Any experience with TAD speakers ?

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.

They sound wonderful jump on a pair ASAP!!

@Lewinskih01,

TAD's prosound division is pretty much a separate entity from their home audio division, and the latter doesn't sell drivers directly to the public.

Andrew Jones of KEF went to work for the TAD home audio division and brought his concentric driver topology with him. He now works for Elac.

You might need to look at other companies such as Faital Pro for high output 6" cone mids.

BTW, in the years since my posts from way back in 2003, I did indeed become a speaker manufacturer and used the TL-1102 woofer in several of my models. The internal geometry of their compression drivers is not a good match for the type of horns (waveguides) that I use.

Duke

I've owned a pair of TAD 2402's for 10 years. I don't know of a better 2-way horn system. When you realize 2-way is as good as it gets (as you will inevitably do when you become a snotty pants speaker junkie), you know the x-over point needs to be set as far outside the mid-range band as possible, on either end of the spectrum. IMHO, IMHO... yadda yadda. I find that I will keep these for ever as long as I have a pair of Prodigy Martin Logans to remind me that they kick ass on the TADs with an x-over down at 250 hz. If I sold either pair, I'd simply lose my mind trying to find a replacement. My 5 YO prefers the TADS. My 18 YO Princeton kid prefers the MLs. They're both smarter than me.