Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Tekton Moab Be loudspeaker 250 Models and Counting: an Interview with Tekton's Eric Alexander

Sidebar 1: 250 Models and Counting: an Interview with Tekton Design's Eric Alexander

One measure of Eric Alexander's drive and versatility is that, by his own count, 19-year-old Tekton Design has engineered and built roughly 250 different models of loudspeakers, one at a time, made to order, with a team that currently numbers eight people.

Rogier van Bakel: Your speaker designs vary quite a bit. Sometimes the ports are in the front, sometimes in the back. You make speakers that are intended to be coupled with SET amps, and others that do well when driven with considerable power. You have an open-baffle model in the works, and so on. Do you add new models because you essentially love the thrill of designing, or because you see niches in the speaker market that you rush to fill?

Eric AlexanderI see the need for small monitors, smaller towers, midsized towers, and larger towers in my lineup. I'd like to believe there's a need and an explanation for every model we've produced to date. But we're also a custom shop, and if we count the one-off custom speakers we've produced, it comes to around 250 different models. As things have evolved, I've observed trends, voids, and niches that I feel need to be addressed, so we go to work on that. For example, the Moab started life as a model intended to provide audiophiles with an Ulfberht experience at half the price (footnote 1). And yes, I love my job!

RvB: I'm wondering if you've thought about playing with different form factors for your cabinets. Maybe rounded enclosures à la Sonus faber speakers or Focal Sopras, or wild-and-wooly forms like the pill-shaped Devialets or the Giya "curls," or B&W's and Gallo's globes. What's the attraction of sticking with rectangular boxes?

EA: It's what we're known for. I'm not too interested in producing stunning visual pieces of art that second as high-performance loudspeakers. There are competitors who already cover that base. I'm a form-following-function audio designer who's comfortable hanging out right where we've carved out our niche in the audiophile world. The best-sounding vintage loudspeakers weren't visual pieces of art, and a loudspeaker doesn't require visual flair to sound amazing.

RvB: I've seen people respond with incredulity when they see the seven-tweeter polycell array you're known for. They often don't understand that those tweeters collectively act as an ultralight midrange driver. And they seem to think there'll be comb-filtering effects and phase-accuracy issues.

EA: The center tweeter is the only high-frequency producer. The circle arrays above and below the tweeter are precisely tackling the midrange duties, making for a revealing, low-distortion presentation that produces dramatic realism with high output capabilities. The loudspeaker is carefully engineered, taking comb-filtering considerations into account. But yeah, audiophiles who haven't heard our product intuitively get skeptical about the arrangement.

RvB: In direct listening comparisons between the OG Moabs and the Be versions, I almost always preferred the latter—but often not by a huge amount. This doesn't imply that I find them disappointing; it's just that it seems to me that you set the bar very high with the original Moabs, and met it. What do those beryllium drivers add that, to your ears, is especially dramatic or exquisite?

EA: My goal with the beryllium edition was to go all out in search of fidelity.

RvB: Depending on configuration, the beryllium version is four to six times as expensive. Is it also four to six times as good?

EA: The beryllium model has a slight edge, but I'd agree it isn't four or six times better. When we switch from our standard fabric dome tweeters to all beryllium, that's a $12,000 addition. The cabinets are visually similar but internally different in construction, with the beryllium version containing more reinforcements and materials. Next, we have the addition of high-end paint work similar to Wilson and Magico. Put all that together, and it firmly plants the speakers in the $30,000/pair range. Pricing differentials like this are quite common in the realm of cool man products. For example, why is a stainless Rolex Daytona $25,000 more than the stainless Rolex Submariner model?

RvB: Beryllium drivers are associated in many people's minds with brightness, but I don't get that from the new Moabs. To my ears, they are more laid-back—that is, not treble-forward—than those 30 Be drivers suggest.

EA: I'm glad that's what you're discerning. I'm always careful to not voice speakers too forward or bright. The Satori beryllium drivers we use are exceptionally linear, and that helps too.

RvB: How do you voice your speakers? What's your benchmark?

EA: I've been a drummer since I was 12, so that's 45 years. I've loved being immersed in what real live music feels and sounds like. That's my baseline reference for tuning and voicing a loudspeaker. A majority of the work is completed through computer simulation; then we do a final voicing through careful listening. Live music, including the human voice, is full of nuances, overtones, and microdetails that can instantly turn on a dime and become visceral, dynamic, and energetic. My primary goal is to produce a loudspeaker with those reproduction abilities.

RvB: When I knock on the Moab's cabinet, it doesn't seem especially inert. Why is that? Manufacturers like Rockport and Magico go to enormous lengths to make enclosures that don't vibrate at all.

