Hello guys, we have a lot of experience in the world of high performance loudspeakers, our shop sells, Paradigm Persona, Legacy, Kef, Dali, PSB, Gradient, Cabasse and we have heard or at one time or another sold or setup most of the major competitors.
Here is the skinny on Tekton, the DI are pretty amazing, especially for the money, so far we have heard them on two occasions with totally different gear and came away both impressed as well as still having a few reservations.
Eric Alexanders fans are a bit too far I have heard numerous sets of speakers that they are being traded in for, and no I wouldn’t trade in many of the $30k speakers for them, howerver, the Di are pretty remarkable and for $4,300.00 DI with upgrades and a nicer finish represent an incredible value, I too was very sceptical about the validity of the patent.
The proof is in the listening, On both occasions we felt that the speakers had a fantastic midrange and good imaging and superb bass, the only issue was top end resolution they were a bit too polite for me and did not have enough air and upper octave clarity, but other then that wow and for the money these things crush the Golden ears, Vandys, and most of the affordable stuff.
We still prefer the Legacy Signatures at $7k which too our ears and setups sound very similar to the Tektons but have a bit more life and air in the top end, but you still have to spend $2k+ to get a better speakers.
We are pursuing a dealership with the good folks at Tekton to be able to offer the Tekton DI SE versions as well they are that good!
Other great $10k speakers are the Paradigm Persona 3F which have some of the most realistic imaging and resolution, they can benefit from a good sub, but this is another milestone product with two of the finest high resolution drivers you can get their midrange clarity and image holography are spooky when setup with good equipment, they would also compliment your warm sounding setup of Mcintosh gear and Cardas cables which are two very laid back brands, you need to move into a brighther cleaner digital front end so not to make your system too rolled off sounding, Mytek is bright and clean, so if the T+A Dac 8DSD which isn’t bright but is a imaging and resolution machine. I would stay away from Schitt, PS Audio, and a few others which tend to be also very warm sounding.
As per Mac’’s comment about Tekton vs Legacy many of the Legacy owners have the older versions which are crushed by the new versions with the Heil drivers.
As per electrostatics vs dyanmic argument, none of the panels we have owned Quads, and Maggies, sold Martin Logans, Apogees, none of them sound as realistic in terms of dynamic slam and image size vs a conventional speaker system what you get in lack of boxiness and midrange clarity you lose in other areas, image size, midbass punch, and in the case of the ML they are a bit rollled off about 15k same with the Quads.
The reason is called diapole canceillation, and equil and oppostite wave form cancels out, which means a diapole has nothing to push against. this leads to poor dynamics, especially when pushed hard and a image which makes musicians appear larger then life.
As per Omni vs Non Omni many old school audiophiles loved the Bose 901 becasue they sounded difussive vs direct raditors at the time which didn’t image particuarly well, in the 70’s and 80’s you had many loudspeakers with wide baffles that coupled with time and phase issues created a flat sounding boxy sound.
Most of todays’ best conventional loudspeakers image very well and totally dissapear into the sound stage so the reasoning that an Omni is better is kind of specious reasoning.
All Omni speakers have dificulties in sculpting believable images, most of the time the Omni must be pulled out far into the room, and then you still have vocalists who sound too big or appear to come farther to the sides then what would sound normal to most people very technicolor but not neccasarily believable sound.
Roddyboy needs to go hear some of these contentders for himself
If you are on the East Coast we have many of the best contenders out there in affordable superb speakers.
We hope this helps.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
