Nice review. Enjoy!
My Experience With Tekton
I know this is a polarizing discussion point and was thus hesitant to share unless I could keep it objective, helpful, and concise
I have no intention to be inflammatory, sway anyone’s current opinion or beliefs
I merely want to share information in two specific areas, my results of product performance and my experience with the manufacturer
Background and reference point
I replaced a pair of Revel F36. The F36 is the upper end of Revel’s lowest tier floorstanding speakers and retails for $2,000 MSRP per pair
Took approx. 45 mins to unbox, level and connect
Like for like drop-in replacement, same location on the floor as the F36s, the listening position did not change, identical electronics and cables
We’ve all got our preferences, biases, different levels of experience, etc; but share the common limitation that we just don’t know what we don’t know
I’ve not heard a pair of 30K speakers but expect to someday and envy those that own them
In my VERY limited understanding, it’s near impossible to pinpoint how any specific system change will behave and perform across the board, contingent on the variances in electronics, set up and room. These three items alone (electronics, setup and room) make me think that while similar in nature, but at a critical listening level, each combination is unique and a different snowflake or fingerprint
Listening results
Product delivers as advertised
Meets or exceeds every performance expectation I had hoped for
After approx. 5 hours of listening over 3 days I tried to characterize the sound. The first thought was neutral, but that was understating what I was hearing. I eventually landed on natural or real. The voices and the instruments sound VERY real to me. This is as close as I have come with my electronics, setup and room to sensing that someone is singing to me or that someone or an entire band is playing for me
To date, each song that I’ve played, is the best version of that song that I have heard in a playback, and I’ve listened to all of them 100s and 100s of times
Some of the improvement was by a small margin, but most songs, 65% conservatively speaking, by a vast margin – night and day, game changing stuff
Chet Baker didn’t sound like a presentation from 1958, it sounded as fresh and real as a new recording with the benefits of 60 years of technology advancements. Exile on Main Street didn’t sound like a home recording from 1972 it sounded like 2022 with many layers of percussion, keyboards, horns and background vocals
Is the sound of this $5,000 pair of speakers comparable to the sound of a $30,000 pair of speakers? I don’t know, as mentioned I’ve not heard a pair of $30,000 speakers.
What I do know is the $5,000 pair of speakers, simply put is the best my system has sounded by a wide margin
Again in summary, it sounds real, like someone is singing to me
Experience with the manufacturer
I had hemmed and hawed for 2 or 3 months before placing my order. One day the website mentioned a future price increase but until mmdd you could still order at the current price
I called and spoke with Tammy and told her I wanted to lock in on the current price point but wasn’t sure what product or configuration I wanted
She built an open-ended order with current pricing and told me to contact her when I knew what I wanted
With work travel and other commitments it took me 4 months to finalize which speaker, Moab, which upgrades, beryllium tweeters and Cardas connectors, and what color, white
I was never pressured to make up my mind or that my window for the lower costs was going to expire
Since I was the one dragging my feet, I offered multiple times to pay for the product
Not once did they hint or take me up on my offer to pay in advance
They did not bill me until the product shipped
Once I had made all the config decisions, the build and delivery were again, as advertised
Tammy mentioned a 4–6-week supply chain delay with beryllium, that arrived within her estimated timeframe
Once the beryllium arrived, she said she was waiting on cabinets, eta 5-7 days, followed by build and paint, and shipping approx. 10 days after she received the cabinets
Within 2 weeks Tammy emailed my owner’s manual, unpacking instructions and told me to expect a call from the freight company within the next week
Freight company contacted me on that Fri and scheduled delivery for the very next Mon, Aug 30
The boxes arrived scuffed and with multiple impact points that dented the packing material
There are no blemishes or damage to either speaker cabinet, the packing and packaging worked as designed
Upon unpacking, I didn’t experience a heavy smell of paint or wood, if I put my nose to the cabinet, I could smell fresh paint
The cabinet finish or construction does not appear inferior to anything else in my inventory, KEF, Revel, Klipsch, Paradigm, Polk, and Elac – permission in advance to laugh
Enjoy the journey and happy listening
Respectfully
Showing 30 responses by three_easy_payments
@fsonicsmith My initial reaction was you were making a ludicrous unfounded connection. But I'm seeing another poster with an ID created very recently speaking now specifically to tweaks and alleged "snake oil" and sounding remarkably like MC. Watching the two (or one?) talk to each other is disturbing yet amusing. Hopefully I'm imagining this as no human would engage in such silliness. Right? |
