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My ancient Infinity RS3as originally purchased in 1982, rebuilt several times, finally gave up the ghost because there were no replacement drivers left in the entire world. And I looked. I'd been dreading their eventual demise and had been looking for potential replacements for years. Suddenly being bereft of main system speakers lent a sense of urgency.
After a bit of handringing I called Eric at Tekton Design and ordered a pair of plain jane Pendragons at the reduced holiday sale price. Fedex dropped them off a week later and fortunately I had my own dolly to handle the rather large boxes. Carefully unpacked them and set the shipping boxes aside in case I felt the need to use the sixty day money back gaurantee. The packing went in the recycling bin two days later.
These things are big, I possibly should have paid more attention to the dimensions and ordered the smaller Enzo XLs. No, I can live with the size. They do sort of look like the monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey looming in the front of the room. A bit hard to do fine positioning with once the spikes are in.
Imaging - The Pendragons do not image quite as well as a small set of standmounts I have. But they do present a stable image situated between the speakers. Working on dialing things in and room treatment indicates this will improve.
Detail - They do not match little JVC single full range wood pulp driver speakers I once had. To date I've never heard ANY other speaker that would resolve certain detail as well. But the Pendragons are pretty detailed. A couple cuts on the old Absolute Sound CD that HP wrote liner notes for sounded very good, nothing missing in action there.
Dynamics - These things are 96 dB efficient hooked to a 200 watt amplifier. Dynamics are not an issue.
Frequency response - Getting pretty much down to 20 Hz in my room and I'm hearing organ pipes I've never heard in my room before. Finding a nasty room node that never raised it's ugly head before too. On the other end it extends nicely without that piercing rising dB level as frequency rises that passes for detail which I hate. Very smooth. But crank the volume and they will certainly overload an untreated room.
Load - Eight ohms nominal and apparently no really bad impedance drops or spikes and no really nasty phase shifts. My amplifiers, including some pawn shop specials have no difficulties. A few watts gets them bogeying. I really like to try a good tube amp with them.
They sounded good out of the box and as they've broken in they've only gotten better. Every once in awhile I throw in something like AC/DCs live cut "For Those About To Rock" and crank it up. The pyrotechnic canon shots are attention grabbers at somewhere north of 110 dB. Sheila Chandra is an interesting vocal artist and a couple of her songs are new agey but very relaxing and presented smoothly as they should be. Cassandra Wilsons deep voice on "New Moon Daughter" the same. Detail without etch or glare. Anna Netrbko and Elena Garanca performing Offenbach is sublime, although they would be sublime on anything better than a nine transitor radio so I guess they're presented as extra sublime. The Reference Recordings Minnesota Symphony of Lizts Le Prelude is suitably thunderous.
At $2,100 these things do not have any weaknesses. Well, aside from the cosmetic issue of stark monolithic appearance. That could have been taken care of if I had been willing to spend more money on an automotive paint job or exotic veneer which are available at upcharge. A couple of cans of Krylon would address that if I feel the need. Or a trip to a friends whose company does those car and bus wrap things. Maybe a Monet or Matisse wrap? Roger Dean of the old Yes album illustrations? A calander wrap, new scene every month? Could be fun.
$2100 is not inexpensive for me, but these things are worth every last pence. I've heard speakers at multiples of that price that do some things better, but not everything better. I've heard speakers in multiples of that price that do nothing better. Made in Utah with US sourced components. For $2,100. I'm happy, my neighbors not so much.
After a bit of handringing I called Eric at Tekton Design and ordered a pair of plain jane Pendragons at the reduced holiday sale price. Fedex dropped them off a week later and fortunately I had my own dolly to handle the rather large boxes. Carefully unpacked them and set the shipping boxes aside in case I felt the need to use the sixty day money back gaurantee. The packing went in the recycling bin two days later.
These things are big, I possibly should have paid more attention to the dimensions and ordered the smaller Enzo XLs. No, I can live with the size. They do sort of look like the monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey looming in the front of the room. A bit hard to do fine positioning with once the spikes are in.
Imaging - The Pendragons do not image quite as well as a small set of standmounts I have. But they do present a stable image situated between the speakers. Working on dialing things in and room treatment indicates this will improve.
Detail - They do not match little JVC single full range wood pulp driver speakers I once had. To date I've never heard ANY other speaker that would resolve certain detail as well. But the Pendragons are pretty detailed. A couple cuts on the old Absolute Sound CD that HP wrote liner notes for sounded very good, nothing missing in action there.
Dynamics - These things are 96 dB efficient hooked to a 200 watt amplifier. Dynamics are not an issue.
Frequency response - Getting pretty much down to 20 Hz in my room and I'm hearing organ pipes I've never heard in my room before. Finding a nasty room node that never raised it's ugly head before too. On the other end it extends nicely without that piercing rising dB level as frequency rises that passes for detail which I hate. Very smooth. But crank the volume and they will certainly overload an untreated room.
Load - Eight ohms nominal and apparently no really bad impedance drops or spikes and no really nasty phase shifts. My amplifiers, including some pawn shop specials have no difficulties. A few watts gets them bogeying. I really like to try a good tube amp with them.
They sounded good out of the box and as they've broken in they've only gotten better. Every once in awhile I throw in something like AC/DCs live cut "For Those About To Rock" and crank it up. The pyrotechnic canon shots are attention grabbers at somewhere north of 110 dB. Sheila Chandra is an interesting vocal artist and a couple of her songs are new agey but very relaxing and presented smoothly as they should be. Cassandra Wilsons deep voice on "New Moon Daughter" the same. Detail without etch or glare. Anna Netrbko and Elena Garanca performing Offenbach is sublime, although they would be sublime on anything better than a nine transitor radio so I guess they're presented as extra sublime. The Reference Recordings Minnesota Symphony of Lizts Le Prelude is suitably thunderous.
At $2,100 these things do not have any weaknesses. Well, aside from the cosmetic issue of stark monolithic appearance. That could have been taken care of if I had been willing to spend more money on an automotive paint job or exotic veneer which are available at upcharge. A couple of cans of Krylon would address that if I feel the need. Or a trip to a friends whose company does those car and bus wrap things. Maybe a Monet or Matisse wrap? Roger Dean of the old Yes album illustrations? A calander wrap, new scene every month? Could be fun.
$2100 is not inexpensive for me, but these things are worth every last pence. I've heard speakers at multiples of that price that do some things better, but not everything better. I've heard speakers in multiples of that price that do nothing better. Made in Utah with US sourced components. For $2,100. I'm happy, my neighbors not so much.
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