tekton - the next big thing?

[gtpsuper24]

$2,500 for a pair of speakers that use 2 10" pro mids and 3 sets of what look to be Vifa xt25's!!!

ummm......


And their "revision" aka smaller version includes 2 $100 CA22's. WTF

You can't judge a speaker based on the price of its drivers. I wonder how much some other companies spend on their drivers. Do you think a $1500 tower speaker is going to use $200 tweeters and $350 woofers? Take just about any brand and add all the components up and I doubt you come any where near half the asking price.

If you can make the speaker cheaper by going to parts express and making it yourself go for. But you also no factoring in labor, parts, design, logistics, rent, advertising, fancy magazine reviews don't come cheap.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Take just about any brand and add all the components up and I doubt you come any where near half the asking price.

What about Philharmonic Audio ?

 

[Matt34]

What about Philharmonic Audio ?

I would say it still applies. Those drivers can be made to sound like dodo if the crossover and enclosure aren't done right.

 

[slipperybidness]

I would say it still applies. Those drivers can be made to sound like dodo if the crossover and enclosure aren't done right.

I think he was talking about the cost of drivers vs the final product. Philharmonic is probably one of the exceptions. But, he did just raise the price so he has a little better margins (granted some is eaten up on the cabs).

But, I haven't seen any advertising so that can at least be taken out of the equation.

 

[ousooner2]

You can't judge a speaker based on the price of its drivers.

I hope you're not serious. At some point you have to realize that cost....is quite a large factor. Would you trust a $20 Vifa tweet over a Scan Illum.? Or the Dyn 110?

If there were 2 speakers that were made from the same company, specialized for the drivers in their cabinets and at the same price...but yet one had $200 worth of drivers and the other had $1000 worth of drivers, which would you choose?

I wonder how much some other companies spend on their drivers.

Most larger companies use their massive R&D to develop their own.

If you can make the speaker cheaper by going to parts express and making it yourself go for. But you also no factoring in labor, parts, design, logistics, rent, advertising, fancy magazine reviews don't come cheap.

Not trying to be a **** or anything, just saying that it's a bit weird when a company comes along, using drivers that can be purchased quite easily for pretty darn cheap (there's your parts), they don't do much advertising or R&D, and paying for magazine reviews is their choice. Post the graphs. Every graph you can. Graphs aren't the end all be all, but you sure can gather a helluva lot of info from them. Their "design" doesn't look to labor intensive to come up with.


It's not about making it cheaper, it's about the massive up charge because a few PAID reviews stated it was good. The ZRT tower uses $1500 worth of drivers and components (on a discount mind you) and with the cabinets it's an extra $500. If you had the skills you could EASILY build a cabinet for much much less than that. That's $2000 for towers that use D3004's, 2 18w's, etc etc. How is that less expensive than a tower that uses 3 $25 Vifa tweeters? One D3004 is more than all 6 of those Vifa's! And there's PLENTY of reviews out there for both. Don't get me wrong...the Vifa RR are incredibly good for the price. I've heard them and almost purchased them. I'm sure I'll pick them up for my g/f's car.

Again, not trying to start anything, but I guess I just don't understand why it's so pricey for something with very little in already manufactured drivers. If you know then I'd love to know. By all means, the more I know/learn...the better

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Did Andrew Robinson say the Pendragon sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio?

Well, I think a pair of NHT SuperZero + a $500 Rythmik sub will sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio.

How about comparing the Tekton to some KEF Reference2 or Revel Ultima2 ?

 

[Audio_Karma]

Did Andrew Robinson say the Pendragon sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio?

Well, I think a pair of NHT SuperZero + a $500 Rythmik sub will sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio.

How about comparing the Tekton to some KEF Reference2 or Revel Ultima2 ?

How about comparing the Tekton Pendragons to some Evolution Acoustics MM Micro One's ???

http://www.stereomojo.com/CES 2011 Show Report.htm/CES2011ShowReportPart5.htm

 

[gtpsuper24]

Not trying to be a **** or anything, just saying that it's a bit weird when a company comes along, using drivers that can be purchased quite easily for pretty darn cheap (there's your parts), they don't do much advertising or R&D, and paying for magazine reviews is their choice. Post the graphs. Every graph you can. Graphs aren't the end all be all, but you sure can gather a helluva lot of info from them. Their "design" doesn't look to labor intensive to come up with.

How do you know how much they've invested in R&D? Just pure speculation on your part. How do you know how intensive the labor is? Equipment investments cost 10s of thousands of dollars. New CNC machine price anywhere from $7,000-14,000 maybe more depending on model. Pendragon is over 80lbs that heavier than many other towers in its price range which would suggest that its a very well made cabinet. Drivers don't weight much since they are pro audio 10".

