I am currently running Omega 3XRS's with my SE84 UFO but just ran into a great deal on a pair of Tekton Pendragons. I might pick these up and do a little comparison. I guess if worse came to worse, I could just sell them if I don't like them.

I have.  

Sorry for the 5 month delayed response. Two totally different speakers. Is one better than the other???? No. Omega=speed, transparency, details, imaging and floating soundstage to die for. Tektons. Effortless, accurate, natural, wall of sound but amazing imaging as well. And the bass they produce is jaw dropping. A true full range speaker. I like them both though. Wish I had rooms for both. But for my specific situation, the Pendragons will be in my main system for a VERY long time.

Hi Ginny,

Here's my experience: I have the SE84UFO paired with Tekton Lore 2.0's. I've had this pair for about 5 months now and it's plenty loud in our small-to-average sized living room (perhaps 10' wide and 15' long).  I typically listen at about 9 o'clock, and could carry on a louder spoken conversation.  At 12 o'clock it gets hard to have/hear a conversation whatsoever,  and at 3-4 o'clock it puts me back in my chair. There's no need for me to go louder than 3 o'clock - it's as loud as i'd ever go regardless of wattage, and I do like it loud.  (I'm using an airport express and Schiit Modi 2 uber dac).  

So for me - it's plenty loud enough and I do like it loud sometimes!

As an aside, this combo of amp, speakers, dac and streaming Tidal music to the airport express is just an incredible price to quality ratio.  Man, i'm always happy soaking in the music!

-Eric

Is your SE84 UFO different from stock? The stock has a volume control. From the amp's Decware site page:

The amp features a pair of inputs that are selected via a silver contact toggle switch located at the front.  There is also a volume control on the front that can be used for volume when running direct with no preamp, or can be used as a gain control when being run with a preamp.

Ah I see. I honestly haven't heard any Oppo components besides headphones for five years, so I don't actually have an educated opinion on the lineup you are suggesting. My guess is that it will yield great sound for your purposes.

Looking at the Sonica literature I saw this below, which seems to mean that you can adjust the volume output of the DAC so yes seems you can use it to control the volume of the Zen amp:

Easy Connection with Source Components and Amplifiers
Sonica DAC provides both XLR balanced and RCA single-ended outputs, and the outputs can be set to volume-controlled or bypass, making it suitable for connecting to either pre-amps or power amplifiers. 12V trigger input and output make it possible to turn on and off the entire audio system with one click. In addition to the USB DAC input and network streaming, Sonica DAC also offers coaxial and optical digital inputs for additional digital audio sources.

I think that the harshness may be insufficient "break in" time. Most speakers I have owned have needed several hundred hours plus to truly show their best nature. That harshness should be diminishing as you go along.

I don't see that it matters to the Sonica if you have one stereo amp or two stereo amps: it will send the same signal out from it to the amps, it isn't influenced by the amplifier it is feeding in that situation. . . .

My guess, not being familiar with these speakers I can only guess, one UFO amp will probably give you what you want.

Lon,
One of the best things about this site is people like you and others with audiophile knowledge that are willing to help and share your knowledge with those of us who in my case are just learning about the tube world.
-Thank You-

Eric,
I am torn between going all in on one SE84UFO which guys like you and others have said would be sufficient to drive 95db Tekton Pendragons in a 13x19 room (open on two corners) or waiting a year for monoblock SE84UFO3's.

Lon,
Just out of curiosity, how would I wire one output from the Oppo sonica to the inputs of monoblock SE84UFO3's?
And is there any doubt monoblocks would be sufficient power?

Lon,
Please forgive me if I seem slow to catch on.
The sonica has 1 rca L-R output that will need to feed 2 monoblock L-R inputs... will I need a splitter so the sonica's rca L-R output splits and feeds both monoblock L-R inputs...

or does the sonica rca out L go to the left monoblock input and the sonica rca out R go to the right monoblock input?

The total output from 2 SE84UFO3 MB's is 2.7 watts.
The total output from the SE84UFO is 2.3 watts.

I read this on the SE84UFO page:

MONOBLOCKS
Worried about 2 huger than life SET watts not being enough power?

The SE84UFO employs a unique floating output transformer scheme where the negative speaker wire is not tied to chassis ground. That means when the amp is bridged, both channels may either be series or parallel wired. In series, both channels work as one and transparency is preserved.

So with no sonic drawbacks to running the amps in mono, you can expect 6 dB of additional power rather then the expected 3dB. This is thanks to the power increase the amp has when it sees half the speaker load from being series bridged.


My question is, has anyone wired 2 SE84UFO's in series? If so what were the results?? Was there any loss of the excellent transparency I have read about when only running 1 SE84UFO vs 2 in series. And with 2 wired in series, would that result in enough added power to fill a 13x20 room (open on 2 corners) with say 90db at 2 meters with a little head room to spare?

Ok I lied, 4 questions...

Well, after talking to wife about the power issue, she is cool going the route of the Torii jr. at tax time 👍
Any Torii jr / Tekton Pendragon owners out there that can tell me what to look forward to?

Source will be an Oppo Sonica DAC for streaming Tidal. I also plan to have the sonica modded at some point.

Thanks Lon.

I checked the amplifier waiting list and it seems there are only 54
Torii jr’s in circulation. I thought there would have been more.

I also saw that you have a zbit on order and it’s currently in qc. 👍

I have a Jr. and used to have Pendragons with it.
You are in for a treat, this set up will be very dynamic and, at least for me, louder than you would use safely if wanted.
What do you listen to mostly.

Quote:


Have you checked the Classified?  Just a few days ago there was mention of a Tori Jr reduced to $2K.