Tyler and Acoustic Zen reviews in TAS

i have talked to TY many times and told him he needs a speaker in the $8000.00 price. this would fill in the void between the floor standing linbrook signature and the woodmere. i suggested a smaller version of the woodmere that would have the same balance look in a smaller cabinet with two 8 in. seas woofers. there is to much price difference between the linbrook signature and the woodmere. the $8000.00 price is attractive especially for someone in the $10,000.00 price range but does not have room for the size of the woodmere. i suggested that he use the cabinet design of the woodmere. any input from anyone??
i currently own woodmere's and linbrook sig. monitors on ty stands. i think that it would have been better to see a d'apolitto design speaker from ty reviewed. they seem to integrate well in rooms and sound great when properly set up.
its interesting that ROBERT E. GREENE is a fan of TY'S speakers especially the woodmere's when he heard them at the 2005 THE SHOW. it was good at least to see ty's speakers reviewed without having a "advertising connection"

regards

BILL L.

First off, as to Spendor... I love Tyler speakers, but actually I think Spendors tend to appeal to many of the same qualities Tyler owners crave. I was *very* impressed with the Spendors I heard earlier this year. If Sallie prefers the 8se, I can definitely see where she is comming from (even if I don't agree with her) as the Spendor sound is quite addictive IMO.

As for the Adagios, I too would have liked to see a comparison to the Linbrook System II, because I think the speakers rated about equally to my ears when I recently heard the Adagios (very impressive speakers, BTW). As they shared many of the same qualities I enjoy, an outside opinion would have been interesting to read.

As to the Tyler pricing... I agree the "list pricing" should probably be deleted as the speakers are not even sold retail as was mentioned. I, howver, believe the "list prices" are in many cases far *below* what the speakers would sell for at retail (the driver and crossover component costs alone could merit much higher list prices based on normal markups). That said, the price is the price... It probably would be better just to list the actual selling price to consumers as opposed to all of the pricing confusion on the brand. Ty never claimed to be the best Marketer, but I can say that the speakers have a way of selling themselves through their sound quality and owner word of mouth. As such, I would say he has spent his time more wisely focusing on design, sound and build quality. Not a bad tradeoff if you ask me. :-)

---Dave

Bartokfan: my statement, "People no longer need to see the artificially bumped up "list" price to feel good about their purchase of Tyler speakers," is intended to be interpreted as Drseid has, in that the Tyler speakers have proven themselves to be good not only at their price points, but in absolute terms against the current competition. Therefore, the price should be the price and Tyler doesn't need the added psychological component of the higher "list" price to make people think they are buying a much more expensive speaker. I have not heard the System II and cannot comment on the integration between midrange and midbass, or potential problems in that area as discussed in the TAS review. Linbrook Signature (Monitor or System) owners seem to have no problems in that area, and almost universally rave about those speakers. In addition they appear very reasonably priced given the quality of drivers, crossover components and box. On that basis, I suggested maybe one of the Signature speakers would be better for a first time Tyler buyer to listen to, and for a first time Tyler TAS review. As always, room integration and matching components play a large role in the sound of a speaker so I am curious when a reviewer points out a "flaw" and does not verify the observation with a different room set-up or different components (sometimes they do, but not always). However, I am not totally surprised with her observation since I worked with a relatively high end 3-way speaker system for years and couldn't get that lower midrange/upper mid-bass frequency to sound right, so I finally gave up and went in a different direction.

I gave up on reading reviews a long time ago as reviews are flawed and so are the reviewers, not to mention their equipment and room conditions. If you could see what I have seen you would wonder how some reviewers get to be reviewers at all. I know my room is compromised but I never thought a reviewers room would be. That goes for with constantly changing gear, poor electric, etc.

So you can read all the reviews you want but you still need to hear a component in your system for yourself and forget what the reviewer says.

