Before anybody rushs out there to buy their Tidal speakers, there are two contenders that you should audition Artos Thunder and the Estelon EA. I have heard both in Europe at very high end salons. Artos had the ALEH amps; they blow away my beloved Spectral by a country mile!!! ( their bandwidth is 0-6MHz!!!!) I heard the Estelon EA with AudioValve Baldur 300s. What do they sound like: take a Avalon Radian, both the Artos and the Estelon had two higher levels of clarity in the treble and one level of cleaner bass, and a glowing mid-range that was palpable when the music was playing at any level of sound pressure. Imaging and soundstage was about one level better than the Radian. Only if Neil Patel had taken the Radian, got rid of MB Quart Titanium tweeter and the Eton midrange and added a Accuton 1" ceramic or black diamond and a 3.5" ceramic midrange or even better taken the Ascent and do the same thing except a 2" black diamond for the midrange. I do not think you would be talking about anything else. Heck when Goodwin's gets rid of Avalon you know things are not good. Sad. As an aside, I have auditioned the Avalon Idea,all Eton drivers, great $5,000 speaker, unfortunately they are asking $8,000.00. I finally auditioned the Magico V2, a disappoint since everyone here on Audiogon raves about them. The one speaker that has surprised me was the Aerial 9s. I thought I would hate them but they are the best under $10,000.00 speaker I have heard in awhile. Have a great day everyone!
