Tekton Double Impacts

Hey corelli,

First, I agree that the good threads on the GON, like this one is, are great at providing information that is useful/helpful to the readers.  The threads that revolve around who's right or wrong are kinda silly and are just rants with individuals getting their ego's in the discussion.

Secondly,  my first love is the music and then comes the fun of putting together a system with great synergy that creates the illusion that the musicians are in my room.  I have been very lucky in the hobby that even though I'm a hard working middle class person I had enough $ to put together systems that allowed me to come home, and just relax in front of my two channel rig and dig the music, mainly jazz.

I have also been lucky to be able for years to hear, either in my home or other listener's systems, most of the highest regarded equipment that was on the market at that time.  Now that I professionally review it's even easier to get the latest/greatest gear in-house to see how good it's performance really is.

You have no idea how often I'm kinda shocked that some of the most expensive gear is lousy, regardless of its price, yet other reviewers rave about in their writings.  My greatest pleasure is finding the true "gems" of our hobby that transcend the cost vs. performance ratio and blow apart this equation so anybody who loves music can put together a system that allows them this experience and still is affordable.

I have less tolerance for individuals then I used to, that rigidity believe that if a piece of gear does not cost a shit load of $ it can't really be any good or just buy on a "bling factor" to show off their new toy. I rather hang out with the true music lovers like the guys on this thread. 

Amen brother teajay.

Teajay makes a very good case for the LTA components particularly the preamp. I'm a jazz aficionado of many happy years.  We all have our individual criteria and sonic hierarchy and for me it's tone,timbre and harmonic overtones authenticity.  This is due I'm sure to the dominant presence of acoustic instruments used in jazz.

Dexter Gordon's tenor saxophone, Monk's piano, Chet Baker'-s trumpet or the vibraphone of Bobby Hutcherson.  If you can't get the natural tone right nothing else the component and/speaker does can correct this major deficiency IMO. You lose much of the emotion. 

If the LTA  does this better than other components far more expensive then this is quite an achievement. I've heard expensive audio products that lack convincing natural  (thus realistic) tone and timbre. 
Charles 

I remember when I was an 18 yr old kid and specs were everything.  (I can still remember the capture ratio on my Pioneer sx-636 receiver--scary, I know). 
Your comments resonate with me Charles (bad pun).  But when you hear an instrument presented with its fundamentals  and harmonic overtones intact.....well, it sends a chill down your spine.  The DI's are certainly in this camp.  And all this is done with steel framed woofers.  No really glamorous drivers here.  Nice drivers, but not top shelf by any means.  The magic lies in driver integration, and this is where the DI's shine.  Credit Eric. 
Once built a pair of speakers using top shelf Scan Speak drivers.  It was very nice but all too quickly ended up for sale on this site.
Thankfully, it sounds like we've all learned to trust our ears.

Corelli, 
Yes, the entire point of having a  good audio system is to listen to the music that we love.  Going to live jazz venues frequently over many years has definitely conditioned my ears. It makes judging audio components pretty simple.  It's natural or it isn't.  It's funny how some components reveal "hyper detail" yet exclude the music's soul and emotion. 
Charles