[333jeffery]

I just came across these guys a few months back, and thought I would share my experience with them. I bought their Double Impact speakers to replace some old Legacy units that I have been using since the 90's. The Double Impact's are fairly large speakers at 100 pounds each, and 54 inches tall. Out of the box, the sound was quite impressive with bass being particularly detailed, much more so than the Legacy's. The midrange was fine to start with, and really blossomed with burn-in. My jazz cd's and prog rock cd's were a treat to listen to on these speakers. Classical piano recordings were taken to a whole 'nother level. In fact, if you are a piano aficionado, do yourself a favor and listen to some of your favorite tracks on these. You will not want to leave! Electric guitar benefits from these units, too, with the strings sounding crystal clear, yet smooth.
I liked the Tekton speakers enough that I bought a pair of their Enzo's for my home-theater setup. Tekton's founder, Eric Alexander, does great work and is available by phone if you have any questions. Highly recommended.
     www.tektondesign.com

 

[333jeffery]

Update: the Double Impacts have fully burnt-in now. Been playing some of the Steven Wilson remixes of Yes, ELP and Tull, as well as some Cat Stevens on them. The midrange on these is almost eerie in the way it handles vocals and live recordings, they seem to float in the air. Very detailed, yet smooth. Percussion is very satisfying without being overblown. The goosebump factor is high with these speakers. With a decent amplifier, they will play most anything well.
 
 
The Enzo 2.7's that I'm using on my home theater setup are still settling in, but they are opening up nicely. I played John Wick on them last night, and the gunfights made my house sound like a warzone. I'm surprised my neighbors didn't call the police as it honestly sounded like bullets were flying everywhere. Once I upgrade my a/v receiver, this should be an endgame setup.

 

[Benny-x]

I saw a lot about the Tekton Pendragons over the past 3-4 years that i always wondered what they'd be like. Now i see the Double Impact have come out and they seem to have addressed one small issue with the Pendragons, their slightly less vibrant midrange.

What have you compared them to besides what they replaced? Or what other speakers do you have experience with to share against these?

I apologise if your 2 channel component list is in your profile, but can you say what your chain is before the Double Impacts?

I'm VERY interested in them now and hoping to get them for my new condo around August.

 

[333jeffery]

I've compared them to Legacy and Thiel speakers, as that is what I had before. In online reviews they have been compared to Golden Ear Tritons, Magnepans, ZU Audio and B&W speakers. The Tektons beat the others quite handily. They have a superb midrange, and wonderful dynamics. The Double Impacts are a big step up from the Pendragons and would be my recommendation for anyone looking to upgrade their system.
 
My setup is: Double Impact speakers hooked to NAT Transmitter tube amps connected to Cambridge Audio preamp fed by an Yggdrasil dac/Emotiva transport. Prior to this I was using a Musical Fidelity integrated amp.
The Double Impacts are highly revealing of any inadequacies in your audio chain, and will lead to numerous equipment upgrades until you get your ideal sound from them.

 

[Benny-x]

  I've compared them to Legacy and Thiel speakers, as that is what I had before. In online reviews they have been compared to Golden Ear Tritons, Magnepans, ZU Audio and B&W speakers. The Tektons beat the others quite handily. They have a superb midrange, and wonderful dynamics. The Double Impacts are a big step up from the Pendragons and would be my recommendation for anyone looking to upgrade their system.
 
My setup is: Double Impact speakers hooked to NAT Transmitter tube amps connected to Cambridge Audio preamp fed by an Yggdrasil dac/Emotiva transport. Prior to this I was using a Musical Fidelity integrated amp.
The Double Impacts are highly revealing of any inadequacies in your audio chain, and will lead to numerous equipment upgrades until you get your ideal sound from them.

Ah-ha, so you were the guy on Audiogon or AVF that had them hooked up to the NAT Transmitters. Those are $20,000 amps, so I do hope they make anything sound great  How in the world did you come on to them, of all choices? I mean, if you're willing to play up in that league, why those over anything else? And why the DIs if you're amping in that kind of dollar range? 
 
