Teton monitors from Wavetouch Audio - A Must Hear


In the market for a pair of monitors recently, to gain more living spaces that being taken over by the growing LPs collection and the Wilson Sophia that I have put up for sale, I start doing some audition, googleing and look around. I know it's going to be a tough task finding any speakers that could produce the sound I have used to for many years from the Sophia.

To make sure I don't make a mistake and miss out on the big names, the likes of Harbert, Tannoy, B&W, psb, sonus....I start hitting the showrooms of LA. All of them are good, decent speakers but they don't strike me as possible replacements for the giant Wilson, three times their sizes. Then I found an unknown brand advertised, kevlar, horn tweeter and exotic rosewood in all. The rosewood always got me, I contacted the owner for a listen. A copy cat of B&W it turn-out and the speakers were bought in lots for testing and experiments by Alex Yoon of Wavetouch Audio in LA. Alex then let me take a peak listen to something he was 'putting together' as he said, and fine-tuning for review at StereoTimes. I hastily agreed. We headed for the studio where he does his work, the size of a four-car garage.

There I was introduced to a pair of tiny monitors, the 'Grand Teton', I later learned, in rich, exotic Russian birchwood that one can tell of top-notch quality, carefully and meticulously put together. We spent the next two hours listen to tracks after tracks of acoustic, instrumentals and vocals music. The monitors fill the huge studio with music as if a pair of 5-foot tall floor standing were in used. Soundstage were ceiling high and 6-foot deep. Vocals were in-your-face with each instrument precisely positioned as if we had attented a jazz rehearsal in a garage. I immidiately inquired about a pair for home audition. This could be the Wilson replacement, I said to myself with reservation. May be Alex had the room treated or using special equipments. But his gear is very mediocre.

Two week past and Alex deliver the monitors for audition. The same pair but has now been finely tuned. Personally position the monitors in my living room, Alex going over some adjustments tips, give me a week to test the monitors and head back to LA. Two day of comparison between the Grand Teton and the Sophia side-by-side, guitar, piano, vocals and everything in between. I contacted Alex and convinced him to leave the sample, don't come back for it and it was purchased with proceed from the Sophia sale. The Grand Teton is now in my living room replacing the giant Wilson for 1/10 the cost, 1/10 the size and not a note missing.

Quite a task for its size. Highly recommended and a must to audiition if you can arrange for one. It will be time well spent just to listen to it.

Music Fanatic,
Irvine, CA
connect400
After such a great endorsement I think it would be helpful to hear from Audioman58 with his thoughts on why the Wavetech SE did not stay long after purchase.
I was going to take him up on his offer to demo them but they were sold before I could get there.
Having his complete experience would be helpful for me and I assume others who have an interest in this product.
Len067 you have to understand that he has had at least a half dozen end of the road speakers in the last 3 years. Each has had it's own ringing endorsement as "the best", so you should take it with a large grain of salt. I am in no way putting down the Grand Teton which I have never heard, or the Fritz that he now owns. I liked the regular version of the Carbon 7 very much when I heard them. I would imagine the SE version is even better. Just letting you know that there is a trend here and that he changes speakers very often even after proclaiming the previous one the best.
Hello the Wavetouch SE are a very dynamic and detailed loudspeaker.
I sold these loudspeakers to a friend ,for I decided to go with Vinnie Rossies Red Wine equipment the DC power Battery power is great.
And I had a great opportunity for a rebuilt modified a Klipsch La Scala,
Which I always wanted ,like new and basically just payed for the price of the mods 1/4 price new $8k.also I have the new Omega Outlaws 98 db efficient. The WaveTouch are exception and
At their $3k price Very hard to match for overall realism ,tonal balance .
The Wavetouch like at least 30wpc vacuum tube,or high current solid state.
To anyone interested... even after the original SE and GT2's went in the late summer Alex continued to work with other significant synergistic elements within the speaker.

The bottom line is if you have any interest in this price point seek out an audition of what is currently being offered. He tells me he is very satisfied and won't be making any further changes until the official next versions.

These are true HI-END loudspeakers at mid-fi prices. I have no stake in his company. Since I live 20 minutes from his facility I have gotten to know him. He is a family man with passion and a fastidious work ethic and has, as of this writing, a borderline phenomenal product offering. There are more excellent loudspeakers available now than ever before, new and used. Whether or not these would work perfectly with your gear and ears only you can decide.

