Tekton Design Impact Monitor loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: AMG Giro G9 record player; EMT TSD 75SFL, Koetsu Rosewood Standard & Signature Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent EX cartridges.
Digital Sources: HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3, Mytek HiFi Manhattan II, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil Analog 2 DACs; Integra DPS-7.2 DVD player (as CD transport), Mac mini computer running Audirvana Plus 3.2.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 (for EMT cartridge), Dynavector SUP-200, My Sonic Lab Stage 1030 step-up transformers; Musical Surroundings Phonomena II (with Linear Charging power supply), Tavish Design Adagio phono preamplifiers; Pass Laboratories HPA-1, PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium, Rogue Audio RH-7 line-level preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Bel Canto Design e.One REF600M (monoblocks), First Watt J2, Pass Laboratories XA25, PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium.
Integrated Amplifier: Line Magnetic LM-518 IA (as power amp).
Loudspeakers: Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a, DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93s, Harbeth M30.2.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Kable D60 Data Flex Studio (coaxial). Interconnect: Auditorium 23, Kimber Kable Silver Streak, Triode Wire Labs Spirit, Wireworld Silver Eclipse 7. Speaker: AudioQuest Type 4, Auditorium 23, Triode Wire Labs American. Power: AudioQuest Tornado, Triode Wire Labs Digital-American Series.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 1000 power conditioner; Harmonic Resolution Systems M3X-1719-AMG GR LF, PS Audio PerfectWave PowerBase isolation platforms; Sound Anchor stands; Acoustical-Systems SmarTractor, Dr. Feickert Analogue Protractor cartridge-alignment protractors; Musical Surroundings Fozgometer azimuth-range meter.—Herb Reichert

COMPANY INFO
Tekton Design LLC
Orem, UT 84058
(801) 836-0764
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Bogolu Haranath's picture

"Will It Go Round in Circles"? ............. Billy Preston :-) ..........

tonykaz's picture

What phraseology, it takes my mind and imagination to Schonbek Silver Chandeliers in Clear Swarovski.

Mr. HR always seems to toss the readership a GODIVA Truffle in his various writings.

I'll have to return to this review after the prose dissolves.

I took a further glance at this loudspeaker and it's siblings wide range of paint offerings. Phew

Stonehenge tweeters & Orange seem at odds. My Eyes are demanding a Grill ( or at least requesting less impact ). I could cover these things with a Silky Cloth and a Statue of Vlad. Putin on one with Mr.Orange on top the other.

Tony in Michigan

ps. Keven Deal just did a YouTube Review of the Tannoy Cheviot ( which wants $6,500 up front and Funeral Home setting back home )

FredisDead's picture

to cancel my subscription.

Catch22's picture

I don't think I've ever seen a disparity that great in sensitivity measurements vs manufacturer's specification. What gives?

Bry_E's picture

That gives me more pause than anything else about Eric's speakers. I don't think any of them have ever matched his sensitivity claims which are as high as 99dB on some models.

es347's picture

..hasn’t McIntosh been doing this for decades?

Anton's picture

Very very similar in appearance!

Ortofan's picture

... get a Frost King F1524 window air conditioner filter and use the open-cell foam to plug the port.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Kinda looks like "Cyclops" :-) .............

tonykaz's picture

there ain't no dam chinesium in any of this outfit's products. ( I can easily forgive 'em for bee-n mormons if that's what they are ). Romney is a good guy and trump a jerk for dissing him.

Tony in Michigan

dalethorn's picture

Trump is a forward-looking progressive and Romney a luddite.

Edit: This might be a good time for a quick historical overview of hardware quality and work ethic. I started with HP proprietary computers several years before IBM entered the PC business. An HP computer could run in a tent in 110 degree F temps when the IBM PC would shut down before temps reached 90. Then in 1985, HP introduced IBM compatibles, and their quality dropped like a stone. I have many specific examples, FYI.

Articles concerning HP's mil-spec industrial-grade quality in the years before they produced PCs raised awareness about their production plants and quality control. In Corvallis OR and Fort Collins CO, the workforce was described as consisting of "Mormons and born-again Christians". I have no reason to believe that their work ethic was dependent on any given cult, but I do believe that the monocultural aspect of their societies in those locations was a huge factor, as it was in the rapid industrialization of Japan and Germany after the war, when they became legendary for high quality. A man named Deming held the key to some of that.

