TAD 2201 Speakers

[monkish54]

I have "A Meeting By The River". I need to get the other one!

WOW!!

Really long day. I meant to say I have "Beyond The Horizon".

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think you are right but I wish TAD, KEF, Harman will publish more detailed distortion specs, such as distortion vs freq vs spl, across the whole audible range. I couldn't help but to wonder if lower distortion is the reason why the B&W diamond series sound so good to me, despite their mediocre accuracy in terms of freq response on/off axis.

Here is the distortion spec on the KEF R900: 2nd/ 3rd order harmonic distortion < 0.4% @90dB/1m from 80Hz-20kHz.

Hi-Fi Speakers - R Series - Fact Sheets - Floorstanding - R900 - KEF United States

NRC measured the Revel and KEF and showed distortion graphs as well.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I just saw the TAD brochure.

http://www.pioneer.my/data/my/imgCont/Cnt_907/TAD2011.pdf

It's pretty cool to me that the little TAD 2201 is part of the brochure that features the mighty TAD Reference One speaker.

I wonder how the TAD amps and preamps are?

 

[ridikas]

For a connoisseur like yourself, I recommend these amazing choices to add to your collection:

- Sony SS-AR2 (Sony SS-AR2 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com), these Scan-Speak Revelator drivers have the lowest distortion out of any drivers ever made. On top of that, the overall performance and engineering is absolutely world class. These may be the best sounding speakers in the world.

- TAD CR1 (TAD Compact Reference CR1 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com)

- TAD Reference One (TAD Reference One：TAD)

- Klipsch P-39F (Klipsch Palladium P-39F loudspeaker | Stereophile.com)

- Klipsch P-17B (Klipsch Palladium P-17B loudspeaker | Stereophile.com)

- KEF Blade (KEF Blade)

- KEF Muon (KEF Muon)

- B&W Nautilus (Nautilus | the perfect speaker - Bowers & Wilkins | B&W Speakers)

- Goldmund Epilogue (Goldmund - Epilogue full system)

- Focal Grande Utopia EM, Stella Utopia EM, Maestro Utopia, Scala Utopia, and Diablo Utopia (Focal Grande Utopia EM, the best hifi loudspeaker in the world? High end loudspeakers)

- Magico Q and S series (Magico | Company Info)

- Dynaudio Evidence Master and Temptation (Dynaudio - All there is.)

- And of course the Revel Ultima2 series (Ultima2 Details | Revel)

That should pretty much do it

 

[monkish54]

- Sony SS-AR2 (Sony SS-AR2 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com), these Scan-Speak Revelator drivers have the lowest distortion out of any drivers ever made. On top of that, the overall performance and engineering is absolutely world class. These may be the best sounding speakers in the world.

ehhh

The measurements are sub par..ESPECIALLY in that $ range.

- TAD CR1 (TAD Compact Reference CR1 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com)

Too expensive.

- TAD Reference One (TAD Reference One：TAD)

Agreed!

- Klipsch P-39F (Klipsch Palladium P-39F loudspeaker | Stereophile.com)

Read in commercial voice:

The Klipsch P-39F: a good way to waste 20K that doesn't involve your wife finding out you like high priced wh****. XD

- KEF Blade (KEF Blade)

Agreed!

- KEF Muon (KEF Muon)

You could build a world-class cardioid for a lot less than the asking price.

- B&W Nautilus (Nautilus | the perfect speaker - Bowers & Wilkins | B&W Speakers)

I'd be very interested to lean more about this speaker. Specifically a crossover frequency.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

$60K Magico: +5dB @ 10kHz, kind of bright.

Magico Q5 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

 

[monkish54]

$60K Magico: +5dB @ 10kHz, kind of bright.

Magico Q5 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Enough said....

 

[Hocky]

$60K Magico: +5dB @ 10kHz, kind of bright.