BTW Alex's sales are excellent and he doesn't need my help.

I know what Alex is trying to do, have fun doing what he loves creating quality audio products at a fair price.

I don't know what Wolf is trying to do... discredit someone further who inadvertently discredited himself and regrets it. Like a bully kicking someone who is already down and enjoying it. That's Pretty classy.
My goal as an audio forum bully is to see weakness and POUNCE. I hope this
provides the answer to the question "I don't know what Wolf is trying to
do." I don't enjoy this (or I really do enjoy it), but hey...it's the law of the
jungle. By the way, very few of my specific (or a simply self indulgent lack of
mirth control) points of criticism have been actually addressed in this thread
including the ridiculous patent and other claims on the Wavetouch website,
so...uh...bite me.
Bite yourself loser. The name Wolf is a joke like you. You intimidate no one. Losers like yourself don't have goals, only too much time on their hands because they have no real friends.
Jungle? Maybe you need more counseling for your PTSD.

TO ALL MEMBERS: Wolf is no bully looking to pounce on the weak...
He just enjoys harassing good people because he knows he will never be one.

Wolf_garcia is one to be pitied and rejected which is what he really wants anyway in his twisted world.



I think somehow my post was not well understood by After_hrs, but grabbing any opportunity to become hysterical may have health benefits...so it's a "win win."
Two months after my first post about these speakers I am still enjoying them immensely.... I have actually moved furniture around to accommodate them.

I am just laughing at all the negative posts... How can you possibly make a judgement on anything in audio until you have personally heard it? Even then very good equipment can sometimes sound poor in a bad room or with bad placement....
I purchased the Wavetouch Audio Grand Teton SEs a couple of months ago and they are the best monitors I have ever owned. Some of the previous monitors I have owned are Peak Consult Princess, Merlin TSM-MXEs, Audio Note AX-2 Signature, AAD Silver Signature, JM Reynaud Signature Twin, Coincident Triumph UHS Signature Revised, Triangle 25th Anniversary Comete, ProAc 25th Anniversary Tablette, and I am sure a few others I can't think of at the moment. In my 9'x 13' bedroom with a 10' ceiling the Grand Teton SEs clearly outperformed all of these monitors and each of the monitors I listed above are very fine monitors so I am not knocking them. The Grand Teton SEs are dynamic, detailed without being thin sounding, tonally correct, image very well and have tons of PRAT. These are fun monitors, but not fatiguing! I have given my honest impressions in my room with my equipment, tube and solid state BTW, and I have no affiliation with the company and I have never even spoken to the Alex, the owner and designer. My contact with him has been solely through email.
I don't understand why some members are attacking posters who give positive impressions of this speaker, I understand they are produced by a very small company with a little bit of an unorthodox design, but have an open mind because most of todays well established high end companies started very small, like WaveTouch. A forty day money back trial, less shipping costs, is given so one can try them in their listening room with their equipment and determine if the Grand Tetons work for them.
Do the "negative" posts regard the speakers themselves or the inane
and seemingly desperate promotion and silly technology claims? I still claim that
a sensible website with less magical nonsense, rational promotion through the
normal channels (shows, reviews form respected pros) would help the case here,
but the persistent shilling by people claiming no connection with the hapless
designer still seems suspicious and really doesn't help the brand.
Connect400,

In your opening post you didn't mention what amplifier you were using to drive the Wilsons... and are you using the same amp to power the GT's? You haven't chimed back in here since starting this thread. How's it going?
01-04-15: Wolf_garcia
Do the "negative" posts regard the speakers themselves or the inane
and seemingly desperate promotion and silly technology claims? I still claim that
a sensible website with less magical nonsense, rational promotion through the
normal channels (shows, reviews form respected pros) would help the case here,
but the persistent shilling by people claiming no connection with the hapless
designer still seems suspicious
Hi Wolf. I am posting because you are talking about my posts. When did these "Negative posts by me" happen? Almost negative posts are from competitors and dealers.

The desperate promotion is nothing to be shamed. That is normal for any new and even for stabished companies.