In my experience, though I love the gear, the speakers/headphones do have a genuinely MASSIVE impact of the sound (being what produces it and all), so I've always wondered about people who shell out the cash for crazy expensive, TOTL components, but then don't have TOTL speakers or headphones on the last stage. Can you share more about that? I'm not trying to put down the DIs, I'm likely buying a pair, but I don't think anyone is trying to say they're in the $30-50,000 speaker range, or more, like I would associate with having $20,000 amps.
 
Or, you're saying that's how it all happened? You were there, happily with your Musical Fidelity amps right until the DIs showed up and made them look bad, then you came back over the top at the DIs with the NAT Transmitters? Haha.
 
Oh, what finish did you get them in? I'm really thinking that because these are more or less going to be "on display" all the time, and they're big, I might opt for the piano gloss finish for the extra money. If the "soft gloss/satin" finish is anything like the one on my Emotiva Stealth8s (which it looks to be), then I think the 13 coats of paint and gloss in the piano gloss finish should hold up better over time and be more repairable if they do get scratched or damaged. Thoughts?

 

[uncola]

I think this every time i seethese speakers mentioned. The tekton brand is paradoxically one of the rare brands whose speakers ate sensitive enough to use with low power tube amps yet seem oriented to loud level rock concert lovers? If he ever made some big sensitive three way. Bookshelves id be tempted!

 

[333jeffery]

I got my Double Impacts in the semi-gloss black color. You can get custom automobile finishes for the Tektons as an option, some folks get the BMW colors on them. As for the NAT amps, I got them used at a large discount--less than 50% of the new price. I couldn't resist that deal for such great amps. I always wanted tube amps but could never find any really powerful ones at a decent price. The NAT's have power to spare. Tekton speakers sound fine with either high-powered amps or lower power amps, you just lose some of the dynamics with lower power amplification. The Tektons are routinely pitted against much more expensive speakers in reviews and usually beat them. They have a certain magic to their midrange that is unmatched by any other speaker that I have heard. Vocals and live recordings sound superb on them. Give'em a try, you will be pleased with them.

 

[Benny-x]

  I got my Double Impacts in the semi-gloss black color. You can get custom automobile finishes for the Tektons as an option, some folks get the BMW colors on them. As for the NAT amps, I got them used at a large discount--less than 50% of the new price. I couldn't resist that deal for such great amps. I always wanted tube amps but could never find any really powerful ones at a decent price. The NAT's have power to spare. Tekton speakers sound fine with either high-powered amps or lower power amps, you just lose some of the dynamics with lower power amplification. The Tektons are routinely pitted against much more expensive speakers in reviews and usually beat them. They have a certain magic to their midrange that is unmatched by any other speaker that I have heard. Vocals and live recordings sound superb on them. Give'em a try, you will be pleased with them.

I haven't placed my order due to not knowing my exact move-in date yet, but I'm gonna grab a pair! I'm pretty pumped.
 
I'm opting for the internal wiring and capacitor upgrade, then for the full piano gloss paint upgrade. I figure they're going to be front and centre in my family room, so I might as well go for a tougher finish and something that looks nice. I'm going with BMW Santorini blau (blue), like the M3. I was actually searching for a colour with some POP that's also similar to my old DNA Sonett amp. The workmanship and paint on that amp was absolutely fantastic, so here's to hoping the Santorini Blau paint comes out even better!
 
Then I'll be powering them with my Xindak A600 '09 amp. We'll have to see how the pairing works and if I can get any other amps in for testing. I like the Xindak amp a lot with my HiFiMAN HE-6 and HEK, it did a great job in the amp-out I performed over 2 days at the dealer I bought it from. Then for cabling I'll use the Nanotec Systems OFC in silver/gold oil wire that I bought to make up some interconnects. 
 
And wow, that's a pretty lucky deal on the NAT amps for you. $10k is still mighty pricey for amps, but I guess I'm on the road and may get there some day? Tubes amps that I like now are by a company called Line Magnetic, and the mono-blocks I like are the LM-503PA or the higher up LM-513PA. They've got a nice integrated with the LM-219ia and it's gotten some very positive reviews. 