EA: The moment we move to produce an inert version of the Moab, our business model changes. The price will double, the weight will be three times more, and you'll need piano movers to get them into your house. We're not the only manufacturer doing cabinets like this. For example, Harbeth and ATC have been making loudspeakers based on similar cabinet-shaping philosophies for a lot longer than I've been around, and they both produce wonderful-sounding loudspeakers. Speaker design is an exercise in trade-offs, and I believe we've found a wonderful balance between fidelity and price.

Footnote 1: The Ulfberht is one of Tekton's top-tier models.

COMMENTS
Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on April 4, 2024 - 9:23am

When everyone in the world screams bloody murder about pricing... HERE is a perfect example of a value-minded company (that tons of non-audiophiles love and promote) that STILL has to charge 5 times the cost of their standard Moab offering to use beryllium midranges and tweeters.

Is $30k too much to ask for this uptick in performance? Probably from what I read, but you pay, you get. For once it is a clear cut example of a 'reasonable' manufacturer asking for exponentially more money for a speaker due to its part cost demanding it. Beryllium is expensive and all of the other speaker manufacturers also charge the 'same' exponentially more money for implementing in their designs.

Pause naysayers, pause and reflect the next time the urge to rant against technological advancement costs.

That being said, it will be very interesting to see where Tekton can go with their 'Magico/Wilson' killer future offering. (I personally think they will have some serious issues competing with an M9, but go for it dude!)

prerich45's picture
Submitted by prerich45 on April 4, 2024 - 9:33am

I agree with you 100%! It would be cool if Eric could build a speaker, under a six-digit figure, that competes with an M9 or a Chronosonic.

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on April 10, 2024 - 7:18pm

In-person comparisons to other speakers in that price segment, in your system ideally, will always be insightful to the real value.

I also think the percentages ratio to each other in the line would be closer to 70 or 75%, vs. higher. That material is rare and expensive.

But I would have to hear each speaker myself to make that determination, not a panel of others. And Stereophile did do panel reviews decades ago, of what was then mid-priced floorstanders.

Oops- this applies to below, not above post.

cognoscente's picture
Submitted by cognoscente on April 5, 2024 - 3:55am

You may ask yourself how close does an outstanding 5k speaker come to this one? 90%? 95%? A direct comparison of at least 3 panel members could determine this. But we don't do that here.

amplifierx's picture
Submitted by amplifierx on April 28, 2024 - 4:43am

How do you gauge %age improvement? What is important to you (me its entertainment), low end grunt, image, dynamics, PRaT, performance on vocals? If you can get all your boxes ticked for less, well done. I have old Linn Isobariks and I have had them for decades. Are there better speakers out there? Probably but I like my 'briks

tnargs's picture
Submitted by tnargs on April 10, 2024 - 6:23pm

When buyers come into a product market at every price point, as per the hifi hobby, then companies like to offer something especially at the higher price points, where the bigger margins lie. Premium price buyers are less often bargain hunters and less often interested in seeing the product as the sum of the price of its parts.

cognoscente's picture
Submitted by cognoscente on April 4, 2024 - 9:46am

The question you can ask yourself: are (most) stereophile equipment reviewers so-called jazz musicians or pop musicians?

Utopianemo's picture
Submitted by Utopianemo on April 4, 2024 - 9:52pm

Good thing you enjoyed the speakers! Mr. Alexander is developing the reputation of being someone who can’t handle reviewer criticism professionally. Even innocuous comments about plugging the ports (a practice which has gained adherents in recent years because it can tame room interactions at varying low frequencies which manufacturers cannot reasonably predict) elicit a harrumph from Mr. Alexander. I’ve personally been interested in a few of the Tekton models, but frankly I have no interest in dealing with such a character.

hifiluver's picture
Submitted by hifiluver on April 6, 2024 - 10:03pm

I'd never buy a product from any company which responds to criticism with litigation. It just means their products have no room to improve.

windansea's picture
Submitted by windansea on April 8, 2024 - 9:03pm

I read about one of his litigation threats against a reviewer. So even though I think his tweeter array idea is damn cool, I'm passing on Tekton unless the founder apologizes for the threat letters and promises to stop doing that.

prerich45's picture
Submitted by prerich45 on April 12, 2024 - 9:18am

Yeah, I've noticed post my previous comment. Eric is tripping right now. I was shocked, and appalled. I was actually interested in his products at one time....after what happened with a reviewer that I respect greatly (that hails from Alabama), I no longer have a desire to consider his wares.

georgehifi's picture
Submitted by georgehifi on April 4, 2024 - 10:45pm

They are a mechanical device, and I can't see for the life of me, even if they were Bugatti made tweeters, how they can all be so "mechanically perfectly matched" as not to smear in any way the frequencies they are all supposed to reproduce in absolute perfect unison.