I attend audio shows and events. There are many videos and reviews in my website.-REVIEWS-

Many above posters have a long history. What do you mean "seems suspicious?" I think you are seeing only what you like to see.

Alex / Wavetouch Audio
The "negative posts" comment was a sort of rhetorical question regarding MY posts in response to comments by others...I suggest you read things and try to understand what the words actually mean (!), except for the obvious satirical bits which I don't expect you to get. I have said repeatedly that although the speakers themselves might sound OK, you lack the ability to respond to my questioning specific ridiculous claims on your website, and now you somehow feel the weirdly scripted praise for your $3000 plywood speakers with rubber dixi cups glued to the drivers is justified because of the "history" of the posters. Forums aren't necessarily meant to provide you with crass free advertising for your product, but if you drop into a discussion forum I suggest you sharpen your discussion skills or at least attempt to understand what's presented for possible response or you will still seem like a desperate weirdo.
W_garcia,

Aside from your obvious IGNORANCE referring to HIGH grade BALTIC BIRCH Laminate cabinets constructed by a premiere AMERICAN wood craftsmen as "plywood", (Any true audiophile knows the TREMENDOUS skill needed to accomplish this as well as the acoustic value of such.) you also show equal GLARING ignorance referring to proven scientific acoustic waveform behavior and guidance as glued dixie cups. A well designed and engineered, molded, hard composite material is used as the waveguide. Even in pictures its clear that it is WELL DESIGNED. Also, Making fun of someone who probably has an IQ 40 points or more in excess of yours is eclipsed only by your shameless harassment of him as you know he is still learning to articulate himself. The more people that read this the more you will be deservedly ostracized.

If you really want to give him constructive criticism (which you obviously don't) you would fore go ALL of the harassing, belittling, disrespectful language.
I refuse to respond to such harassing, belittling, and disrespectful language. Or maybe I don't, in any case...what's wrong with dixie cups? Don't you realize the TREMENDOUS skill involved in making dixie cups? Are plywood assemblers really "premier craftsmen?" Wouldn't "premier wood gluers" be a more skill specific description? I think After_hrs is simply not getting enough sleep or the much needed anger management therapy, hence the apt moniker...also the weird threats of my becoming ostracized by "the people who read this"...I think this is an entertaining thread, but then I WOULD think that since I'm handicapped by having such a low IQ. It's simply unfair to pick on the disabled...*sniff*...
I still claim that a sensible website with less magical nonsense, rational promotion through the normal channels (shows, reviews form respected pros) would help the case here, but the persistent shilling by people claiming no connection with the hapless designer still seems suspicious and really doesn't help the brand.

A couple of things, Wolf:
1) Audio shows are extremely expensive and not always a good value proposition for small manufacturers.
2) Lots of new manufacturers come to the attention of pro audio reviewers via the praise of consumers on audio forums
Um... may I please ask a substantive question? ;-)

Wavetouch has a YouTube channel on which I found this show report.

In the close up of one of the speakers, it seems that the woofer phase plug isn't fixed place, but it somehow suspended and movable. Is that right? Can someone with these speakers verify this construction detail? It looks like an unusual design.

Thanks!
Actually plywood IS laminated wood sheets. There are just different quality levels (grades) and thicknesses of the sheets used. Certainly plywood used for roof sheathing or siding for a building structure is not of the same quality as cabinet grade nor is cabinet grade, I expect, most likely not as high a quality nor as thick maybe as the sheets used in speakers. Bottom line is that some type of adhesive is used to adhere the sheets together and thus all could be generally categorized as plywood or laminated sheets of wood if you like. In any case they would add cost over MDF for sure aside from any acoustical advantage they may or may not offer. Not to confuse the manufacture of the "plywood" with the construction of the cabinets, two different processes.
Wolf,

How about you actually test out these speakers? You've nothing to lose except a shipping cost.