It's not about making it cheaper, it's about the massive up charge because a few PAID reviews stated it was good. The ZRT tower uses $1500 worth of drivers and components (on a discount mind you) and with the cabinets it's an extra $500. If you had the skills you could EASILY build a cabinet for much much less than that. That's $2000 for towers that use D3004's, 2 18w's, etc etc. How is that less expensive than a tower that uses 3 $25 Vifa tweeters? One D3004 is more than all 6 of those Vifa's! And there's PLENTY of reviews out there for both.

DIY kits vs a commerical offering. Not everyone wants a kit or do DIY and not everyone wants to go out and buy supplies and equipment to build their own speakers or if they even have the knowledge or skills to do so. Alot of guys on the DIY forums can build a $1000 DIY subwoofer that destroys most of the commerical offerings but you don't see them suggesting or telling anyone that SVS is horrible options and are way too overpriced.

Again, not trying to start anything, but I guess I just don't understand why it's so pricey for something with very little in already manufactured drivers. If you know then I'd love to know. By all means, the more I know/learn...the better

You sound like someone who complained about SVS using a Peerless XXLS and *****ing that the only "custom" thing they did was laser etch the SVS logo on the driver. Its actully specially designed to SVS's TS specs and Peerless makes them just for SVS exclusively. How do you know these drivers are direct off the shelf parts or a driver that has been customized by the OEM for Tekton?

All those damn speaker maker over charge for there stuff if you compare everything to Parts Express shelf parts.

TC sounds new subwoofer line uses its current drivers from Parts Express but many are betting on them being extremely expensive around $3500plus but uses a driver I can get off parts express for $340. Oh the horror, that subwoofer should only be about $800 in your eyes then.

Top shelf premium crossover components can bring the price up alot too. No one knows anything about the crossovers either could be very poor or could be very nice high quality parts.

 

[ski2xblack]

I don't think the Pendragon uses much in the way of crossovers at all. If these follow Tekton's quirky, SET-centric designs of their other speakers, that is. I could be wrong. But I'm pretty sure the Eminence drivers run full range, and only a single cap on the tweets so they roll in ~8kHz.

 

[ratso]

Did Andrew Robinson say the Pendragon sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio?

Well, I think a pair of NHT SuperZero + a $500 Rythmik sub will sound better than Wilson Audio and Wisdom Audio.

How about comparing the Tekton to some KEF Reference2 or Revel Ultima2 ?

well he did replace his 800 diamonds with them. i think you should answer this for us and buy a pair.

 

[jonnythan]

People never learn. In today's market, you can make a splash by offering 1-2 lines of clearly differentiated complete HT speaker systems.

You won't make a splash by offering a mishmash of stereo speaker pairs that appear designed and priced to compete with each other.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

well he did replace his 800 diamonds with them.

Maybe he needed some cash.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just biased against ID companies who don't post real measurements of their speakers.

Perhaps Tekton can send Gene a sample, and he can measure them and review them. I mean they were willing to send Andrew Robinson a sample, right? Send the Pendragon to Gene please.

 

[ousooner2]

How do you know how much they've invested in R&D? Just pure speculation on your part. How do you know how intensive the labor is? Equipment investments cost 10s of thousands of dollars. New CNC machine price anywhere from $7,000-14,000 maybe more depending on model. Pendragon is over 80lbs that heavier than many other towers in its price range which would suggest that its a very well made cabinet. Drivers don't weight much since they are pro audio 10".

DIY kits vs a commerical offering. Not everyone wants a kit or do DIY and not everyone wants to go out and buy supplies and equipment to build their own speakers or if they even have the knowledge or skills to do so. Alot of guys on the DIY forums can build a $1000 DIY subwoofer that destroys most of the commerical offerings but you don't see them suggesting or telling anyone that SVS is horrible options and are way too overpriced.

You sound like someone who complained about SVS using a Peerless XXLS and *****ing that the only "custom" thing they did was laser etch the SVS logo on the driver. Its actully specially designed to SVS's TS specs and Peerless makes them just for SVS exclusively. How do you know these drivers are direct off the shelf parts or a driver that has been customized by the OEM for Tekton?

All those damn speaker maker over charge for there stuff if you compare everything to Parts Express shelf parts.

TC sounds new subwoofer line uses its current drivers from Parts Express but many are betting on them being extremely expensive around $3500plus but uses a driver I can get off parts express for $340. Oh the horror, that subwoofer should only be about $800 in your eyes then.

Top shelf premium crossover components can bring the price up alot too. No one knows anything about the crossovers either could be very poor or could be very nice high quality parts.

Easy there killer

You knew exactly what I meant so lets not play the whole "he said she said" bs. They're a newish company that doesn't manuf. their own drivers. I HIGHLY doubt they put as much R&D into it as the huge companies. Not saying that's a bad thing either....just furthering a point. Sure equipment costs. Obviously. They have to make their money. Obviously. I've got 2 small business owners in my immediate family... I understand how it works. If they can sell these like hot cakes then power to them! I'd like nothing more than to see a US based company do great things. I'm not here to bash them, merely to discuss.