(Bit like asking a one motor multi wheel "direct drive" car, to turn all the wheels with different size tires in perfect unison, not going to happen)

Cheers George

call me Artie's picture
Submitted by call me Artie on April 4, 2024 - 11:24pm

Hi George. Your "perfect unison" idea suits electronic output devices better than transducers. Transducers (speakers in this case) have inbuilt imperfections as do electronic devices. However, speaker drivers benefit from a perfect additive averaging mechanism which is the air they radiate into. Air supports megahertz frequencies. In such a case, adding more drivers each with its own unique deviations from perfection and blending the output delivers a closer-to-specification result than using a single driver, except for the rare case where one particular single driver happens to come off the production line perfect in every parameter. In all cases where drivers are produced with production tolerances, combining multiple drivers will produce an output closer to the designed spec. It's statistics. Artie
NOTE: This comment has been edited to make it clearer (I hope)

Anton's picture
Submitted by Anton on April 5, 2024 - 3:12pm

Thank you.

hb72's picture
Submitted by hb72 on April 5, 2024 - 3:43am

I guess this is true as long as the mid-freq unit(s) are used in far-field operation, right?

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 5, 2024 - 5:00am

This speaker is not going to win any beauty contests...

otaku's picture
Submitted by otaku on April 5, 2024 - 8:17am

I was thumbing through and old issue of the magazine last evening and thinking I had not seen a review of the Tektons.

RvB's picture
Submitted by RvB on April 15, 2024 - 9:34pm

We've reviewed Tektons before: the Enzo XL in 2015 and the Impact Monitors in 2018. So many worthwhile speakers, so little time!

DaveinSM's picture
Submitted by DaveinSM on April 5, 2024 - 8:00pm

I checked out Tekton’s website, and I find their approach to be unique, and refreshingly value minded.

But even their stand mounted speakers seem to be geared towards those with large rooms and a penchant for SPL. I guess it must be a function of the collective output of all those high frequency tweeters somehow meshing at the listening position.

Their big box designs remind me of vintage Cerwin-Vegas.

Jim Thiel would probably be horrified, and I can’t imagine the folks at Vandersteen, TAD, or KEF to be all that impressed either.

My room ain’t that big and I’m a bit of an imaging snob, so these aren’t my cup of tea. But I like that unique designs and ideas like this are out there.

Anton's picture
Submitted by Anton on April 6, 2024 - 10:25am

You could have been ‘Bosed.’

Tekton threatening to sue a different reviewer?

Haven’t we all seen this before?

Could the manufacturer add anything here?

georgehifi's picture
Submitted by georgehifi on April 6, 2024 - 2:03pm

rb.gy/g647y7
or here
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/legal-fund-fo...

Cheers George

DaveinSM's picture
Submitted by DaveinSM on April 6, 2024 - 7:24pm

Thanks for the link. Yikes! I actually visit ASR when cross referencing reviews, specs, and measurements. I don’t always agree with their metrics or approach, but in whole appreciate their striving for data and transparency.

This Eric Alexander seems very aggressive and hypersensitive towards any criticism, including the constructive variety. He’s going to have a tough go in the long run unless he mellows out.

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 7, 2024 - 7:35am

Yes, I think maybe Tekton is correct in pursuing legal action.
The Internet is littered with "weekend" reviewers and hacks. Just because someone can afford a fancy Klippel analyser, it does not mean they know how to use it, or know what they are doing. These hacks destroy manufacturer reputations! I think it is good a manufacturer strikes back.
Not everyone is John Atkinson.

MatthewT's picture
Submitted by MatthewT on April 7, 2024 - 9:10am

And if I post on the internet that in my personal opinion Tekton's are terrible is that worthy of getting sued?

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 7, 2024 - 5:27pm

No, but that is very different than posting bogus measurements.

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 8, 2024 - 10:07am
MatthewT wrote:
And if I post on the internet that in my personal opinion Tekton's are terrible is that worthy of getting sued?

As a regular US citizen, your publicly expressed opinions have First Amendment protection. That won't necessarily prevent someone from suing you for libel or defamation, but it is an effective defense if there was no malice underlying the expression of your opinion

However, a 1990s Supreme Court opinion held that an opinion expressed by a recognized authority on a subject might not necessarily have First Amendment protection, the authority of the opinion-expresser causing that opinion to be taken as fact.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

tnargs's picture
Submitted by tnargs on April 10, 2024 - 8:27pm

So, JA, his first amendment rights will protect him unless he is a recognised authority....but many Stereophile readers commenting here say Erin is an ignorant hack....yet those same commenters are saying it is good that he is being litigated and he should be targeted with litigation....??????

Can't have your cake and eat it too, guys. If JA is right about the law, and you are right about him being a hack, then you should be arguing in his defence.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 7, 2024 - 12:48pm

or MQA might just come for you! They need cash, as you know... :)

Also, the Tekton guy can sue but at least here in the USA (which is the jurisdiction where said act occurred), they will lose pre-trial on 1st Amendment grounds - it would have to be malicious, and I haven't seen that from Erin. If Erin lives in a state with an anti-SLAPP law and Tekton brings suit they'll double lose - money due to the nature of anti-SLAPP laws, and they'll be "dead" to the hi-fi press so he'll lose publicity, then distribution, and eventually the company will go under. The second happens regardless - he is literally on the verge of comitting career suicide.

