presentations.)

OB offers a lot of advantages if you have the room and the patience to dial them in. JM2CW.

 

 

@coralkong Your finding a $10k Speaker at $2K.

That must be almost the parts value only, to have working speakers from a well known Brand for this outlay must have been extremely pleasing. 

How do these models suit your listening preferences.     

Tekton in my opinion has offered huge value historically. Both the DI and Electron SE I own not only offer excellent sound with few weaknesses but their parts cost/retails price ratio is huge.

This open baffle project seems to be an exception to that rule. Maybe I am missing some info here given the limited data on the Tekton website.

I also wonder about the fact some open baffle designs seem to limit the rear wave to bass only. Seems like you would want that to extend higher into the midrange as well to capture some of the open sound OB speakers are known for.

I looked at the new OB's from Tekton on their site.

I just don't see $7k there. I have no idea how they sound, but that's a lot for what it looks like it is.

I'm not dumping on them, but (as a case in point) I bought a used pair of TOTL Emerald Physics OB speakers for under $2k. They retailed for $9995 when they were new. $7k just seems like a lot for what it looks like you're getting from Tekton.

Ok pindac. that’s A Good idea. Let’s keep It On topic.

🙄

I’ll pass. 

The Thread is about OB’s lets keep the OP interested and keep on Topic.

It makes about as much sense as a person randomly capitalizing words. Which is to say neither makes much sense. I guess it’s a mystery for the ages.

I don't know about that. Would you be able to tell it to capitalize certain words?

Must be using some sort of talk to text program. But if so, it is definitely a glitchy one.

@ozzy62 

I've asked the same question before and never received an answer. Odd habit, and it must be a bit difficult as well.

@ozzy62 Happy New Year to yourself and fellow Goner's

Life is way too short and New Year is Very New. 🥂 

@pindac 

 No response to the question I posed to you above?

 

@boomerbillone I like yourself have been involved at various levels of how a OB Speaker is created.

Over 25 Years ago, they had my attention, but were a little too unusual to be seen commonplace, the Speaker that won my approval has been from this era the ESL Type.

Time moves on, OB's started becoming more common, forums have been plugging their wonderment and the old curiosities remained, the the point, I commenced getting my fill of OB experiences.

I have been in rooms with Commercially Produced Active Speakers costing a Crazy Price £00000's and descending in to the more affordable £0000's.

I took my interests further and started attending a annual show where enthusiast Speaker builders have the opportunity to present their Work, even though a few of the attendees are Speaker Designer / Builder by Profession, as well as the odd known of British Audio related Authors.

At the enthusiast event OB's are able to be auditioned as both Active and Passive designs. There is a lot of talk between the attendees about positioning Speakers within the Space. 

OB's are seemingly given the most opportunity to invade others space to get them to meet what the owner deems the best for the demo' to be given.

I have heard OB's costing a few £000 pounds and through to a decent few £0000 depending on rarity or type of drivers and the Active Amplification used.

In this environment I have been blown away by the performance of OB's at all production costs, there are some very talented individuals who really know how to extract a attractive sonic from a Speaker.

Additionally it is also of interest to get the feel for a design that has a sonic produced and voiced from a marketing concept and a design from a enthusiast who has created a design with a uniquely voiced sonic that is their preference.

The following is a Copy/Paste from another forum about a Version of a Bastini OB.

The individuals responsible for taking this OB to the level it is at  really really know their stuff when it comes to OB's.

A lot can be attained for a very fair outlay if one treads carefully.

_______________________________________________________________ 

These are the top of the range versions, with the Chrystal mid range and Gemini compression driver tweeters. These also have the Goldwood 18" woofers.

There is no crossover as such on these- the Chrystal mid is doped to mechanically adjust frequency response to suit bass and treble, and tweeter is crossed with a single cap in series. Bass is active.

These are superb OB's, bass is driven with a Behringer INuke 3000 amplifier, the 100db sensitivity meaning a very high quality low powered valve or SS amp can be used to power mid and top. I used a 4w OTL to great effect.

Vic of Trans Fi tweaked these himself, the INuke runs his DSP settings (you can of course tweak to your own taste). The tweeter level can be adjusted to taste via a pot, however I ran them wide open as Vic added a resistor in series with the tweeters to give a flat response- it would be simple to remove this should room acoustics dictate.

I rewired and renewed the components when I got them. I used Neotech solid core cable, PathAudio resistors and Jantzen Superior Z Capacitors for the tweeters.

Drivers are all perfect.

Looking for £1200.



 

Hello JayMark!  Open Baffle speakers are not "Plop and play" speakers. They can be difficult to position for the best result. I have been using open baffle speakers for decades, but understand their quirks. Properly positioned, they are very hard to beat. By the way, they are very easy to build. No great carpentry needed. An electronic crossover can be had for $100. (A passive crossover can easily cost more if you use top tier parts.) So for the price of an extra stereo amp and a little plywood, you can buy four very nice drivers for less than $500 - and Bingo! Mods ar very easy to make. You're in the open baffle club! Think about it, at $7,000 a pair, what are you paying for? Two tweeters, two woofers, and a board? Happy Listening.

