I may very well be jumping the gun here, and judging something as of yet unseen and unheard. Still, there are a few too many red flags that went up that caused me to make the comments I did. The fact that there doesn't seem to be such a speaker company anywhere other than in internet ads is highly suspicious. Some of the claims are a bit extraordinary, especially the "original" retail of $1,600 and now the price of only $169. Add to that the statement that "we did this last year," and one can only wonder what the real price actually was/is. I've never heard of any legitimate product selling for such an enormous discount.

"Heavy" also is somewhat misleading, given the 16 pound weight of these speakers. A 300 hour break in seems downright ludicrous.

And so, we all wait for the comments once they arrive.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...id=150222518710

This link is what started my interest. Scroll down through the number of positive feedbacks. If they were "white van" someone, somewhere would have called his bluff.

Who's to say but one thing is for sure...buying the audio gear for this inexpensive experiment is a heck of a lot of fun

I'm picking up a 3-year young Denon HTR with 90 watts 20-20 for $75 in the morning. Very nice gentleman near my work and who am I to turn my back on karma?

Should have added that if you'll Google "Aural Ersatz" there are a few more interesting things to find.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rs...nusid&zzJig&4&5

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48383

This one I found interesting not because of the speakers being reviewed but rather; look closely at his reference equipment in the left hand column.

http://www.stereotimes.com/speak030507.shtml

OK, this last one is pointed not at sound quality per say but moreover the attention to the customer after the sale.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/speakers/...ges/246404.html

Dutch

Hello there,

Received the 5 packages today following a wonderful day at the office . All packages securely double boxed and thankfully, doesn't look like FedEx played soccer with them. Took some pics of the wrappings and of course, perched on top of the BA VR-3's. There they will stay until the stands show up.

Ok, so what of the sound? Well, uhhh, not so hot. Missing something is the simplest thing that comes to mind. Using 3 CD's for comparison; the 1st and my uncomparable favorite, Ultimate Santana 2007. Followed by the digitally remastered Rush 2112 and finally Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. No way I'm making any real predictions sans the stands and some reasonable effort at break in but what the hell...

Mid-range is clearly "dull" or lifeless; stands to reason if the Kevlar woofers require a reasonable time to flex their stuff. Bass is "thumpy" (good luck with the syntax on that one ) and lacks definition. On a positive note the upper vocals and piano are outstanding. Without seeming bright they're doing the job effortlessly. Whereas the bass lacks definition the same cannot be said of the upper reaches.

Using a Yamaha M-80 with 3 channels available makes the comparison easily done. Using channel 1 provides the VR-3 units with plenty of clean power, switch to channel 2 and the VRB bookshelves come to life. Naturally the 3rd channel fires the new TAD speakers. The difference is remarkable but should be viewed in perspective. As stated before; the VRB speaker is simply my favorite (and relatively unknown) bookshelf. That said, if you switch from the floorstanders to the VRB's something, not unimportant, dissapears by way of depth. Certainly the more favorable and fair comparison lies between the VRB's and the TAD's.

Initial impressions are hands down; the VRB's stomp the life out of the TAD's. However after setting aside my obvious bias there are certain things that start to emerge. The clarity of the vocals and upper end show promise on the TAD units. Boston is no slouch with the AMD technology used in their tweeters and I'm not going to pretend the TAD's leap from the stands with a better sound. But (and this is going out a limb) the TAD's show...how do you say...promise

So let's leave it there for the moment. The TAD's clearly need time to stretch a bit (not unlike my usual mornings) and the stands are still enroute. However, I sense a bit of undiscovered promise. Maybe I could try to say this better but as I sit here listening to the TAD's; certain notes that I've long memorized on Santana's (godsend) album sound just so good. The bass hits with promise, the mid's seem lacking but lurk there (somewhere) and the vocals have authority. I don't know; we all seek to find the good but I keep coming back thinking...promising.

based on all the reviews and whats posted on the site, this is pretty much what you should be hearing at this point. so far, so good.

Hope you did not take offense to the comments made here. We were just trying to sort it out through observations.

How do the speakers look in person? nice cabs? Seem quality? I'm guessing ripping into them is not high priority but a pic of the back side of the main driver would tell a lot about it.

Thanks.

Imo, there is some confusion about the name TAD speakers...The speakers Mako20ft is refering to, are TAD-AE not TAD.

TAD speakers were made by Pioneer hired ex JBL engineering honcho Bart Locanthi to design a line of high efficiency woofers and compression drivers for horns. No expense was spared and as a result the stuff was pretty much reverse engineered JBL (why not) but the compression drivers were the first to use beryllium diaphragms, this gave the TADs a more extended high end than the JBLs and Altecs of the time.

BTW, Locanthi also designed the famous Pioneer HPM speakers, speakers which still have a strong cult following and enjoy high used values.


You can take a look at these sites:
http://www.airstudios.com/pioneer/speakers.shtml
http://www.proaudiodesign.com/searchresult...TAD&advsearch=1
http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2006/010906tad/
http://tadhomeaudio.com/model-1.html

TAD never make any small speaker to date.

Imo, like i post before, they look very similar to B&W CDM1 NT or SE, there for i believe they are B&W clones made in China or Malasia. They make very good clones out there ( Focal, ProArc, Thiel, etc)....from the best brands in the world....

BTW, from what i know they sound great.

I kept out of this thread in order to avoid any misunderstandings.