Happy Listening

Bill, Dave, Mitch, I'm going to get to your posts in due time. Just briefly, yes, Ty might want to consider another option to the big woodmere's with the dual 10 inch (W26's) maybe with dual 8's (W22) for even better intergration with the middle MTM section. Quite a speaker the Woodmere.
And yes Ty's speakers do not need the 'discounted" sales price, as opposed to the retail price which is much higher. I wish all labs would get rid of the 2 price system, list/retail. As I've said many times, the Tylers use the expensive Seas drivers at $160/each + premium Xover parts, exceptional cabinets, which the speaker sells for slightly above his costs if you add in employees and all overhead. Let me repeat Ty's cost per speaker IS HIGHER THAN ANY SPEAKER ON THE MARKET. And futhermore we all know that old saying, "you get what you pay for'. IOW you buy a Chevy Chevette you pay low and get low quality. Buy a BMW you get,,,pretty good deal. Buy a Mercedes Benz, now you are getting an even better quality than BMW for the same price. (BMW the old ones at least are too complex and high maintaince cost). ...With Tyler's the saying doesn't work. Why? Because you are getting supetior quality at a very reasonable price. IMHO "they're a steal". I'll take on all objections and refuters. If I go on it'll seem like hype, I'll stop there. btw I've known the value of Tyler's for 2 yrs now. i didn't need to read reviews/comments. Those only confirmed what I knew alreday..
Now on to my visit to New Orleans to hear the Spendor 8. Was a shop i bought a NAD/Rotel/B7W system for my wife 3 yrs ago, that system is gone now. Never take the wife along, not one that loves to show power that is....So i enter the main listening roon, 16X14, well acoustically crafted.
The amp is the Audio Research(ARC) VS110, a big 8 tube mono block with the ARC preamp model 12, middle line model, tubes i believe. Yeah I realize pricey amp and pre, out of most of our budgets, but that is what was in the listening room. Along with a California Labs cdp.
The Magneplanars were hooked up when we walked in, so I said sure give em a go. hummm sounded like the Magy's I heard 3 yrs ago, same, didn't care for em. I was wondering how much "fault" was due to the amp. I know the ARC sound as my friend had a big ARC VTL 200, 6 yr model, heard his amp with 2 different speakers, Mirage1 and Talon Khorus. Didn't care for either speaker.
But as i say I was wondering how much was the ARC influencing the Maggies. The sound was cloudy, even more so that my friends older ARC.
Next up, Spendor 8's. Heard the same sound image, just different speaker. So i had to make really que in to the Spendor in spite of the ARC's supreme coloration effects. Taking that into account, I was not impressed with the spendor. And I'll leave it at that because obviously the ARC clouded the real voicing of the Spendor. But I know even with my Jadis, the sound qualities would fall short of the Seas'. Thats as far as I'm going with the Spendor review. Sorry, go hear them for yourself.
There was one other speaker, same size as Spendor, I said why not, Which is it? Was the Cabasse/Sersey at $1100/pr. Its a tweet with TOW 7 inch poly cone midwoofers below. I heard a Cabasse yrs ago(better midwoofers than this new model) at my home with the Jadis, sent it back right away to Northstar, the USA Jadis dealer yrs ago. It was a MTM, good I felt but was looking for better. This new Cabasse was OK, but still had the same sound image as the Maggies, Spendor, so now I realized just how colored the ARC really is. But determining from the Cabasse sound, i could get even a better image of the Spendor. The Cabasse would be the one I'd take home, and not based on prices. Naggies/ $1800, Spendor/$3100, Cabasse/$1100. It was the better of the 3. The differnces were not major, as the ARC ...or was it the CALIFORNIA AUDIO cdp. Yep I bet that was it. I'm sure of it. The Cal Lab cdp totally polluted the amp and the 3 speakers. Though the ARC is not off the hook, it has to share some of the coloration. So the Cla Lab WITH the Arc both togther did not allow any of the 3 speakers to gives it true voice.
However I knwo the seas would overcome that coloration much better than all 3, with the cabasse comming in a distant second.
I'd like to haer all 3 with the Jadis and my tube cdp for no significant coloration review. But that is not to be. You'll have to do your own auditions. Sure I did not hear the Spendor in "ideal" conitions, but its what was avaliable.
That is my straight up review. Just an opinion, as is every other in the Absolute Sound.