Tekton Design MOAB


$4500.
Moab as spelled on their site after a place in Utah but the military reference to the mother of all boxes cannot go unmentioned.
Next giant killer? Anyone heard them?

128x128noromance

Showing 2 responses by nitrobob

Here was my take on them a year or so ago ……. But it's just me


Alright guys,

I sent my Double Impacts, 4 ohm w/ Upgrades back. I ran them continuously for a couple weeks. Sorry to say, they just ain’t my cup of tea......I'm attempting to give people seeking opinions an honest evaluation from a previous demo’er.. I’m not going to claim to be some sort of professional magazine editor or something, so I will just tell you in laymen's terms my observations.

Ok ,here goes.....My Equipment . 1) Marantz 8801 Processor.. 2) ATI Signature Series 6005 300 Watt (450 @ 4 ohm) x 5 Channel Amp.. 3) OPPO 205 Player.. 4) Bang and Olufsen Turntable.. 5) (2) Furman Elite 20 PFI line Conditioners..6) All Blue Jean Cabling ... 7) I was using my current surrounds and center .. Ascend Acoustics Raal Ribbon Horizon Center and Raal Ribbon Sierra 2’s...8) I also have 2 PSA 18 inch ported 750 watt subs. Room is a 16 x 24 with 8 1/2 foot ceiling with a listening position of 9.5 feet.. Like a stated, I’m retired now so I was able to continuously play with the system for a solid two weeks.. The last 2 of those days at high SPL’s ...One day by myself, as my wife was out of town, and the second day with her helping me. She had the final “they gotta go”, but I was thinking the same thing and was in total agreement . I was comparing them to my Ascend Acoustics Raal Sierra Towers.. If I was looking for something for home theater only,....The Tektons are a clear winner.. bingo, jackpot, YIPPIE !... Much fuller than my Ascends, and the soundstage was the entire front wall. Imaging was better than the Ascends. While I was breaking them in, I had the center channel shut off and was just running the cable TV, which is Spectrum, in Stereo mode ... you honestly could not tell the center speaker was not on. My wife thought it was . When I told her is wasn’t, she didn't believe me, so I had her get up and come over to the center speaker and check that it was indeed dead . The Tektons were so “solid sounding”. They ARE big, they sound big,... and they sound solid . One thing I noticed and so did she,was the nasally sound the voices have. I don’t know if that’s what you call coloring..? Like Tom Petty was doing all the talking. Very noticeable at first, and irritating ... but by the end of the second week I was getting used to it, and it was not as big a deal. Movies in 5.2 with Audessey in command, sounded really, really, nice. Better than the theaters. Dynamic is not a big enough word for the wall of sound these speakers put out .. BTW, the Tektons blended with the Ascends fine, at least we thought so .. Eric told me they would, and he was right ..

By now your thinking, what's the catch, what's the rub, why send them back ? The answer,,,,music . First let me tell you why I tried Tektons in the first place. Movies are not my bag. Their alright, but I’m a music lover first and foremost. And one of my favorite things to do, is sit down in front of the system, put in a CD, crank it up, and listen to, and watch video concerts. Maybe invite another couple over, or maybe with my wife, or sometimes just me and a good stout drink .. I grew up in the Bars of Ohio. Back then just about every bar had live rock bands every Friday and Saturday nights.. Went to many, many concerts when I was younger also. Still do, we are heading to “ Get The Led Out”, A Led Zeppelin copy band, in a few weeks ...

My Ascend Towers (along with those subs and surrounds), did this chore extremely well. Extremely . Like being in a live recording studio. The problem was SPL’s. I like about 110 –112 db at that 9.5 LP. I like to feel it, as well as hear it.. Problem is, those volumes are wide open for the Ascends. In talking to Dave at Ascend, he told me NOT to exceed 110 dbs.. He figured my listening position, amplifier and so forth and gave me these boundaries, which I must live by, if I want no damage... BUT, I don’t like the idea of running ANYTHING, right on the edge of clipping. Just puts my speakers on the edge of damage the entire time we are enjoying them... So I was looking for a speaker that would sound like the Ascends, maybe even better, but be idling at those volumes .... The Tektons have quite a bit better sensitivity for higher volumes than the Ascends, So enter the Tektons ....

