Tekton 4.5

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  • 12-18-2011, 10:40 AM
    cackalacky
    Tekton 4.5
    Wow. Just heard these at a buddy's house. They quickly moved near the top of the "Cackalacky Best Bang for the Buck" speakers. At $550, yes $550, they now share 1st place on that esteemed list with Maggie 1.7s ($1,995).

    Has anyone heard their 6.5s ($1,200) or flagship Sigmas ($5,000)? I'm drooling at the thought.
  • 12-18-2011, 02:49 PM
    Poultrygeist
    I've been enjoying mine for several years. Unfortunately most folks on this forum have never heard a single driver full range speaker.
  • 12-18-2011, 03:02 PM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    I've been enjoying mine for several years. Unfortunately most folks on this forum have never heard a single driver full range speaker.

    At least in part, a marketing issue. Unless you know someone who owns them, there's no way to audition them.
  • 12-18-2011, 03:17 PM
    Poultrygeist
    Another way to audition them is to build a pair.
  • 12-18-2011, 06:13 PM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    Another way to audition them is to build a pair.

    I actually had a similar thought while I was looking/listening. Seemed like a simple and straightforward design. Would it be an acceptable degree of difficulty for a first time DIY project? How about the 6.5?
  • 12-19-2011, 05:02 PM
    Poultrygeist
    My Betsy/Alpha open baffle full range speakers as pictured here would be the simplist build. Below is a link for a full range box speaker using enclosures purchased from Parts Express.


    Fostex FX120 DIY Bass Reflex Bookshelf Speakers
  • 12-19-2011, 06:09 PM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    My Betsy/Alpha open baffle full range speakers as pictured here would be the simplist build. Below is a link for a full range box speaker using enclosures purchased from Parts Express.


    Fostex FX120 DIY Bass Reflex Bookshelf Speakers

    Thanks.
  • 12-19-2011, 06:31 PM
    RGA
    The problem with the single driver is and has always been frequency range and dynamics. Purity in the midrange is first class and most music is in the midrange so it's a compromise a great many including myself would be willing to make.

    Teresonic's Ingenium is the first Single Drive speaker that is relatively normal sized (though very tall) that digs deep enough in the bass and has enough treble and has some dynamic swing that they would tempt me. The issue is that bass is such an important foundation for a lot music and the ability to pressurize a room dynamically is something even the Ingeniums really don't muster.

    What makes speakers like the Tekton appealing to me is that virtually all speakers in that price range won't have a whole lot of bass - so you're giving that up anyway. So you may as well get the purity in the midrange. I suppose that's the thinking with the Magnepan MMG (but these always leave me unimpressed).

    Perhaps Puoltrygeist has tried the Omega single driver speakers - they're not DIY but they seem popular and affordable - easy to drive and some have a bit more bass (according to them).
  • 12-20-2011, 09:22 AM
    Poultrygeist
    Yes the Omega's are very good but paying for a cabinet to house one speaker is really what you get. The reason single driver full range speakers are so DIY friendly is there's no crossover and all you have is binding posts wired directly to the driver terminals - simplicity personified. Smaller full range speakers are often bass shy but once you add a bi-amped OB bass augmentor ( see my old woofer reborn post ) you can get great natural bass and mids to die for.

    I added two bi-amped OB bass augmentors ( Eminence Alpha 15A ) to the mix with my small bookshelf 4.5 Tektons and the improvement was almost beyond comprehension. My first listen literally brought tears to my eyes.
  • 12-20-2011, 11:46 AM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    My Betsy/Alpha open baffle full range speakers as pictured here would be the simplist build. Below is a link for a full range box speaker using enclosures purchased from Parts Express.


    Fostex FX120 DIY Bass Reflex Bookshelf Speakers

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    Yes the Omega's are very good but paying for a cabinet to house one speaker is really what you get. The reason single driver full range speakers are so DIY friendly is there's no crossover and all you have is binding posts wired directly to the driver terminals - simplicity personified. Smaller full range speakers are often bass shy but once you add a bi-amped OB bass augmentor ( see my old woofer reborn post ) you can get great natural bass and mids to die for.

