Enjoy! In my experience they definitely went through significant changes over the first 200 hrs. I think they still are continuing to evolve slightly at this point. Throughout the break-in period at different times different frequencies would either seem muted or dominant. But they eventually smooth out and become balanced. |
@vsedakov I had upgraded DIs for a year and a half. They were really enjoyable speakers. I definitely prefer the Encores. Compared to the DIs, the Encores are fuller, wider and taller. Bass is significantly deeper as well. The Encores are mellower sounding than the DIs. They are definitely not sleepy or lazy speakers though - just more refined. DIs are a bit more forward in their presentation. I often found myself wishing the DIs had more "body" to the sound. The Encores deliver that fuller sound I had been wanting. |
@jsoku I will certainly post about how the Aegirs work with the Encores. I ordered about two weeks after you, but as you say the timing could go any number of ways. I'm curious how you decided to go with Encores. You mention you have previously had other Tekton speakers.
In my case I have DIs and have been saving up to climb the Tekton ladder to one of their flagships. Ulfberhts just won't fit in my house. Moabs are pushing it size-wise. Encores I can do. Plus the descriptions I've seen about the sound profile of the Encores sounds closer to what I want than the Moabs. Anyway, I would be interested in how you arrived at Encores. With the popularity of the Moabs, Encores don't seem to get much attention lately. |
@jcarcopo If my Aegirs don't end up working with the Encores I'm trying to develop a working list of other amps to consider. I have heard many good things about the XA25. I know the Tektons can be driven without much power, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the whole MORE POWER IS BETTER philosophy. Again and again people say things like "you can never have too much headroom," etc.
The XA25 sounding great with the Encores seems to run counter to that idea, especially as it only provides 50W at 4 ohms on a speaker that can handle 800W. For instance many people seem to love the Parasound A21+. It's nearly $2k cheaper than the XA25, but provides much more wattage. Have you tried using more powerful amps as well for comparison? Interested in your thoughts on this.
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@jsoku I have been using a Freya + with monoblock Aegirs for a year now without any problem with my DIs. I’ve seen people posting that they have the same setup with Moabs without issue too. I just ordered Encores, so we’ll see if the Aegir monoblocks work with them. Sadly, I honestly am expecting that they won’t. The Schiit people said the Aegirs don’t like much below 3 ohms. And Eric told me that the Encores are the most demanding speaker in his lineup. So we’ll see. Either they will work, and that’s great. Or they won’t (at least a single stereo one should) and I will look at other amp options. I wish Jason @ Schiit would design a powerful monoblock Aegir that is stable below 4 ohms, because the Aegirs are really fantastic sounding amps.
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@jcarcopo I'm curious - why not use both bottom and top binding posts?
Also, how do the resistor pots work?
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@jcarcopo That's good to know. I guess then the Aegirs are performing on par with similarly powered amps. I wonder if the protection is being triggered by impedance dips, or wattage needs? |
Yes, I can report that the monoblock Aegirs have powered the Encores without any problem, until today. I was playing a the Taiko group Kodo's album Ibuki and had the volume up to about 85-90 DB. This is a really bass-frequency-heavy album, and the biggest impedance needs happen in the bass region. After a while the Aegirs started briefly going into protection shut down. The album was fine at lower levels, and everything else I've played the Aegirs have been fine with, even at equal volume levels. I will still try out other pre-amp and amp combos down the road, but so far so good. |
@jsoku I ordered them on 7/21 and received them on 8/21. I got lucky with the speed. I hadn't expected them for at least another month, if not two or three. Maybe they got a cancellation for charcoal Encores and I was next on the list with those specs. Who knows...I'm not complaining though! What color did you choose?
The Freya + & Aegirs give a great sound for sure. I am going to give the Don Sachs pre-amp/amp combo a try, just to compare. I've only ever had Schiit gear and am curious to hear how the highly recommended Sachs gear compares. |
Charcoal is dark gray. Mine are the newly redesigned front port-less Encores. Eric said he made the change recently for all Encores going forward. They still have the standard rear ports though. Since you ordered before me then I would guess that someone ordered dark gray Encores which got built and then they backed out. |
@charles1dad I will certainly post my impressions and comparisons. The Don Sachs preamp will be arriving far before the amp (still in the queue, no ship date yet), so I will have time for it to settle before adding his KT-88 amp to the mix. Honestly at this point I can't even give a definitive review of the Aegirs with the Encores, or the Encores themselves really, because the Encores are still going through the break-in process. Their sound has continued to change over the last 9 days - for the better I will add. The sound has filled out, especially as the woofers and mid-bass drivers loosen. I assume those require longer breaking in time than the tweeters. Perhaps break-in also influences the overall cohesiveness. At the very least I can say that the Encores don't overload the monoblock Aegirs, unless you are blasting Taiko drum music. And they sound really good.
Once the Sachs preamp ships I will switch to a single Aegir, as his preamp doesn't have balanced XLR outs. I will then eventually compare Sachs/Aegir to Freya+/Aegir and Freya+/Aegirs. |
@protoss71 My understanding is that they had a few of the front ported Encore frames already built and I imagine they wanted to use them, but still offer the new non front-ported sound, hence the foam plugs. If they are removable that gives you some options to at least play with porting and unporting them to see which you prefer.
Regarding the upper quad resistor posts, I asked Eric about them. He said if you use some resistors you basically can turn down the tweeter. He said with such expensive speakers if people wanted a tweak, installing those resistors allowed him to offer some tweaks from a distance. If you feel it is too bright and want to turn down the tweeter, you would need to reach out to them to send you some resistors. I haven’t heard of anyone yet using them. But you never know, you might have a super bright amp or room or something.
Out of general curiosity though, I wonder why the Encores have four resistor posts each, while it looks like the Ulfberhts only have two.
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I haven't heard Moabs, but large-scale classical music sounds fantastic on my Encores. |
When I ordered I asked about this. Eric said that the woofers have remained the same since the beginning. The entire woofer is 11" but the inner part is closer to 10. He said he got tired of people saying "Hey that's not 11 inches!" so he changed the listing, but said it's the same since the beginning. |
The DIs were good, great even at times. But I don't miss them now that I have the Encores. |
The entire frame of the mid-bass driver measures about 7.25." |
