“Invest” in Tekton?


I’ve been a member of Audiogon for a while but haven’t really had the need to utilize the forums until now... I’ve perused the forums pretty extensively the past couple of days but haven’t really found my specific question.... First some background: I’ve had my current system for quite some time (PSB image: 5t, 9c, 2b, subsonic 6; Denon AVR3311 as preamp; and a NAD T955 amp) and have been pretty happy with it... yes, I tend to hold on to my stuff for a while.... I recently decided to explore the option of upgrading/updating my speakers and was pretty interested in some midlevel stuff (SVS Prime, Emotiva, PSB X2T, Paradigm 8, 9, or 10 something…) but ultimately decided the $2000-$3000 price tag wasn’t worth the investment as they were all roughly in the same league as my PSBs... Somehow, I stumbled upon the review of the Tekton double impacts... don’t even know how I found it but there I was... I kinda chuckled to myself when the reviewer started comparing them to $20,000 speakers and then started calling them better at some things... I was a little pessimistic about the review because in my aforementioned research every speaker was the greatest thing since sliced bread.. (To be honest, in my eyes, the professional reviewers lost some credibility because every speaker was just great, couldn’t find a bad review no matter how hard I tried...) Anyhow, the comparison to speakers 7-10x in price piqued my curiosity so I started snooping around for any Tekton reviews I could find and lo and behold, everyone loves them and the comparisons to speakers multiple times their price were plentiful. Ok, so the Tektons are good and now I’m more interested than I should be…

So here’s the rub… I’ve never even considered spending $5000-$6000 on a speaker system (5.0-5.1). Never in my wildest dreams… I’ve always had a theoretical limit of $3k and never gave anything above that a thought. Along comes Tekton with speakers that are in the 5-6k price range (5.0-5.1) but are being compared to speakers $20,000+ and the fact people are putting them in the same league as speakers in that price range, and saying they are better in some instances, is intriguing…

So here’s where I am asking for some assistance. It seems the Tekton lineup is a unique opportunity to acquire reportedly superior sonic performance with apparently unparalleled value. However, $5-6k is a TON of money in my world.. It won’t break the bank but admittedly, it bends it pretty significantly and spending this kind of money on speakers definitely wasn’t a consideration even a week ago… Personally, I am seeing this as a once in a lifetime purchase (am 43 and would expect these to be the last major speaker purchase of my life) but I do need to justify to my betrothed. My original sales pitch to her included the analogy “it seems they are selling Lamborghinis for the price of a Mustang…” and “I really don’t think there will be another opportunity like this” (when did I start selling timeshares???!!!) There are other barriers with her as well (e.g., “They’re how big?!”) but she does have somewhat of an understanding of how much I like music and stereo stuff.. somewhat…

So my actual questions:

  1. To those that have actually heard the speakers, (transducers?)… do you really feel they are leaps and bounds better than typical speakers in the 3-6k range (generally speaking…)? For comparison, I liked the SVS Ultras but due to price and size (yeah, I know how big the Tektons are..) I put them in the “maybe someday” category. To be clear, I’m not asking is “x better than y?” but rather “Do these $3000 speakers really belong in the same class as $20,000 speakers????

  2. In your humble opinions, is this really a rare/unique opportunity with unparalleled value that is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” or are situations like this (incredible value for the money) more common?

  3. I can’t even claim to have a basic understanding of electronics, I’ve read up on ohms and what not and my eyes glaze over.. I spoke with Eric and he, without hesitation, stated my NAD T955 would be plenty sufficient to run whatever options I went with. Thoughts? I intend on using the NAD until it dies (hopefully no time soon) and will deal with next steps when the time is right…

  4. I am super nervous about ordering something so expensive unheard, If anyone is interested, I would like to have a discussion relating to my type of music and listening environment/levels.. (not including in this post to keep size down..)

  5. Any other relavant information I haven't considered, particularly in the area of justifying a purchase such as this?

There are probably 100 other little tidbits I could include in this but I am trying to be as brief as possible and I still wrote a novel… Anyhow, any productive assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

la10slgr

Hi Walter,

Thanks for chiming in!  I'm an analogy kinda guy so it seems you are saying I am putting some monster truck tires on a regular pickup?  I hear you on that and am totally on board with the concept of system balance.  I was already wondering that myself (which is why I am asking the things I am asking)...  My first clue was seeing everyone's set up and they are all talking about amps I have never heard of and here I come along with my NAD... Not that there's anything inherently wrong with it (I do love it) but yeah, different leagues...  What Tektons were you thinking of?

I have already put together various packages with/without a sub. 
I talked to Eric and he initially recommended the DIs but also recommended the Electron and Enzo 2.7s for my purposes.  However, by the time you put together a 5.0 or 5.1 there is only about a 10% difference between the DI pkg and the Electron pkg. As for the Enzos, it's a little harder to calculate (can't determine if the pkg does/does not include a sub among other variances) but there does seem to be some savings there...

Chayro:  Thanks for the response.  Totally agree hearing them is the best option but short of driving to Orem Utah not much of an option as 15% restocking fee at $5,000 = $750...  Ironically, I saw they (Tekton) will be at a convention in LA in June and I will miss them by 1 day... 

As for sound quality, note I wasn't asking about that as I understand all of the concepts you presented (took great pains when writing the post to avoid doing just that!) just wanted to know if people really felt they were that good.

kdude66,

thanks for the input and will be interested to hear your impressions. I imagine you have a list of components that are pretty spiffy?

The di's are a speaker that could be put into any modest system and still sound fantastic.They have good enough bass that I don't have my subs even on.
I moved back too 2 channel from full blown home theater about 9 yrs ago,we don't miss it a bit.

This a speaker that a person could easily build any kind of system around, It's that good.This is the first and only tekton speaker that I have heard,some of the smaller ones do look interesting though.

I use a pair of bel canto ref600m amps with a bel canto pre3,with a ps audio direct stream dac and a Wilson Bensch circle turntable with a zyx cartridge.But if I still had only My Simaudio Intergrated I'm sure I would still be happy.I owned and used the sim for 18yrs and just recently sold it.I have a smaller 2nd system where my older gear usually ends up.

Ive been blessed with lots of very good gear over the years and wish the Di's would have around 25 yrs ago.

It's all about the music for me,and I hope I helped you make your important decision.

Kenny.
Love your post! I am thinking the same thing about over the top reviews. I am now deaf to them and question how long this particular speaker will be a darling. I continue to read about them, but have not heard them as yet. Too many have cried "fire" in the past and no fire was there.

I don’t doubt the owner comments or the integrity of the professional reviewer, but the fact is all the passed hyped reviews have impacted many of us in this hobby. Hard, no nearly impossible, to put much stock in these reviews any longer. I seriously doubt the DI speaker sounds better than the AZ Crescendo ( as one review states) in the areas important to me and others. I just doubt it. Goodness I so dislike typing these words, but just being honest about the state of industry reviews and hype.

I do think that for $3000 you really can’t go wrong and most likely would not do any better. Now are they $25,000 speaker killers? Well you see my skepticism.

Love to hear them, but the cost is too high to return if I don't like them. Both the monetary and hassle factor with such a large speaker.