Tekton Enzo XL Measured by Stereophile

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lukesky518

Enthusiast
Positive Feedback has released their " Best of 2017 " list . The Tekton Double Impact is the only speaker on it .
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Positive Feedback has released their " Best of 2017 " list . The Tekton Double Impact is the only speaker on it .
Yeah, I also see some info on there for some "performance resistors" :rolleyes::rolleyes:

A bunch of malarky

Oh yeah, some snake oil cables on there too.

You aren't helping out your cause any around here by posting about this nonsense.
 
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lukesky518

Enthusiast
Just stating facts . Oh , and I think they picked the Double Impacts by actually listening to them , a novel idea for some folks . I wasn't going to go here but here I go ....... I can understand why some of you guys get testy . A bunch of you have spent a bunch of money on fancy cabinets and 6" "woofers " . Then spent more money on a sub because your pretty speakers have no bass , no shock there . Then a company comes along with real bass and real performance that get great reviews from owners and professionals , all at very affordable prices . I get it but don't shoot the messenger .
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Just stating facts . Oh , and I think they picked the Double Impacts by actually listening to them , a novel idea for some folks . I wasn't going to go here but here I go ....... I can understand why some of you guys get testy . A bunch of you have spent a bunch of money on fancy cabinets and 6" "woofers " . Then spent more money on a sub because your pretty speakers have no bass , no shock there . Then a company comes along with real bass and real performance that get great reviews from owners and professionals , all at very affordable prices . I get it but don't shoot the messenger .
Nope, you are way off base there. All of my speakers are in the relatively affordable category, I have 4 sets that run the range of entry-level "audiophile", to "boutique", to "flagship for the brand at time of purchase". I have 2 sets of towers and 2 sets of BS speakers.

My sub is 1 step down from the flagship at the time, due to space restrictions only. And, my 15" sub is being used to supplement tower speakers with PLENTY of bass (built in amps) for pretty much any music, but you still need a subwoofer for true LFE from movies.

What I'm telling you is that when you come to this site and post "facts" from other less reputable sites, it is not appreciated by anyone on this forum. When we are talking about "facts" from a site that pushes "performance resistors" and snake oil cables, all it does is make you lose even more of the small amount of credibility that you may have had.

Following that up with insults to regulars on this forum is just icing on the cake.
 
Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
I like this quote the best, from their website:

Our revolutionary U.S. patent #9247339 (issued January 26th, 2016) allows us to literally align the moving mass of speaker cones to the harmonic spectra of the musical instruments being played. This means that, in theory, we’ve now made every other high fidelity loudspeaker on earth obsolete in one fell swoop! Again, I believe I can make a strong case for claiming that every other high fidelity loudspeaker is now obsolete or (for models that do try to mitigate moving mass) at least subtly obsolete. I’m quite confident in stating that we’re now producing the most accurate and best sounding loudspeakers ever built – period!

Well, they don't lack for confidence. ;-)

When TLS Guy swaps out his speakers for these things, then I'll believe it. Until then, not so much.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi

I’m quite confident in stating that we’re now producing the most accurate and best sounding loudspeakers ever built – period!
LOL. :D

Well, they can start by making speakers that actually measure better than most speakers.

The Tekton measurements are not the worst measurements when compared to Bose, Zu Audio, and a few others. But most people wouldn't even consider them as good measurements.

However, I will give Tekton some credit for at least having 3rd party speaker measurements. Some speaker companies don't even have any speaker measurements.

I didn't see Stereophile saying anything about the Tekton speakers sounding more accurate or better than anything else either.

I am willing to believe that any speaker could possibly sound good to some people since it is highly subjective.

But to make such a claim - that their speakers are the most accurate and best sounding - is risible. :D

They need to revise the statement to say "we believe our speakers to be among the best sounding".

...Unless they meant these are the best ever built by THEM.
 
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Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
positive feedback lol
I'll say. And in case anyone is wondering, I have no relationship to the editor of Positive Feedback (David Robinson). ;-) And they have George Cardas on the masthead, Mr. Golden Ratio Cables, as an advisor, which makes me wince.
 
killdozzer

killdozzer

Audioholic Samurai
Just stating facts . Oh , and I think they picked the Double Impacts by actually listening to them , a novel idea for some folks . I wasn't going to go here but here I go ....... I can understand why some of you guys get testy . A bunch of you have spent a bunch of money on fancy cabinets and 6" "woofers " . Then spent more money on a sub because your pretty speakers have no bass , no shock there . Then a company comes along with real bass and real performance that get great reviews from owners and professionals , all at very affordable prices . I get it but don't shoot the messenger .

You've heard the one about the successful gambler being the one to leave the table while he's ahead?

The quoted post was just the moment where you reveal your true colours. At the beginning you were all about principles of how average or mediocre measuring speaker can sound really good and no one disputed this. That was when you were ahead.

At that time if anyone stated you're just personally offended on behalf of a brand (as I did), you'd say in no way am I offended (as you did).

What we now see trumps that claim of yours as we see it WAS about the brand and you do still ache and as soon as you've gotten a hold of something you consider to be evidence that you were "right" you jumped at it. When the authority of your source was put in question you had the same slimy, weaselly method of defending your source that eargiant pulled by pointing out your source also praises something many of members here see as respectable. The same eargiant for whom you think he and his friend has this figured out (yeah, right! he's a genuine "amp-whisperer", had me in stitches, we also have a "jokes" thread for further notice)

These are simply not desirable traits. I'm sure you also despise them in others.

All said and done, I'm retracting my former statement:

If you say you're not offended, I'll take your word for it.
My personal experience of this forum is that no matter how different members are, they are not stupid. Pulling what you attempted never works. Even when there's no one willing to waste time explaining it doesn't work, you can rest assured it didn't work.
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
They don't seem to measure that poorly, at least as I read the review. With an unconventional design like that, I don't expect anechoic-perfect numbers, I expect the designer had engineered the speakers by ear as well as by practical electronic theory. They clearly were made to work in real-world listening rooms, to a seated listener.