Of course, if you think already that they're crap, that's probably what you'll hear.
I have never, except when joking around, disputed the potential sound quality or
value of these speakers, but the inability of others to understand what I AM
bugging about sort of makes my case in general. I know about plywood (and
Dixie cups) as I have Baltic Birch plywood in some guitar amp cabs, but
hey...fodder for satire is a finite quantity in audio. I'm all for praising your fave
piece of gear and I do that all the time, although in my case I feel the
manufacturer SHOULD reward me (hear that Jolida?...Silverline?) but they don't
because they're MEAN BASTARDS. My ACTUAL issues with patent claims and
other nonsense on the Wavetouch site have been conveniently and utterly
ignored, and clearly there are others around here who feel a manufacturer (or the
clearly planted shill) using a discussion forum to START a free publicity thread is
lame...especially one as desperate and pathetic as this one. Assuming the
readers around here are stupid is a big mistake.
My ACTUAL issues with patent claims and other nonsense on the Wavetouch site have been conveniently and utterly ignored,

I don't see any mention of patent(s) or "magic" on the Wavetouch website

At this point, you've stated your issues with Wavetouch. No one else seems interested in hearing much more about that. And i haven't seen much in the way of substantiation for your claims, on your part. So, why not let it go or move on to another thread?
Since this is suppose to be a "community" of music lovers I'll attempt to dial this down a bit. W_... Reading your posts in a few other threads i better understand the kind energy and nuance you lead with. Usually your sarcasm is humorous and good natured. I can see how when something gets under your skin you can't let go. I'm totally the same...ask my wife. I have no idea how this thread began. I suspect early purchasers who liked Alex may have started the rallying here to spark further interest. Either way, one thread isn't going to make or break anyone...agreed. I did a little research and found Alex's granted patent dated 2012. His patent was one of twelve patents issued that year in the loudspeaker design catagory. Paradigm, Pioneer, Harmon were some others. He is the only owner as far as I know and I was chiming in with what I know about his work to speak up for what I simply know to be true and to share my personal impressions. I get your disposition here...as you value healthy, spirited, educational, community type discourse you take what you refer to as shilling as a personal afront. That being said I'm done being confrontive.
Cheers.
Now getting back to the music...
I've spoken and written back and forth with Alex a few times about a Wavetouch audition. He comes across as a patient and knowledgeable designer and salesman who, at one point, also thoughtfully contacted me first about a holiday deal he had going. And although I haven't yet pulled the trigger on auditioning a set of Tetons (I'm still quite happy with my de Capo i's), I'd feel confident in doing so if and when the time comes.

Now, I'm probably going to be harassed for this, but:

I closely re-read the OP, as well as the follow-up posts trumpeting the loudspeaker. A few things struck me about the OP:

1. Its copy simply reads like an advertisement or a Penthouse Forum letter - and one based on clumsy, hackneyed tropes and syntax.

-- "I later learned, in rich, exotic Russian birchwood that one can tell of top-notch quality, carefully and meticulously put together."

Seriously. No one writes like that unless they're in sales. In the 80's. Or unless they're writing reviews for Stereophile now.

-- "The monitors fill the huge studio with music as if a pair of 5-foot tall floor standing were in used. Soundstage were ceiling high and 6-foot deep. Vocals were in-your-face with each instrument precisely positioned as if we had attented a jazz rehearsal in a garage."

The spelling errors and grammatical errors seem indicative of a template being followed by someone for whom English is not a native language.

-- the classic "Context; exploration; discovery; revelation; doubt; resolution/satisfaction" narrative framework also reads like a print ad trope. Context (paragraph 1); exploration (paragraph 2); discovery (paragraph 2-3); doubt (paragraph 3); res./satisfaction (paragraph 4-5). Also, there is never any indication of precisely WHERE the OP first heard about Wavetouch - only that it was an "unknown brand advertised." Where? How'd the OP find out about it? This is akin to the "one weird trick" sales strategy that's been around for years and years and is in vogue online.

-- "To make sure I don't make a mistake and miss out on the big names, the likes of Harbert, Tannoy, B&W, psb, sonus....I start hitting the showrooms of LA. All of them are good, decent speakers but they don't strike me as possible replacements for the giant Wilson, three times their sizes."

This also seems disingenuous. Look, I don't own and never will be able to own Wilsons (nor would I want to - they look like glorified trash cans or like Daleks from Dr. Who), but I could own or have owned the other brands listed. They seem like a serious drop down in price if not necessarily relative quality. If the OP had mentioned Magico or TAD or YG or the like, all of whom build smaller speakers than the Sophia (Sophia 2? 3?) for much the same price used, I would have believed more.

