Got tweeters?

[Rocketman248]

Anyone seen the latest addition to Tekton's lineup?  The 98.8db sensitivity is appealing, but holy smokes is that a busy looking speaker.  Wonder how it sounds.

http://www.tektondesign.com/ddimpact.html

[johnsonad]

They are ugly but interesting. I would like to listen to them.

[Mike L.]

I'd like to hear them too, or any of Tekton's designs.  One thing that doesn't make sense to me, however, is why engineer for both high-efficiency AND high power handling?  These are clearly not meant for large-scale sound reinforcement like in a movie theater, so why make them capable of taking 400 watts if they are 98.8db? 

Is the power handling just a function of some other aspect of the design, and not necessarily a goal?

[Doc B.]

Multiple drivers will increase the power handling. It's a free benefit of employing those multiple drivers to get the sensitivity up. PJ and I have considered the cluster of tweeters in the past. At some distance from the speaker the polar response pattern should be pretty smooth, especially if the center driver is time aligned with the ring drivers in such a way as to create a hemispherical wavefront.

The main issue with this kind of setup is that even with the effort to get tweets and mids arranged about a center point you usually can't sit super close. You need some distance to get a coherent presentation from tweeter to midrange to bass. These look to be big room speakers.

[Paul Joppa]

Just a note, that 98.8dB appears to be at two watts (2.83v into 4 ohms) - so 95.8dB/m/watt.

[Rocketman248]

I'll just wait until Bottlehead's speaker kits come out.

[Natural Sound]

Just a note, that 98.8dB appears to be at two watts (2.83v into 4 ohms) - so 95.8dB/m/watt.

Good catch.

[Gerry E.]

Just a note, that 98.8dB appears to be at two watts (2.83v into 4 ohms) - so 95.8dB/m/watt.

On a related note, one of the listed specifications: "4 Ohm design for optimum performance".

Can a case be made for that being a true statement?  Is it somewhat similar to a frequency response spec without a +/- tolerance spec? 

Gerry

[Paul Birkeland]

On a related note, one of the listed specifications: "4 Ohm design for optimum performance".

Can a case be made for that being a true statement?

This is probably more of a statement that when using a tube amplifier, one should use the 4 Ohm taps (the speaker may have varying impedance with some low dips that are better handled by this connection).