Any experience with TAD speakers ?

Hello

Beryllium has 3-4 times higher stifness/weight than titanium and aluminium. Very hard to work in audio due to high internal loss. I've never heard a smooth solid amp on such - sorry, that's it.(they might excist???)

Solid amp has third harmonic distortion and SE amp high 2 harmonic. Test based on humans, seems that we, humans, prefer 2 harmonic distortion. Some claims that this distortion is similar to the distortion from regular air.

All sound is distorted due to airs molecyles. Regular tweeters is extremely distorted, whether it's expensive or not. I worked many years with almost all speakers availebly(not ALE or Goto and WE), but almost all others famous JBL, Altec, PHLs, ribbons, Audax, Scan Speaks, Vitavox, Coral, Goodmans, etc etc......

After I heard TAD beryllium, I sensed that something was wrong with all other equipment.....

Afterwards, I've been very fast to detect cones material constructing and I feel that a speakers sounds depend up to 95% of the cone design.

I know a guy who constructed a Stereophile class A speaker and he claims as well that we, humans, need distortion in some terms.

Well, it's true that I do not know much about audio, tubes and speakers - but I have never ever met anyone who really knows what audio/sound is about....

Sound is still one of sience most unanswered questions - take a look at any forum and you'll see who much people disagree. Moreover, most of these people has never played an instrument for real or made recordings in a pro Blue Note studio....

I built some tube SE amps myself and heard many SE with all kinds of trannies. I prefer permalloy and amorphous cut cores myself. Triodes are prefered for output. This combination gives very high distortion - and I need that distortion for my TAD stuff....

For Foxtrot - I do not know your budget, but if it's low, I would go for the TSM-300, a Vincent SV 233 which you can bias to almost class A and I think the new Cambridge Azur 640 is great though I've not heard it yet.

Well, for Kevinkwann, any experience with TAD or similar????

It seems that you a real hardcore audioman and you might have got some tricks or info for share....

Anyone who need a pair of NIB JBL K2 1400nd or Sony sub 11 spaekers???

Altec 515A Hollywood???

Vitavox S3???

TAD 1602????

Thanks, Tadman

I've owned a pair of TAD 2402's for 3 years. I run them with Audio Research gear and a Rega DAC, Thorens TD-245, etc. I built sturdy bases for the speakers that set the at ear level in my 20' x 30' listening room. I've been listening to hifi for 42 years and have owned everything that I considered interesting at one point or another. Over 50 systems is a guess. This is a system I just sit down and listen to every night, without the need to pick it apart. It just plays music. Sure, it's fun to change out wires, and roll an amp or tubes once in awhile. But the speakers aren't being sold in my lifetime. I've heard the current half mil $ systems out there. They haven't made me want to consider a trade. I'm fat and happy, after a life of seeking this very thing.

Doesn't TAD license some driver tech from KEF.

TAD doesn't license technology from any other manufacturer. However, TAD designs may be described as a more refined JBL. In the late 1970s, when Pioneer created the Technical Audio Devices Division, they hired an ex-JBL transducer engineer, Bart Locanthi, to design that first generation of TAD drivers (TL-1601 & -1602 woofers, TD-4001 compression driver, TH-4001 wooden horn). Subsequent designs were created by Japanese engineers, but they're all further refinements of the original JBL-inspired designs). Very roughly speaking, the TAD TL-1601 series correspond to the JBL 2225, the TL-1602 to the JBL 2235, the TAD TD-4001 to the JBL 375/244* series, the TL-1801 to the JBL 2245, the TAD TD-2001 to the JBL 242* series. However, TAD horns seem to owe more to the larger format Altec horns from the 1960s and 1970s than to JBL designs, with hard maple replacing aluminum as the horn material of choice. I'm currently working on an all-TAD DIY system: TAD TM-1201 mid-range driver with TD-2001 HF compression driver and round DDS horn in a 2 cu.ft. cabinet, with frequencies below 160 Hz handled by the massive TL-1801 subwoofer in a separate 9.5 cu.ft. reflex cabinet. An MC2 Audio S1400 will power the subs via a Bryston 10B crossover, with a passive crossover between the MF and HF drivers designed by Steve Kranis at Audio Hardware here in Toronto. Hope to have everything up and running by the end of next month. . .

Coincidentially, I'm designing a DIY high-end speaker for myself and was interested in finding what midrange drivers TAD offered these days. Anybody knows where I should look for such info?
Their website send me to a finished speakers page if I choose "consumer", and to a page with either compression drivers or 16" drivers if I choose "professional". Maybe these days they only offer compression drivers to be used in midrange horns? Yet their finished speakers do have direct radiator midrange drivers.

I'm looking for a 6 to 8" midrange with sensitivity of at least 96dB/2.83V, to work between 400 and 2500Hz.