-- "The Grand Teton is now in my living room replacing the giant Wilson for 1/10 the cost, 1/10 the size and not a note missing."

I'm sorry but no. The physics of acoustics, no matter where the plywood is from, says that small speakers can't push as much air as large speakers. As much as I love my Ref 3A de capo's, they'll never give me the presence of a pair of Focal Utopia 3 or an Egglestonworks Andra.

Although I'm not as vociferous as Wolf may be on doubting the authenticity of the OP as anything but a thinly-disguised ad, I am in agreement that it doesn't belong here. There're many aspects of the OP in addition to the ones I listed above -- grammatical and syntactic errors - that also degrade its ethos and question its origin. Some of the immediate follow-up posts display the same error and usage patterns, adding to their dubious nature.

Still - they give us something to talk and ankle-bite about.
I'm sorry but no. The physics of acoustics, no matter where the plywood is from, says that small speakers can't push as much air as large speakers.

Simao, I did audition the speakers at Alex's place and was offered a free in-home trial. I declined the offer of a home trial specifically for the reason you stated above. My room was just too big for these speakers. I knew that they'd never be able to move the kind of air that I want and what I'm accustomed to. If I had a conventional-sized room, I'd seriously consider them. They were that good.

My Room
.
Mitch - yes, your listening room is far too large for just about any set of monitors - with out without a good sub. Wilsons would be right at home, but Tetons would seem dwarfed by the space around them.
"The spelling errors and grammatical errors seem indicative of a template being followed by someone for whom English is not a native language."
Seriously, my guess is out a few million people in L.A. county alone there are hundreds if not thousands non native audiophiles.

Interestingly, If you read the few other posts on other threads 400 has responded to there seems to be no tell tell of English being difficult. Maybe he was a little lit when he started this.
"Wilsons would be right at home, but Tetons would seem dwarfed by the space around them."

It is true that GT's physically would "look" dwarfed in a space a large as Mitch's but I have heard Gen2's augmented with a good sub fill a space over 20'x 32' with over 12' high ceilings and sound incredible. High passing @ 80hz-100hz will produce very satisfying results. The focused dynamic energy and tonal purity in the mid all the way up when unaffected by the lower register is jaw dropping. My Gen2's are in a space approximately 18'x 22' with 10' ceiling and although there is some lack of pressurization and deep bass I rarely think about it as the critical sound staging, dynamics and world class tonality keep me immersed.

There are several top of the class diminutive speakers that are capable of filling very large spaces better that most mid-fi and some hi-fi floor standers, perfect8 cube for example. Oh what technology and imagination together can accomplish.

Also,
Making points about the grammatical details of the OP is one thing... but ANYONE who contends definitively about what this newer designed GT series can or cannot do without an optimized audition is... off.
"Interestingly, If you read the few other posts on other threads 400 has responded to there seems to be no tell tell of English being difficult. Maybe he was a little lit when he started this."

Interestingly enough, I did -- all two of them. And yes, both display the same syntactic and semantic error patterns.
Unless those disturbed by the possibly questionable advent of this thread are seeking some kind reparations for their distress...perhaps it's time to move on to amour user interaction/impression based thread.

One last word about OP...Of the many hundreds or thousands of non native audiophiles in Los Angeles county (millions of people)...
Can any of the Wavetouch owners comment on my earlier question about how those phase plugs are attached?
Rebbi,

The waveguide apparatus is practically weightless. Near the cone surface the center guide is suspended from the outer ring (ingeniously, in my opinion) at numerous points using fine hi tension line, very stable and almost undetectable. It Looks like it's hovering, very cool actually. Seems to work beautifully and never loses its positioning. Even at full output there is zero movement.
After_hrs,
Cool, thank you. That was my impression from the YouTube video I saw. But it's sturdy?
Rebbi, as it's obviously a critical design feature of the loudspeaker you can tell it has been thought through thoroughly (wow, say that ten times fast). I've only heard positive comments regarding the wave guide apparatus as I myself have seen no change in the tension or stability whatsoever.
Old thread, I know...but..........Yep, I agree with the positive posts about the now Anteros. The SE’s are the ones I actually heard and it was enough for me to strongly consider purchasing them. 

