I recently recieved the tad150 and have been using it for the last few days or so. It still has very few hours on it, so I am sure will continue to improve further. Last night I was finally able to sit down for some serious listening and am quite impressed with the sound quality. I'm curious what other amps/speaker combos you folks are using with your 150. I've been running various sources and various amps/speakers through the 150 and find they are all improved with the 150 pre in place.
The best combination of my modest little system so far has been the tad 150 mated with a Cayin ta-30 as power amp combined with a Dynaudio monitor speaker along with a custom subwoofer adjusted for an upper roll off around 60-70 hz; using a Sony x7esd digital source and Denon 62L vinyl source through the tad150 phono stage.
Last night some vinyl, sacd and redbook were used and I came away with an overall impression the tad150 enhanced dimension, ease of presentation, highs, lows, and everything in between.
An sacd of Patricia Barber 'Companion' was as 'in the room' as I've heard her here. A vinyl M&K 'Salute to Duke' showed off some very impressive piano, horn and bass work. A Proprius 'Jazz at the Pawnshop' set us up in the coffeehouse with the players. Amazing details from the crowd appeared out of nowhere and occasionally quite startled me from their dynamic realism. Finishing off the pleasurable evening was Diana Krall 'Girl in the other Room'. Her voice was extremely well done with this system and details of the recording were complete in balance and character. The reverie was only broken by MY 'Girl in the Other room' --lovely wife-- plea (did I say plea? demand is more like it, of course she did not screech loudly or stomp around much either...) from the top of the stairs to Turn That Thing Down! as I'm afraid by this time it was late and the volume had been creeping up for the better part of the evening.
The only trouble I have encountered so far is these units powering some highly efficient Altec 604 speakers create a situation of full gain at only 8:30 on the 150 volume pot. This essentially means it's an all or nothing affair within about 1/8 inch of dial movement. This rules out using the remote control as even one click sends the loudness through the roof. This is most likely due to the fact the ta-30 in power amp capacity must be run at full volume pot to work correctly otherwise it sounds rather rolled off and lifeless.
Other than this eccentricity in system matching, I am really very impressed with the tad150 preamp thus far and look forward to further listening sessions. To this point the tad 150 appears to be a well made, precision product that could take a sound system to the next level of performance, as it did here.
