Tekton Speakers Unconventional Designs

[parimento1]

Have you heard of these speakers? Their designs are so unconventional like their Pendragon with 3 tweeters and 2 10 inch woofers...I wonder how good it could sound? They have many speakers with huge woofers and a small tweeter. I wonder how they get any midrange out of those huge drivers? Any comments from anyone?

[Kpt_Krunch]

Hey parimento - I've been getting the 'bug' again - and as usual I want the most speaker my money can buy. The Pendragon is one on my list and is at it's price point comparable with the Sierra 1 towers. I have the original CMT 340's front stage with original 170's as surrounds. I've had these speakers for 8 years now I guess (give or take a year). I had the logo's fall off the speaker grills, but other than that, these speakers are still going strong and sound as good as ever. The speakers I'm wanting to replace are Energy RC's line (older version, not the new version labelled as "CF" I believe). Watching the new Eagles blu-ray at my brother in laws house (we're building it out on an acreage, just finished installing his 'home theater') - he has PMC speakers (PB1's I believe) which sounded really really nice. He has some old fugly speakers too - you now the ones - you can't take the grille off to see the drivers, wood all faded, etc. - and those sounded really nice as well, not at all as to how they looked. Sorry, rambling a bit - what struck me most about his PMC's, the snare drum. It SNAPPED -I mean it really snapped, like it was being played live. Does not 'snap' on my Energy's (Haven't tried yet on my Ascends - they're i the main room but been too busy to sit down and listen to that disc since that one day - we watched the whole thing it sounded so good). So that's why the 'bug' anyway, i want that SNAP - you don't know what you're missing until you hear it lol.

So, the Pendragons were / are interesting to me, along with the the Omen Def's, which also puts the Sierra tower in my price range.

Here' the thing - I've done business with Dave F. in the past, and he's good. Very good. Being in Canada dealing with a US I.D. company causes me to be cautious, but Dave delivers what he promises and his speakers are top notch.

Pendragons- a lot of broken promises, and now I've read about a customer with a tweeter issue on his Pendragons and has been getting nothing but excuses from the owner about why he won't 'honor' the warranty on it. I've never had to use a 'warranty' with Dave, but I've never read anywhere about an issue of him not honoring anything.

As to how they sound, they're (Pendragons) on my list due to the wonderful reviews they've been getting from people who own them. Based on the reviews they should be on everyone's list. Based on the turnaround time (4 to 6 MONTHS in some accounts), lies - "Your speakers will be ready next week" but then nothing ships, and lack of warranty coverage - has me crossing the Pendragon's off my list. I'd rather deal with someone I know (sort of) and someone I'm comfortable with - Dave is someone I trust, Zu Audio has a "Canadian" website which means I can get them from here at a higher cost but less shipping (plus no brokerage fee's - though I'm sure that's why the higher cost) so that's what I'm weighing out. I want that "SNAP" though - though not sure what those PMC's cost I've seen them prices north of 10 grand for the pair so getting that same 'snap' may not be realistic at this price point :)

[parimento1]

I've been interested in the PMC monitors, but it was very difficult to demo them...I was really interested in them because they have a small footprint.



Hey parimento - I've been getting the 'bug' again - and as usual I want the most speaker my money can buy. The Pendragon is one on my list and is at it's price point comparable with the Sierra 1 towers. I have the original CMT 340's front stage with original 170's as surrounds. I've had these speakers for 8 years now I guess (give or take a year). I had the logo's fall off the speaker grills, but other than that, these speakers are still going strong and sound as good as ever. The speakers I'm wanting to replace are Energy RC's line (older version, not the new version labelled as "CF" I believe). Watching the new Eagles blu-ray at my brother in laws house (we're building it out on an acreage, just finished installing his 'home theater') - he has PMC speakers (PB1's I believe) which sounded really really nice. He has some old fugly speakers too - you now the ones - you can't take the grille off to see the drivers, wood all faded, etc. - and those sounded really nice as well, not at all as to how they looked. Sorry, rambling a bit - what struck me most about his PMC's, the snare drum. It SNAPPED -I mean it really snapped, like it was being played live. Does not 'snap' on my Energy's (Haven't tried yet on my Ascends - they're i the main room but been too busy to sit down and listen to that disc since that one day - we watched the whole thing it sounded so good). So that's why the 'bug' anyway, i want that SNAP - you don't know what you're missing until you hear it lol.

So, the Pendragons were / are interesting to me, along with the the Omen Def's, which also puts the Sierra tower in my price range.

