New Tekton Pendragons On The Way


I am quite thrilled and also quite nervous in having ordered a pair of the Pendragon speakers this afternoon. I am doing this mostly on the reviews and also after receiving communication from Eric Alexander, owner of Tekton Designs.

Let me go back a little. I recently changed the tubes in my Rogue Cronus Magnum integrated from the KT120 to EL34 tubes. I have fallen in love with the EL34 sound and now my present speakers sound thin unless really cranked. I attribute that to it's 89db sensitivity whereas the Pendragons have a 95 db sensitivity. This should give me a much fuller sound at lower volume levels.

This is my secondary system in my home office and I play it 8 hours a day so it gets much more use than my reference system downstairs in our living room. Many of the reviews both pro and consumer say it's the speaker for someone who loves music. So now the wait begins to receive them. Supposedly they keep this in stock now in the basic black finish which is what I got. I would be thrilled if I got them by the end of this week but that is pretty unrealistic I guess.

If anyone has experience with these speakers, I would especially like to hear. If anyone reading this has any thoughts, kindly post them.
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If he bought them with a 30 day audition period he's probably afraid about getting his money back. I felt the same way years ago about the HCAT preamp.
Sometimes it takes time to truly understand what a component does right or wrong. What's more reliable, snap judgement or long term audition?
I'd like to hear more also. Would expect Tekton and Rogue Cronus Magnum to do good things together.
"Sometimes it takes time to truly understand what a component does right or wrong. What's more reliable, snap judgement or long term audition?"

You'll get no argument from me. However, nothing wrong with an initial assessment, as long as it's prefaced that way. No one will hold one to a first impression if long term listening bears out a different opinion. I've been there before myself.

Shakey
I didn't want to say anything in public because I don't want others to get the wrong idea about the speakers. Keep in mind this is with my equipment in my room. First off, Eric Alexander was very accommodating to me. I wanted the speakers for last weekend and Eric made it happen. I am really thrilled that he went out of his way to make it happen.

I received the speakers Friday morning via FedEx. The boxes are huge and had no less than 8 red fragile stickers on the box in addition to large writing saying they were high end furniture and to treat it as such. With that being said, FedEx did manage to damage one of the speakers. The box with the damaged speaker had holes in it and tears. FedEx certainly didn't heed Tektons instructions on safe handling.

I got in touch with Tekton right away and made them aware of the situation and they offered to send out a new speaker immediately as replacement. At the time, I declined the offer.

THE SOUND: I put around 30 hours on the speakers over the weekend, listening for all the usual foibles. I was concerned the highs would be too bright with 3 tweeters in a line array. Not so, the highs were very smooth and never, ever called attention to themselves. The mids were overall smooth as well. The imaging and sound staging were everything an audiophile/music lover could ask for and I never felt they didn't deliver.

It was the bass or lack of it that was very problematic for me. No matter where I positioned the speakers and I moved them all over the room, the bass was very anemic. I am positive it was a room interaction somewhere, but that was the deal breaker for me. Male voices that were normally deep were very light sounding with no sense of body. Again, this is in my room which is large with 70's style shag carpeting and slanted ceilings.

I know it is not the fault of the speakers in any way and I really wanted to keep them, but I knew I would never be satisfied with the bass so I am sending them back this Thursday. You may think I am being a bit hasty, but I went down this road before with another pair of speakers 5 years ago, but instead of returning them, I tried to fix the problem by throwing a lot more money into the system. Nothing helped, and I didn't want to experience that again. I didn't want to go through the anxiety and sleepless nights another time.

So there you have it. I really wanted to keep the speakers but they just didn't work in my room. The fit and finish of the speakers is outstanding and I really don't understand how Eric can give you so much for so little cash outlay.