Tidal Speakers owners

German forums, say no more ...

I have once read an attack on Tidal, where someone - who had of course never heard the Preos preamp and had actually only seen pictures of its inside - accused Tidal of having plainly copied a Bryston preamp and selling it at a multiple of its price.

Rest assured Mike, it's all there and more importantly it is true to life.

Mike, it sounds like you are speaking of bloom in terms of macrodynamics and in that case the Piano Cera is very, very fine indeed. It will keep up with just about any conventional cone/dome speaker. It may not be the last word compared to a horn, or it may not have the slam factor of a Wilson. However within its power envelope, and even at background levels it sounds quite wonderful and lively.

Linkster:
What is the sensitivity of the Piano Cera? What do the impedance and phase plots look like? I'm hoping my 18wpc SET amps could drive them in my smallish room...

Fla,

I find it unlikely to be able to drive the Cera with a 18w SET . It is is big speaker...

Hi Fla, power requirement is a favourite theme among Tidalists. I have adopted the view expressed by most: "don't parch them!" It would be a terrible waste if you lost the beauty of what these speakers can do because the amp runs out of breath. I heard the Piano Cera in a fairly large auditioning room (still have a picture of that on my system thread) with 2x 140W (8Ώ) and I thought it was a perfect fit. Of prime importance is, those watts need to arrive "clean" and they need to arrive as fast as lightning to catch the dynamics that Tidals excel at.

Having said that, when I still had the Unison S2K with its 2x 15W from 2 KT88's, I had to try my Contrivas with it, of course. From that experience only, I'd say if your room is smallish and the music you hear is mainly small combos or solo performers, be it jazz, folk, blues (great !), renaissance or chamber music, I believe a pair of SET 300B's or 845's can take you to nirvana. Don't take my word for it, though, but do try to audition the pairing in your own room.

Would be brilliant if you could choose from 2 alternative amplification paths, of course :^)