This litigiousness may also be why JA only mentioned the comb filtering in the bass but not the treble - AVTech Media's lawyers don't want to deal with it. I doubt you'll see another Tekton product reviewed by an AVTech Media publication - lawyers are expensive, who needs the headache? There are plenty of other speaker makers doing interesting stuff that are professional and easy to get along with.

Unless your product is crap, a review is free press, and very important press for smaller companies like Tekton. It's also important for the publication - it's the content pipeline and borrowing is fiscally better than purchasing. Both are better than ASR's "hey guys send me whatever crap you have laying around to measure" gear aquisition method.

I do really like that they let the guy from Tekton make the no comb filter claim and on the very next page there's a graph that says, "uh, yeah, about that... not so much." Saying he's wrong without words, JA knows how the business works.

Tekton is in serious need of a very good PR firm, stat. I mean, most comments here are about the lawsuit stuff, not their product; and there's other, more concerning stuff out there but I don't know if anyone brought receipts so I won't repeat any of it.

An amusing aside, my cousin Dan lives in a suburb of Indy.

Mark Phillips

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 8, 2024 - 9:28am

What ridiculous, petty comment!

You have shown ZERO reason to conclude Erin or Amir are "hacks" and don't know how to measure, and neither has anyone else produced objective data to substantiate such a claim.

Do you always just throw around insults, assuming the worst, without any work or evidence to back up your assumptions?

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 8, 2024 - 10:15am

but Amir is very much a hack, assuming hack means guy who doesn't know what he's doing but pretends he does. Amir's incompetence and inability to take constructive criticism are well documented. Even on his forums, where both users and mfg's will explain to Amir, with *science*, why he's wrong he gets all pissy and digs his heels in. Erin seems both more affable and competent, but I don't know his bona fides in/re EE and acoustics so... shrug?

Lucky for Amir being ignorant is not illegal or actionable in civil court without malice, and as far as I can tell he's not malicious in his actions. He just simply lacks competence (with a bit of Dunning-Kruger and narcissism going on too).

Mark Phillips

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 8, 2024 - 10:19am

So can you point out the flaw in Amir's measurements re the Tekton speaker he reviewed?

Oh, and this:

Erin seems both more affable and competent, but I don't know his bona fides in/re EE and acoustics so... shrug?

Ah, but this didn't stop you from slagging him off as a "hack" too, right?

Classy. I'm afraid I'll take your view with a grain of salt given the context.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 8, 2024 - 1:17pm

I'm referring specifically to Amir's incompetent measurements of the Magnapan LRS - a LOT of people had to point out that a dipole planar cannot be measured like a cones and dome in a box speaker, and he's all like nuh uh, I'm right you're wrong. His bio is also funny (in a sad way).

There've been other examples, but I ain't going to go looking for them. Hegel does come to mind though. Amir is basically an influencer, but with his own website instead of instagram/youtube/etc. He reviewed a Tekton speaker? Good for him I guess. I didn't read it, and won't unless he gets sued. Why? Because he's *bad* at his job.

I said Amir is a hack (he is), and that I don't know about Erin so made no comment on hackery. In fact, in the quote you highlighted, I said he *seemed* more competent and affable (I've not seen him go after people who disagree with him like Amir and his cult do) but I don't *know* if that's truth or facade because I don't know his background (and have only seen a couple of his reviews). Hence, shrug. How does that translate to calling him a hack? It doesn't, except in your imagination.

Words, their meaning and the order in which they are placed, are important. Learn to read AND understand before commenting on something someone has written. It will keep embarrassing incidents like this from happening to you in the future.

Now, good day to you.
I said, "Good day."

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 8, 2024 - 1:27pm

First, I'm sorry but indeed mix you up with the original person I responded to, with regard to including Erin in the "hack" category. (I thought it was the original gentleman responding to my criticism).

Second, I find your assessment of Amir quite exaggerated. Someone measuring a great many loudspeakers in public is likely to get some things wrong at various points, and as an ASR member I'm quite aware of the pushback Amir gets. But finding a few errors in Amir's reviews, picking and choosing from among the hundreds and hundreds and ignoring all the good information and measurements he has provided, does not entail he is "bad at his job." Unless one is prone to black and white thinking.

Anyway, to cite another film: Stay classy!

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 9, 2024 - 3:35pm

but Amir is not competent and the website isn't very useful. Most of what he tests is literally crap people have in their closets or got off eBay. A lot of it is discontinued as well. The rest of it is disposable stuff like Topping and SMSL. The members don't help, it's a big time echo chamber. They slag equipment based purely on measurements, which is pretty ignorant.

