Tekton Double Impacts


Anybody out there heard these??

I have dedicated audio room 14.5x20.5x9 ft.  Currently have Marantz Reference CD/Intergrated paired to Magnepan 1.7's with REL T-7 subs.  For the vast majority of music I love this system.  The only nit pick is that it is lacking/limited in covering say below 35 hz or so.  For the first time actually buzzed the panel with an organ sacd. Bummer.  Thought of upgrading subs to rythmicks but then I will need to high pass the 1.7's.  Really don't want to deal with that approach.

Enter the Double Impacts.  Many interesting things here.  Would certainly have a different set of strengths here.  Dynamics, claimed bottom octave coverage in one package, suspect a good match to current electronics.

I've read all the threads here so we do not need to rehash that.  Just wondering if others out there have FIRST HAND experience with these or other Tekton speakers

Thanks.
corelli
Double Impact SE - "The Eagle has Landed!"

Setup the very first pair of Double Impact SE speakers today!  Even on my own, I had the speakers unboxed and setup in about 30 minutes.  Out of the box, the paint quality is very nice and the best I have seen Tekton do to date.

The customer had some old sound craftsman amplifiers, which actually sounded pretty good on the DI-SE.  Then we tested with the Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL2 (and a whopping 1 watt of power) with great results!  We also tried using the MicroZOTL2 as a pre-amp with Consonance  2A3 amplifier which also sounded fantastic.

Eric and Tekton did it again with another winner!  For me they are exactly what I was hoping for...a more refined version of an already great speaker (DI).  Can't wait to get our pair!

Mike
Audio Archon - dealer
You comments are interesting and somewhat contrary to the near universal praise of the Lyngdorf by those who have heard it. I get the impression that Kenny is as impressed with the Lyngdorf 2170 as much as Grannyring is.

I don't believe my comments are somewhat contrary to the near universal praise of the Lyngdorf.

I, too, was impressed with the Lyngdorf. So much, in fact, that it competed with the might Chord DAVE. Indeed, that's when I began to question how much of Chord's sound quality was in the power of suggestion versus a "real" quantifiable judgement in SQ improvements.

However, there are different levels of heaven. If it weren't so then we wouldn't have nothing demarcating "this" from "that," or "that" from "this." The Linn just happens to be on a different level above anything else I've heard after considerable scrutiny. It has nothing to do with cost (though I'll admit that I didn't pay anywhere close to retail for the Linn).

My mention of the Linn KDS/3 was to add a little sauce to the discussion, whether readers think it's a real-world option or not. The fact is, in the audiophile world, the search for the last 1%-3% of SQ is again, using distance as an analogy, the greatest distance to traverse in our search for nirvana. It is within this far distant realm that the Linn lives, at to me that might or might not incur an acceptable cost to performance ratio. People spend much more in those last percentages on cables, cords, and magic hoodoo boxes.

That said, USB is dying - or at the very least it should be killed - for there really isn't a reason for digital streaming to go through a separate box to get to your main processor. It's a whole sub-industry that functions on antiquated technology: one that is flawed, and becoming divisive, not to mention the almost universal skimping on more robust/delicate internal power supply integration. Too many cookie-cutter products out there, which the Lyngdorf is not; nevertheless, short of HDMI as a transfer protocol (which isn’t galvanically isolated), the inputs are as standard as the rest of the “standards.” Galvanic isolation is also a must when you’re spending $5k-$6k on a unit.

I would say that the Lyngdorf is a smidge darkish, but only a tad. I attribute this to the Class D integration, which, in the Lyndorf’s case, a far sight better than too-bright signature of competing Class D like NAD. The effect is that it imparted a little warmth, which was very pleasing.

At the time, the Lyngdorf was driving my EggelstonWorks Andra IIs, in a very open room with lots of furniture, so the room correction worked its charm, though without being setup properly, it could also sound artificial. With a little work (though not much) I got the unit singing!

Also, at the time, the Lyngdorf’s competition was the Chord DAVE and the Metrum Adagio, both DACs using either the Benchmark AHB2 or the D-Sonic amp I had in at the time, to compare upper-echelon Class D.

In the end, the Lyngdorf was a great performer, and I went with the Chord DAVE, because at the time, admittedly, I bought into their business model, which I later found to be lacking, despite the excellent SQ. Could I have lived with the Lyngdorf? That’s tough, because I knew I was getting an ever so slightly skewed, though pleasing, performance. Then again, what isn’t skewed one way or another, for better or worse? Everything is colored, but for me, I try to whittle it down to the lesser of an evil in my evaluations.

Eventually, of course, I went with the Linn KDS/3 because it was the Chord DAVE + the Chord Blu2 in one unit, with the extreme benefit of having a direct ethernet input, Chord-like power supplies for every phase, to ensure signal integrity, and a pre-amp volume without degradation and/or added distortion when you goose the volume. Also, like I said above, although it doesn’t have an amp like the Lyngdorf, the principle is very similar, in that the signal has its final conversion right before the RCAs or XLRs, in affect keeping it digital until the last possible moment (the Lyngdorf might have the edge of this, though, even if it doesn’t matter for the above reasons, and more). Throw in the Linn room correction and periodic software updates, and those are added bonuses.

I don’t do benchmark tests, although I enjoy reading them, but I care about specs to a certain extent. I’m still learning (shouldn’t we all?), so I’m always fascinated by reading thoughts and feelings on other people’s gear. However, there had to come a time where I quite auditioning the latest flavors, bringing in $50k worth of MSB, dCS, and TotalDac to audition. My pockets aren’t that deep, and it’s a good thing, too, because lesser priced units like the DAVE, the Linn, the Lyngdorf, the Metrum, and the DEQX were “destroying” them, as they were “miles better,” the former units being priced for people with more money than sense.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the initial report.  Increased refinement? Just what I had suspected would be the case,  improving an already fine speaker. I'm curious to read Teajay’s comments on these speakers. 
Charles 
Hi Evolvist,
Thanks much for the additional insightful comments. I’m not disputing your comparison results at all, you’ve heard both and I’ve heard neither. What caught my attention/curiosity was the miles ahead analogy used.

It simply made me wonder what the Linn must sound like to create such a performance gulf between it and the highly regarded Lyngdorf. Your follow up post leads me to understand your perspective more clearly.  The Linn/Lyngdorf may be analogous to the Double Impact/Wilson Sasha comparison done earlier in this thread.  Vastly different price strata yet sonically competitive to some listeners.  You just never know until you actually listen. 
Charles