Thanks for the input...”this” is the only negative comments I have heard about them, but  will not stop me from buying.
I bought a pair of Grand Tetons in June of 2015 and during break in I was liking what I was hearing. There was some lack of clarity in the upper mids/lower highs and, despite my having to break in new amps at the same time, was confident the mild harshness would settle out after break--in and that it was really just the amps that needed more break-in time.

But, as the weeks went by I realized that this problem was in fact here to stay - a flaw - and not in the amps as I’d hoped, but in the speaker’s design. After a while I tracked it down to the type of tweeter used.

These are the Dayton AMT2-4 https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-amt2-4-air-motion-transformer-tweeter-4-ohm--275-092

After some time I decided, rather than returning the speakers to Alex (a nice guy btw), to try my hand at a little exploratory surgery since I could get another pair of these tweeters at PE and it might help me to understand what the true nature of the problem was and whether or not it might be something I could fix.

I dissected the tweeter and removed its diaphragm assembly from the magnet structure and housing. I don’t have any pics to show you at this point, but I eventually uncovered the flaw in the design. Turns out, however, that it’s a rather interesting flaw IMO and one I find to actually be very telling on what it is exactly that the GT’s were envisioned to do, which I will get to later on.

The Dayton diaphragm though, I learned, uses Kapton as the "former" (physical support) for the mylar pleats that produce the sound from the signal. Kapton has a few advantages, it’s lightweight yet rigid and not expensive. However, the problem I found here is that Kapton is not acoustically transparent. This needs to be the case for an AMT type tweeter since the diaphragm’s operation is always going to be dipolar regardless of whether the rear output is designed to be let out into the room or it is to be enclosed in an absorbent, rear chamber. What I found was that the Kapton former, despite any minor efforts Dayton had allowed for to prevent or reduce this, actually sings like a canary - it is actually quite resonant, and I was able to confirm in fact that it adds noise to the music that was not at all part of the original signal...a distortion by definition.

So, I looked for what might be better ways than what Dayton had done to see if the Kapton former could be damped. Since the Daytons here are used as monopoles and I didn’t have to worry here about allowing for a rear output. I tried some neutral-cure silicone applied to the back of the former and spread it down into the grooves of the pleats with a paper business card to see how much resonance control this offered. This would not take up any extra room inside the tweeter once it was reassembled.

This actually worked pretty well...although not perfectly. About 90-95% of the lack of clarity went away, but I could still tell that a trace of it remained. However, when I did this, much of the (artificial/exaggerated) sense of spaciousness went away.

The only other conceivable negative of the GT’s performance I ever encountered with them was in the stage presentation. It seemed to have a somewhat ’football’ shape to it - the area around the drivers seemed to have a slightly ’pinched’ perspective, with staging that tends to ’hunker down’ at the left and right edges and that grows taller and more fully developed as you moved toward center stage. No change in placement I found could ever completely get rid of it.

But, as you recall I said above that the choice of these particular tweeters were to me very telling of how these speakers came to be and what they were meant to do. First, I noticed that the distortion characteristic of the tweeters is rather unusual. Typical driver resonances tend to express themselves as ’zones’ or ’peakiness’ over the entire response of the driver. Very annoying to hear really. But, this was not the case here. Looking at the Dayton AMT’s from top down, I found that from 20k Hz down to around 10k Hz or so there is virtually zero resonance in the Kapton former in these tweeters. So micro-detail remains intact.

But, from around 10k Hz and below the resonance seems to begin to kick in, in a nice, gradual, forgiving slope that seems to plateau somewhere around 4-6k Hz or so and then continues very smoothly all the way down through the crossover zone...so, unlike most tweeter resonances that create false or exaggerated/muffled vowel or consonant sounds, the resonance here is so unusually extended, uniform and smooth that it does not offer us the usual cues that we’re used to hearing that would alert us to a potential problem. Btw, the crossover point for the GT’s is 3k Hz.

This unusually smooth resonance over such a broad portion of the driver’s range has a number of effects on the sound And on the this overall speaker design. First, it seems to exaggerate the sense of space of the venue of the recording. Suddenly, recordings of spacious venues are a renewed treat. This is perhaps instantly what most people hearing them for the first time are reacting to so positively.

