Click over to Tekton Design's website and one could infer that I have quit my job, given away all possessions, and joined the church of Tekton in Utah. Of course, I did none of the aforementioned but, with its 99dB of sensitivity, Tekton Design's towering Double Impacts revealed an alternate path to aural enlightenment for this listener. It is a path where the slightest impulses are transformed into fully formed musical images with great speed, transparency, and minimal coloration. After posting my article, Steve Lefkowicz suggested I listen to the less imposing stand mount 95dB Impact Monitors. I eagerly agreed. Emails were sent to Tekton Design and within days two boxes from Utah were delivered to my home.
The Impact Monitors are well packaged and easily unboxed by one person. No protective grills, manual, specifications, or warranty information is included. I received serial numbers 0065 and 0066. The speakers were brand new and not a road traveled reviewer pair. I was quite impressed with the IMs elegant 24.5" by 10.125" by 13" proportions. At first, the IMs were placed upon 24" three column Pangea Audio stands occupied by my KEF LS50s. However, I felt that a more substantial stand would better accommodate the IM's hefty mass. I contacted Pangea and soon a set of 24" heavy-duty 4 column DS400 stands arrived at my door.
The IMs were finished in low luster Harley-Davidson orange paint. The front panel is a marvel of modern precision cabinetry. I wonder how many boards are rejected for every one that successfully accepts seven concentric 3" holes exactly one eighth of an inch apart from each other? Seven 1 inch soft dome drivers fill the holes in the center of the panel flanked by 6" mid-woofers above and below. Curiously, the dome drivers are mounted flush to the fascia whereas the mid woofers are not. All drivers are sourced from SB Acoustics in Indonesia. The back panel has a 4" flared port and single pair of solid copper alloy binding posts. The binding posts' polarity are indicated by tiny + - symbols stamped into the metal. I cautiously drew a red stripe on + and black stripe on – with a felt tip marker to avoid any potentially damaging misconnections.
Now come the questions. Why so many tweeters? Isn't it hard enough to get one tweeter to sound right? Do six string guitars sound like twelve strings and solo voices sound like duos? These are questions I've contemplated throughout my exposure to Tekton products. The use of multiple drivers to cover a frequency band is well established and has the benefits of increasing power response as well as lowering distortion. Distributing a load across smaller things has advantages in design and nature. For example, a V12 engine has twice as many pistons to do the work of a V6 engine of similar displacement. Which engine is going to provide more instantaneous throttle response? Which engine will make a more sensual sound? Dragonflies have two sets of smaller wings rather than a single pair of larger wings allowing them to be extremely agile fliers. Similarly, Tekton has assigned a circular array of one inch domes to produce sounds in the upper midrange band. Only the central dome performs as a tweeter. Indeed, the Impact Monitor is a 3-way design.
The results are a strikingly clear mid-range response and seamless transitions across the frequency range. If you love the sound of female voices in harmony, then you must listen to The Secret Sister's latest album You Don't Own Me Anymore. Their cover of "Kathy's Song" by Simon and Garfunkel is heavenly. The IMs hauntingly floated the sister's distinct voices and gently fingerpicked guitar in the space before me. Every quiver of breath, shape of mouth, and depth of emotion is expressed with transcendent grace and harmony. "Old Country" by Bill Henderson from His Complete Vee-Jay Recordings, Vol. 2 is equally captivating. The IMs portrayed Bill's remarkable voice, string accompaniment, and studio sound with high res definition and deep sentiment. Do not listen to this song alone, in the dark of late night, and with a glass of wine in your hand unless you want to shed a tear of blue tinged melancholy. Like the Double Impacts I listened to previously, the Impact Monitors convey the emotion of song with explicit honesty.
The English Concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock from the harpsichord, produced a digital recording released on LP of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos in 1982 (Archiv 2742 003). The LP's informative liner notes in English, French, and German with dates, origin, and fabricator of each period instrument is extraordinary. The Impact Monitors reproduced the chamber music with authenticity and proper scale. BC No.5 in D major BWV 1050 features harpsichord solo. The IMs detailed the plucky action of harpsichord with realism and immediate responsiveness. The sound of the ensemble was open and slightly diffused. In comparison, the LS50 offered a more focused, albeit reduced image of the ensemble. Which begs the question, how did the orchestra sound when last you heard a live performance? Study with Mozart, a collection of andante movements, is a Tidal playlist that features dozens top tier recordings and artists from the catalogs of Sony, RCA, and others. Overtime, the more I listened to the playlist with Impact Monitors, the less attention I paid to persnickety audiophile concerns and just let the wondrous healing salve of Mozart wash over me.
