Tidal Speakers owners

Kclone unfortunately I cannot tell you something more than what Jorn told you. I have heard that it depends on the type of music you are listening the quality of the recordings. For example if you listen to Rock, Metal etc where the recordings are not so good you should go for the normal Piano, if you listen to other genres where quality of recordings is better then the Cera would be a better choice!

But dont try to compare auditions, what sounds awesome to me maybe be mediocre to you, you know words cannot really express what we listen to we dont have a common ground in describing sound except if we listen to the same thing the same time!

To tell you the truth I am not a big fun of Audio Research preamps It could contribute to the not so good sound you describe!

Happy Listening,

Mike

For clarification, now mine sounds absolutely awesome. But, I had to change everything. The Herron preamp was a major improvement over the REF 5 for sure. Yes, I do listen to rock, but I hate most heavy metal. All I was saying is my experience seems different from everyone else. It seems everyone else had an amazing experience from the the time they plopped them down. I didn't, I had to put some work into to it. In the end, it was well worth it, a lot of fun and I am very happy now. I don't see myself worrying about speakers for years.

Kclone, when I first heard Tidals at the '09 RMAF, they were absolutely green and were not impressive. On day 2 they were much better but still not something I would spend that much money on. But Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Wow!

My personal experiences also largely reflect this. They grew better and better on a daily basis for at least the first two weeks. I had to play with how far they were from the speaker wall and with toe-in. Until I had they crossing just behind me, I did not have the optimal sound stage.

I am now approaching 500 hours and still hear improvements, typically in the bass.

I have yet to play much with the electronics. It now looks like I will have to await the RMAF to hear them with Tidal electronics, which I cannot afford.

Well, I'm also a proud and extremely happy new owner of a Tidal speaker, the Sunray. It was definitely worth the wait. I was lucky to have the finances and decided to buy a "last ever speaker". Yes, they are not cheap, but for me it’s a matter of priorities. Some like fast cars or a boat. I love listening to music and the Sunray makes me fulfill the wish to reproduce live music with hifi. No more searching for me and looking for anything better. I'm just completely relaxed after owning the Sunray. Still have to break them in, but already the sound is amazing. And boy, the finish is nice. I’ve got the black Piano finish, build quality is absolutely superb.

The sound is so transparent and right. With some other speakers I've heard I preferred some artificial sweetness that made it sound better. With my Sunray I don’t require that. I love the sound, the big sweet spot. They just disappear in my room even though it are big speakers ☺. The sound is becoming smoother once they are breaking in more and more, no ceramic harshness.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to listen to the full Tidal suit at the Munich show but was lucky enough to get a flavor of the Tidal Impact when the Sunray was delivered. Off course the listening session was way to short, not broken in speakers etc etc, but the Sunray sound indeed very very nice with the Tidal Impact monoblocks. Very fast, “light” and effortless, string instruments sounded amazing. I’ll definitely try to audition the Impact stereo or monoblocks when the Sunray is properly broken in.

I don’t need to stress people to listen to the Tidal speakers and electronics if they have the opportunity since it’s already published many times in this thread. But it’s definitely worth it ☺.

Great for you Maxx1973. Congrats.