Tekton Double Impacts vs the competition....

tommy:

The DIs are remarkable for making all styles sound good. This is one of the first things you notice about them. Then there is the realistic dynamic range that enlivens the music and makes all sound "right there." They blossom naturally with the source and will only start distorting when you get way past normal levels.

Pop music is much less difficult to reproduce than is dense orchestral music. My system is now completely tuned and I can sit back and point out each orchestral section/soloist and assess their instrument's timbre. The soundstage is that good.

You do NOT need a sub with these if you tune them well (I use REW and JRiver). Your room will also impact bass response dramatically and some owners claim they need more bass. My larger room is very friendly to long waves and I have the DIs tuned down to 16hz with a little bumb upwards from 25 to 70cps.

Take it from me -- you will not be disappointed with these speakers.

tommy:

Forgot to mention -- Yes, did get the upgrades and recommend you do too.

Tommy:

No, there is only the one upgrade -- to better wire and capacitors/binding posts. Those other options are for adding additional speakers for 3 and 5 channel setups.

REW is a free Internet app that many studio and professional musicians use to measure their frequency and impulse response then create a convolution file (*.wave file) that is imported into JRiver and used to EQ all music files so they sound perfect in your room. REW creates the impulse correction automatically and I have learned over the years to do my own frequency correction -- it is more effective when you spend the extra time. But REW can also create an auto frequency correction as well.

Have spent 4 years tuning my summer stereo system to be as accurate as possible and it is now +/- 3db from 16 to 30k  hz -- this is total room and system response which is challenging to do.

This is what I have learned.

It's always best to do as much correction in the physical realm as possible -- corner traps, wall deadeners behind the speakers, etc. Once you are maxed out here, then use Impulse and EQ correction, This will be best if it is done in the virtual realm -- e.g. JRiver.

REW is free and JRiver is cheap. They will make more improvement in your overall system than many multi-thousand components. It does require that you keep your music sources as digital rips in JRiver -- but this has som many advantages that once you get used to it, you will not go back.