There are measurements that correlate to good/bad sound *for me* but I don't tell people they're wrong for liking linear phase reconstruction filters on DACs or class D amps. I've seen many places where people will tell me I'm wrong for preferring minimum phase filters (not just ASR). Also, can't eat steak unless it's well done - otherwise it tastes like metal. No ketchup though, just salt 'n pepper. Tons of people will tell me I'm wrong about steak, but they're apparently incapable of empathy.

No recording of acoustic instruments exists with better than about 80dB S/N ratio (it's the mic's, then everything else if it ain't classical/jazz), so the site's obsession with SINAD makes me chuckle. Also, every method of driving down distortion to below ~110 dB S/N that I've heard did not sound good - TANSTAAFL. Simple internal balancing and good design/parts/tolerances is the least harmful that I've personally heard but it won't get you a super low S/N. The only feed-forward system I've heard also removed distortion from the recording and sounded awful; unless you count the servo circuit in a Velodyne subwoofer, which was fine.

"That's it man, game over man - game over!"

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 9, 2024 - 3:45pm

Ok...so you have some opinions. That's fine. But you have nothing like Amir's objective evidence that I can see for your opinions.

Also this: "The members don't help, it's a big time echo chamber. "

Is far from accurate. Anyone who has actually paid attention would know that Amir gets TONS of pushback from forum members, on reviews, on some of his views about audio or speakers in general, there are TONS of vigorous debates. In fact I myself have a huge number of posts that run counter to what Amir and some folks there believe. But the debate is feisty and healthy there...with more leeway allowed than many other audio forums I'm familiar with.

MatthewT's picture
Submitted by MatthewT on April 10, 2024 - 10:41am

Is different than mine. Got a link to one of these "debates" that's not full of ridicule for the poster who listens to music, not measurements?

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 10, 2024 - 10:57am

No doubt your idea of a debate is different. It would be pointless then to point you to debates on a forum that is dedicated to objective data as a centre for discussion.

You do realize that audio gear is not "Music?" Audio gear is in the realm of engineering/science, of which there is a long history of knowledge.

MatthewT's picture
Submitted by MatthewT on April 10, 2024 - 11:02am

Just another measurement-masturbator? I love this welcoming post at ASR:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/message-to-golden-eared-audiophiles-posting-at-asr-for-the-first-time.17598/

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 10, 2024 - 12:07pm

Charming.

I don't think conversation will go anywhere. So long.

tnargs's picture
Submitted by tnargs on April 12, 2024 - 4:23pm

Amir is right and you are wrong about his Magnepan LRS review: every dipole fan from here to the Himalayas howled in outrage that it can't be judged from the Klippel NFS measurements, and it's simply not a valid objection. It's just fanboy outrage. Klippel are clear that the NFS can be used to measure any speaker dispersion: monopole, dipole, quadrapole, pretzelapole... and Dr Sean Olive has proven with listening tests, and stated out loud, that every speaker type of every dispersion is more preferred when its direct sound field is smooth, level, and extended.

BTW JA is a regular contributor on Amir's website, and does not seem to be an arch critic of his approach. In fact his first post there was to congratulate Amir on his measurements. So much for "hack": I sense a case of pot-kettle-black. Good day to you.

hifiluver's picture
Submitted by hifiluver on April 8, 2024 - 9:21pm

Amir a hack? If his Bio is what he says, he is far from being a hack. He used to work in a technical capacity in a major electronics conglomerate which churned out credible above average products. We the readers and consumers ae the hacks, swayed by glossy centerfolds' and colorful prose from magazines who accept money from organizations whose products they are making an assessment of. Who are the real hacks?

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 9, 2024 - 1:58pm

He worked at Microsoft, a software company, and says fiddling with electronics gave him the magical ability to "know" everything about them or some such pablum. He was primarily a programmer and manager.

Also, There's very much a huckster quality to both his bio and his website. He's making a lot of money off the donations on his BBS, because his costs are just hosting a website (I'm sure the test equipment was amortized and deducted off his taxes). The donations to an already wealthy guy to do poor quality testing of whatever crap people sends him (for free!) smells like first rate P.T. Barnum to me.

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 9, 2024 - 3:40pm

The donations to an already wealthy guy to do poor quality testing of whatever crap people sends him (for free!) smells like first rate P.T. Barnum to me.

LOL. "Poor quality testing." Amir has the finest equipment for testing electronic gear as well as loudspeakers. Pointing out a few things you disagree with is hardly evidence all the other results he's given are "poor quality."

As you say: he is well off. He hardly needs the money. Instead he has been willing to measure whatever anyone wants to send him (including audio companies). He has put a tremendous amount of work...FOR FREE...in creating a large database of measurements.

