Tekton versus Klipsch

I feel greatly let down by my Double Impact speakers and the service I received from them.  The women there didn't know anything about speakers and the owner was rude.  When I received them I couldn't believe how disappointed I was and I paired them with a PrimaLuna EVO 300, a four-thousand dollar amp.  I tried different placements but nothing and I listened to a ton of different kinds of music.  Even BB King with a full horn section wasn't exciting. For me, the sound doesn't travel but rather it sounds like something is happening across the room.  They're better at high volumes but there's still know definition in the sound.  The highs aren't high and the bass isn't defined or low and they sound sort of like surround sound speakers. 

I'm selling them since it'll cost me $375 EACH to send them back and I purchased a set of Klipsch Forte 4's to replace them.  And you can bet your life that the people at Tekton know that you won't send them back when you find out what it costs.  

Don't believe the hype, it's baloney.  All those people reviewing them are getting incentives and to compare them to speakers worth 10 thousand dollars and more are snowing us.  In the end, just believe your ears.   

Have a wonderful day, Phil

I might have already commented on this so forgive me if this is a repeat. I'm so grossly disappointed by my Double Impacts it's pitiful and I've tried everything imaginable to get them to work.  My amp is a PrimaLuna EVO 300.  

I'm a musician (Local 802) and made hand-made mouthpieces for some of the greatest sax players who ever lived for almost forty years, am fairly respected and let me tell you, these speakers suck and if you believe people like Steve Guttenberg who gets all kinds of perks from the audio companies then you might want to reassess your source of information because ALL those guys get something in return for their reviews.  Several of these guys said that the DI's are as good as speakers costing 30K!  Do you believe that? 

When I called Tekton to ask for help, Eric Alexander was rude to me before I could even get a work in and told me to return them but ALAS, it costs $385.00 to return EACH speaker! So, in reality, if they cost that much to send them to me then they're really only a $2300 speaker.  So I'm dumping them and have already bought a pair of Klipsch Forte 4's.  If you can't audition a speaker, then don't buy it. 

I recently received my Tekton DI's and am utterly dismayed by how they sound when compared to the press they get. First, they're not a three-thousand dollar speaker, they're more like a twenty-three hundred dollar speaker when you take off the shipping and if you want to return them, in my case it's $385 each.  

I find with my PrimaLuna EVO 300 they don't project, lack clarity, lack lows, lack dynamics and they almost sound like surround sound speakers, okay for a restaurant or department store and if you listen to muzak. 

Also, the recording must be excellent or they're flat and generic but on really good recordings some people may find them okay but not great unless you've been listening to like a hand-held radio. 

I've been in the music business forty years and let me tell you what happens.  A company puts some money behind a mediocre product with advertising, gets a few fans to feel loyal, maybe with perks, gets a bunch of inexperienced customers behind it that think it's god's gift and gives incentives to the knucklehead reviewers and it sells like crazy but they always peter out, always.  

Oh, and the customer service at Tekton sucks the big one.  I didn't mind waiting 3 1/2 months but when I thought I was doing something wrong the owner at Tekton became defensive and combative.  They don't return emails or phone calls.  It's a mess.  But, let's not forget, Eric Alexander IS a drummer so maybe we should excuse him.. 

Aside from sounding like a maniac today (forgive me and thank you very  much) let me make one suggestion, DON'T buy a speaker unless you demo it.  Now, does that make any sense?  

I can only speak from experience which is limited since I’ve only had four pairs of audiophile grade speakers and my first pair were the Double Impacts with a PrimaLuna EVO 300 and 400. However, I am a professional musician and a respected instrument maker (PhilBarone.com) so I guess my ears are pretty good.

The DI’s with two PrimaLunas did nothing for me and every time I put them on I turned to my wife and said “I hate these”. I moved them around fifty ways to Sunday and did every possible thing t make them work.

I finally dumped them and bought a pair of Klipsch Forte Fours which were a huge improvement but were more money and great for most jazz and blues but not for classical music although the best recording I’ve heard with all my various combinations was with Glenn Gould playing “the Art of Fugue” which is an organ piece.

