Tidal Speakers owners


Could you please write your impressions about the Tidal speakers you currently own ? I will probably buy the Tidal Piano Cera in the near future so I would appreciate your feedback...
geopolitis
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?
Another challenge for me is that I don't intend to buy a complete set of amplifiers to drive the T1. I already own a pair of Tube Research Labs Platinum GTR-800 and a pair of Krell MRA which I intend to use to drive the tweeter/midrange and bass of the T1-Sunray. It is almost impossible to get three or even to sets of either of these amplifiers. My current plan would be to get a pair of Sovereign Audio THE SOVEREIGN amplifiers to drive the T1-Bass towers. These are very different amplifiers with different gain, rise time, damping factor, frequency response etc. How do I get a seamless coherent sound from three so totally different amplifiers? Does the T1-LPX crossover functions to correct/handle this?
Dear Roysen,

I have a friend that his plan is to build the absolutely best system in the planet and he has no particular issue about spending the money needed. His current choices are Orpheus Heritage DAC, Tidal Sunray speakers, Tidal Presencio preamplifier, Tidal LPX external crossover, 4 Sovereign Eternity power amplifiers and Argento Flow Master Reference cables.

His future plans are to install the Tidal Sunray T1 and 6 THE SOVEREIGN amplifiers to drive the speakers.

No further comments apart from the fact that his current setup has no sound at all, it is pure live music and easily the best setup I have heard in my life...

Tidal speakers are the most neutral speakers that you could possible experience. So in case you heard any coloration then you should investigate the other components of the system...
Thanks for that Geopolitis,
I too believe that particular setup was matched too much on the warm side. Interesting to know about your friends plans. I think it would have been fun to exchange knowledge with him. Maybe you could pass on his contact info to be or my contact info to him.

The question on how to get three so different amps to sound as one still will remain my biggest challenge.

BTW, my plans include a purposebuilt studio in my garden with a listening space of 80 square meters and 4 meter hight. It will built and treated internally by an acoustics specialist company.

Maybe the listening position can be in the middle of the room with the Tidal T1 system on one side, a Rockport Arrakis system on the other side and finally a Magico system in the living room of the main house :)
Quanmer, I have extensive experience with the Tidal Preos preamplifier that I have heard many times in a system I know and limited experience with Tidal power amplifiers that I only heard the last two years in Munich. The Tidal preamplfiers are absolutely world class. They are exactly from the same camp as their speakers, the pursuit of as limited character of their own as possible. I could say the same about their power amps.

Roysen the synergy between Tidal Speakers and Sovereign electronics are absolutely world class. I would say that the Sovereigns are just a small tad warmer than the Tidals! You cannot go wrong with either of them!

Happy listening,

Mike
Roysen, I heard the Sunrays sound way too tuby and warms with the Bridge Audio amps at CES 2010 and then sound outstanding at CES 2011 with the same amps?? I could not find out whether the amps had been changed in that year, but I think not.

My point is that they reveal the electronics quite well. The best I have ever heard the Contrivas was with the Ypsilon hybrid amps. Unfortunately, I doubt that these two products will ever display together, at least in the US.

My Contrivas have never sounded too warm with either H-Cat electronic or now BMC electronics. Both are solid state.
you haven't heard tidal speakers until you've heard them with chalice audio 'grail set mono block amps...keith..who has either the T1 's or the sunrays has heard most of the great amps with his tidals..including the tidal amps..and agrees with me on the 'grail' amps..email him at kt@innovations1.com...
I would say that is wrong Audiofeil. Neutral is not subjective. Neutral is no coloration, no distortion and no compression. The degree of neutrality can be measured by comparing the input with the output.
Neutral means one single thing and ONLY: What is written in the source material. Period
Argyro you are refering to the transparency of a system and not the speakers. This is like comparing apples to oranges.

A speaker can be perfectly netural even though its output differs from the source material because it could be the electronics preceding the speakers responsible for this differance.

No matter how much the electronics preceding the speaker in the system is polutes the neutrality of the source material, it is still possible that the speakers can be very neutral. So it is only the input to the speaker from the amplifier driving the speaker which is the measuring stick for the transparency of the the output from the speakers. If what comes out of the speaker is the same as what is sent into it, it is netural. That is all.