The other main thing that people hearing these speakers are likely reacting to is the fact that these speakers image like crazy. Much of that is in Alex’s use of the horns, which I could confirm by simply removing them (easy to do in just 2 or 3 minutes) and listening again. The horn for the tweeter does amplify a bit the sheer incisiveness in 10k-20k Hz range and does it rather beautifully. But the horns also work synergistically with the spacious quality being injected below 10k Hz. So much so, that I now understand what Alex was doing when he settled on this particular tweeter to use in his horned designs. His chief critic whose ears he needed to please, according to Alex himself in his own literature?? His wife! A non-audiophile music lover. So Alex has, in my estimation, really designed a rather terrific speaker for music lovers everywhere, rather than for audiophiles per se. Nothing wrong with that certainly, it’s just that for my money I’m looking for something that offers the clarity that I know is possible and does not rely on, in the course of it’s design, adding something to the sound that was not part of the original signal.

I have not yet brought up this idea to Alex, but I would hope that he might consider making a design for audiophiles in the future that would use a different tweeter. The Aurum Cantus AST tweeters, like the 25120’s, have superb clarity and don’t use Kapton formers. It would mean having to design a new horn for them, but I’m finding it’s a snap when choosing appropriate sized quater-round wood trim...like the kind you use on your floors against the baseboard in your home, only the specialty kind found online that is a little larger. I think if Alex followed through along those lines he’d Really have something there!

I have moved on from the GT’s (while forgetting none of the lessons, good and bad, that I learned from them) and after discovering Danny Ritchie’s "Wedgie" design have decided to DIY my own version of them - but incorporating horns into my design. Not finished yet, but everything is very promising so far.

The stock GT’s are stunningly dynamic for their size and in my fairly large, open room were down about 3 or 4 dB at 40 Hz. I just needed to solve the clarity problem and straighten out the left-to-right stage a bit more.

Regards,
John
But in case I did not make the connection clear in the above, the Kapton former's resonance is what is responsible for both the sense of spaciousness And also the lack of clarity in the upper mids and most of the highs...(except for the top end). Unfortunately for Alex's current designs that use these Dayton tweeters, you can't have the increased spaciousness without necessarily also having the lack of clarity at the same time.
A MUST HEAR INDEED!!! As I mentioned earlier in my post, I was invited to listen these the SE’s at a friend’s who has spend over 100,000 in equipment seeking to find his “forever perfect reasonably priced system”. He still experiments with equipment adding various speakers and reminds me often they DO NOT come close to the Anteros...period.

I guess I have had the Anteros now for about 6 months or so and confirmation comes everytime I fire them up. And, EVERY-TIME I am shocked how pleasing they are to my ears. Right now I am using a Marantz receiver playing Tidal and CD’s through the Bluesound Node 2....quite shocking, since that is not my usual system. My good, good friend also introduced me to what he thought was a great amp and pre for the Anteros. But, the amp was lacking a tuneup. So I am waiting for the return of my Moscode 600 matched up with my Audible Illusions 3A pre. A perfect match....

I’ve had many and heard many and built many wonderful speakers from fantastic designers because I wanted that smooth clear bass. They were great, but they were too big for my new listening area. So with much regret I sold them all. 😦

When one knows they have found their speakers is when they can’t wait to listen to them and are constantly surprised with something fresh, new and exciting. I believe that I am also hearing these 5 1/2 inch woofers produce bass close to 8 or 10” woofer, well sort of! It’s ridiculous, I know...but they are that good. The clarity, detail and soundstage is nothing short of amazing. Even with my Marantz receiver. 😲

I do dislike the center plugs, but not enough to have stopped me from buying !!!

I saw this post some time ago, but wanted to wait to hear for myself in my home with my equipment, before I posted results of what I already knew.

A footnote....Many thanks to “My Friend” who saved me many years and 1000’s of dollars with just one visit to get to where I am now....HAPPY!

Thanks!

i hope this post wasn’t too inappropriate for this thread, if so, I apologize!
Hi, Seanheis1, I am pretty sure the Anteros have the same drivers as the SE’s.  Of course the waveguide is in the wood. There have been adjustments to crossover, however, I can pm you my friend’s email who can tell you anything you need to know about the SE’s and the Anteros, if you like.

Robert