Magico Q5 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

I have spent some time with those speakers and thought that they were pretty good despite what you're seeing on that chart. I don't recall them feeling terribly forward. The only thing negative that I remember about them is that they didn't seem as impactful in the bass as some of the others I was demoing that day.

 

[monkish54]

2 of the drivers have breakup that is not attenuated enough.

 

[ridikas]

2 of the drivers have breakup that is not attenuated enough.

No they do not. For one, the red trace is the port. Might want to study the measured data a bit more. It's an excellent performing speaker.

 

[monkish54]

No they do not. For one, the red trace is the port. Might want to study the measured data a bit more. It's an excellent performing speaker.

Fig.2 Magico Q5, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with nearfield responses of midrange unit (green), upper woofer (blue), and lower woofers (red) plotted below 750Hz, 1kHz, and 550Hz, respectively.

The single impedance peak in the bass in fig.1 indicates a sealed-box alignment for the bottom two woofers (which behave identically) tuned to a low 29Hz. The red trace in fig.2 shows the output of these drivers, measured in the nearfield.

Four-way, sealed-box, floorstanding loudspeaker.

You were saying?

 

[ridikas]

You were saying?

You sir are correct!

 

[monkish54]

You sir are correct!

LOL That sounds more like it.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Klipsch Palladium horizontal off-axis:

Didn't quite make my criteria.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

- Sony SS-AR2
- TAD CR1
- Klipsch P-39F
- KEF Muon
- B&W Nautilus
- Goldmund Epilogue
- Focal Grande Utopia
- Magico
- Dynaudio Evidence
- Revel Ultima2

Sony - only $30K , measurements not among the best
TAD, KEF, B&W, Focal, Dynaudio, Revel - I already have the brands
Klipsch - terrible off-axis, only $20K
Magico - not great measurement
Goldmund - does anybody even have a 3rd party measurement?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have spent some time with those speakers and thought that they were pretty good despite what you're seeing on that chart. I don't recall them feeling terribly forward. The only thing negative that I remember about them is that they didn't seem as impactful in the bass as some of the others I was demoing that day.

I have a feeling they sound pretty good as well. It's just that one of my criteria was having great measurements on Stereophile or NRC.

I believe a lot of speakers that don't measure that great can still sound pretty great. I really do. I know Jared, GranteedEV, AJ, DS-21 would disagree with that statement, but that's what I believe.

 

[PENG]

I have a feeling they sound pretty good as well. It's just that one of my criteria was having great measurements on Stereophile or NRC.

I believe a lot of speakers that don't measure that great can still sound pretty great. I really do. I know Jared, GranteedEV, AJ, DS-21 would disagree with that statement, but that's what I believe.

I think it it entirely possible that a speaker that has a couple more dB swing on the response curve could sound better even more neutral/accurate than one the more accurate one when listened to in a real world room. Beside that, distortion could also be a major factor, unfortunately SoudstageAv.com seems to be the oly place I can find THD+N graphs and there aren't a whole lot of them for the speakers I am interested. Given what they do have, the KEF 201/2 has the lowest distortion, followed by PSB sync 1 and then Focal 706, Paradigm ref V3 and Energy C9.

 

[JerryLove]

Sony - only $30K , measurements not among the best

the SS-AR speakers are made of Hokkaido maple from Japan's northernmost major island; the wood is harvested in November, when growth is slow and the grain is tight.

Huh? In November, pre-November growth never happened?

Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I usually use my KEF 201/2 for 5.1 movies. But some shows on Netflix streaming, even with 1080p video, have 2.0 stereo sound. So yesterday I used the TAD for 2.0 Netflix streaming. I was impressed. The sound and dialogue from the TAD was amazingly clear and the imaging was incredible.

 

[ridikas]

I usually use my KEF 201/2 for 5.1 movies. But some shows on Netflix streaming, even with 1080p video, have 2.0 stereo sound. So yesterday I used the TAD for 2.0 Netflix streaming. I was impressed. The sound and dialogue from the TAD was amazingly clear and the imaging was incredible.

It's those waveguides!