Tekton Ulfberht 3.1 System

[Shimei]

Here's an updated picture of the room treatment as I begin making way up the left side wall. I'm going to need round 8 more panels I think to finish up the walls. Then I may begin removable/hanging panels for window coverings and the television for those critical listening times.  

 

[Ben-M]

Hi Will. Thanks for posting up all the pictures and detailing your journey with the Ulfberhts. I'm also awaiting a new home to be built and I've pretty much desided on the Ulfberhts for my combination music/entertainment room. My home won't be done for another 2 years in order to line up with a few other schedules, so I've got a bit of time to figure out the details. I already got in touch with Eric about the build several months ago and I'll be getting back in touch with him in another few months to work out some more details. 

 

I wanted to ask a couple questions:

1. I am also reading up on your blog. What are the top binding/grounding looking posts on the back of the Ulfberhts? Shown here, above the binding posts:

 

2. How are things going soundwise with your Be tweeter swap?

When I connected with Eric before, we discussed putting a ribbon/AMT tweeter in the Ulfberhts in place of the standard Scanspeak one you also removed. He has already done that for another couple clients with good results. And in my case, I got hooked on AMT tweeters about 3-4 years ago and wanted to see if Eric would go for it, which he agreed to and said they'll be at least as good as the Scanspeaks from a performance perspective. Those AMTs are bigger then regular dome tweters, though, so I'm interested to see what Eric may have to do about the physical size of the speakers. 

[Shimei]

5 hours ago, Ben-M said:

Hi Will. Thanks for posting up all the pictures and detailing your journey with the Ulfberhts. I'm also awaiting a new home to be built and I've pretty much desided on the Ulfberhts for my combination music/entertainment room. My home won't be done for another 2 years in order to line up with a few other schedules, so I've got a bit of time to figure out the details. I already got in touch with Eric about the build several months ago and I'll be getting back in touch with him in another few months to work out some more details. 

 

I wanted to ask a couple questions:

1. I am also reading up on your blog. What are the top binding/grounding looking posts on the back of the Ulfberhts? Shown here, above the binding posts:

 

2. How are things going soundwise with your Be tweeter swap?

When I connected with Eric before, we discussed putting a ribbon/AMT tweeter in the Ulfberhts in place of the standard Scanspeak one you also removed. He has already done that for another couple clients with good results. And in my case, I got hooked on AMT tweeters about 3-4 years ago and wanted to see if Eric would go for it, which he agreed to and said they'll be at least as good as the Scanspeaks from a performance perspective. Those AMTs are bigger then regular dome tweters, though, so I'm interested to see what Eric may have to do about the physical size of the speakers. 

 

Hi Ben, 
The top terminals are for resistors to tame the high frequency tweeter. I haven't experimented myself but was curious how a potentiometer might fare there offering variable resistance to tune. 

The Be tweeters are absolutely beautiful sounding. I made the upgrade myself replacing the stock Scanspeak softdome w/ the Be Illuminator from ScanSpeak est $500.00 ea). After about ten hours of break in the Be became rather "hot" and needed taming down. I decided to use the MiniDSP to achieve this, but do recommend your route by contacting Eric and having your tweeter of choice installed and tuned by him through the crossovers. For me, this was highly impractical given the sheer size of the Ulfberhts, that is, having to package them back up and send them back to Tekton by Semi-Truck to be fitted w/ custom crossovers for the ScanSpeaks. Eric does offer different Bes w/ crossovers from Satori. 

As to how the Bes sound they reproduce high hats, cymbals, etc w/ a realism I never personally heard before. I am not positive about how low the high frequency tweeter in the 15 tweeter MTM begins rolling on but speculate bout 3500hz. At such frequency w/out proper crossovers for the Bes or equalization I found that certain artists began speaking w/ a lisp ..... rolling off a little sizzle from the end of their tongue. After equalization such went away and now I'm in love with the realism reproduced through the Bes. Mind you the Tekton Ulfberht MTM array w/ all soft domes were incredible to begin w/. Before the upgrade I seriously pondered whether they could be made better and even now have a difficult time expressing the value of $1500.00 just to replace three tweeters in the LCR MTM arrays. 

Enjoy,
William

[Ben-M]

Thanks for the feedback on both fronts, Will. That's interesting that they're for resistors to flavour the highs. I haven't looked into it, but I haven't see any Tekton owners talking much about that. That seems like a prime Tweekers Delight opportunity~

[Shimei]

4 hours ago, Ben-M said:

Thanks for the feedback on both fronts, Will. That's interesting that they're for resistors to flavour the highs. I haven't looked into it, but I haven't see any Tekton owners talking much about that. That seems like a prime Tweekers Delight opportunity~

 

I don't know enough bout the terminals to hook anything up [safe ranges etc]. Terry London mentioned them briefly in his review just stating that they accept resistors to tame a hot sounding amp. As delivered the Ulfberhts were incredible as delivered and only became better after breaking in. Owners not tweaking the speakers might be testimony of how good these speakers sound as is. I think a lot of people see the Be price tag and out of curiosity want to try them. I mean, installing them myself I can easily go back to the stock soft domes. The Bes are definitely different sounding, however, different isn't always better. From what I hear [unconfirmed], Eric held out on releasing Be upgrades at first, allegedly not being sold on the Bes. I suspect sometimes a company may offer things [design and parts] according to customer demand and not always based on what they find best. Anyhow, I enjoy the Be tweeters. 

Look forward to hearing from you and your experience w/ the Ulfs should your purchase fall into place. 

 

Enjoy,

William

[Ben-M]

On 10/5/2020 at 12:40 AM, Shimei said:

Look forward to hearing from you and your experience w/ the Ulfs should your purchase fall into place. 

 

Enjoy,

William

Hey Will, I'm still kicking around the Ulfberht scene, getting ready to move into the new house in about 10 months and that'll be when I get my pair. Fingers crossed. 

 

But, I saw on one of the other forums that it must have been you that listed your custom, white Ulfberht Center channel, and I'm not sure if I also saw your 4-10 subs listed too? 

 

What happened there? I'm putting my Ulfberhts into my combo basement home theater/rec room and I need to put them into the 7.2.4 Atmos setup as the Fronts, which I also have to get a Center channel for and have been told to do my best to make sure the Center and the Fronts are the same line, if possible. 

[Shimei]

On 12/1/2021 at 8:25 AM, Ben-M said:

Hey Will, I'm still kicking around the Ulfberht scene, getting ready to move into the new house in about 10 months and that'll be when I get my pair. Fingers crossed. 

 

But, I saw on one of the other forums that it must have been you that listed your custom, white Ulfberht Center channel, and I'm not sure if I also saw your 4-10 subs listed too? 

 

What happened there? I'm putting my Ulfberhts into my combo basement home theater/rec room and I need to put them into the 7.2.4 Atmos setup as the Fronts, which I also have to get a Center channel for and have been told to do my best to make sure the Center and the Fronts are the same line, if possible. 

Just listed my Tekton Ulfberhts and 4-10s for sale if you might be interested: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/for-sale-tekton-design-ulfberhts-and-dual-4-10-subwoofers.3227384/