A lot of us are grateful for the work Amir has put in to this. Doesn't mean that it's all just received uncritically. But he has made some fantastic contributions, especially his videos unravelling various dubious audio products and claims, putting them to tests that go beyond common audiophile anecdotes.

I'll take Amir's work over cynical sniping in a Stereophile comment section.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on May 8, 2024 - 2:52pm

I don't know what's wrong with people and Amir standing up for objective measurement. Apparently all these attackers have going for there is their own feelings. Because I see no evidence.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on May 8, 2024 - 2:48pm

See KLIPPEL

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 10, 2024 - 4:03am

I fully agree Amir is a hack! He also loves the sound of his own voice, and is a legend in his own mind.
I know some are impressed with his "computer guy" credentials. I am not. I have met plenty of people with so called credentials who were bad at their job. Ever had a bad doctor? Yup, they exist.

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 10, 2024 - 8:52am

I fully agree that you are a terrible and dangerous driver.

Do you think someone should actually give good reasons for such an assessment, or should we all lazily toss around character attacks?

What is your actual evidence Amir doesn't know what he is doing? Other than "I don't like him."

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 10, 2024 - 3:05pm

RH, you need to stop being an Amir groupie. It is pathetic...

RH's picture
Submitted by RH on April 10, 2024 - 3:54pm

You have no idea what you are talking about. I have probably clashed with Amir more than anyone on the ASR forum. However I can also recognize he has contributed plenty of excellent information for audiophiles.

Try for a moment to stop...think...respond with actual evidence backing up your claim that Amir doesn't know what he is doing, rather than mindlessly uttering "hack" and "groupie."

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on May 8, 2024 - 2:50pm

I have no idea where people are getting these horrible opinions of him.

Indydan's picture
Submitted by Indydan on April 10, 2024 - 3:06pm

Ask Hegel if they think Amir is a hack. Go on, ask Hegel...

SteveR1's picture
Submitted by SteveR1 on April 10, 2024 - 7:51pm

I think he was being subtle...

himey's picture
Submitted by himey on April 15, 2024 - 12:34pm

Hopefully ASR sues you for the diss.

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on April 8, 2024 - 9:37am

And ironic. Go after the reviewers of an 'objective' measurements website.

He will win, but he also will need an attorney. Shame.

Not sure what the rationale is but Tekton's tack here is tactless. lol.

windansea's picture
Submitted by windansea on April 8, 2024 - 9:08pm

We cannot possibly know the impact of a litigious firm on the subconscious of a reviewer. But it cannot be good! It has to be at the back of the mind. Come on Tekton, apologize and quit the legal threats! They are POISON.

supamark's picture
Submitted by supamark on April 6, 2024 - 3:05pm

Weird that the mfg claims no comb filtering yet there it is in the measurements from about 3.5kHz to about 11 khz. It's minor and likely inaudible with music, but it is there. A steeper low pass on the midrange arrays would likely fix it, but there may be valid performance reasons that wasn't done. The comb filtering in the bass is... funny? Wish JA had done an in-room response measurement on these while he was there.

Anyway, I've never heard any of their speakers, and the look is not for me (and at this price point that is important). The litigious nature of the company is also quite worrisome to me. Threatening to sue reviewers over reviews you don't like is how you make sure nobody talks about your product, very shortsighted. Just a huge self own.

Take the criticism, and if *objectively* valid correct the problem if you can. If it isn't valid, tell them why with science. If it's purely subjective, welcome to civilization where different people can like different things - and send it to someone who likes the same things you do (knowing reviewer tastes/reference equipment is how you get good reviews - i.e. don't send a flea Watt SET amp to JVS or MF, it will NOT sound good with their current hungry speakers).

Mark Phillips

Archimago's picture
Submitted by Archimago on April 7, 2024 - 8:55am

If the measurements are true then accept them for what they are and maybe explain why the speakers still sound good.

If the results are untrue, then put out a rebuttal and publish their own official measurements to show that the device performs better than what was found and the measurements could have been in error. Erin seems to be a very reasonable fellow and I'm sure he would amend or update his findings.

I imagine consumers at this point appreciate that many audiophile products simply do not measure well; so be it.

The design of the Tekton Troubadour Eric Alexander is being litigious about is clearly unusual and to find less-than-ideal measurements would be expected even if someone like Guttenberg likes them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq_LaiSXB4g

So it goes with the subjective vs. objective debate and human preferences...