    I added two bi-amped OB bass augmentors ( Eminence Alpha 15A ) to the mix with my small bookshelf 4.5 Tektons and the improvement was almost beyond comprehension. My first listen literally brought tears to my eyes.

    Any idea what Eric has done with the 6.5 and the Sigma as improvements over the 4.5?
  • 12-20-2011, 06:06 PM
    Poultrygeist
    The only 6.5 and 4.5 I see on his site are the OB6.5 and OB4.5. I borrowed a friend's OB4.5's for a few weeks and I believe there are pictures of them in my gallery. It had nice highs and mids but no bottom end. When I paired it with my H-frames it improved drastically. Eric will tell you both OB's need a sub. He uses Fostex drivers in these and once told me that his favorite was the 4.5. My 4.5 is not the OB4.5but a bass reflex model. The 6.5 Fostex has better bass than the 4.5 but lacks the rich detail. A Fostex driver in a shoebox will sound surprisingly good.
  • 12-20-2011, 06:54 PM
    Ajani
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    The only 6.5 and 4.5 I see on his site are the OB6.5 and OB4.5. I borrowed a friend's OB4.5's for a few weeks and I believe there are pictures of them in my gallery. It had nice highs and mids but no bottom end. When I paired it with my H-frames it improved drastically. Eric will tell you both OB's need a sub. He uses Fostex drivers in these and once told me that his favorite was the 4.5. My 4.5 is not the OB4.5but a bass reflex model. The 6.5 Fostex has better bass than the 4.5 but lacks the rich detail. A Fostex driver in a shoebox will sound surprisingly good.

    That sounds like the reason why one of MJK's OB designs pairs a 4" driver with a 15" bass... My understanding is that the smaller full-range drivers generally do a better job of mid and treble, while the larger ones dig deeper in the bass... So if I was pairing Tekton speakers with an OB sub, I'd try one of the smaller tekton designs...
  • 12-21-2011, 06:20 AM
    Poultrygeist
    An 8 inch driver moves a lot more air than a 4 inch driver and that's a huge consideration for OB where cone excusion ( back and forth movement ) is greatest and suspensions must be looser ( Qts >.5 ). In an enclosure I like the super detail of a smaller Fostex ( Qts.< .5 = more rigid suspension and less cone excusion ) paired with a bass augmentor. A box speaker needs less cone excusion while an OB's cone has got to move a lot more air to produce the same sound level. A stiff suspension driver won't sound good in OB and it probably won't last long if driven hard.

    While we're on the subject of Fostex full range speakers I found this of interest.

    "You may be surprised to discover that Fostex speakers are among the world's best speakers. We've heard most of the world's so called greatest speakers - Wilson Grand Slamm, JM Labs Grande Utopia, Genesis 1, Dynaudio Evidence, etc ( all over $50,000 ). Incredibly none of these speakers sound any better than the Fostex designs. That sounds ridiculous but it's true. These expensive speakers will play louder and have more dynamics but don't sound as natural or musical." - David Dicks Common Sense Audio

    I'm not surprised :-)
  • 12-21-2011, 03:29 PM
    E-Stat
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    I've been enjoying mine for several years. Unfortunately most folks on this forum have never heard a single driver full range speaker.

    You're probably correct. I too, have enjoyed their wonderful coherence for over thirty years. The flavor I prefer, however, trades efficiency for frequency extension at both ends.
  • 12-29-2011, 12:44 PM
    Poultrygeist
    cack,

    I've read over some of your previous posts and it sounds like you really enjoyed the maggie experience but haven't made a decision on a final direction other than a HT DIY project. Maggies, like my full range open baffles, are classified as dipoles. They both have that openess, huge sound stages and can float notes in space like no other speakers as you get seductive out of phase sound radiating from front and back. The downside for both is that they need bass augmentation. I've heard the huge panels and they too need bass help.

    The main disadvantage with maggies is they are inefficient and require lots of power ( 100 watts or more is common ) and this makes a low powered tube amp ( think Single Ended Triode ) out of the question. Some push pull tube amps are powerful enough to drive the maggies but they aren't cheap and it's why most owners opt for solid state. Open baffles or single driver box speakers with point source high efficiency full range drivers can get by with 2 or 3 watts. Those few watts are magical from a SET amp and marked by sonic purity, coherency, and a hauntingly holographic sound stage.