PERIOD!
I agree completely, of course I mean the whole system, in which though the speaker has the edge in contributing to the systems sound. THANKS
Nice to know we agree :) I assume your first comment was meant to AudioFeil. I didn't understand that at first.

Peace -:)
"If what comes out of the speaker is the same as what is sent into it, it is netural."

"...the same as what is sent into it..."

And how do you know what that "same" is? Every component, including speakers, puts it's signature on the sound. The only way one could know if a component is neutral is to listen to that component (without any other components in the system - which is not possible) and compare it against the original, live event.

Neutral is subjective - PERIOD!
Although HP was better than most in using words to describe sounds, I still think it is futile effort to do so. Yes, we should not have Audiogon, or it is a waste of time. Certainly, neutral is subjective; every review is subjective. Stereophile in particular has shown little or no correspondence between measurement and what we hear. Several years ago Archibald pulled in a very positive review of a $350k amp, which was the finest amp I ever heard because it did not measure very good. What bs! Several years later at the RMAF, he had a Boulder amp and an unnamed amp and showed both under loads measuring THD. Everyone raved about how stout the Boulder was. I asked "do you think the designer of the other amp think THD captures how good an amp sounds?" A hush fell over the room, and I left.
Roysen, after listening to Sunray at my friend's house, I am sure Tidal is very sensitive to any change in a system. My Contriva Diacera SE was a bit warm before. And I switched my BMI Oceanic PC from poweramp to the CD player, and Tara Labs Cobalt PC on CD player to poweramp, then the sound changed dramatically, now it is not warm at all.

But one thing I felt the same, Tidal never show sharp edge like Marten Coltrane. But I consider it is neutral to the source. When did you hear a live music with sharp edge? That is why I can listen to the music without fatigue.
Fiddler,

Have you heard of something called measurements. They are not subjective and they are the only way to fond out it a speaker is neutral by comparing the input with its output.
Fiddler,

Have you heard of something called measurements. They are not subjective and they are the only way to find out if a speaker is neutral by comparing the input with its output.
Quanmer, I think what you mean by "sharp edge" is the speed of the drivers. I expect all dynamic drivers, including the Marten Coltranes, lack this as compared with compression drivers on horns. This speed is not fatiguing if the electronics are good, and it makes drums and pianos sound real. I am very happy with my Contrivas Diacera SEs, but they will never equal the speed of my VOTs.

I am totally in agreement about quality speakers revealing the electronic associated with them. I first heard the Sunrays with the Bridge Audio amps, as I think I have mentioned here. They sounded like pretty poor tube electronics. But in last years CES, the same combo sounded great. I suspect that the Bridge amps had been revised.
Tbg,

the answer to your question why the two sets had totally different sound lies on the cables that were used. During the first time, the cabling was Echole Obsession. This year they used Argento Flow Master Reference. I have owned both so I understand very well what you say.
Geopolitis, I certainly know that the cabling this year was Argento. If you are right, it certainly was an example of how critical cabling is.
Roysen, it may come as a surprise to you, but measurements don't tell you the whole story about how a speaker sounds. Far from it. If it was that simple, manufacturers could simply design speakers to measure perfectly and they would all sound identical. But we know that isn't true, don't we.

Look at Atkinson's measurements as compared to the what the reviewers hear. There is often a wide descrepancy between the two.
Fiddler,

Are you trying to imply that measurements are not part of a speakermanufacturer's manufacturing process and that they rely on hearinng to find out if their speakers are neutral! How then would they know that all their production units of one model sound the same? By listening? Of course not! Measurements is the only tool to accurately understand why a speaker sounds the way it does or if its neutral.

Listening can reveal if the listener likes the way the speaker sounds. This has nothing to do with neutrality. Neutrality can only be proved by measurements.

Do you honesty think Atkinsons measurements in Stereophile are alll that can be measured on speakers? He is working for a magazine for the masses that are mostly interested in subjective listening descriptions. They wouldn't sell If they used mostly measurements in their magazine.