They look like speakers you would have to hear to evaluate. That's OK in my books. $2100 is a lot of money if you don't have it but to create enclosures that size and stuff them with that many drivers and two crossovers, plus account for shipping, they are still inexpensive in that light. Just one of those cabinets has more wood and metal than most $1050 bookshelf pairs on the market.

Plus the builder is fastidious (he won't even farm out the enclosure construction, insisting on doing everything in-house) so you get a lot of his time when you buy. Doesn't happen everywhere.

On another note, you can say what you will about Positive Feedback, but at least their "Best Of" lists don't contain half the products available in the market. A refreshing change from the usual Audio press.
 
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AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
They don't seem to measure that poorly..
“Not that poorly” is significantly different than “most accurate and best sounding speaker ever built period”. :D

Don’t you think?
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
“Not that poorly” is significantly different than “most accurate and best sounding speaker ever built period”. :D

Don’t you think?
Well, I assumed everybody knew that "most accurate and best sounding speaker ever built period" doesn't come in $2100 packages. Guess I was wrong.
 
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hifi-dabbler

Enthusiast
So I am new here and just so happened to have purchased a pair of the Tekton DIs. Note, that I am not a real techie audiophile. I think I match up to one poster's description of being too lazy and too stupid to analyze the measurements (I don't say that in a mean or sarcastic way). While I don't think I'm really lazy, I'd say more impatient...I just want to "do it" or "get to the listening", not the smartest way of doing things I know. But I do try to do a lot of internet research (for what it's worth) before I buy blind. I certainly am not stupid, but I am an ignorant audiophile--I fully admit that. I do like reading posts and learning from communities like this though. Oh, and I don't believe my ears are near as good as most audiophiles...but better than non-audiophiles.

Let me say one last thing before I get on with my Tekton comments. As we all know, the internet makes communication accessible but not easy. Since it doesn't convey body language, facial expressions, tone, etc. which makes it easy to find offense in many posts. This compounded with my less than stellar grammar and vocabulary mean I sometimes can say the wrong thing--so let me assure everyone I never mean to give offense and will try hard not to take offense...I'll try. :)

I haven't owned a lot of equipment, but with speakers I have owned Apogee Divas (I think my favorite speaker, curses on the WAF), Magnepan 3.6 (I didn't care for these for some reason), some entry level SVS bookshelves (probably comparable to the Prime series) and currently Acarian Alon IIs (which I've had for ~20yrs I believe, they were the first pair of audiophile speakers I purchased and I still have them).

The associated equipment I'm using with the DIs are a Marantz SR7011 receiver (just bought it, a great deal right now), Oppo UDP 203 (just bought it) and an old Mondial Aragon 4004 MkII (pre-out from Marantz to the DIs/Alons). Most of this equipment is new so I don't have a reference system, but I do know the Alon's really well. I posted a pic of the setup--you'll see, I'm still a bit under construction. One question for you all--for the basement (where this room is) ceiling I insulated, drywalled and am putting up a drop ceiling all to help soundproof the room. But the ceiling tiles do have some sound absorption to them. Should I replace a few of the tiles mid-way between speaker and listener with more reflective material (drywall probably)? Anyway, you'll see my room isn't quite ready for critical listening yet and I have no room treatments up at this point (will do that later).

My initial impressions of Tekton. They built my speakers in ~3 days and they arrived in less than a week I think--pretty good responsiveness on order fulfillment. The packaging is very good and the speakers arrived undamaged (save for one small thing, non-issue I think). I have since emailed Eric twice with a question (from 4:00pm last Friday to now, 7:30am Tues) and haven't received a response, so that's a little disappointing, but they are a small company, so... On a different note, I've sent in questions to Marantz and Oppo as well and I can say without a doubt that Oppo is the best of the three companies, and better than most companies. Their packaging was excellent and they were very fast in responding to my question, providing a lot of detail in their response. Marantz didn't double box their receiver and both times (I had to send the first one back) it showed up with holes all the way through the box. They were also very slow in responding to an e-mailed question (4 days I think). Anyway, on to the Tektons.

My initial experience with the DIs were underwhelming. I have always been a skeptic about breaking in equipment (just not sure my ears could hear it), but even after 3-4 hours the speakers sounded a lot better to me...plus I spent a little more time with positioning them (and I'm still experimenting with position). Having the Alons between them probably doesn't help either speaker but I want to do some A/B listening. I currently have about 30-40 hours on the DIs and they do sound good. They certainly are more efficient than the Alons. To get similar sound levels on the Alons, I have to bump the volume +20% over the DIs (even when the Alons are using the Aragon and the DIs are with the Marantz). Imaging is fairly similar between the two but the DIs just sound fuller, fills the room with more sound--drums in particular seem to have more impact with the DIs (pun unintended). I need to spend more time with them. I will say this about the DIs...when I first got them (the second day) I listened to them for about 12 hours straight while working on the basement and I had absolutely zero fatigue which I don't remember being able to do with any other speakers I've owned (not sure that I tried that on all of them though).

Anyway, that's my initial impressions. Any general advice on anything sound related is welcome. I'll post more when I have more to post.
 

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hifi-dabbler

Enthusiast
FYI, Tekton did just respond to my question so that's good.
 
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hifi-dabbler

Enthusiast
One more thing...I did a little more critical listening and the DIs have a good amount more detail than the Alons. Also, the difference in efficiency translates closer to 50% higher volume...maybe 40-50. The DIs seem more open or present...but the Alons probably suffer from having the bigger speaker next to them.
 
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