As far as weight..how much does that really matter. Lighter is worse? So neo is out?

Did I ever say "Tekton is a horrible option"? If yes, please show me.

Overpriced isn't exactly what I was saying though. Again...just throwing that out there.

It's been said that the Eminence? are "customized" for Tekton and that's how they achieved the 98db spec, but that can likely be attained from the normal driver at a lower freq.

How can you say that the TC sub will be $3500+ and the driver used is only $340? How do you know it's not custom for that setup? JUST PURE SPECULATION ON YOUR PART. If someone wants to spend $3,500+ for that then that's their choice. Would I? No. I don't need those huge SPL numbers for my setup. Let alone the fact that our hearing is AWFUL below about 4-500hz. Am I going to sit here and say that it's terrible that they're offering it for more than 3x the cost of parts & labor? No. Why? Because they've engineered those drivers. Can you build that for 1k? most likely.

I'm not here to get into a pissing match. I figured most would be able to carry a conversation even if they didn't agree, etc.

 

[Matt34]

Maybe he needed some cash.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just biased against ID companies who don't post real measurements of their speakers.

Perhaps Tekton can send Gene a sample, and he can measure them and review them. I mean they were willing to send Andrew Robinson a sample, right? Send the Pendragon to Gene please.

Pretty sure most B&M companies don't post meaningful measurements as well.

Seems there is a double standard being applied in this thread.

 

[gtpsuper24]

Or they exaggerate there speakers performance 10hrz from the Def Tech Trinity or 14hrz from there 9" little cube subwoofer. They don't give you how they came to those results or at what standard they used just abunch of worthless numbers. I'll take most ID brands over B&M brands any day. Just my personal preference.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Pretty sure most B&M companies don't post meaningful measurements as well.

Seems there is a double standard being applied in this thread.

Or they exaggerate there speakers performance 10hrz from the Def Tech Trinity or 14hrz from there 9" little cube subwoofer. They don't give you how they came to those results or at what standard they used just abunch of worthless numbers. I'll take most ID brands over B&M brands any day. Just my personal preference.

If ID companies could have their speakers measured by NRC or Stereophile like the B&M companies, we wouldn't have to ask or wonder.

You don't see us asking Revel, KEF, B&W, Focal, Dynaudio, PSB, Paradigm, etc, for measurements because their speakers are measured by NRC, Stereohile, Home Theater Magazine, and Sound & Vision Magazine.

 

[gtpsuper24]

If ID companies could have their speakers measured by NRC or Stereophile like the B&M companies, we wouldn't have to ask or wonder.

You don't see us asking Revel, KEF, B&W, Focal, Dynaudio, PSB, Paradigm, etc, for measurements because their speakers are measured by NRC, Stereohile, Home Theater Magazine, and Sound & Vision Magazine.

I don't consider 3rd party measurements as being the same as manufacturer provided.

There alot of B&M brands that don't have measurement plastered all over there site. Some you really have to google to fine them. With Def Tech for example their site is nothing but a bunch of marketing BS with worthless numbers. Not even a +-3db for freq response for there subwoofers.

Just about all the ID brands sites provide just as much information as the big name B&M brands do.

If 3rd party testers/reviews didn't charge money for there tests and measurements i'm sure many would jump at the chance. Its also really easy for a reviews to skew the results to show what the reviewer wants and not something true of the product.

B&M brands are just as dishonest and just as shady as any ID brand is or can be.

The only difference is ones bought in a showroom and the other online. Thats it. The idea that you are going to be frauded or cheated by an ID company because they don't provide an entire suit of measurements, but its ok for B&M brands not to is ridiculous.

 

[Audio_Karma]

Maybe he needed some cash.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just biased against ID companies who don't post real measurements of their speakers.

Perhaps Tekton can send Gene a sample, and he can measure them and review them. I mean they were willing to send Andrew Robinson a sample, right? Send the Pendragon to Gene please.

The Tekton Pendragons have been measured here.

Let's have some fun with measurements!

 

[ousooner2]

If 3rd party testers/reviews didn't charge money for there tests and measurements i'm sure many would jump at the chance. Its also really easy for a reviews to skew the results to show what the reviewer wants and not something true of the product.

B&M brands are just as dishonest and just as shady as any ID brand is or can be.

agree here. Sad, but true for the most part


You thinking what I'm thinking Andrew? lol. I'll gladly review and take measurements after auditioning for VERY little. I'm pretty sure I could convince the ol' G/F to make our 4th bedroom an audition room lol. I'm as unbias as they come

 

[Audio_Karma]

They now have a $750 Mundorf silver and oil capacitor upgrade for these Pendragons that some say on other forums is a big improvement.

Tekton Design Mundorf Silver-Oil Capacitor Upgrade