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Review: Tidal Sunray Speaker

Category: Speakers

Hi! My name is Björn and I am a storemanager at HifiConsult in Gothenborg, Sweden.
I don't know where to put this review so perhaps you can place it where it belongs.
I visited Munich High End Show, 6-9 of May 2010.
I would like to share an amazing experience of sound. All the great brands where there. For example Focal, YG accustics, Kharma, MBL, Burmester, Gryphon, TAD and Tidal.
After I had been listening a several times on each brand for 4 days I came to the conclusion that they all sound very good but it was one special brand that I fell for, Tidal.
Me and my partners visited Tidals room a several times and we were spellbound by the sound. If I would try to describe their sound I would say that they sounded like it was a live performance. They where open and airy without being harsh.
Tidal uses a diamond tweeter which sometimes can have a harsh and cold sound. They are using Thil and partners ceramic midrange and woofer and they can also be a little hard and cold. Thoe in this case the sound was warm and soft and incrediable natural.
They played all kinds of music using an Esoteric Cd-player, a computer and a recordplayer (I didn't recall the brand).
They had done some accustic treatment to the room.
Each time we visited the room we got a new experince depending on which music they were playing. They where playing all kinds of music such as Sting, Rodger Waters, Pink Floyd, Swedish psalms, Jazz, Nils Loftgren and Techno. When we were listening to the music I got goosebumps and sometimes I almost started to cry.
I have been working with Hifi for over 30 years. The last 10 I have been working with High End stuff. I have never experienced anything like Tidal.
The quality of the craftmanship is astonishing.
If you have a store near you that sells Tidal, go there and listen immediately!
You won't be disappointed.
I have already made up my mind. I am going to save my money, sell some of my Hifistuff and buy a pair of Tidal Centriva Diacera in Bobinga wood.
They will take me to Hifi heaven.
(Ps. Thanks to the fantastic man who really enjoyed demostrating the gear. He almost danced. Ds.)

As a parenthesis:
All the showrooms at the Munich Show looks the same and is in the same size so it won't affect the sound.

Best regards Björn Brandt
HifiConsult, Sweden

Associated gear
1 Tidal reference pre amplifire
2 pair of Tidal Impact Monoblock
1 Esoteric CD-player SA-50
a recordplayer brand unknown
Cables from Argento Audio

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ozy
128 posts
 
bjorn---
i have owned the tidal sunrays for 9 months now,and my expereince with them in my room mirrors yours.
unlike you ,though, i didn't have the pleasure of listening to them before, but went on a whim and bought them blindly.... best blind -date i ever had...LOL....
and these speakers simply grow on you- they require a long break in, but every incrament is a siginificant inprovement.
congrats ,bjorn, on becoming a tidalist... sound of music will never be the same for you...
blinkhighend's avatar
blinkhighend
7 posts
 
Tidal looks great, we heard the flagship at the CES 2011 but found the sound a little too small (YG's flagship ANAT 3 professional played more open, had a better and bigger soundstage, very precise, less compressed in the mid range - unclear about max spl behaviour but very impressive) which might have something to do that the Tidal is using in essence a massive bass in the top and bottom module but fails to create the kind of open window you would expect from a six digit speaker in the critical midrange. Our favorites of the show were the TAD reference one speakers as demonstrated by Grammy winning engineer Bill Schnee which blew us away in terms of combining accuracy, soundstage, sheer unlimited dynamics and overall musicality. The surprise was the rather inexpensive (in ultra highend terms) CR1 which I would every Tidal customer to listen to - the sound you get for $37,000 is fantastic. No other speaker was able to reproduce drums this realistic while being equally realistic with the critical material piano and voices. We would prefer that speaker any day over the $150k tidal reference.
Keep also an eye on raidho's latest flagship speaker which we will audition in Munich later this year. The ones we heard at the CES were a tad too bright, it's difficult to evaluate if it was the speaeker or the amps and cables.
focalfan
53 posts
 
i agree with you --- the tad room was in a different level, sonically than most if not all of the other rooms... and the raidho room was dynamic sounding as well.the 2 tidal rooms sounded awefull! like you said, smallscale ,thin and harsh(constellation gear?). i personally don't get the big deal about tidalanyway- pretty box with accuton drivers?we had them in europe for over 20 years....
only problem with tad is thier fit and finish not as high end looking.
argyro
438 posts
 
Focalfal it must have been a really long time since you attended a live concert, right?
focalfan
53 posts
 
argyro----no ,actually it has about 2 weeks ago.
but what is your point?
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