Homer Theater's picture
Submitted by Homer Theater on August 28, 2024 - 5:43pm

Get a rotating platform big enough to hold the speakers you want to evaluate for comb filtering. It would be massively convenient if it was motorized with remote control, otherwise, you will need an assistant. Setup the speakers in question so their toe and distances are correct, mark those positions on the rotating platform for reference. Then, while listening to music, rotate one of the loudspeakers roughly 20-degrees to both sides of the alignment mark. If comb filtering is present, you will hear/feel a nearly physical sensation of "pages of sound" flipping past you. If comb filtering is insignificant, the sound over the 40 degrees of rotation won't change much (excellent dispersion and off axis linearity). Of course, speakers with single or multiple tweeters aimed forward will lose some high frequencies as you move off the ideal axis, but that's understandable and "normal" and feels/sounds nothing like comb filtering. Rotating the speaker while listening to some full-range and complex music is HIGHLY instructive. You can move yourself as an alternative to rotating the speaker if you have a way to setup a seat with easy/smooth horizontal left-right mobility that's easier to manage than rotating the speaker. I can attest to being able to hear comb filtering with a helper rotating the speaker on the floor while music plays. And don't to the rotation or left-right repositioning of the listener too slowly. You want to do it quickly enough the "pages of sound" effect is quite obvious. When you move the speaker through that approximate 40 degree arc, do the rotating in about 1 second and experiment with slightly quicker and slightly slower rotations to find the speed that makes the comb filtering most obvious. You can do other things to/with the speakrs while listening that will blow your mind == create a clamping force on the speaker cabinet (use a block of soft wood with felt between your clamping device and the cabinet to prevent marks on the cabinet. Then vary the clamping force while listening to music. It is freaky how easy is is to hear the sound change by making this change while music is playing. It is much more difficult to have to get up, change the clamping force, sit back down and not hear the change while it was happening... this is another case when having a helper adjust the clamping while you listen is a requirement. You can do the same for your helper if your helper happens to be interested. This also works for mass loading (you can hear the sound change as you load more and more mass onto the speaker).

The "pages of sound" description I used is intended to convey sort of what it's like to hear comb-filtered sound as the source of the sound is rotated. If you've ever flipped pages in a book vigorously enough to feel "wind" coming off the book... that is sort of the effect you hear/feel when a comb-filtering speaker is rotated while you listen to music. A speaker without comb filtering may have the high frequencies drop off a little at the extremes of the rotation, but there will be no "pages of sound" effect as you get with a comb filtering speaker. Any speaker with a tweeter in the middle that is flanked by midrange drivers is going to have comb filtering... when the speaker is VERTICAL. If you lay the speaker on it's side and rotate it, the dispersion will be pretty solid. But if you raise and lower the speaker while listening, you will hear the comb filtering again as though the speaker was standing up again. The "pages of music" sound is not something you hear during normal listening because, obviously, the speaker is normally stationary. But some observant listeners can move their heads a foot to the left and a foot to the right to hear slightly different tonal versions of the music. Panel speakers are fairly notorious for comb filtering also.

Jewbacca's picture
Submitted by Jewbacca on April 8, 2024 - 9:14am

Surely not. One of the things our military learned after Vietnam was to order all POWs to say whatever their captors told them to say on video. They'll torture you anyway and eventually get their propaganda. If possible, hide a sign or certain code words in plain site to let people in the know what is really going on and what you are saying is under duress -- i.e., from marketing or legal, in this case.

In the opening paragraph, all caps is "VERY BAD WOULD NOT RECOMMEND."

It's literally the most obvious phrase of the article. The rest was damning with faint praise.

In my humble opinion, the author is either a vet, knows one well, or read the right books.

Very clever. Kudos.

teched58's picture
Submitted by teched58 on April 8, 2024 - 1:33pm

Now that you let the cat out of the bag, we will never, ever ever see that phrase in a Stereophile article again!

windansea's picture
Submitted by windansea on April 8, 2024 - 9:11pm

Very insightful. LOL. Blink twice if you need help!

RvB's picture
Submitted by RvB on April 15, 2024 - 10:33pm

In the opening paragraph, all caps is "VERY BAD WOULD NOT RECOMMEND." It's literally the most obvious phrase of the article. The rest was damning with faint praise. ... the author is either a vet, knows one well, or read the right books.

I think I can speak to what the author intended, as I am he.

Kindly note that I chose the original (non-beryllium) Moabs as my reference speakers in 2020, and that they served in that capacity for two and a half years, until I bought a pair of Focal Utopia Scala Evos.

By the way, the Moabs replaced speakers that cost more than twice as much. When I picked them, they edged out dozens of other possible choices in the $5-25K category.

Which do you think is more likely: that I truly loved them, or that I deceived everyone, including myself, by deliberately choosing reference gear I could barely stand?

Jewbacca's picture
Submitted by Jewbacca on May 20, 2024 - 8:36am

I also do not doubt your fondness for the Tekton "OG" at their price point.

This review, however, was for the Tekton BE at $30K.

georgehifi's picture
Submitted by georgehifi on April 9, 2024 - 5:41pm

Artie: "Your "perfect unison" idea suits electronic output devices better than transducers.'

