T2+ Very Dissapointed

[cawgijoe]

This sounds very strange. Unless there is a mechanical or electrical issue, the speakers should not sound bad. They may sound different than the Tektons, but that should be it.

[monkumonku]

Jun 5, 2020 20:45:52 GMT -5 shish32 said:

2 hours on the speakers.....i didnt examine the drivers, i was just so bummed about how poorly they sounded out of the box. Yes, as in defective out of the box. I havent opened the TO yet, i ordered a pair of them, but i am afraid to open them since i was so disappointed in the t2+.  

Well I'd suggest putting your ear up to each individual driver to see if one of them is defective. Or do both speakers sound the same (as in equally bad)?

I remember when I got my present speakers I was disappointed and couldn't believe they sounded so bad. Then I discovered I had forgotten to remove the protective covering over the RAAL tweeters. Once I did this, they sounded great. So maybe there's something you're overlooking but it sure does sound like you got defective speakers.

[DavidR]

Jun 5, 2020 21:17:35 GMT -5 foggy1956 said:

Jun 5, 2020 21:04:30 GMT -5 DavidR said:

Other than 'bad' could you describe the sound. i.e. Muffled, distorted, rumble, screech, crackle, flat, sharp, etc.

She described them in her original post

Ah, yes - the tweeter comment. My only experience with ribbon drivers is with the Carver speakers. I found them quite shrill. I also don't like horns with any appreciable volume.

Perhaps they just don't sound good to your ears. You may be used to something more subtle in the treble.

[selind40]

Maybe they just aren't for you and your ears, send them back. Let someone else enjoy them at B stock pricing. I just got a pair of T2+ at B stock pricing, minus veterans discount to boot.....they replaced a pair of ERT 8.3's, I like them very much......8.3's went down to the basement system replacing some older B&W602's.

[rbk123]

Try the T0's and if they sound the same, then you should return everything. If they sound better, then something is wrong with your T2's.

[Boomzilla]

I've owned both Tektons (Pendragons) and Emotiva speakers (T2). The Tektons tend to be more dynamic, but less linear in frequency response. The Emotiva T2s are generally more accurate, but far less dynamic. I don't know your age, but back in prehistoric days (the 1970s), there was a similar divide between the "West Coast Sound" as personified by JBL speakers and the "East Coast Sound" as personified by Acoustic Research (AR). The JBLs were far more dynamic and "exciting" but far less linear in frequency response than the more accurate AR speakers.

Well, it's the 21st century and we've got the same divide - Tekton is the "West Coast Sound," and the T2s are the "East Coast Sound." You pays your money, you takes your choice. You CAN return the Emotiva speakers if they aren't to your taste.

But I must point out that the Emotiva ribbon tweeters are NOT coloring the sound. What you hear (good or bad) is from your upstream electronics. The non-linearities of the Tekton speakers may be masking your electronics, but the difference still shouldn't be "huge."

To my ears, the Tekton tweeters and the Emotiva tweeters were more alike than different - The Emotiva ribbons did have higher resolution but at the cost of hearing all the "transistor hash" if you dared use them with cheap electronics. In other words, the Tektons were slightly "more forgiving."

If you're interested, you can read my full review of the Tekton Pendragons here

And my full review of the Emotiva T2 speakers here

Hope this is helpful.

Cordially - Glenn Young

[davidl81]

My gut feeling is that one of them may be damaged. Lots of reviews on the T2s and all have been positive. I like the idea of playing one at a time and seeing if one sounds different than the other.

If they both sound bad to you then that kind of throws out the idea of damage since the odds of two being damaged are fairly small.

[DYohn]

Simple, really: if they sound bad to you contact Emotiva and return them.

[405x5]

There is SOME validity to the term break in with SOME individual drivers, but on the whole has NOTHING to do with anything that’s getting tossed around here.

Bill

[ttocs]

Try connecting a source - with volume control - directly to the amp, thus taking the receiver out of the path.

[garbulky]

That’s not how they should sound. I listened a lot to the t2 and the Tekton pendragon both sounded great the t2 f e lt overall more realistic and detailed. So something is wrong. Are they in phase ?

[klinemj]

Jun 5, 2020 20:45:52 GMT -5 shish32 said:

2 hours on the speakers.....i didnt examine the drivers, i was just so bummed about how poorly they sounded out of the box. Yes, as in defective out of the box. I havent opened the TO yet, i ordered a pair of them, but i am afraid to open them since i was so disappointed in the t2+.  

I notice you are coming from Maggies. I have 1.7's and wouldn't given them up for anything. The mids and highs are incredible, as is the imaging. I have heard the T2's and T2+'s at Emotiva, and I personally thought they sounded very good in the high end...as in, about the only speakers I'd consider as an alternative to the Maggies. That was via Emotiva's XSP-1 preamp and either their XPA-1 amps or a DR-2 (I think that's the model).

That does make me wonder what settings you have on your pre-pro and whether or not that could be playing a role. As someone else suggested...make sure you are in reference stereo mode (or whatever the mode is Denon calls it to have it go through with no processing at all).

Mark

[whitwye]

I've not heard the T2+, but of my T1s I do hear a slight harshness in the ribbon tweeters. For someone with more acute high-frequency hearing, that could be an annoyance. There's also great detail from those tweeters. On the whole I love the T1s. My guess here is either there's one bad component in one speaker -- which you should be able to hear if you play them individually -- or the ribbon tweeters just aren't right for your ears.

I've also got a pair of RSL CG5's -- very different speakers but similarly detailed, accurate sound. The silk domes in those do not have the harshness. Combining the two pairs with the RSLs as heights in all-channel stereo, the blending is excellent -- both get deep into the nuances of the sound. To my ears, the RSLs sound a bit too rounded at the highest frequencies, and the average between that and the ribbons in the T1s converges on high realism. To my ears there's no tweeter design that's not just a bit off in one direction or another.

[viablex1]

Jun 5, 2020 18:41:46 GMT -5 routlaw said:

Boomzilla makes a very good point. With your receiver are you using a "reference stereo" mode or equivalent? What this means, no digital signal processing, just pure analog out from your source to amps to speakers. And once again. break in. Its takes time to break in speakers.

Routlaw is a sensei. I owe my system to him and now my wife wont leave the room lol

[405x5]

Jun 5, 2020 17:40:38 GMT -5 shish32 said:

Just got a whole bunch of Emotiva Speakers with the Emobucks offering recently.  I pulled the trigger on the T2+ among others speakers T0, atmos, and c1+ center channel, since i did like the b1 pair i purchased a few years back.  I set everything up and they sound just terrible.  The tweeters sound beyond harsh and very grainy, not smooth at all.  I double checked my connections, did the triangle for set up, 8-9 feet apart and 3 feet off the back wall.  Not my first rodeo and customer service is not picking ip due to high call volume.  Any thoughts?  

Trust your ears....return them

Bill

[knucklehead]

This may sound like weird advice, but trust me, I've actually run into this very problem, one time. Pick the left speaker, or right speaker, makes no difference, but ONLY one, swap the speaker leads at the speaker. Play some music in stereo and see what happens. If the sound improves significantly then somehow the internal leads to the xovers may have gotten crossed. It does happen. It's how noise cancellation works, kind of sort of.