It is quite hilarious when you think about...almost without comparison in the market. Can anyone name another brand of speaker or amplifier where an OP feels compelled every time to start out with this lead-in when simply giving an honest review: "I know this is a polarizing discussion point"??? We should really be asking why this brand evokes such a response. Some of the best threads in this forum are when folks provide their honest product reviews in their own homes. But never do you they start out walking on eggshells while giving listening impressions on their Harbeth speakers, Pass amps, Lumin streamers, etc.... Stigmatization of a brand in the market is not healthy and is what corporations work on constantly to ensure that the products are as accessible and easy to make a buying decision as possible by the consumer. It feels the opposite is true here and I suspect it’s not deliberate at all, but more a reflection of the personality behind the brand. It’s a self inflicted wound probably tied to a tragic flaw. |
@peter_s Don't apologize. This is very helpful having actual comparative data points between speakers by real consumers and listeners. We need more pieces of thoughtful, calm, reflective thought like yours: They had a wider soundstage and very nice mid range, but in comparison to the Avalon’s their base was a little loose and there was a loss of delicacy at the upper end of the spectrum. I saw trade offs between the two, and it seemed to be mostly a lateral move, with a slight tip of hand to the Avalon’s. and less sensational blather like this: Freaking epic. |
Let’s stop being ridiculous. We must know as fact that people are trading in $30K speakers for Tektons and they provide $250,000 of performance. If this weren’t true then Tekton wouldn’t be allowed to make this claim in their advertising. https://i.postimg.cc/xjbzX05n/Tekton.jpg |
@peter_s Is one of the very rare posters with more 30 posts (other than a notable exception of the poster with more than 10,500 posts - freaking epic!) to endorse Tektons as punching very much above their price, so I respect his views quite a bit. In fact his reflections are substantially more compelling in favor of Tekton than pretty much anyone else I’ve read so far, including the OP of this thread. I really would like to read more accounts such as his but sadly they are few and far between, especially amongst posters with more than 30 posts. I’ve read quite a number of reflections from those with around 1,000 posts who indicate that Tektons are worth what they cost or even slightly more - which makes reasonable "market sense" to me. Claims of technology being "freaking epic" (words my 11-yr old son formerly used before he matured into a 14-yr old) and performance at a $250K level for only $12K are simply off-putting. Tekton is the only brand I’ve ever read in hifi audio to resort to such an obnoxious ad campaign which essentially treats as consumers as idiots. |
The world isn’t composed of equally credible people - this is a fact. We are all free to decide whose opinions we value the most. I listed mine and gave a basis of why. Whether you like it or not every single person who frequents this forum are making his/her own judgements. My listing of who have the most credible opinions and offer the most relevant perspectives has zero nexus towards whether I believe you can think for yourself. Sorry that you feel threatened and obviously believing that I'm somehow diluting your message, as evidenced by your defensive response above. |
The promotion of Tekton is infinitely better served by posters such as @peter_s and @waltersalas who bring measured reflections to the table, coming across much more thoughtfully, balanced, and mature than those who maintain the expression "freaking epic" and "rent free" in their vernacular. Over the top hyperbole and child-like antics keep the brand well below the rhizosphere. Eric should being coaching someone to keep a lid on things and allow a few adults in the room to offer a more productive voice. The P&L will be grateful. |
Avoid the 3 1/2 month wait and just buy these that couldn’t be more than just a few months old. They are decked out in upgraded grills, crossovers, and hardwood feet. Not sure why he needs to upgrade so quickly. https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649774659-tekton-design-2-10-perfect-set-upgraded-crossovers-gri... |
I really like John DeVore’s approach as described in this snippet from a 2019 interview: Before 2000 I’d never even seriously considered starting a speaker company. I was having fun building just for me and my friends, and a quick survey of the HiFi landscape showed dozens of established speaker brands, many with compelling histories, led by "experts." I was just an art major playing drums in East Village rock bands, selling HiFi on the side. A closer look at the speakers available at the time though revealed more nuance. The trend throughout the 80s and 90s had been towards lower sensitivity and lower impedance--in designs that favored frequency response with no regard to drivability. These were the days when the top rated speakers from Wilson, Infinity, Thiel, Apogee, and many others dipped down below 2 ohms! It was the age of current monster solid state amps and CDs. It really is amazing hearing how good his speakers sound by keeping the impedance high and smooth - nominal 10 ohms and never dipping below 8 ohms in my O/96’s. It’s most striking in my tubes amps with SET and push-pull triode designs. The synergy is just remarkable and the sonics that develop by keeping stress off the amps is glorious. This certainly is in stark contrast to other 90+dB speakers that have a 4 ohm impedance. Just pushing more out of an amp by presenting a lower impedance may gain you volume but it may be comparatively challenged to deliver lucid beauty. |