I got rid of those since about half of my listening is classical and a friend of mine found a rebuilt pair of Proac Response Threes which are simply amazing with my Conrad Johnson mono blocks. They are simply mind, freakin’, BLOWING.

During my three year search, I was in close contact with a great employee over at Pass Labs by the name of Kent English who told me that the Tektons would be best with one of their amps which are solid state so I bought one of their x350.8 models which was sometimes amazing but after listening to it for a few months I found that it had a house sound so I sold that and ended up with my Conrad Johnson’s. But I want to be clear, Kent was very honest and extremely well-versed in audio and he was very nice and gave freely of his time so maybe that’s someone to consider talking to. He won’t BS you or try to sell you.

After quite a lot of research I’ve come to a few conclusions. A) Don’t buy anything based on reviews because many, although not all of the people writing reviews have incentives to write positive reviews and in order for you to get the same results, the rest of your gear has to be the same as whoever is writing the review and they may not like what you like.  I have a friend who wrote for four audio magazines who said that reviews were pure BS since the manufacturers pay for advertising space. He got a few very nice rigs for free for writing positive reviews. B) Always buy your gear used as long as it’s in good condition and this is especially true of the Tektons since there’s so many of them on the used market and you can probably get a pair for much less than new. You might also want to consider why there’s so many used ones on the market. You can also buy a new pair on here from Tekton for less than their website price if you insist on going that route. C) In all likelihood, don’t buy anything based on what people on forums say because they can be inexperienced or have poor ears. I’ve worked for many professional musicians who gigged regularly but had terrible taste which is why so many products that are crap pervade our markets.

If you do decide to buy Tektons new, take into consideration how much they cost to ship back to Tekton should you decide that you don’t like them. In my case it was $760.00 for both and I can assure you that they count on people not sending them back for that very reason.

I should mention also that the customer service over at Tekton was nonexistent and the women over there didn’t have a clue of what she was talking about although she was very nice. However, the owner over there was outright rude and condescending and was of no help whatsoever. I tried very hard to like them. It also took me almost four months to receive them.

In the end I was very fortunate to have met someone on here by the name of a Steve Jones who managed a high-end audio store and who felt sorry for me when he heard I bought the Tektons. Steve steered me in all the right directions and located several unbelievable pieces for me including my Proac speakers and my amps and preamp. Steve has been an amazing help and has more knowledge than anyone I’ve encountered and probably saved me at least fifty thousand dollars as I fell down the audio rabbit hole and he’s never asked me for a thing since he honestly enjoys helping people out. Steve is the founder of the audio forum on Facebook and I’m sure he’d be happy to help you out and for what it’s worth, Steve doesn’t have anything nice to say about Tektons.

You didn’t mention what your musical preferences are or the size of your room which would be helpful.

Best of luck to you and if I can be of any further help don’t hesitate to contact me at the phone number or email on my site.

Phil Barone

Yes, definitely demo but unless he has the same amp, dac etc. he’s going to experience it differently which is another reason not to trust a demo, review or word of mouth.

 

I ended up with Response 3’s and they are wonderful, I can’t see ever giving them up which may be why you rarely see them for sale. Phil

Maybe I can understand if you only listen to loud rock or even blues but aside from that Fagetaboutit, the Klipsch Forte Fours smoked them on every genre BUT they were 1500 dollars more. It wasn’t a personal taste thing and I had other musicians listen to them and given the fact that they were supposed to be audiophile grade speakers, none of the guys I had over liked them for whatever reason and smoked is smoked, the only word I can think of to describe it and I probably have good ears. I should add that I never minded the wait but it is a factor for some people especially given all the choices out there. But I’ll tell ya one thing, I’ll never buy into hype again or listen to people on the World Wide Web whether for audio or anything else I’m spending my money on.  All around it was a bad experience and the owner over at Tekton didn’t help matters.