By and large, you pays your money and you takes your choices, but it's good to know which companies make high-quality products, the era in which those are produced, and the backgrounds that lead to such things. In Apple's case for example, large-scale Chinese manufacturing and the legendary iron-fisted dominance of Steve Jobs turned what could have been tons and tons of schlock into a wealth of useful and durable products.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

May be it is a good idea to stay "in the zone"? :-) ..............

dalethorn's picture

Who is not in the zone? Who violated the zone first? Don't some people always violate the zone? What zone are you in? The twilight zone? Speak plainly.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

High-end (high performance) audiophile zone :-) ............

dalethorn's picture

There is much controversy about the high end zone. With all of the pressures to remaster the world's catalog in MQA, to end downloads in favor of streaming, and to install listening ("music") devices in every home, you might want to think about what exactly is your high-end zone preference. The world is changing, and where is hi-fi going?

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Yeah ...... That is the fun part of the whole thing .......... That is what keeps us all interested :-) ..........

Indydan's picture

By "the zone", do you mean a polite way of staying on topic? If so, I agree.

Long-time listener's picture

Yes, that was an extremely polite response to the kind of post typical from Dale thorn-in-our-sides -- interminably long, off-topic, self-involved, and with logic that only he understands. Trump? Progressive? Sheesh. A Timothy McVeigh-in-waiting, as nearly as I can tell.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

"Deming Circle" :-) ............

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Stuffing socks or air conditioner filter is some thing similar to "heuristic" solution to the problem of over blown bass :-) .............

Ortofan's picture

... foam bungs that some manufacturers ship with their speakers to allow the user to tune the bass response by either partially or fully blocking the port?

This is an example from B&W:
http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/images/stories/Loudspeakers/Knowledge/bw686.gif

Maybe Tekton should consider employing the same method.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Agreed ....... I am familiar with that option ......... I also, mentioned another option like acoustic suspension (closed box) design .......... Another possible solution could be using a separate subwoofer and take away the bass duties from these (book shelf type of) speakers. Of course separate subwoofer costs extra money. The advantage with separate subwoofer is flexibility of room placement for best possible bass response :-) ...........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

May be acoustic suspension design is a better solution :-) ..........

Indydan's picture

Interesting speaker design. Though, probably not for people who suffer from trypophobia.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Or, neophobia :-) ......... Some of the audiophiles have that problem :-) ...........

Indydan's picture

True. And some audiophiles have the opposite problem: they always need something new or different in their system!

Bogolu Haranath's picture

"Something New" ........... Album by The Beatles :-) .............

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Also, "Dora the Explorer" :-) .........

JBLMVBC's picture

"The classic two- or three-way woofer/midrange/tweeter design contains shortcomings, because the mass relationship is wrong when compared to the recorded source [eg, a violin string]."

One wonders how they explain not multiplying woofers in order to keep up their mass mojo for kettle and bass drums, piano etc...
LOL

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Great idea ......... How about 7 woofers surrounding 7 tweeters? :-) ............

scottsol's picture

I’m not sure it makes sense to call these three way speakers. At the least, this would only make sense if the center tweeter was fed by a separate high pass filter so it did not share lower frequencies with the six outer tweeters. Otherwise this could at best be called a two and a half way.

TennesseeTuxedo's picture

Last year and this year (2019) I actively sought out the Tektons in the various rooms of RMAF, based on the gushing reviews by certain people at this publication and CNET. On both occasions I was surprised at how colored and down right unpleasant the music sounded. I was completely unable to enjoy the music because the sound was so bad - harsh, screechy and thin. They weren't even taking requests in the Tekton rooms, just playing a canned set so they should have sounded impressive. Well the impression I got was ineptitude all around. (Hey, maybe they'll merge with Zu and between the tw of them they can put out a decent sounding speaker?!?) Anyway, glad I didn't fall for the hype and buy a pair without demoing them first. Caveat emptor.

navr's picture

Hear for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ihk36Xarbo

I'll take these over any stupid orangutan any time of the day

fidobite's picture

I find myself frequently shaking my head at comments from people who smugly make fun of a speaker they haven't even sampled themselves. Some Stereophile visitors are simply laughable in this respect (you know who you are). Is there anything more embarrassing than some old fool with hearing response measurements that look like a carnival roller coaster commenting that, by golly, I know that speaker sucks because, well, I just want it to be bad. After all my $30k TinEar XX6095's are so superior in every way blah, blah, blah.
Nothing is more tedious than old, half deaf "audiophiles" passing judgement on others' fine work because they simply don't understand its technology and/or they've never even sampled it themselves.

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