New speakers on way. From Rethm to Tekton
- Thread starter prem
- Start date
M
mpw
Guest
You will be enveloped in sound 
heliumflight
Well-Known Member
Multi driver speakers, they are huge!
Thanks Prem for having us over.
The speakers have barely five hours of burn in so are likely to open up further, but here's a quick and dirty impression of last night's session.
Placement: the speakers are plonked approximately on the same spots as their predecessors, the Rethm Sadhanas. We tried incremental forward-backward changes but the current position is better so we didn't experiment further. There is a tiny sweet spot of placement outside of which the image height collapses and the overall sound degrades rather audibly. I learned one more thing from Prem yesterday - that placing the speakers one-third into the room from the side walls is what is preventing bass boom. The bass digs deep - basement deep - without ever loading the room or distorting. The foundation it provides to what one thinks is familiar music is to be heard to be understood.
Balance across the spectrum: is just right. No part of the sound shouts for attention but are present in perfect balance despite the seven tweeter drivers and two 10 inch woofers.
Tonal rightness: I couldn't get over how right every instrument tone and human voice sounded.
Resolution and texture and micro + macro dynamics: resolution is practically off the charts. This is true at both frequency extremes and not just in the all-important midrange. Seven tweeter drivers make their presence felt in this important area. As did the two woofers. But more important than sheer resolution was the fact that it brought out the fine texture of voices and instruments like the best panel speakers do. We played many records, some of which I was hearing for the first time. Example: on the Barfi OST side A track 2 the voice of Nikhil Paul George was amazingly textured. Every small nuance and inflection in his voice and every tiny pluck of the acoustic finger style guitar came through. Excellent micro dynamics. At the other end of the scale, I was startled many times by how sudden changes in macro dynamics in the music were not compressed. Next time I'm surely taking a few records with large and sudden upward dynamic incursions. It's addictive I nearly forgot to mention the bass depth and texture heard on Stevie Ray Vaughn's Tin Pan Alley (45 rpm Analogue Productions reissue). This song sounded like an entirely new, improved song.
These large speakers (54 inches tall) are a surprisingly benign load. Just 10 Watts from Prem's Berning OTL is way more power than ever required for his room. I'm told even the 1W microZOTL headphone amp + line level preamp is enough to power this speakers to energize rooms bigger than the current room. Also, though there Sadhanas were very good speakers in their own rights, the new boys are finally milking the real capability of the fine Berning amp. It's a fine pairing.
Speaker cabling is same as before (Western Electric WE16 tinned copper) and it mates very well with the new speakers
This is one heck of a speaker irrespective of price.
The speakers have barely five hours of burn in so are likely to open up further, but here's a quick and dirty impression of last night's session.
Placement: the speakers are plonked approximately on the same spots as their predecessors, the Rethm Sadhanas. We tried incremental forward-backward changes but the current position is better so we didn't experiment further. There is a tiny sweet spot of placement outside of which the image height collapses and the overall sound degrades rather audibly. I learned one more thing from Prem yesterday - that placing the speakers one-third into the room from the side walls is what is preventing bass boom. The bass digs deep - basement deep - without ever loading the room or distorting. The foundation it provides to what one thinks is familiar music is to be heard to be understood.
Balance across the spectrum: is just right. No part of the sound shouts for attention but are present in perfect balance despite the seven tweeter drivers and two 10 inch woofers.
Tonal rightness: I couldn't get over how right every instrument tone and human voice sounded.
Resolution and texture and micro + macro dynamics: resolution is practically off the charts. This is true at both frequency extremes and not just in the all-important midrange. Seven tweeter drivers make their presence felt in this important area. As did the two woofers. But more important than sheer resolution was the fact that it brought out the fine texture of voices and instruments like the best panel speakers do. We played many records, some of which I was hearing for the first time. Example: on the Barfi OST side A track 2 the voice of Nikhil Paul George was amazingly textured. Every small nuance and inflection in his voice and every tiny pluck of the acoustic finger style guitar came through. Excellent micro dynamics. At the other end of the scale, I was startled many times by how sudden changes in macro dynamics in the music were not compressed. Next time I'm surely taking a few records with large and sudden upward dynamic incursions. It's addictive
I nearly forgot to mention the bass depth and texture heard on Stevie Ray Vaughn's Tin Pan Alley (45 rpm Analogue Productions reissue). This song sounded like an entirely new, improved song.These large speakers (54 inches tall) are a surprisingly benign load. Just 10 Watts from Prem's Berning OTL is way more power than ever required for his room. I'm told even the 1W microZOTL headphone amp + line level preamp is enough to power this speakers to energize rooms bigger than the current room. Also, though there Sadhanas were very good speakers in their own rights, the new boys are finally milking the real capability of the fine Berning amp. It's a fine pairing.
Speaker cabling is same as before (Western Electric WE16 tinned copper) and it mates very well with the new speakers
This is one heck of a speaker irrespective of price.
Thanks for the write up Josh. I couldn’t have summed it better.
Josh, when it comes to distance from the front wall, I always try and figure out the point of inflection beyond which the stage collapses. I keep the speakers a cm beyond this point of inflection. What we tried yesterday was I bought it ahead of this point. Hence it collapsed. If I took it a cm behind that wouldn’t have happened. As you take it in towards the front wall, the speakers will sound a bit less open
Side wall has always been one third principle, irrespective of type of speaker.
