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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
james_w514's avatar
james_w514
286 posts
 
The Mega’ s sound great!

Speakers are a very personal choice so it won’t take long to have others share their negative experiences. I just hope it is after spending time and not just a demo. No complaints here if someone doesn't like them after a long listen. I know it took me about a week to fully appreciate what I had. I recently invited a picky friend over fully expecting him to trash the DI’s and put me in check but it didn’t happen. Expect a smaller reviewer to get a pair soon and go against the grain for increased reputation/noterity. That or they genuinely won’t like them. IMO the greatest strength of the product is the value and the looks have really grown on me.

Insult an Audio Note product to a fan boy if you really want to deal with conflict.
kdude66
1,200 posts
 
stfoth,

Yes I did mention the Brilliance or Electron for you on another thread,

After reading your preferences and other info in your post,I'm going to recommend the Electron or the DI monitor on proper stands since you already have a sub.

Even though I have never heard the Brilliance,I don't think either one of us would like that one,It doesn't have the tweeter array that is the key to getting the detailed smooth,never in your face,magic of this design.
I believe either speaker would do just fine at 1 foot from the back wall and pointed straight ahead with no toe in needed.
These Tekton speakers are very forgiving in placement unlike most other speakers.They will sound nothing like the average kplisch horn speaker that you have to be 20ft away from to get coherent sound.

As you know I have the DI's and I normally sit 10ft away in a 20x25x9ft room that has our open kitchen on one side.I recently did a experiment and moved my speakers 1ft from back wall and I moved my listening chair to 7 ft from the speakers.The sound was just as good in this more nearfield listening position as I get at 10ft but I would be to close to my tv so it was just a experiment.
The DI's would be too big for your room I would think though,I haven't tried mine in my 2nd smaller system in a spare bedroom I'm more interested in the Electron or monitor for that room but I'm in no hurry.

Hopefully you could talk to Eric when he has a moment away from designing the "super 1812 triple mega Ulf's".

Best of luck to you,
Kenny.
kdude66
1,200 posts
 
james_w514,

"Insult an Audio Note product to a fan boy if you really want to deal with conflict"

You got that right +1.

Kenny.
craigl59
307 posts
 

stfoth:

The Dis can be placed quite close to the wall if you place some kind of absorbent material behind the two ports. I am using custom built wall panels that do the trick because they remove first-order reflections that fight with/confuse the direct speaker's output ("Muddies"). Drapes or a pillow also work.

The DI tweeter array is remarkable for a clean yet smooth result and allows for realistic images at any volume level. My setup is in a fairly large room and the bass response is so good down to 20 hz that I roll a little off through the plugin ApQualyzr. SACDs sound incredibly accurate for bass timbres - orchestral double basses punch very hard.

KDude66:

Your measurement of 95db at 1 watt confirms Eric's 98db figure at 2.83; the difference between the two is supposed to be 3 db.

Regardless, the DIs are very efficient and you can plug any amp into them and hear the power.


213runnin
914 posts
 
Mofojo, more insults from the cheap seats, at least come up with some good ones!   My critiques don't require ownership.  They are as ugly as sin.  They employ false advertising in the specs.  The cabinet's squarish design is resulting in expecting cabinet resonances.  Stereophile measures 4 big peaks.  That's poor speaker design, plain and simple.

I would never buy such a collection of compromises.  The comb filtering thing is ridiculous in a modern speaker.   $3000 is a complete rip off, but Bose sold junk to suckers for many years before people got wise to those little cube home theater nonsense speakers.  

I expect in a couple of years, unless Tekton gets serious about speaker design, the latest flavor of the month will be up for sale in the used marketplace in droves.   Too bad that marketing and the lemming instincts of the internet herd can cause such a waste of money.


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