Tekton Double Impact & Comb Filtering


Like many of you, I have been pondering purchasing these speakers but am very curious about the unusual tweeter array. I asked the smartest speaker person that I know (he is a student of Sean Olive) about the design and below is what he had to say.   

"In theory it could work, but the driver spacing means that the crossover point would need to be very low.
He is using the SB acoustics tweeter which is 72mm in diameter, center to center on the outside opposing drivers is around 5.7 inches, which is about 2400Hz. This means that combing would stop between 1/4 to 1/2 of the wavelength (between 1200-600Hz) is where the outside tweeters should start playing nice with each other.
Since he is not using low enough crossover points he has created a comb filtering monster. Now while it's not the great point source that was promised, it's no worse than most line arrays and the combing will average itself out given enough listening distance.

The MTM spacing on the other hand is ridiculous. Hopefully he is cutting the top end off on one of those midrange drivers to avoid combing."

seanheis1

Showing 2 responses by mapman

I have not heard but does not surprise me that they sound good. Many less expensive speakers including many vintage will likely sound better than ever if run off proper good quality modern electronics and amplification. My current stand is I see no need for most to drop megabucks on speakers in order to get highly satisfying sound. In many cases, if matched and set up well, I suspect cheap speakers could very well even outperform others costing way more. A lot depends on user expectations. No absolute right or wrong there.  Another reason why the traditional high end of audio is probably hitting harder times than ever.
Personally I would avoid any line array design unless listened to  from a relatively far listening distance in a fairly large room.  Even then I am a fan of fewer drivers not more.