I believe Alvaro nailed it with his comments I´m quoting. Moreover, Alvaro has probably forgotten B&W´s own 805 monitors which the TAD-AE´s resemble even more than the other B&W models he mentions.
Isn´t it a great coincidence that besides looking very much like B&W´s 805´s ( highly acclaimed monitors worldwide ) TAD-AE has even named their model 805S also?

Having said that I agree with Dutch´s comments regarding the "Made in Japan" preconceptions of 30/40 years ago. The japanese cloned everything american and european, and in time even came to beat them at their own game.

The attached pic is of the original B&W 805 just stolen from B&W´s site. Compare it to the TAD-AE shown in Dutch´s first post.

Remarkably similar. Things that jump out at me on initial inspection are the TAD monitor port appears smaller with a dimpled impression and the TAD cabinet might be larger. I'm guessing both these features are designed to improve low end response.

TAD AE 805's...you are correct; not to subtle

I will be opening up the cabinet this weekend on both the bookshelf and subwoofer.

They're running all day and night so let's see. Honest question for the affordable audio group...just what is reasonably expected for $169. Forget about shipping as that's always a variable and I believe it's fair to include used.

Anybody come close assuming it wasn't a rebuild job? To be fair; answers should be plug n' play vs works in progress.

Dutch

Lord there must be an easier way but here are some links for those willing to point & click... Try to ignore the dust on the Piano Black finish as it's from the packaging. Where the subwoofer looks creased it's just film. Actually, couldn't find a scratch anywhere so kudos to Paul for good, sturdy containers.

Speaking of the finish. You could say they looked "wet" or "dipped" . Very nice change from me as my HT uses a Cherry finish all the way around.

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...Doubleboxed.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...gin--OohVey.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...wooferNaked.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...HandTalking.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...theLeftHand.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...CenterNaked.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...usticsVR-14.jpg
**Gosh, now how did that old Boston Center get in there? Just wanted to give some kind of reference to the size. Did I mention I'm a BA nut? **

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...t/805SNaked.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Ma...805SClothed.jpg

Cheers,
Dutch

Well they are certainly hansom

Yeah, they sure look nice.

Looking forward to your final analysys.

Hi folks,

The stands arrived at breakfast this morning. Cast iron base & top with steel tower section. All the bolts got loc-tite so assembly took around 1hr.

Start by saying; HUGE difference in the character of the sound. Not going to say they turned into Paradigm's overnight but substantially tighter sound. Lowering them also certainly improved the on axis sound. They were just too high given the 9ft distance to listeners ear.

Interesting sidebar; my wonderful spouse actually took the time to notice the liquid finish black on the bookshelves Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the sub cabinet.

The room is fairly large but even putting away the BA sub and replacing the spot with the TAD unit was unacceptable. By any definition (short of an SVU tower) this thing is big. The return on the space investment isn't justified by the sound. I wouldn't complain about the volume of sound and it's honestly not boomy. However compared to the BA PV1000 using (2) 10" woofers and 900 watt amp in a such a tidy package...I'm left unhappy. I think if your building an HT the sub would be great for anything less than a $300 investment. Assuming you don't go used, it makes a strong candidate. Remember though, the return policy is strict about time and return shipping is on you. It's probably like buying used in a sense because sending it back would be a real hassle.

The bookshelves are opening up for me (24hrs +or-) with noticeable improvements. Despite that, you can tell they have some ways to go. If the music agrees with you I urge you to try the Santana's Ultimate CD. It's an excellent reference piece as the music swings all across the board. Anyway, I mention this because I can sense where the speakers are beginning to improve based on my experience listening to this album so many times (my wife things I'm nuts when it comes to his music). You must have a well known disk (whatever your choice) to have a qualified listening session.

Depth and midrange response are coming around. Instead of a thick towel wrapped around the woofer it's now like a thick linen piece The sound is damped but the bass continues to improve with it's crisp or punch. Yeah, it's still muddy but not the same as fresh from the box. BTW, there are no instructions that came with the units describing the function of the switch on back Obviously it's meant to change the form of the sound however I'm left a bit in the dark and will play with that tonight.

Curious, since it's fair these are clones of other earlier designs; can anyone give input on other speakers that had a switch on the back changing the character of the speaker? I'd genuinely be interested if this was a succesful idea as it's certainly not copied on many designs I'm aware of.

BTW, what hasn't been mentioned is the CC. I actually like it's performance on vocals. I mean who knew The smaller 5-1/4" woofers compliment the seperate tweeter in this capacity quite nicely. I never changed the AV output to small on the CC (vs. the BA VR-14 set on large) so that gets played with tonight. With me concentrating on the bookshelves I shouldn't forget about the most important component in an HT system. After work this evening my family generally pick up a good movie so I'll make an effort to find something in 1080 for the HD player and see how the dialogue makes out.

Squeezing this in so I'll cut it short. Thanks for still listening to the rant. (This guy is my favorite smilie!)

Cheers
Dutch

I'm enjoying reading this so far.

As for the sub, when you get a chance, please elaborate more.

In a way, I'm thinking that the purchase for the sub just for the cabinet alone, swapping out high quality, real good guts for the innards might be a time saver and actually not a bad investment.

If the cab is built real well, I've seen new old stock Velodyne, M&K, and NHT drivers sell for around $30. Add a beefier amp, or run it through an external X-over and a home amp, and you're "mackin"...