What have other owners of Tekton Design Ulfberht Speakers discovered?


Now that I have lived with the Ulfberht's for close to a year I would like to share some assumptions about them with GON members, and see what conclusions that other Ulfberht's owners have come to based on their listening experiences. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Ulfberht's are the most lifelike and musical speaker I have ever had in my reference system.  To think that a seven foot 21 driver speaker completely disappears in a totally accurate sound-stage,  (how large or small is based on the recording) like a small two way monitor is still a remarkable feat, indeed.  Many listeners to my home find it hard to believe how cohesive they are top to bottom and speak with "one voice".  Many large speakers can do "big" power music, but sound "big" on all music.  They can also blow out of proportion the size of individual players.  Not the Ulfberht's, they present any music in a natural manner, never exaggerating anything out of proportion.  Other special qualities of this speaker is it's overall "ease/effortlessness" regardless of volume levels, thunderous dynamics, its ability to pressurize the room with deep accurate bass frequencies and a sense of "aliveness" that you find in live music.

Some guidelines to optimism the Ulfberht's performance:

1) Get them at least four feet off the front wall and two/three feet off the side walls. My dear friend Ezra has his pair in a relatively small space, yet they sound beautiful.  Still, his pair is about five feet off the front wall and two feet off the side walls. 

2) I believe in most rooms a very slight toe-in gets you the the best center image, without narrowing the width of the sound-stage at all. The center tweeter should aim just on the outside of your head at your listening position.

3) Just like all Tekton Design speakers the Ulfberht's are a conduit, anything you put into them you will hear it.  Be prepared to use the finest source and amplification to tailor the sound of your system to your personal taste.

4) Even though the Ulfberht's are an easy speaker to drive, they love high current amplifiers to get the best out of them.  Right now, I have in for review a brand new model from Coda Technologies called the Number#8, beautiful looking with blue lighted meters, which has the current capability of 150 Amperes on a peak!  Without a doubt the Coda Number#8 is a superlative amplifier, you will get all the details when I write the review for hometheaterreview.com, and might be the best amplifier that has ever driven my pair of Ulberht's.  I have have tried six highly regarded amplifiers, they are all excellent in their own right and sounded great on the Ulberht's.  However, the synergy with the Ulf's is very special in many ways.   

   
teajay

Showing 6 responses by lwin

Mine are 4 feet from the front wall and 3 from the sides. There is 8 feet between them with my seats 10 feet from them and they are toed about 33 degrees. I tried a number of positions beginning with them facing straight ahead but the stereo image was poor. To complicate matters I have 2 seats side by side so I wanted a stereo image that was the same from each seat so it needed to cover about 3 1/2 feet. After much grunt work the mission was accomplished as these speakers are not easy to move. 
mr-m I don't remember seeing this post back in October so it might have gone under the radar a little.Sometimes Audiogon will quickly take down some postings & leave others up for days. I only found it because I wanted to see what Teejay has recently posted.
I have several amps I use with my Ulfberhts one of which is the Pass Labs First Watt Sit 3 which is rated at 18 watts into 8 ohms and 30 into 4. The Ulfberhts are rated at 99dba efficient into 4 ohms which I think is a little generous. For almost all my music the SIT 3’s will drive the Ulfberhts but some recordings which are recorded at lower volume levels just don’t have enough volume for me. What the SIT 3’s do play sounds simply wonderful. To answer you question sutts I think you will encounter the same issue but what it does play at sufficient volume levels will probably be magical. 
@rmd1114 out of the box the Ulf’s were showing potential but they were like a puppy that was eager to please but the coordination wasn’t quite there. As they were breaking in ,I had to occasionally move them to get the stereo image I was looking for. All told I think I had about 100 hours on them before I was completely satisfied. Once they reached that point they literally disappear. One of my buddies was shocked at the soundstage stating “I didn’t think a speaker that big could disappear like that”. Also once they are broken in and you know how they sound,  they  will very quickly tell you whether any changes you make upstream are a positive or a negative.
@smodtactical I have been a Martin Logan owner for years. I love the sound of electrostatic speakers as I feel they capture more of that “live sound”. I did try a pair of PSB Imagine T 3 speakers before the Ulfberhts : they sounded very nice but my ML Summits were better.
The build quality is good. I did have an issue with one of the speaker binding posts which I was able to overcome. The paint used on my speakers took quite awhile to stop off gassing so if someone has chemical sensitivity in your house it could be an issue.  
There is no getting around the fact that these speakers are very large. It is like having Darth Varner and his twin in the room with you.
In hindsight I should have paid for a custom color & I didn’t have the option to add a few beryllium tweeters. It was either all or nothing. These speakers are very revealing and will tell you immediately if changes made upstream are a plus or minus. 
I am delighted with these speakers and would not hesitate to purchase them again with the changes previously noted.

@smodtactical ideally to compare speakers they should be side by side. Where I live the two hifi dealers top out at around 5 to 6$K for a demo pair of speakers. The PSB Imagine T 3 is close in price to the 9K$ I paid for the Ulfberhts. The critics love them. They were nice sounding speakers but my Logans were better. I swapped them for a pair of ML 212 subs.The Ulfberhts are fast like an electrostatic speaker but they pressurize a room like only a cone speaker can.