Tekton M-Lore Speaker Review

[fpitas]

I think this is the first Tekton review on ASR? I already kinda guessed that it wouldn't be all that great. I noticed a lot of these brands with a lot of hype and very little objective data are flop when put under the microscope.

Well, if I had a great measuring speaker for sale I'd certainly put up measurements.

 

[dogmamann]

Next to the meh performance, this thing also looks like a 20-year-old DIY project. The woofer isn't recessed, showing the mounting foam, and as usual the crossover point is way too high, resulting in quite a big directivity mismatch.

Actually tweeter only needs to be recessed, woofers can be surface mounted and still have directivity matched if I understand it right

 

[voodooless]

Actually tweeter only needs to be recessed, woofers can be surface mounted and still have directivity matched if I understand it right

No, it's always better to have a smooth transition between the woofer cone and the baffle. Otherwise, you'll see diffraction effects, and the wavy frequency response is in part because of this.

 

[prerich]

The freqency r

Then there's these:

Tekton Design Enzo XL loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Tekton Enzo XL's frequency response in the farfield; and an Earthworks QTC-40, with its small, ¼"-diameter capsule, for the nearfield responses.

www.stereophile.com

Tekton Design Impact Monitor loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

yikes!

That's not the frequency response measurement - its the vertical response axis (as the speaker was intended to be listened to on axis). Off axis is horrible but look at the on axis response....no that bad.
Here's the frequency response graph (waterfall)

 

[GWolfman]

I ran a 10 dB set of sweeps to see if there is limiting

I like this addition! Thanks @amirm!

 

[CleanSound]

Well, if I had a great measuring speaker for sale I'd certainly put up measurements.

True, but some speaker brands are started by cabinet makers with zero knowledge of speaker design and they have zero knowledge of even how to measure speakers. I believe Tekton is one of them, they probably don't even have an anechoic chamber or Klippel NFS and probably doesn't even know how to do outdoor quasi anechoic measurements.

 

[fpitas]

True, but some speaker brands are started by cabinet makers with zero knowledge of speaker design and they have zero knowledge of even how to measure speakers. I believe Tekton is one of them, they probably don't even have an anechoic chamber or Klippel NFS and probably doesn't even know how to do outdoor quasi anechoic measurements.

Some of the models have OK FR on-axis. Hard to see how they arrived there by ear (?) or whatever.

 

[D!sco]

Thanks @amirm for reviewing another tower.

I generated 2 EQs: the first one optimise for a flat listening window and the second one optimise for a higher score.
EQs are using PK (Peak) only and are limited to +/-6 dB.

Score is 3.5 and would be 5.7 with a perfect subwoofer.
With EQ Flat: score is 5.1 and resp. 7.0 with a perfect subwoofer.
With EQ Score: score is 6.0 and resp. 7.6 with a perfect subwoofer.

First set of graphs show nice improvement on all curves.
View attachment 319427

You have got to do something about Peak 0. Without the speaker on hand there's no way to know it won't bottom out, and given the distortion graphs, it probably will. Distortion is at 10% already at 50hz, quadrupling it will not be nice. The cutoff isn't distortion-based, and is dispersion even accounted for here? It's a tower meant for large rooms, PR isn't gonna cut it.

This is why blindly EQ'ing graphs is a terrible idea when the system doesn't involve the product.

 

[Toni Mas]

It looks like a bad MLTL design, with the woofer placed at the worst possible position exciting line resonances coloring the sound...

Maybe increasing stuffing would help.

 

[fpitas]

It looks like a bad MLTL design, with the woofer placed at the worst possible position exciting line resonances coloring the sound...

That would explain a few things.

 

[CleanSound]

Now I really want to know how this thing performs. My money is on not so good.

1812 Model V12

tektondesign.com

 

[voodooless]

Now I really want to know how this thing performs. My money is on not so good.

1812 Model V12

tektondesign.com

Even for a $ 14k speaker they do not flush mount the drivers

 

[Toni Mas]

Also pro paper 8 inchers often show damping issues around 800hz and minor breakup modes around 5k... Not bad too bad but far from perfect

 

[ahofer]

That's not the frequency response measurement

I know.

 

[pierre]

You have got to do something about Peak 0. Without the speaker on hand there's no way to know it won't bottom out, and given the distortion graphs, it probably will. Distortion is at 10% already at 50hz, quadrupling it will not be nice. The cutoff isn't distortion-based, and is dispersion even accounted for here? It's a tower meant for large rooms, PR isn't gonna cut it.

This is why blindly EQ'ing graphs is a terrible idea when the system doesn't involve the product.

Pk0 in any case is below Schroeder freq so it is more to compare with other, esp active speakers. Also if you need high SPL I expect people would
add a sub, this one cannot do well in a large room, distorsion is too high as you pointed out. Dispersion is not affected by EQ afaik

 

[BostonJack]

Category: Flagship

Test description.

tektondesign.com

Category: Full Towers

tektondesign.com

what on god's holey green earf is going on here???


does Tekton own a majority stake in Dayton tweeters???

these speaker designs make my neck itch

The Ulberht speaker under Flagship excited my trypophobia.
Good Lord! some insect is nesting in that thing! stay away!

 

[fpitas]

They aren't afraid to create bizarre speakers.

 

[lordhumungous]

I have a pair of Tekton electrons and they are ok,nothing special. The Kef,Monitor,Dynaudio and Focal speakers i have are all better. The horizontal sound dispersion is terrible so i have them fairly far apart and toed in some .

Tekton-C
Focal-A
Monitor- B
Elac-B+ - crazy bookshelf speaker name reviewed here.
Dynaudio-B+

All subjective of course

 

[Bogda89]

To be honest I was expecting much worse. Although it's not state of the art, measurements look relatively reasonable for average speaker. If it was more expensive I would not like it, but considering the price, and that is built in USA, at least cabinets, I think it's a good deal. I would never buy speakers with more than one tweeter but this model is semi decent.

Only thing I don't understand is why they didn't chose more robust tweeter and crossed it at around 1800 hz. They are famous for using tweeters as mid drivers with very low frequency, I don't remember claims, but I think it was well under 1000 hz

 

[D!sco]

Pk0 in any case is below Schroeder freq so it is more to compare with other, esp active speakers. Also if you need high SPL I expect people would
add a sub, this one cannot do well in a large room, distorsion is too high as you pointed out. Dispersion is not affected by EQ afaik

No, in-room response is affected by dispersion and will not always be effective. It is not a headphone, and cancellations must be accounted for.