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
I love the line "because of Eric's breakthrough...."  Once again teajay tries to balance on the edge of a razor. 
The Stereo Times website list of the "MOST WANTED COMPONENTS OF THE DECADE" just went up this morning.  Along with three other Tekton Design models, the ULF's appear on the list.

Congrats to the owners of these great speakers!
Ok...let me add to this thread on these seemingly incredible loudspeakers. I am ordering a set of Ulf's based only on reviews since it seems that to audition a pair you would have to know someone with them. I am currently running Scansonic MB6's, a JLA Fathom F113v.2 and the JLA CR1 crossover....My Amp(s) are Odyssey Stratos (Extreme Version) Mono blocks. I love them and these new speakers would actually give them a chance to work instead of happily loping along crossed over at 90hz...with the 3000watts of the JLA doing all the work.

Reason I want to try to Ulfs even though I am happy with my system, is that I know there is much left on the table as far as how "good" it can get and I do know that most every speaker I would love to have is way out of my price range.....BUT it seems the Ulfs have the level of sound quality at a much more affordable level and I want to see where it can take my set up (I have not read one single negative word by an owner or reviewer)...
I have a dedicated listening room 14 x 26 with 21ft ceiling, top quality acoustic panels and corner traps etc...I am where I want to be with cables, interconnects, power cords, line conditioner, ground box...etc......NOW I WANT THE SPEAKERS!!!

Stay tuned...my order goes in tomorrow as I am still deliberating over color...But I think I am going with either the dark grey (probably easier re-sale if that ever became necessary) or blue in standard finish and will request the high frequency tweeter in Be. Whichever speakers sound best....the others (which are in prefect condition) will find there way here on Audiogon and defray a good portion of my outlay on the Ulfs.
@swoody Congratulations! Looking forward to your impressions of your Ulfberht speakers as well as the comparison with your Scansonic anchored system.
I have the ulfs and been wait8ng a couple of months for the center channel to show up before I install them. Also did the Be tweeters on all.