veindoc
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Got invited by a very bright and experienced local dealer I have known for over 15years to hear his TAD cr-1 setup prior to shipping speakers to Boston. They were going to be part of a 7.1 setup. He sat me down in his warehouse and said these are just non hirez cds that were ripped. Setup included Constellation 250 watt/channel amp, Berkeley audio reference dac, MIT cables, Aurender media player, and no preamp. He also had a neat digital spl meter that sat in front of the speakers. He said just listen and tell me how these compare to your cr-1 speakers. He played a variety of jazz, soundtracks, and classical. Speakers were slightly less toed in than my setup.
My initial impression was very wide and deep sound stage, less harsh and more air and nuance than what I was used to. I still did not think speakers disappeared but he then put on a Diana Krall and Cat Stevens cuts I was very familiar with, I realized vocals were dead center but soundstage was just very very wide and a wall of sound was coming to my ears. He was a little cagey about the setup but ultimately admitted he had modified the speakers xover and speaker terminals. He lastly played a cut from Roger Waters -Amused to Death and its was just outrageous. I was sure some type of tricks might of been involved but it truly sound like a truely advanced 5.1 home theater presentation. I for sure heard things that sounded like they were coming from both sidewalls perpendicular to both of my ears. It was very neat. I hope to go back with some of my own music and try to do a more concrete side to side comparison with my unmodified speakers.
Tidbits of modification he mention included the following. Testing of individual drivers, reveled Existing Woofer or tweeter had leaked distortion onto the other driver. I think he said bass hum distortion. Duel speaker terminals were eliminated so no jumpers or biwiring needed. New xover sends correct info to each driver. He said he was somewhat surprised how some of the xover and associated components were not truly top of line. He did not change any of the internal wiring yet. He also mentioned he hopes to hopefully do an external xover down the road. When I asked how this would impact warranty by TAD he simply replied that they would not b happy. When I mention does Andrew Jones know about this he said yes but it would add too much to the cost to add to existing TAD pricing. He said the xover mod might b around 5000-6000. It was a really interesting and fun evening.
Nick
My initial impression was very wide and deep sound stage, less harsh and more air and nuance than what I was used to. I still did not think speakers disappeared but he then put on a Diana Krall and Cat Stevens cuts I was very familiar with, I realized vocals were dead center but soundstage was just very very wide and a wall of sound was coming to my ears. He was a little cagey about the setup but ultimately admitted he had modified the speakers xover and speaker terminals. He lastly played a cut from Roger Waters -Amused to Death and its was just outrageous. I was sure some type of tricks might of been involved but it truly sound like a truely advanced 5.1 home theater presentation. I for sure heard things that sounded like they were coming from both sidewalls perpendicular to both of my ears. It was very neat. I hope to go back with some of my own music and try to do a more concrete side to side comparison with my unmodified speakers.
Tidbits of modification he mention included the following. Testing of individual drivers, reveled Existing Woofer or tweeter had leaked distortion onto the other driver. I think he said bass hum distortion. Duel speaker terminals were eliminated so no jumpers or biwiring needed. New xover sends correct info to each driver. He said he was somewhat surprised how some of the xover and associated components were not truly top of line. He did not change any of the internal wiring yet. He also mentioned he hopes to hopefully do an external xover down the road. When I asked how this would impact warranty by TAD he simply replied that they would not b happy. When I mention does Andrew Jones know about this he said yes but it would add too much to the cost to add to existing TAD pricing. He said the xover mod might b around 5000-6000. It was a really interesting and fun evening.
Nick