 

[uncola]

nice, if it's anything like donald north audio smurf blue, it will look pretty cool  yeah I'd go for every upgrade too.. just due to the size of speakers and shipping I tend not to upgrade them for ages compared to my electronics so you want to max them out because you'll be living with them a long time

 

[Benny-x]

  nice, if it's anything like donald north audio smurf blue, it will look pretty cool  yeah I'd go for every upgrade too.. just due to the size of speakers and shipping I tend not to upgrade them for ages compared to my electronics so you want to max them out because you'll be living with them a long time

Yeah, I'm thinking as long as they show up all fine, it'll be many years before I upgrade to anything else. 
 
And yeah, that DNA Sonett blue always did it for me. It didn't hurt that Donald had magnificent craftsmanship either~  He's got some new behemoth coming out now, it'll be interesting to hear if I ever get a chance. 
 
I'm really counting on Eric matching up the colours right and putting a killer gloss on that blue colour. It'll look pretty sweet and blend well with the black rimmed drivers. 
 
I see you've got the Philharmonic Audio Loudspeakers Philharmonitors! I was REALLY looking at The Philharmonic Three when I was thinking about which speaker to get. I lover the RAAL tweeter on the Phil, it's almost killing me not to keep with RAAL/Ribbon tweeters, but I've got to spread my wings a bit. Did you ever get to give The Three a listen? How do you feel about the Philharmonitors and what else have you compared them against or listened to in the same environment?

 

[uncola]

I live in hawaii so I haven't really been able to audition anything good due to lack of dealers.  My new phils and my kef q900 in my 5.1 home theatre are unfortunately the only decent speakers I've heard.. I enjoy both but the new phils are definitely more resolving.  I feel like tekton and philharmonic are very different design focuses.. if I was ever to get new speaks I might go with emerald physics or spatial open baffle.. it would be cool to experiment with electronic crossover and room correction stuff.  I've been reading about panel speakers but they just have too many issues

 

[Benny-x]

  I live in Hawaii so I haven't really been able to audition anything good due to lack of dealers.  My new phils and my kef q900 in my 5.1 home theatre are unfortunately the only decent speakers I've heard.. I enjoy both but the new phils are definitely more resolving.  I feel like tekton and philharmonic are very different design focuses.. if I was ever to get new speaks I might go with emerald physics or spatial open baffle.. it would be cool to experiment with electronic crossover and room correction stuff.  I've been reading about panel speakers but they just have too many issues

Yeah, I definitely agree that the Philharmonics and the Tektons are going after different design philosophies. The Tektons are like "secret sauce" speakers that actaully have very good feedback and a great following. Then the Philharmonics are more like proven concepts, clearly outlined for their purpose, and then supported with some measurements. Also with great user feedback, but I'd say less feedback than I found for the Tekton speakers.
 
I'm hoping the Tektons come through, though. I don't have an option to demo or listen to either of them, so though I can find good user feedback on both, I'm still shooting blind :-/  I feel you on that one with you being in Hawaii, I'm in China and here you're either finding local speakers to audition or ridiculously priced foreign import brands. There's not much of a middle ground and I can't really navigate the Chinese audio forums for proven, local DIY gone Internet Direct brands. There's not really much support for that here, though. There's not much DIY happening due to the low cost of labour and cheaply available parts, then there is a lot of support of branded products and the high end scene. 
 
So, we'll have to see how things go.
 
#1 though, I'm worried about my little girl thinking those blue coned woofers look like the perfect height and test subject for being skewered with a fruit fork... 

 

[SurFi]

Have the DIs in soft gloss grey with the internal upgrade.
 
They've been running for about 10 days now.
 
Getting the positioning dialed in now.
 
And looking into options for isolation/decoupling that are stable.

 

[Khragon]

some photos please

 

[Benny-x]

Have the DIs in soft gloss grey with the internal upgrade.

They've been running for about 10 days now.

Getting the positioning dialed in now.

And looking into options for isolation/decoupling that are stable.

Yeah, attach some photos

As for stable isolation, I've looked into an outrigger bar called the "Soundocity outrigger". You screw them into the bottom spike/footer holes that're already in the DIs, then it'll add about 4" to their width. They look sharp and lots of people say they make a difference sound wise too.

I've inquired with Soundocity and they said to order a couple weeks in advance due to manufacturing delays. They also run you about $270 for outriggers for both speakers + the milled brass spikes.