Here' the thing - I've done business with Dave F. in the past, and he's good. Very good. Being in Canada dealing with a US I.D. company causes me to be cautious, but Dave delivers what he promises and his speakers are top notch.

Pendragons- a lot of broken promises, and now I've read about a customer with a tweeter issue on his Pendragons and has been getting nothing but excuses from the owner about why he won't 'honor' the warranty on it. I've never had to use a 'warranty' with Dave, but I've never read anywhere about an issue of him not honoring anything.

As to how they sound, they're (Pendragons) on my list due to the wonderful reviews they've been getting from people who own them. Based on the reviews they should be on everyone's list. Based on the turnaround time (4 to 6 MONTHS in some accounts), lies - "Your speakers will be ready next week" but then nothing ships, and lack of warranty coverage - has me crossing the Pendragon's off my list. I'd rather deal with someone I know (sort of) and someone I'm comfortable with - Dave is someone I trust, Zu Audio has a "Canadian" website which means I can get them from here at a higher cost but less shipping (plus no brokerage fee's - though I'm sure that's why the higher cost) so that's what I'm weighing out. I want that "SNAP" though - though not sure what those PMC's cost I've seen them prices north of 10 grand for the pair so getting that same 'snap' may not be realistic at this price point :)

[davef]

Have you heard of these speakers? Their designs are so unconventional like their Pendragon with 3 tweeters and 2 10 inch woofers...I wonder how good it could sound? They have many speakers with huge woofers and a small tweeter. I wonder how they get any midrange out of those huge drivers? Any comments from anyone?

You can get midrange from such large drivers, but it is being produced by the woofers outside of their piston range which is then extremely directional. It would also require crossing the tweeters very low (which leads to blown tweeters, as already described here) but the bigger problem is crossing tweeters so low leads to very wide dispersion. When you combine the very limited dispersion (high directivity) of using such large woofers to produce mids and wide dispersion (low directivity) of the tweeters, you get a rather extreme directivity mismatch between the drivers. Off-axis response is going to suffer dramatically, leading to a very poor polar and power response (which is what we hear)

I have worked with 3-tweeter arrays extensively and when done right there can be some benefits in near-field listening. However, there can be severe vertical lobing when the listener is not precisely located at the middle tweeter height.

This type of design might be good for dynamics (although crossing tweeters so low counters that), but it is going to measure poorly. I also wonder why all those people posting such great reviews in that AVS thread have such low post counts... There are quite a few posters who have never posted on AVS that all of a sudden leave a great review.. It all seems very suspicious to me...

[Dark Ranger]

Full disclaimer: I've never heard the Pendragons myself. I also know very little about designing loudspeakers compared to some. However, I've definitely scratched my head over the design of the Pendragon. It sounds interesting on paper, no doubt. Dave put into words a couple of things I had wondered about regarding the Pendragon design, so I'm glad to see I wasn't too far off the mark.

If I may make an observation about the delays and shipping times: I think part of the problem is that this brand kind of spread like wildfire. The guy running the show just couldn't keep up anymore. That leads to inevitable delays and "broken promises." Maybe it's time to add more staff and adjust processes to handle the interest. :)

[davef]

If I may make an observation about the delays and shipping times: I think part of the problem is that this brand kind of spread like wildfire. The guy running the show just couldn't keep up anymore. That leads to inevitable delays and "broken promises." Maybe it's time to add more staff and adjust processes to handle the interest. :)

I don't know -- as I mentioned, I am very suspicious of all of those forum posts. I read a recent one where the owner was complaining of working 12 hours per day. 15 years into Ascend and I still can't remember the last time I didn't put in a 12 hour day, although now I try to only work 6 days per week ;)

For a small business owner, 12 hour+ days are the norm, you definitely don't start a business expecting to work less than a full time job. You have to LOVE the work, LOVE the products and especially, LOVE your customers. If you don't -- there is no chance of success.

Eric, if you are reading this and you would like to chat, call me anytime...

[sonicboom]

When I think about speakers, I only think of Ascend Acoustics. Solid performance and equally solid customer service.

[Blutarsky]

When I think about speakers, I only think of Ascend Acoustics. Solid performance and equally solid customer service.
I Agree. There are so many speaker companies with so many products. Buying and Trying is a long, frustrating, and expensive proposition. Ascend gives me good product, high value, and stellar customer support. They periodically, and tantalizingly, bring out new speakers and improvements, to keep my interest piqued.

Good Sound Indeed...

Blutarsky