Review: Cardersound Ty-bone Speaker


Category: Speakers

Darn Jeff of Cardersound! I was totally happy with my system and the oft quoted "I'm done" was greeted with much enthusiasm by my wife. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to experiment with different tweaks but I was done with major purchases. Then along comes Jeff. While cruising Audiogon just for the heck of it, I came upon a very interesting speaker...a big speaker...have you seen these things? But what was most intriguing was that this was not lined with six drivers from the "newest coolest driver on the block" company. It had just one...one itty bitty little Fostex driver right in the middle. It was called the Ty-Bone and I was hooked.

"No! Wait a minute! I am done!" I screamed at myself. Well no harm in checking out the testimonials. Now, these were not testimonials; these were novellas. These were not the standard technical glowing reviews about how this crossover was used or how this configuration accomplishes this or that. These were people thanking the audio gods for sound they never thought possible at this price range. Now I was skeptical. I wanted to prove to myself and this speakerbuilding bonehead that this was all nonsense.

The next morning I made the call to Jeff to see what this was all about. He was very informative and nice to talk to but I still swore something was up. We made the appointment to take a listen and next week I was on my way...my quest to prove him wrong. So I sat down in his listening chair ready to say, "AH hahh! this doesn't do this or that and things like thanks I think I'll stay with what I got and the like... what I ended up saying was, "How much and how soon?"

Like the others, I won't give any technical specifications about what these things do. I'll leave that to Jeff (after all he's the one building the things)but I will say that these babies are magical! I attend a concert in my home darn near every night.

Around Philly, there is a jeweler known as Steven Singer whose catch phrase is, "I hate Steven Singer" supposedly because of all the great deals that can not be passed up by men looking for an excuse not to by their honeys jewelry. Well I will borrow that and say, "I hate Jeff Carder" for making my savings account lighter (not too too much) but really... I love ya, ya silly speaker building freak.

Thanks for the experience! People do yourselves a favor and just go for a listen. Nuff said.

Associated gear
Raysonic sp100 - EL34 based tube amp
Rega Jupiter cd player
MM5 phono
Powervar - power conditioner
Morrow Audio interconnects and Speaker Cable

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The funny thing is that I hesitate to explain what magical is as magic is somehow unexplainable, but let me try. It has incredible detail while maintaining an "openess." It must be the air that this thing gets by its double mouth design. It also has a tremendous stage that seems to reach from floor to ground and well beyond the speakers. All these other speakers that I listed plus so many more have been truly impressive in their own way, but when you sit down to listen to these, they disappear and you are transported to the soul of the music. They let you in and you are no longer an audio voyeur... you are part of the music.

With that said, the bass is definitely beyond decent. Does it hit the lows like the Meadowlarks...no but the funny thing was I didn't care (and I love bass)they however will handle most bass in music very handily. Now the funny thing is that I actually ordered a sub before I received the Ty-bones. It came after the speakers and in that two week interval I was wishing very badly that I hadn't spent the money. Now it does help in some music, but I wish I saved the money. I didn't really need it

If you want me to compare to any of the speakers specifically let me know, and I will gladly respond
When you say magical, please explain. In what ways are they better than the Maggie 3.6 or the Ushers for example?Will they play loud and do they have decent bass response