Stereophile review of the $30,000 tekton speakers

Thanks olesno and mbmi! The Ulfberht sounds as good as Focal Utopia’s; any honest audiophile will discern this. View this as valuable information for audiophiles not a personal ego trip.

Go big or go home (that's the discipline).....ULF ULF....ULF ULF ULF ULF

If you pay the stereophile bards, you can get your song of praise and a Class A rating, i'd think. Maybe, the penny pinching guy from Utah refused to pay.

On the same note, which speaker are y'all talking about that Tekton sells for 30,000?

Is it this one? It doesn't have a price listed on their website. 

This other eyesore is priced at 14k/pair.

$30k speaker is not too expensive today at all compared to larger figures.

If a goofy Alexia V can cost 80k, i suppose Tekton is justified for trying to charge 30k for that signature series or whatever speaker. It doesn't look like it was cheap to make.

Of course, there's any number of gate keepers real busy gatekeeping whatever can enter the "high end" or not, especially if it's "manufacturer direct".

I am supposing that's also why the gatekeeper dealer network is talking a lotta crap on the Daniel Hertz stuff on various threads these days (i.e., since Levinson appears to be going the manufacturer direct route).

Gotta love these Tekton threads. They all go the same way. Starts out civil and then the flies all catch a whiff and gather. Then disparaging remarks from members who have never heard the speaker but "know" it doesn’t sound any good and even if it did they are so "ugly" I would never own them.

So helpful.

I have owned Tekton in the past, measured them, etc. In general, they are very good value for the cash, because it is manufacturer direct (no dealer middle man leeching away 50 to 70%).

The mid array is a good idea in theory, i.e., the mid range covered by small "tweeter sized" drivers ---> associated IR ---> perceived increase in resolution/clarity/etc. But, in practice, it doesn’t blow other conventional speakers out of the water on above mentioned. What gives? My theory is a suboptimal crossover design for such an array, nullifying the gains a bit. If Eric Alexander kept his enormous ego down for a minute and went to other experienced guys like Andrew Jones, Michael Borresen, etc and said, "Bro, can you review it, be a 2nd pair if eyes and let me know what could be done to improve it?", he may get further somewhere.

Are they ugly? It’s all relative, uglier than some, better looking than others. But, imo, they don’t fall in "the ghastly face that only the father or mother could love" category or the "ultimate chicken repellant" category. There are other ugly nauseating speakers that take that spot.

When my Moab Be get’s compared to a $26K Magico A5 and the $27K Kef Blade 2 it’s obvious that my business model and background is overlooked and misunderstood. Question... how is a Magico A5 or a Kef Blade 2 going to go fare with my budget priced $5200 Tekton Moab?! One is going to sound big and exciting and the other two are going be something else entirely.

If we are going by sonics alone, some of the rinse/repeat/rehash & market for snob appeal type of brands are not your real competitors. Your real competitors are guys who’ve produced stunning sonics at shows, etc at rather reasonable prices (Borresen, Mofi, etc), i.e., the other "disruptors" perhaps.

IME, and as a former end-user of some of your product, the anticipated sonic advantages of some of your designs wasn’t entirely there in comparison to some competitor product. You may accept the notion that there is always room for improvement (it isn’t all figured out already), if you perceive that engineering is a life long process of learning/improving things.

 

I reconsidered. Tekton are gorgeous!

They've got the Jabba face that only the father (standing between them) could love, i suppose.

And they look...hungry......like they might eat you (nom nom) if you sat too close.

my wife got home from work, came into the living room where our system lives, and burst into tears because she hated their appearance so much. I drank a beer and told her I’d put them up for sale within the hour.

Understandable/reasonable reaction/count your blessings (could be worse).

I have a friend whose spouse destroyed the speakers in a moment of uncontained rage. The dude looked rather pale and defeated when he drove over to my house to spend the night (many years ago)...

I am fortunate that my spouse is an audiophile...

As for using beryllium, that’s not new technology. Ushers had beryllium tweeters over 15 years ago and I didn’t buy them back then because of the tweeter

There’s just way too much hype continual hype around beryllium tweeters. It’s fairly easy to give yourself a headache listening to it, when implemented by many manufacturers.

Yamaha (the grandfather of it all..) wrote the book on beryllium tooling/fab/process dev back in the early 70s. They themselves have moved on from it and use Xylon these days (NS5000 family).

I wonder how much longer all the clingers will cling on to the rinse/repeat/rehash beryllium, as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread...😒

I think we're talking about supersonic flying speakers.

@thecarpathian Let me put it this way. If I was in this biz, i’d be posting all my measurements with the specs for what I sell. But, if I observed faulty measurements on some fanatic’s site (and his ’recommendations’), I would be continually sueing him into poverty.

He will be writing reviews in court, paying me for damages, as he cries a river to guys like you.

Most of of these people don’t even have first hand experience with your product. They are attacking you and your family’s livelihood, plus that of your employees and their families.

Not to mention the fact that some guys in the measurements/reviewer space are dealers for competitor brands (no conflict there, eh chief?). Brand he carries is a vehicle of technical competence (so flipping magical, mmhmm) and the others aren’t because the ’measurement’ says so apparently.

I once corrected a reviewer’s measurements on an item I owned as an end user (which he reviewed). I had measured it extensively myself and caught his bluff. Needless to say, my comment (what mattered, what didn’t, etc) and the correct data magically disappeared, which let me quickly catch on to what was going on.

Like I said, if I was in this biz, I’ll do my due diligence and preemptively post all the relevant supportive measurements with the specs for the stuff I sell. I will preemptively provide recommendations based on the type of sonic signature one may be seeking, placement, type of room, etc that work’s best for the stuff I sell. I’ll let you know if it is for you or not!!! But, if I caught some diabolical reviewer in his act, he will get sued into poverty, no ifs, no buts.

I am a business owner myself (fortunately, nothing to do with this audio crap) and my spouse is a very competent attorney. It wouldn’t cost me a dime in legal fees and I could do this all day with a smile on my face. I don’t think some guys around here know how exactly the corporate world operates, ruthless it is and so it will continue to be. You come after me and my employees’ livelihood, I will come after yours boy, it’s the way it is.

I don’t know bud, I’ve laughed my head off at the sound/squawk fest that came out of million dollar rigs at times.

If a million dollar rig is getting plopped down in a goofy living room, something is wrong with the guy that’s doing it. Spend the money on construction and get a purpose designed/built acoustic space and drop the money on treatments first..... would be my suggestion.

No matter what you spent on gear, the other 50% or more is the acoustic space/room. The human ear likes certain types of spaces, if you don't have that, it is largely a waste of time.