Tidal Speakers owners

Roysen, I am afraid that not so many people here have heard T1, or Arrakis 2, if you can downgrade your question to Tidal vs Rockport in general, it's easier to get some reply.

Hello Roysen,

I didn’t hear the Rockports, so I do not have any right to push you in one direction. But….....
If I had the means to do such a fantastic buy, I would go for the Tidal with the electronics and the active filters.
I do like the performance the Contriva does and the Sunray should go far over this. The Magico’s are different from the Tidals. I like the free presentation (in space) of the Tidals (Contriva), there explosive naturally dynamics and they are easy to listening to. No bombastic bass and/or forced mid/high, but a speedy bass reaching very deep but not asking all the attention to itself, a fantastic mid (voices) and a sparkling treble… The diamond tweeter in the Sunray and the Contriva diacera’s can even do better treble. The Sunray should do even much better in the right and proper setting. If you are Europe, visit Jörn (Tidal) in the neighbourhood of Köln or visit the coming show in Múnchen. This personally preference can differ from yours of course but at the end the most engaging performance should come from the musicians and not from (colouring of ) the speakers, they should do nothing more (or less) to the sound.

Regards
Robert

I went to audition Sunray today, I admit Jorn is right, the chance that my Contriva Diacera SE could sound better than Sunray is near zero. Unless you don't have proper space for Sunray. Please be noted that the Sunray I heard today is with upgraded crossover.

By nature, Sunray generates bigger, fuller sound than Contriva due to its physical size. Detail is amazingly, yet still very easy to listen, no pressure, no fatigue. more body, I think Sunray is definitely qualified as the "last" speakers I want to keep for lifetime. I can't image how T1 could be better than Sunray?

I heard the Sunray for about an hour last year in Munich accompanied with Tidal electronics. I also heard it at a friend who lives close but together with the external crossover and 4 Sovereign Eternity amplifiers with orpheus heritage dac and full Argento Flow master reference cables. A sound to die for! LIVE!

Happy listening,

Mike

I have heard Tidal Contrivia with Wadia S7i, Pass Labs X-250.5 and Transparent Reference MM2 cables. The sound was very musical. It was warm and soft. Warmer than most tube setups that I have listened to. Yet it was still detailed and dynamic. I did however think that the warmth did compromise transparency somewhat. I have however heard other Accuton based speakers too like several of the Morten speakers including the Coltrane. Their sonic signature have been exactly the opposite - very transparent and borderline bright and hard. I suppose the Wadia, Pass Labs and Transparent Audio products might have colored the Tidal Audio Contrivia system I heard.

The same weekend I also heard the Magico Q5 with Krell S350 CD-player, darTZeel NHB-18NS preamplifier, darTZeel NHB-458 mono amplifiers and Nordost Odin cables. This system was very transparent, detailed, dynamic with tonal balance more towards light and bright than absolute neutral. Still I think this system was much closer to neutral than the Tidal system.

A few months before this I heard a friends system with the Rockport Technologies Altair speakers, Sim Audio Moon CD-player and amplifier (don't remember the models) and Kimber Black Pearl speaker cables. It was obvious the amplifier had not enough power to show the speakers true potential. Bass and dynamics were lacking and the stereo image did not free itself from the speakers. However the tonal balance was the most neutral of the three speakers. Trancparency and resolution was also very good but not quite as good as the
Magico Q5.

Please also notice that these three systems were playing in in different rooms.

My question to you guys here is if this overly warm sound from the Tidal system I listened to is a "house character" of the Tidal speakers or if this was just a system matched to sound like that by its owner by using electronics and cables with this character?