@charles1dad +1 Ralph (@atmasphere) has q cogently made this observation numerous times on this forum. Focusing solely on the stated sensitivity of a speaker is an incomplete view/assessment. You have to also be aware of a speaker’s impedance measurements and impedance characteristics and behavior as a load. Amplifiers have to deal with this aspect of every speaker it is expected to drive. Particularly relevant for tube power amplifiers. Ralph has explained this numerous times so eloquently yet there remains so much resistance to this reality. |
So in case folks weren't connecting the dots on my last post, the takeaway is that using the "magic" of the voltage spec
a 4 ohm speaker can
claim to have a higher sensitivity than a 8 ohm speaker which is more accurately using the wattage
spec. Now think about the additive impact as you move up into 10+ ohm speakers. |
@phcollie Good points. The other thing that some folks obviously don't understand is that using Watt's law, only at precisely 8 Ohms does 2.83V = 1W. At 4 Ohms 2.83V = 2W. Speakers are current driven, and amps are spec'd for the wattage they output, so quoting a spec normalized for a voltage makes no sense. Unless of course you want to make your speaker appear more sensitive than it actually is because a 2 Ohm speaker will receive EIGHT TIMES more power than a 16 Ohm speaker in the test. |
@tsushima1 I wasn’t just making that up. Tekton says in the video that 8 ohms is "an obsolete impedance" and that they will always steer you first to a 4 ohm design. Here’s the link: (1) 8 Ohms vs 4 Ohms: Which is Better for Audio? - YouTube |
@tvad I think reflecting on the approach that DeVore takes to speaker design is quite relevant in this thread because it’s really the opposite approach to Tekton’s approach - at least to a large extent. On the one hand you have John’s design approach which states a preference towards maintaining an easier (higher and overall flatter) impedance load which tends to benefit tube amps the most by reducing stress. And on other the end of spectrum you have Tekton’s video taking the approach that 4 ohm speakers are simply better than 8 ohm designs because they produce a louder sound - provided that the amp is up to the task of handling the heavier load. I’m not suggesting one of these approaches to design is more correct than the other - but I do know which one I prefer for my listening. The reality is that amps do not all respond to loads presented by speakers the same. Tube amps like an easier and more predictable load. The Tekton designs are probably a better fit in general for SS designs. This isn’t to say they can’t sound very good with tubes as well but you really need to listen for yourself to confirm. If you’re interested in DeVore’s I really suggest listening at a dealer’s first to hear them paired with as many amps as possible. They can be disappointing with quite a few SS amps in particular. |
Has anyone ever witnessed any brand or product where someone has to attempt a calculation of serial number progressions in order to defend what a great product it must be? The fact that someone feels this exercise is necessary to defend the product is not doing the brand any favors. Honestly, who would do this in any context other than out of sheer desperation? |
Nobody cares if someone likes or doesn't like their speakers. What's so conspicuously odd about this whole thread is that someone leads it off by writing: "I know this is a polarizing discussion point and was thus hesitant to share...". Seriously, can anyone name another speaker where such a disclaimer and apparent hesitancy would ever be applied??? This whole forum is about sharing our experiences and adventures with various pieces of gear....agnostically. How did a brand ever get "polarizing"? Something is clearly broken here on the PR/branding front. |
I just find it quite bizarre how much vitriol comes from from either side when this brand is discussed. It absolutely is bizarre and was likely created by the hyperbole that was promoted through the narrative of the owner and various promoters over the years. Without that narrative there would never be any fuel for the vitriol. It's too bad that some folks can't just build a quality piece of gear and allow the product to speak for itself w/o having to make claims that it performs $50K+ above its price point or threatening lawsuits to people on a message board. These are all self-inflicted wounds. Could you ever imagine other small brands like Herron, Decware, or many others getting dragged into the mud like this? They just quietly put out amazing gear at reasonable prices and don't thrive on drama. |