The Spatial Audio X3s had no issues with rock or any bass heavy material. In fact, it was some of the best bass I’ve heard in my room. The speaker had other issues that led me to move them on, but articulate and deep bass was not one of them.

I own GR-Research's NX-Oticas, paired with a set of Double Trouble subwoofers. They are all open baffle speakers, I power them with a McIntosh MA12000. 

I went down to GR-Research and listened to Danny's NX-Extremes which are one step above my NX-Oticas. We listened to Tin Pan Alley and Stevie sounded as if he and the band were all around me. It was fabulous.

I enjoy frequenting audio stores and listening to their wares. I tend to gravitate towards Maggies and Focals, all speakers in the 30k and plus arena. I'd put my open baffle NX-Otica set up against pretty much any setup up to $150k. Long story short, Open baffle speakers can be great! But that is my opinion. 

I have not heard the OB Tektons, but, I’ve heard their Double Impacts and Moab speakers and I think they sound good for their respective prices.
OB speakers can sound a touch thin in the upper bass and they typically do not go very deep (the front and back waves from the drivers are in phase at lower frequencies and cancel each other).  But, if you are not a bass freak, I think they can sound good.

As to crossover parts, most speakers don’t have really expensive capacitors in them, but that does not necessarily make them sound bad.  There are even expensive parts that certain speaker designers don’t like.  I know a custom builder that thoroughly hates Mundorf caps—he can hear a speaker or amp and know it has Mundorfs in them.

I too like some field coil drivers.  That is why I would love to hear either the Pure Audio Project OB Quintet or Trio models with the optional Voxativ field coil midrange/tweeter module.  I’ve heard their non-field coil models and I have heard the Voxativ field coil driver in another system, and I am guessing that this would be a magical comination.

 

@ricevs - I agree, all true but I would imagine that the cost of the speaker would probably rise and also not to mention improving with better drivers.  I am fan of field coil speakers and good ones are hard to find.  Your suggestion to build your own is also an excellent suggestion.

Happy Listening.

 

@jaymark  +1 for Clayton Shaw's Caladan speakers. I heard them at Capital AudioFest and ordered a pair. Outstanding performance at an unheard of price in this century. I think Clayton is like the Henry Kloss of the 21st century. And he is a really nice guy.

 

Tekton use lower grade parts , B&W 800 series use Mundorf top  silver gold oil caps which are very good , Magico uses the same caps.

@audioman58 I rebuilt my crossovers in my Tektons and indeed the parts are mediocre, but no more mediocre than B&W, Focal, or any other speaker under $30-50K. In fact, better than some. Tekton attracts tech savy owners who are eager to do such projects and there is a thriving community of Tekton owners who share info so more Tekton crossovers have been rebuilt than all other similar speaker combined.  

Mediocre crossover components are the $10,000 speaker market's dirty little secret.  

Claton Shaw may be a great designer but 2 way speakers are quite disadvantaged in obtaining a flat curve. He may do it. I haven’t heard his stuff.

Jerry

@mofojo, I wouldn’t agree with the opinion that open baffle designs aren’t good for rock/metal. I owned a pair of Spatial Audio open baffles that did rock just fine. You just have to know going in that OBs (generally) don’t do bass. So you’d want to factor in the cost of a pair of quality subs (at least) and more likely a swarm of subs. Most would insist they also be open baffle designs, so you’re either building them yourself, or selecting from a limited field. They also require a room deep enough to pull the speakers at least 4 feet into the room and far enough from any side walls. And the larger rooms required for proper placement necessitates more sub reinforcement and plenty of room treatment. Meaning, you better be single or have a dedicated room. 😀

I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from going in the OB direction, but the price (in this case $7,000) is just the point of entry.

 

So many better speakers out there for the same or less money. If you like loud stuff (not quality) then go for it or buy a pair of cerwin Vega’s. 
if you want some pretty good open baffle speakers, check out underwood hifi EP series. Heard some a few years back at a rmaf show and I remember they were $3000, probably $4000-$5000 now. Of course there is Nola speakers but not sure what you can get these used for but these sounded very good at past audio shows. 
 

Take a look at GRResearch NX Open Baffle Speakers. Great sound, excellent detail at low volumes, and rock as hard as you can stand it. 

@mofojo I don't listen to that genre of music.  Anyways, I heard open baffle bass on Emerald Physics CS2s and was just mesmerized.  I listen to jazz 85%, new age 10%, and classical 5%.

Ive heard open baffle speakers are not good for rock/metal? How is the mid bass on most open baffle speakers? 

Happy New Years Everyone ,you want aGreat open baffle speaker ?

i know Clayton Shaw well a excellent engineer and honest guy 

His Latest effort is without peer at $3k buy of the year !! 
 