Bottom line, they are no ways near as clear as the Ascends. But the Tektons have there high points. The drums sound like you are on the seat, hitting the drum yourself. I credit that to the twin 10 inch woofers, and in my next speaker choice I will certainly look for that.... But the mid ranges are,,,as my wife stated “compressed, cramped up, like their all mixed up”. Really forward, and in your face. It’s a WHOLE LOT ...of nothing.... Just too much mid range and not enough clarity. And yes, we tried to EQ it out. Problem is, it strips everything else in that band while your doing so ...EQ’in just won’t work.. A couple of hours of Tektons and my left ear actually hurt. At the same identical SPLs I had listened to the Ascends many times over ..We listened to many of our favorite concerts we knew quite well. Eagles, Floyd..etc . Well recorded disc. Didn’t listen to poorly recorded ones, as I very seldom ever listen to them..   For instance, the Pretenders have a concert recorded in LA called “Pretenders...Loose in LA.”.. It’s mixed quite well and I recommend it for you rockers.. Crissey Hynde’s vocals, when coming thru the Ascends, are breathtaking, give ya chills..On some songs you can kind of hear her breath between notes...Keep in mind this is a rock and roll band, and a lot of other “stuff” is happening at the same time she is singing, killer lead guitar riffs, impacting drums, a heavy bass guitar... But even with all that going on, utter clarity where it’s needed.   Not so with the Tektons, you can’t pick any of that out... Its gone, and you have to “hunt” for those things we took for granted ..I guess I shouldn't say its gone, more like its “masked” .. I’m assuming these issues are that tweeter array, and the way they cross over... I don’t know all the technical reasons.. but we were not liking it .

You know, everybody says the Tektons sound like live music. Maybe their right. But most concert's I been to are distorted as heck . I try to sit as close to the mixing board as I can, whenever I go to live performances. That’s where I have found it sounds best. But live performances usually suck as far a clarity. I want the clarity of a studio, with the impact and dynamics of a concert. But then again I’m attending Rock venues. I was not looking for a speaker that resembles a PA system ...When I talked to Eric, he informed me I must be one of the “Warm Freaks” or something ... LOL . I guess I am.

I have learned I really like a good ribbon tweeter. They are so crisp, and non fatiguing even when turned up loud. ....

So, I'm looking for a good ,dynamic, warm, speaker that has a real crisp tweeter and big inch woofers, and can play loud... Know of any ? !!!... I hope this review didn’t rub anybody the wrong way. Everybody likes different stuff. And in Talking to Eric, I was told his returns are about 1 in 30 .... That’s tells me I’m in the rarity, so take this review for what its worth....whatever that may be ..  

Since I received several responses from my review, if you want to call it that. Here is an e-mail I received from Jim Salk, as it came down to his product, and the Legacy Focus SE’s I ended up with …….Very interesting read from someone no one is going to dispute his credentials.

As far as my listening to loud music while playing back video concerts. My question to you is, do you ask the bands to turn down the volume when you go to concerts ? I take my meter to the concerts I go to and they average about 115 ten rows back. Some of you guys make me chuckle. One time I went to a USAC stock car race. There was a guy came in and sit down, and he was wearing head ear muffs for noise protection. Out of the blue, the man sitting beside me spoke up and ask this muffed fellow " why don’t you wear a blindfold, then your couldn’t SEE them EITHER " LOL .

I’m 63 years old and have no intentions on changing what has been a lifetime of listening, and FEELING good music,

Jeff –

Your email hit a nerve with me. I’ve been pondering this for a number of years now and I’ll convey my thoughts.

The world of speaker driver design can be broken up in two different camps…

  1. Accurate drivers at moderate to low sensitivity. These drivers are extremely accurate, but are limited to about 105db.
  2. High sensitivity drivers that are very fast, but quite inaccurate. These drivers rely on very low mass cones, very flexible surrounds and large motors. But the design aspects that lead to high sensitivity also lead to higher distortion and very poor performance in terms of accuracy. They feature a good deal of “slam” that works well for home theater. But for music, they fall quite short of the mark since their frequency response normally leaves much to be desired.

