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Very Disappointed with Tekton Double Impacts


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42 minutes ago, PhilBarone said:

there's this one A in the left hand of my vintage Steinway that I can always pick out. It's so amazing, it's so rich and dark and has like a million overtones

Maybe that note was inspired by my favorite piano story.  Legend has it that when Rubenstein struck middle C, it sounded better than when anybody else did!

 

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PS:  I've been a Prima Luna user and lover since soon after Kevin Deal started bringing them in.  Your EVO is a wonderful amp that should get the most out of almost any speaker.  My KT88 Prologue has been living very happily under our Yamaha grand for almost a decade.  Despite its "low" power rating, it's had all the juice needed to drive the many speakers I've had on it, some with sensitivity well below the Tektons and some with highly reactive loads that dropped 'way down there at some frequencies.

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50 minutes ago, PhilBarone said:

I'll give the Klipsch Forte's a shot

The PL should be an outstanding match for the Fortes.  In case you missed it, there's a 2019 Stereophile review of the Forte here that lays it all out well.  I assume you're getting the Forte IV, since the III is out of production, and that's reportedly even better than the III.  I haven't heard a IV, but the IIIs I've heard sounded quite fine to me.

 

The Klipsch / tube amp combo is truly old school (and an excellent example) - I could live with it very happily, and from your posts I suspect you'll do just that.

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45 minutes ago, PhilBarone said:

I never would have bought these speakers had him and another chucklehead said that the speakers were worth much more.  The young kid that does the reviews on YouTube actually said that people were trading in their 30 thousand dollar speakers and I bought it hook line and sinker.   Such BS. 

The concept of worth is purely subjective, Phil.  With so many wonderful audio products now available at a fraction of the retail costs of their predecessors, MSRP and market/street price lack strong and consistent correlation with sound quality.  And with so many new methods and materials available, even design and build quality are less strongly tied to cost than they used to be.

 

My audio source and close friend for decades was a crusty lawyer-turned-dealer who opened one of the few high end shops in about 1950.  One of his many pet peeves was people who said things like "they sound great for small speakers".  For Dan, the question was only how they sound - period.  If he were still here today, he'd undoubtedly voice the same objection to those who say "they sound great for inexpensive speakers".

 

There are those (myself among them) who would sugggest that spending $30k on any but a select few speakers is buying it hook, line and sinker.  I've been blown away by a few 6 figure systems over the years, but I've been equally impressed with the naivete and stupidity of those who bought what I consider to be exotic audio debris.  And I've been more impressed with how close to greatness some $500 speakers can come than I have been with the marginal improvement for that extra $29,500.

 

You've given the world $3k saxophones that rival the best Mk 6s, so you understand this far better than most.  Quality is now almost independent of price, and speakers of equal sound quality to your ears are now classic  commodities.  They're differentiated from each other largely by price and esthetics.  Go with your ears and your gut. 

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2 hours ago, PhilBarone said:

Imagine playing in the style of Warne Marsh and those guy, there's no gigs outside of Europe. Are you from AC? My best friend and incredible tenor player Frank Vicari used to gig there all the time.  When those gigs dried up he ended up helping me in the shop.  Very sad story given that he played with Maynard, Buddy Rich and tons of others and a tremendous friend and great guy which is probably why he didn't make much money.  

 

Maybe you should tell me which speakers to buy if I don't like the Klipsch Fortes I just bought.  If they don't work out I'm considering the Harbeth but now we're getting into much more money.   

AC born and raised!  Back in the '50s and early '60s, the old boardwalk hotels had a lot of dances for kids and parties year 'round.  I wasn't in that social circle, but I'd been playing locally at our community centers etc from the time I was about 10 - so I was known to (and apparently liked by) the group that did go to them. Between classmates who went to those events and their parents who knew my family and trusted me, I was able to get regular work playing them with drums, bass and tenor.  

 

Then I got my band a regular gig my first year in high school playing for radio station WMID.  We opened their record hops (run by a DJ named Larry Keen, aka "the fat cat in recordland") and had regular work for the next 2+ years in addition to the parties etc.  And when we were old enough (and good enough musicians to pull it off), we started playing local clubs.  The summer of '64 was a dream time for me.  I'd just graduated from high school and landed a 7 night a week gig for the opening season of the Golden Inn in Avalon.  The owner wanted piano, bass & drums - so that's how we auditioned and got the gig.  But we then convinced him he'd be better off with an organ-guitar-drum trio, so he bought a B3 with Leslie and we had an absolute blast!!

 

There have been many world class players who can't secure the stability and recognition they deserve.  I played with the biggest and best society office in Philly from summer '69 to December '73 (when I got married and passed my chair on to an 18 year old Mike Sembello)  - we did weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, commercial gigs like fashion shows and big charity events.  There were 5 "major" leaders, about 10 lesser ones, and over 200 regular sidemen.  I can't tell you how disheartening it was to be playing a wedding with guys who'd just been on the road with Basie - I played a few affairs with Al Grey in the band!  Even the guys who made it big had to struggle much too hard.  I felt terrible playing Sunday jazz brunches at local restaurants with true greats like Jeff Lee Johnson, Gerald Veasley, and Eddie Green.

 

As for what speakers you "should" get, I don't believe in the concept of "the best" of anything.  It depends on what kind of sound you like.  I'm a Focal guy - I love the character of their speakers.  I'm truly old school and still love the Rogers LS3/5as I bought new in 1975.  These are ideal for the PL amps and have a combination of clean analytical sound and tight upper bass that makes my music pop.  They image beautifully and are amazingly realistic even on big band stuff (like Rob McConnell's Umbrella direct-to-disc double album, which I strongly urge anybody to find).  They don't do deep bass, but down to 55 or so they're killer - and there's so much of the second harmonic in the bass that even the octave below that is there and tight.   When I first got my Prima Luna amp, I was so happy with the sound into the Rogers that I disconnected my subwoofer and haven't used it with them since then.  There are several LS3/5a clones today from Harbeth, Falcon, Spendor, Stirling, and Chartwell (among others) that are still available new and are similar in character to the originals with some minor but audible improvements ovr the years.

 

But our living room system uses a PL Prologue Premium driving Focal 726 towers (which are well within your price range - you could even go up to the 8 series, although I personally didn't need the minor bass extension the 826s had on bass heavy music).  In truth, I could live happily with any of several currently made speaker systems.  I even love the little powered monitors in my recording setup (JBL SLR 305s) - they sound mighty fine on their own, and I stuck my sub in that system when I want a big kick.  But see how you like the Klipsches - they're also wonderful speakers.

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