 

To be totally honest having rebuilt Xovers for years ,the internal parts in Tekton 

are very poor quality and the Xover is the ♥️ of all Loudspeakers.

to be totally real Clayton Shaws new Open baffle speakers at just over $3k 

pare a true Audiophile bargain . I know Clayton’s work well .

well worth the look .

@pindac 

 

Why the capitalization of random words in a paragraph? All of your posts exhibit this.

$3K Deposit for a Down Payment on a $7K Speaker is looking likely that Tekton are wanting their customer to be Guarantors of the proposed business model.

Parts and Production Costs along with a Slice of the Profit Margin are to be paid in advance by the Customer. The overall Balance for the projected Profit will be called in at later time. 

Its a $3000 deposit, not $3000 price.

@thecarpathian

looking at the Tekton website, seems like a promo vs deposit- confusing. I called Tekton who just verified that it is only a “deposit/down payment” for the 7k total.

@ thecarpathian I still have the fine sounding Elector as a backup preamp but all 4 of my two channel active preamps are tubed.

@pinwa nice pickup on my mistaken price quote. At 7k, my fascination for picking up a pair has fallen considerably.

@kennyc ,

Its a $3000 deposit, not $3000 price.

I’m with the OP - 3k seems very relatively inexpensive to try compared to the competition and resale should cover costs but no guarantee.  Tekton’s reputation for high value is reassuring.  This seems low risk with a large potential upside

Buy Maggies and be done with it.

@jaymark ,

Still running the Elector?

@pinwa Absolutely agree about the Moab (or other full size speakers) being a better buy.  But smaller speakers appeal strongly to those whose spouse won't let them have bigger speakers.   Tekton is all about the sound rather than the room decor.  

Another challenge these speakers may have is the flat baffle appeals more to the room decor crowd and not having polished hardwood, many will still find them unattractive, even though they are smaller.

Jerry

They aren't really $3K.  If you go to Tekton's Facebook page you will see that the $3K is like a preorder deposit.  They will still charge you $7K.  The exact post by Tekton was "$7K per pair. $3K deposit gets you in the queue."  

That might seem reasonable compared to Pure Audio Project but it is absurdly expensive compared to the Tekton Moabs and it is hard to imagine them being better than the Moabs but only time will tell.  I can tell you that I have never heard an open baffle speaker that out performed the Moabs.

Open baffle speakers have advantage of no box coloration.

The drawback is that mid bass may lack impact.

 

I am also intrigued with 3 K$ per pair special pre order price.😁

 

But since I already have 4 excellent speakers, it is more likely that I pass this occasion.

 

I was impressed with Moab driven by Atma class D amp during Pacificaudiofest 2023.

 

It sounds neutral with good dynamics.

 

Thomas

At $3K, they could easily attract additional customers to them as a Flat Pack-Self Assembly Speaker from a well known Brand and send them on to a larger amount of business opportunity via making inroads into other Countries.

Highly Efficient OB's are a sought after design. 

I have read no negative speculation. However, I have seen how they are made and what I said is what I recommend. All speakers will sound better if time aligned, and use better parts, more dead cabinet and have diffraction control. I have been making speakers since the 70s. Heck, even the Dalquist speaker was time aligned. This is nothing new. I do not hate anything or anyone. I love everything and everyone. We are one. We are ALL beautiful. I am sure your Tektons sound great. I just know how to make them sound even better. Or better yet, make your own fully open baffle planar mid/highs speaker that will be better than pretty much any box speaker.

My friend owns the Ulfberht. I helped him design a wild outboard xover like yours and he also felted around ALL the mid/tweets for even better sound. He loves them. However, the drivers still need damping, the cabinet needs to be deadened, the wiring needs to be upgraded, he needs to wire directly to the voice coil wires on the woofers (use no tabs)........it will then be even better. And all xover parts, jacks and wires should be cryoed, as well.....way more info. However, no matter what you do.....the woofs will never be time aligned to the mid/tweets and in the Ulfberht the big woofs and little woofs are not time aligned to each other. Check out Dunlavy and his super time aligned speakers from the 90s.  BTW.....it sounds much better to run the signal through a coil.....from the inside out.  That is: into the inside winding and out the outside winding.  So the outside winding should be towards the driver or ground.

Ricevs, I see you’re good at repeating all the negative speculation you’ve read. Your hatred is emotional though, not intellectual. Please come over to my place and listen to a pair and your tune will change.

Jerry

Basically the Perfect Set 15 without a box for the bass. Let’s see.....no time aligning.....tweets and mids hit your ears before the woof, no diffraction control....so smeared sound (should be felt around all 7 mid/tweets). Then there will be the xover with good but not exceptional parts, wiring and binding posts. It is way more important to have open baffle mids and highs then to have open baffle bass.  Check out the Qualio IQ for instance.

Just build your own open baffle speakers for way less that are every way better. You can make them passive or bi-amped. You can experiment for years and have lots of fun. See my page:

http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/DIY_Bi-amped_super_speaker.html