The high-efficiency designs can be quite edgy and can be very fatiguing. I know this because I spent years in recording studios where this type of speaker monitor is prevalent. (Names like Altec, Electrovoice and Klipsh come to mind.) The speakers are easy to drive and quite “fast.” But after 8 hours of mixing, the last thing I wanted was to hear anything. So for many of these years, I did not listen to music at home. These speakers simply wore me out. And that is why we haven’t built many of these designs over the years (other than by request for a one-off design). While they can output high SPL’s with ease and can be impressive at first, they are not easy to listen to for extended periods of time. Furthermore, they don’t accurately reproduce music and generally don’t handle it very well.

In my home theater, I use a combination of speakers. For the left and right mains, I use a custom high sensitivity coaxial design and love them. They have a great deal of “slam,” but I would never choose to listen to music with them. Most of our other speakers are far superior for music listening due to the fact that they are light years ahead in terms of accuracy and transparency.

With the exceptions of line arrays (which have significant problems themselves), most all speakers that do a great job on music will be limited to about 105db due to the performance attributes of the drivers themselves. And while you could address this using multiple drivers, the problem is the cabinets get very large, very fast.

Back in 2001 when I began building speakers, almost no one used ribbon tweeters. After the very first pair I built with them, I very quickly decided that I preferred the accuracy and transparency of ribbons. We’ve been turning out ribbon-based designs ever since and were one of the first companies to use RAAL ribbons exclusively. In fact, at one time we were the largest purchases of RAAL ribbons in the world. Now, they are pretty much regarded as the best ribbon tweeters being made today.

The next issue to discuss also relates to higher SPL performance. There are a couple approaches to this. To reproduce bass, you need to move a lot of air. This means you either have to use large drivers with limited XMAX (maximum cone excursion) or long throw woofers that are smaller but have greater XMAX. High sensitivity woofers use the first approach and, thus, require cones with a large surface area. Thus the twin 12” woofers in the Tektons. The larger the woofer cone, the more it fires straight forward and the worse their off-axis response. While not very accurate, these drivers provide a lot of “slam”.

If you want to use more accurate drivers, there is one way you can increase the SPL’s without going to high sensitivity woofers. That is to cross them higher than they are capable of playing and using a subwoofer to augment the deep bass. By eliminating the deepest bass from the speakers, you reduce the amount of cone excursion required. Again, the deeper the speaker plays, the more air it must move.

What advantage is there to smaller woofers? Think of it this way. You can’t use a tweeter to play bass. The cone is too small to efficiently reproduce bass frequencies. At the same time, a woofer would be too large to efficiently reproduce high treble. If you look at it that way, you can see that the size of the cone determines how efficiently it performs at various frequencies. While large woofers can play deeper bass, they are not as efficient at mid-bass as a smaller woofer. So while they play deeper, the mid-bass may suffer. Male vocals and instruments like a tenor sax can sound a bit thin and lack body. A smaller woofer is more efficient at these frequencies and the result is more balance mid-bass performance. But, of course, they will not play as deep. That is where subwoofers can pick up the slack.

In taking your budget into consideration, I would recommend looking at the Song3-A (our best-selling design at this point in time). Our Song3 Encore can play deeper with its 10 ½” woofer (25Hz). But to me, the 7 ½” woofer in the Song3-A’s results in better balance, top to bottom and features mid-bass that is about perfect. And it still plays down to 33Hz. If you cross at around 50Hz, power handling will increase as you relieve it of duty in the 33HZ – 50Hz range.

The bottom line is that if you truly need 110db, you are pretty much stuck with a high sensitivity design that is inaccurate and most likely somewhat fatiguing (not very good for music). If you want a speaker that excels in terms of music and want to play it louder, you will have to cross a bit higher than the speaker is capable of in order to reduce the level of cone excursion required to produce deeper bass. (Keep in mind that the lowest frequencies with traditional musical instruments is about 29Hz.)

Well, those are some thoughts off the top of my head. Hopefully you’ll find them helpful.

I hope this answers your questions. If not, or if you have more, feel free to email again. I’d be happy to answer.

Thanks,

- Jim