Josh, when it comes to distance from the front wall, I always try and figure out the point of inflection beyond which the stage collapses. I keep the speakers a cm beyond this point of inflection. What we tried yesterday was I bought it ahead of this point. Hence it collapsed. If I took it a cm behind that wouldn’t have happened. As you take it in towards the front wall, the speakers will sound a bit less open
Side wall has always been one third principle, irrespective of type of speaker.
M
mpw
Guest
Joshua has done all the hard work of describing the sound very nicely..
so i will leave you with this picture..
harry123456
Active Member
Congratulations Prem. The speakers look grand and i am sure they sound beautiful. I was blown by the Rethm sound i heard at your place and if these speakers sound a step up...i would be truly amazed. Happy Listening.
Looking forward to hearing them in person someday.
Cheers.
Looking forward to hearing them in person someday.
Cheers.
shafic
Well-Known Member
Congrats prem for your new speakers. They looks awesome.Congratulations Prem. The speakers look grand and i am sure they sound beautiful. I was blown by the Rethm sound i heard at your place and if these speakers sound a step up...i would be truly amazed. Happy Listening.
Looking forward to hearing them in person someday.
Cheers.
Looking at the pics, I have one question, does the soundstage width seem adequate, since at-least from what I can see the speakers seem quite close together. In my room experiments, while moving the speaker away from the sidewalls reduced the boom (more than moving speakers from the wall behind them), I always felt compression in lateral soundstage.
Cheers,
Sid
Cheers,
Sid
Soundstage width is not as good as it would be with speakers placed further apart. It’s reasonable. Not what it could be. But I prefer the tonal quality at one third placement. And for me tonal accuracy wins over soundstage width. I also find presence and dynamics better at one third placement. Once speakers break in I will try the one fifth placement. Also with one third placement the speakers have to be brought out from the front wall as much as possible. Else it will sound small. If getting the speakers out by 5-6 ft from the front wall is not possible, I would opt for the one fifth placement position
Last edited:
Addenda to earlier impression: I forgot to mention a couple of important points:
1/ the speaker plays very effortlessly. There is absolutely no sense of struggle or strain. A corollary to this is that it sounds very open.
2/ the speaker has amazing transient response. Attack sounds more like a panel speaker (that P word again). Yesterday I read a couple of formal reviews and watched a long-ish YouTube review of the DI and what I learned is that the six ring tweeters play a large proportion of the midrange (300 Hz to about 7 kHz???). The seventh and middle tweeter takes over beyond that. The two mid woofers take care of the lower midrange. The advantage of this arrangement is that small and light tweeters with their light cones react much faster to transient requirements than large (5 - 8 inch) mid drivers. Hence the sense of immediacy in transients, allowing a start-stop response. It also does very well on the obverse - decays are gentle like it must be on real acoustic instruments.
1/ the speaker plays very effortlessly. There is absolutely no sense of struggle or strain. A corollary to this is that it sounds very open.
2/ the speaker has amazing transient response. Attack sounds more like a panel speaker (that P word again
). Yesterday I read a couple of formal reviews and watched a long-ish YouTube review of the DI and what I learned is that the six ring tweeters play a large proportion of the midrange (300 Hz to about 7 kHz???). The seventh and middle tweeter takes over beyond that. The two mid woofers take care of the lower midrange. The advantage of this arrangement is that small and light tweeters with their light cones react much faster to transient requirements than large (5 - 8 inch) mid drivers. Hence the sense of immediacy in transients, allowing a start-stop response. It also does very well on the obverse - decays are gentle like it must be on real acoustic instruments.docd
Active Member
Congrats Prem!
Addenda 2: I'm beginning to feel like an idiot for missing yet another point but here goes anyway:
This speaker has one trait that's very rare, namely, the ability to not lose resolution even at very moderate volume. Most decent to good speakers will resolve lower level details at sufficiently high SPLs but it is rare indeed to come across one that does it at low to moderate volume.
I've heard only two other speakers do this well. One was a Quad ESL. The second one was a dynamic driver based speaker. The latter didn't do it right out of the box. It took lots and lots of evolution in electronics, cabling, room treatment and serious grounding treatment to arrive at it. I'm told of another brand of dynamic speakers that does it too but I haven't heard it for myself.
So the DI is like a fine panel speaker that also does startling dynamics.
This speaker has one trait that's very rare, namely, the ability to not lose resolution even at very moderate volume. Most decent to good speakers will resolve lower level details at sufficiently high SPLs but it is rare indeed to come across one that does it at low to moderate volume.
I've heard only two other speakers do this well. One was a Quad ESL. The second one was a dynamic driver based speaker. The latter didn't do it right out of the box. It took lots and lots of evolution in electronics, cabling, room treatment and serious grounding treatment to arrive at it. I'm told of another brand of dynamic speakers that does it too but I haven't heard it for myself.
So the DI is like a fine panel speaker that also does startling dynamics.
Wow..thats a lot of great points covered Joshua! what strikes me is the transients and dynamics . the design is very intriguing as it seems to be some sort of a line array in a circle !
The Rethms were great in themselves and if this is doing something different then looking forward to visit Prems place
The Rethms were great in themselves and if this is doing something different then looking forward to visit Prems place
M
mpw
Guest
prem - ITY So
Follow HiFiMART on Instagram for offers, deals and FREE giveaways!
Similar threads
