Tekton Double Impacts

Just spent about six hours at Mike's listening room and had a amazing experience listening to the DI"s being driven by the Micro-ZOTL which delivers a "Whopping" 1 watt!  However, that one watt was created by using the 6SN7 TungSol Black Glass Oval Plate NOS 1940 in a SET format.

Without any difficulties either in volume levels or Macro-dynamics on many types of music the DI's delivered stunning beauty in timbres, 3D meat on the bone imaging, a floating sound-stage in which the speakers completely vanished and finally a purity that I don't know if I had every experienced before.  All on ONE WATT!

For david_ten

1) Well, if 2 feet off the front wall is the best you can do, so be it.  However, if you can get closer to 3 or 4 feet you will reap many more benefits from your DI's.

2) Put the spikes on your speaker, it will make a BIG difference, regardless of the platform/board you have them on.

3) You got it pretty right regarding the space between them, with a slight toe-in and where you sit.

david_ten

One correction on my last post for you.  I recommend that you experiment closing the distance between your speakers to seven feet from the center of each speaker from ten feet.

Hi teajay,

THANK YOU!

I just re-positioned.

The best I can do is 3ft off of the front wall. Currently it is limited by speaker cabling length, however, a simple re-route will fix that. Mainly it is keeping my wife happy with the layout. She finds the speakers to be ’massive.’ Which they are. : ) She calls them "the second wall."

Your corrected distance between the speakers was noticeable immediately.

The best I can do there is 8ft center to center. The limitation is the media console.

Leonard Cohen has landed on stage, from up above!!! Images are much more solid now. Major improvement.

I’ll re-consider spikes. The reason for bypassing them is my 3 yr old son. Primarily safety reasons for him. Way secondary are the obvious damage related ones to the DIs or any other equipment and items they might take out.

Speaking of spikes...any recommendations from owners of the DIs???

I’m not sure if anyone has done a head to head comparison of spikes vs the other options like Herbies, in terms of stability and of course sound performance. Let me know if you have feelings or opinions about this???

I know that you are sold on Sistrum Platforms. Would they keep the DIs stable / impervious to a 3yr old’s determined efforts towards keeping Eric Alexander’s creation honest with the laws of entropy and gravity?

Appreciate the guidance, teajay.

david_ten,

If you go back a few pages different floor interfaces were touched on.  If you have a concern with your little one, you might consider what I used--soundocity steel outriggers.  This broadens the foot print and increases stability.  Good for both safety and sound. I used large rubber  rubber feet to interface with my vinyl plank floor. (It's a nice look as well).  check out their web site and if you have questions I can give you details on a less expensive/more rigid way to accomplish this than using their stock offerings.  One last thought--if you really want to hear your DI's soundstage open up, they also make outriggers on rollers.  Might keep everyone happy.  Any sonic sacrifice would be overshadowed by the huge increase in soundstage.

Mike, may have to tag along with mac to check out your LTA gear some Saturday.

David_ten, 

Congratulations on your new speakers.  I use the Star Sound Apprentice platforms beneath my speakers and they're truly an asset.  However as the speaker is supported by only the upward facing spikes the speakers can be knocked over without significant force. IMO they could be toppled by a determined 3 y.o. So definitely sonic benefit but perhaps not the best option in the presence of small children or larger pets. 
Charles