Back in December I had the great pleasure of witnessing John McLaughlin's final North American performance ever with my son at UCLA. I have seen the master several times throughout the decades but this was the first for the millennial young man. The show was a three-hour jazz-rock extravaganza performed by the man who helped define the genre with a band of formidable musicians at every instrument. I'll never forget the sheer power, grace, and virtuosity displayed by the band while sitting stage right row five in Royce Hall. "Seven Sisters" is a song from McLaughlin's 1997 album The Heart of Things. The melody begins quietly with tenor sax and electric guitar and weaves into thunderous double bass drum interplay by Dennis Chambers. Six months on, the Impact Monitor's exceptional dynamic responsiveness had me reliving the energy and passion of that very special concert.
Although I appreciate some songs and acknowledge its overwhelming popularity, electronic based music is not style I look to for critical listening. Interestingly, since the IMs have been in the house, my collection of electronica has grown considerably. Black Coffee is a South African record producer and DJ. The track "Inkodlo Kamashimane" from the album Pieces of Meis a grooving nine-minute woofer workout. Tekton's website specifies 40Hz low end for the Impact Monitor but SL measured strong house rumbling pulses at 35Hz from his calibrated iPhone audio tools app. Follow up with "Laptevinmeri" by Pan Sonic from their album Katodivaihe. The track is a full range polyphonic composition of analogue beeps, sweeps, sci-fi effects, and deep sonic pulses. The Impact Monitor effortlessly filled the listening room and beyond with profound swells energy. Sounds projected from locations well outside the plane of the speakers. I gazed in awe from the listening chair with every play. The more I listened to this genre with the Impact Monitors, the more I wanted to explore. "Esa Banda" by Nortec Collective from their album Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3 (there is no Vol. 2) features members of the band Calexico. The track is an ironic collage of lounge bass, cool muted trumpet, Norteño accordion, and sampled goat. The whimsical track never fails to inspire a smile. "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons from their album Evolve is another song with clever samples. The word thunder is repeated in various pitches from locations all over the soundstage supported by deep sustained bass tones and oversized drums. During the entire review period, the 500 watts SVS SB2000 subwoofer remained disconnected in the corner of the room. Its service was simply not needed.
My lead pipe Latin music pick is an entire album this time. Latin Jazz pianist Hilario Duran's 2001 Havana Remembered is nostalgic homage to classic Cuban songs with excellent recording values and first chair musicians. Vocalist Yailen Duran sings with very light vibrato in contrast to more traditional interpretations. At first I felt her voice was ill suited for the task but I grew to appreciate Yailen's delicate approach after repeated listening. The Impact Monitors projected a wide field of sound from the horn section and substantial bass tumbao. Timbales cracked with startling speed and presence.
This review was not intended as a direct comparison with my reference KEF LS50 speakers. More than being separated by $500, the two speakers are designed for different purposes. The LS50 is the champion and standard-bearer for mini-monitors with decades of research and untold dollars of development towards the singular purpose of point source image coherence. The Impact Monitor is an ingenious fever dream solution to the issues of speaker sensitivity and the effects that crossovers have on how we perceive recorded music. The LS50 speaker cabinet has the density of a bowling ball. Each surface of the Impact Monitor cabinet responded mildly with a different tone when knocked with the knuckles. With an efficiency rating of 84dB and limited low frequency, the LS50 require robust amplification and support from an optional powered subwoofer to sound their best. The Impact Monitors are near full frequency high sensitivity LOUD speakers eager to please with modest power requirements.
In closing, I truly believe the Impact Monitor would make many listeners in Europe and the Far East very happy. IM's outstanding dynamic responsiveness, remarkable mid-range clarity, near full frequency, and user-friendly dimensions are assets that few, if any, speakers possess at $2000. The Impact Monitors and Pangea DS400 speaker stands should be sold as a bundle. The DS400 provided a solid foundation and enhanced the elegant illusion of a continuous column from the top of the speaker to the floor. As long time dyed-in-the-wool audio geek, I never imagined listening to, much less enjoying, an orange painted speaker system that included 14 tweeters! Nevertheless, the orange color scheme and technology makes sense to me now. The Impact Monitors can summon fury like the Heritage Softail next to you at the intersection and deliver to you to your musical destination like a magic carpet ride on the open highway. As one audio friend told me before leaving an afternoon's listening session, "You need to keep these!" I believe I may heed his advice.
Highly recommended without reservation.
Impact Monitors
Retail: $2000 a pair
Tekton