Yes electronic devices (semiconductors) can mimic each other far more exactly than any electro mechanical devices (such as tweeters) can.
That's why I find it hard to believe that 15 x electro mechanical tweeters all vibrating at 10's of thousands of cycles per second can follow each other as perfectly as one unit is doing it.
Tweeters are all about being precise. This is another analogy, 1 person singing vs 15, which will have the better to understand diction
Cheers George

tnargs's picture
Submitted by tnargs on April 10, 2024 - 5:58pm

What unfortunate timing! Publishing this a couple of days after Tekton shows its true colours with legal aggression against a small-time YT reviewer for publishing his measurements and personal opinions of one of their speakers. Simple bullying with money, and almost certainly in the knowledge that a judge would throw out any such suit, but the legal costs of a defence will deter the defendant.

Horrible, corporation-standing-over-citizen behaviour.

Perhaps this is a cue for Editor Austin to publish a full editorial on the issue. Let's see where he plants his flag!

Shahram's picture
Submitted by Shahram on April 12, 2024 - 11:32am

Erin's review of the speaker wasn't even negative. He just commented on the upper midrange having more presence than he prefers and something about a possible resonance that wasn't even audible. Whether or not you think Erin's reviews and measurements hold water is irrelevant. Eric Alexander's behavior towards a smalltime YT reviewer was unacceptable and childish. Why would someone want to buy speakers from someone like that? It definitely has put a bad taste in my mouth.

DougM's picture
Submitted by DougM on April 13, 2024 - 3:47pm

Erin is a genuinely nice guy, and is NOT full of himself like Amir is. Furthermore, his review was for the most part very positive, but for one small comment that Eric got his panties all in a bunch over and acted like a spoiled petulant child. Erin bent over backwards to be cool and rectify the situation, but Eric continued to act like a total DB, and would settle for nothing but having the review removed and replaced by a fluff piece written by him that was 100% complimentary with no objectivity at all. I suggest everyone watch Erin's follow-up video he just posted about the whole situation, which includes email exchanges between the two of them. I don't always agree with Erin on his subjective judgements, but his data is IMO unimpeachable.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on May 8, 2024 - 2:47pm

I've never seen Amir be "full of himself." He has a highly accurate measurement device in the Klippel. Amir stands up for objective measurement and I agree with him. If you doubt the accuracy of the Klippel to "real" measurements, then see the back and forth with the Neumann KH80, and Neumann's own measurments on audiosciencereview. .5 DB off.... These speakers measure horribly, and... there's no doubt. I've never seen Amir be abusive to anyone.

Randolf's picture
Submitted by Randolf on April 16, 2024 - 12:50pm

The Tekton tweeter array is a unique design in the sense that it uses tweeters acting as midrange drivers to achieve lower crossover frequencies and therefore playing some part of the midrange with low mass tweeters. However, the achieved cross over frequencies (14+1 array: 772Hz, 6+1 array: ~1000Hz, 2+1 array: ~1200Hz) still leaves a substantial midrange part for the big 12" woofers. The design pattern is expensive. By using SB Acoustics Satori Berylium tweeters, it becomes even more expensive. It uses the tweeters below their optimal frequency range (closer to their resonance frequency with raised distortion). It is somewhat questionable if one cannot achieve better results with a more traditional and typically less expensive single midrange driver or in some cases array of smaller midrange drivers. Both achieving even lower crossover frequencies to avoid using the woofer above its optimal frequency range.

DougM's picture
Submitted by DougM on April 17, 2024 - 6:06pm

John Atkinson's accelerometer spectral decay plot of this speaker shows several cabinet resonances. Did Eric threaten to sue Stereophile, or does he only pick on little guys he thinks he can push around? He seems to be a real immature self centered jackass that I wouldn't support, no matter how much I liked his product.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on April 24, 2024 - 6:23pm

You don't go after people if they have accurate measurements of your product, and say so. Deplorable.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on April 24, 2024 - 6:21pm

Yes.

MikeSTL's picture
Submitted by MikeSTL on May 10, 2024 - 7:12pm

$15,000 is too much for these monoliths.

Brent Busch's picture
Submitted by Brent Busch on May 1, 2024 - 4:34am

The impedance and phase look like poop, and the step response isn't any better. Hopefully he won't sue for thinking negatively of his speakers.

laxr5rs's picture
Submitted by laxr5rs on May 8, 2024 - 2:42pm

Deplorable. My shadow will never be cast around any area of Earth where these speakers might be purchased.

MikeSTL's picture
Submitted by MikeSTL on May 10, 2024 - 7:10pm

Suing a reviewer over a measurement dispute? WOW! I admit I’ve never been a Tekton fan. I’ve always thought of them as “red neck” speakers. Just make them bigger, add as many drivers as you can squeeze in, and make them play with the max SPL possible. Like the big box speakers of the 70s. Not my style and now DEFINITELY not my style. Wouldn’t waste a minute of my life listening to them after such adolescent behavior for the owner. Good riddance!

X