    The first watt is the most important of all as there is over 10 times the dynamic range in the first watt that there is in the second. The problem with inefficient hard to drive speakers is resolution. If you can't hit a listening level with the first watt, you're not likely to hear what's happening in that first watt. If one uses 4 watts to drive a 96db speaker it requires 32 watts for a 86db speaker just to keep up. As someone once said "if the first watt sucks why bother". One thing for sure, you'll never hear someone say that the first watt of an 3 watt S.E.T. sucks.

    If you like inner detail and want to hear all of the textures and layers of a good recording you need fast, efficient and coherent speakers. That pretty much defines a good point source full range driver. You can easily add DIY OB bass full range augmentors which unlike subs are fast and musical. They solve the bass shyness of OB's and would do the same for maggies if given a chance.

    Looking forward to your visit.
  • 12-30-2011, 06:08 PM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    cack,

    I've read over some of your previous posts and it sounds like you really enjoyed the maggie experience but haven't made a decision on a final direction other than a HT DIY project. Maggies, like my full range open baffles, are classified as dipoles. They both have that openess, huge sound stages and can float notes in space like no other speakers as you get seductive out of phase sound radiating from front and back. The downside for both is that they need bass augmentation. I've heard the huge panels and they too need bass help.

    The main disadvantage with maggies is they are inefficient and require lots of power ( 100 watts or more is common ) and this makes a low powered tube amp ( think Single Ended Triode ) out of the question. Some push pull tube amps are powerful enough to drive the maggies but they aren't cheap and it's why most owners opt for solid state. Open baffles or single driver box speakers with point source high efficiency full range drivers can get by with 2 or 3 watts. Those few watts are magical from a SET amp and marked by sonic purity, coherency, and a hauntingly holographic sound stage.

    The first watt is the most important of all as there is over 10 times the dynamic range in the first watt that there is in the second. The problem with inefficient hard to drive speakers is resolution. If you can't hit a listening level with the first watt, you're not likely to hear what's happening in that first watt. If one uses 4 watts to drive a 96db speaker it requires 32 watts for a 86db speaker just to keep up. As someone once said "if the first watt sucks why bother". One thing for sure, you'll never hear someone say that the first watt of an 3 watt S.E.T. sucks.

    If you like inner detail and want to hear all of the textures and layers of a good recording you need fast, efficient and coherent speakers. That pretty much defines a good point source full range driver. You can easily add DIY OB bass full range augmentors which unlike subs are fast and musical. They solve the bass shyness of OB's and would do the same for maggies if given a chance.

    Looking forward to your visit.

    Yep. You nailed it. Other than listening to systems belonging to others, my excursion into hi-fi is limited to the purchase of a pair of Audioengine 5s. After recently listening to a couple of sound bars with the intention of hooking one to our living room flat screen, I hooked up the Audioengines in front of the TV to get a sense of what a good center channel might sound like. Cool. The spouse unit showed surprising enthusiasm, so I decided that a sound bar on steroids would be my first DIY project. Three full range drivers serving as left/center/right in a horizontal cabinet should do nicely with an independent sub in a compact 3.1 HT set-up.
    If the equipment that you describe results in the sound that you describe, I will have found what I thought was unattainable, a low budget path to sonic nirvana. Looking forward to hearing your stuff. Looks like I'll be going through Columbia on the 11th, then the 14th.
  • 01-12-2012, 02:54 AM
    Poultrygeist
    Cack,

    Don't know if you're back from Augusta yet but what did you think of the Tekton 4.5's and Alpha bass augmentors you heard at my house?
  • 01-14-2012, 06:40 PM
    cackalacky
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Poultrygeist View Post
    Cack,

    Don't know if you're back from Augusta yet but what did you think of the Tekton 4.5's and Alpha bass augmentors you heard at my house?

    The Tekton/Alpha was a heckuva combination indeed, very similar to the Tekton OB 4.5s with sub that I heard recently. These two listening sessions have opened my eyes (and ears) to the sonic and economic value of full range speakers.