1. Home
  2. speakers
  3. 1273805797

TAD Reference loudspeakers-How good are they?

Just wondering if the TAD Ref 1 and/or TAD Compact Ref 1 are as good as some of the show reviews suggest, although a recent review did mention a slightly "dark" presentation, albeit state of the art sound.

Does anyone know if the implementation of concentric tweeter/mid is superior to that of KEF/Thiel, or perhaps the Berylium constructed drivers and/or crossover sophistication.

I'm thinking about the TAD Compact Ref One as my "final" loudspeaker, as I have a small listening room at 14 x 16; Quite expensive at MSRP of $37K. I would appreciate any and all opinions and experience with the TAD Reference loudspeakers.

Thanks so much!
opinions
audiobrian
knghifi
1,667 posts
 
Thank you all for the feedback both on the thread and to those who responded privately.  The choice has been made recently and it looks like I will get to experience these speakers for a long time to come...
Congratulations @zephyr24069!  When I can finally move on from tube amps, I will be replacing my TAD E1 with R1.   SS is getting closer and closer to tubes so hopefully soon :-)

What amps are you planning to drive the R1s?
zephyr24069's avatar
zephyr24069
1,183 posts
 
Will do bcgator once they are up and running and broken in!
zephyr24069's avatar
zephyr24069
1,183 posts
 
knghifi: Will post feedback as noted once I have some them up and running, broken in, etc....I plan on using my existing Esoteric A-02 amp. The nice touch around all this is that this will be the first time I've ever heard my speaker cables and that amp run full-range as the prior speaker and RoomEQ device delegated bass and sub-bass (rather well and with great results) to dual 500W ICE amps in each tower and routed those frequencies over analog XLR to the speaker. The whole experience should be a real event....
psag
450 posts
 
I've had the Ref1 in my main system for 3 or 4 years. Very happy with them. Would be interesting to compare them to the current best Magico, Raidho, and MBL.
ptss
1,649 posts
 
They can't be all bad as Spectral Audio,very extreme people- use them,among others to listen to their "extreme" products. Happy holidays to all. Pete
More to discover