Tekton Design's new THE PERFECT SET equals "goosebumps time"


Just got in house for review for hometheaterreview.com Tekton Design’s new, The Perfect SET, which is close to 100dB efficient and never dips below 8 ohms, which Eric built to be used with SET "flea watt" amplifiers. It is a front ported design using a 12 inch woofer and his patented array of small transducers that function as a midrange driver with a single tweeter in the middle. I set them up in a system with a great 2A3 SET amplifier and found them so superlative I did not stop listening for over five hours! Taking about "goosebump time" the music was so beautiful that
I lost track of time.

These speakers have all the virtues of the other Tekton speakers, speed, utter transparency/micro-details, great soundstaging, and that special "aliveness" that I experience when I listen to my Ulf’s. What really amazed me was what the Perfect SET was delivering on the bottom end frequencies, subterrainian/taut powerful bass, that was shaking the room, all coming from at most 2.5 to 3 watts.

If you love SET amplifiers this speaker is a match made in heaven, and remember this pair just arrived and is not totally burnt in yet.

teajay

Showing 8 responses by mapman

dcevans,

If you do decide to try other speakers, consider the Fritz Carrera.    Not efficient on paper but designed to be an  easy load.  I heard them at a show off a flea powered tube amp and was shocked.   Have also heard Tekton Double Impact speakers off similar amp.   Also good, but I think the Fritz are better form and function for a smaller room and the sound is hard to beat IMHO.
many models might leverage teh same "breakthrough".  Not so hard to imagine.
Hey wolf, yes I have no doubt they are way better than the average bear with even lower power tubes amps, maybe the best choice out there at their price point even, but being the technical stickler I am, I’d like to see some measurements of impedance and such at various frequencies like they do in a standard Stereophile review before saying they are optimal for that. Same with Tekton or others. Otherwise they could go plenty loud but perhaps not have proper tonal balance, make the amp clip sooner, etc.

Daedalus for example is one line whose speakers have been measured and proven to be an easy load to drive for most any amp, though not as efficient as Heresy. Much pricier though!

Fritz speakers is another.  His latest Carerra monitors are not efficient at all, but have been shown to measure as an  easy load to drive, and I heard the splendid results myself off a flea power tube headphone amp at capital Audiofest last  year as proof.   Could not believe my ears!






As I recall, Heresy III is efficient and tube amp friendly in general but also I recall reading still not the easy load one would seek out ideally for a flea powered SET amp that must not be driven hard to sound its best.
If someone were to do a SET friendly speaker shootout and include the Tekton offering,  that would be interesting reading for me.

Would like to read about a variety of SET friendly speakers and include several possible low cost/high value options.


I’ve heard Tekton’s once (double Impacts) at CAF 2017 and they sounded good enough to definitely rate as contenders in their price range. Their unique thing is physically a lot of tube-amp friendly speaker for not as many bucks as other "high end" contenders which is a nice value proposition for many tube amp loving audiophiles. Yes and made in the good old USA.

BTW Zu prices seem to have  really skyrocketed in recent years.  Am I off base there?


Hyperbole and comparisons aside, SET owners should be happy whenever any vendor provides a new, more affordable, good quality, high efficiency, easy drive speaker option that is designed specifically to be used to best effect with a SET. The good options are limited and tend to be relatively large and pricey.