Measurements can not. og course tell you how something will sound overall, but it is the only accurate way to prove deviations from neutrality.
Fiddler,

There certainly are no deviations between what JA is hearing and his measurements. If that was so there would be something wrong with his hearing.

What you probably mean is that how he perceives the overall sound may not be what he expects after having measured one characteristic of the speaker.

One non-neutral character of the speaker can mask out another non-neutral character of the speaker, the rest of the system including the rooms non-neutral character can mask out non-neutralities in the speaker and non-neutralities in the recording can mask out non- neutralities in the speaker so that when listening the speaker sounds neutral. Still the speaker would not be neutral and the only way to find out would be by measurements.

Neutrality in this context by definition means nothing is added or subtracted from the signal inside the speaker. How can that be subjective as if something is added or subtracted to the signal inside tbhe sound is a matter of opinion. Either something is changed or its not. A fact can't be subjective and has to be measured to be proved.

If someone likes the sound is of course a matter of taste and highly subjective, but that has nothing to do with neutrality.
Roysen, I am incredulous at what you have said in the last two postings. I have known many speaker manufacturers over my time in audio. Measurements have not been a major consideration in any case that I know of. I once visited a major UK manufacturer and we listened to two prototypes. Both were identical in every regard, dimensions, drivers, crossover, construction, finish, wire and of course all electronics that we used in listening.

Before he could ask which I liked, I said that one sounded much better. He agreed. I said how could this be. He said they were made in different shops was the only difference. The better one went into production and has been very successful. I am sure each speaker is listened to at his shop as in others but not measured. I have not visited Tidal, so I don't know whether each is measured but I do know they are listened to.

If you mean by "non-neutral" poor sounding, I can agree with all you say. But measurements fail to capture much that is essential to "good sounding." Of course, frequency response, off axis response, phase, and efficiency are all elements of good design, and they can be easily measured in speakers. Manufacturers have little influence on what consumers hook to their speakers, and, as Geopolitis noted, can greatly influence what the speakers sound like, especially it seems the Tidal speakers.
Wow, not sure you could be any more wrong Tbg. You obviously know little about real speaker design. Here is what Jorn at Tidal said, ""It is 95% measurements and 5% hearing, with the step response being the most relevant measurement and then frequency response immediately following that."

See article here: http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&catid=55&Itemid=88
Holenneck, I never said I knew about Jorn. I see he adds "step response" to my list and then goes to frequency response. I know that he remains very concerned with the non-resonant cabinets. As I said apart from these easy to measure characteristics, speakers are designed by listening to them. I guess you could measure cabinet resonance this rather than feel it.

Jorn is not talking about some measure of neutrality, harmonic distortion, or quality "measures" of speakers.
You said, "Measurements have not been a major consideration in any case that I know of." The fact is that you must simply not know of any real speaker designers. They ALL measure. Read this to see how Revel and Vivid do it: http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=228:high-performance-loudspeakers-how-theyre-designed&catid=62:monthly-column&Itemid=3

If you know of a single _credible_ speaker that is not designed using measurements first, then please name it. I'm sorry, but you just don't seem to know about which you speak.
Tbg,

You are talking about what was considered best of two speakers. That would of course be subjective and as such a matter of taste.

Neutrality is different. Its an objective fact. Either the speaker is neutral or its not regardless of someones opinion.

I never wrote that there exist one universal neutrality measurement. A set of measurements much more comprehensive than what JA is using will each one show deviations from neutrality on each character the measurements show.

Technology has moved on. Todays best speakermanufacturers like Tidal, Rockport Technologies, Magico, Wilson, Anat Technologies etc rely more heavily on measurements than the top companies of the past and mostly only huse listening evaluations for confirmation purposes. In fact one of the companies most respected for top sound and neutrality is Goldmund. They have made a press release that they only do listening evaluatios to confirm single compnent choice inside their products. Everything else is done by measurements.

Listening is too unteliable because its subjective and situation related.
Tbg,

You are talking about what was considered best of two speakers. That would of course be subjective and as such a matter of taste.

Neutrality is different. Its an objective fact. Either the speaker is neutral or its not regardless of someones opinion.

I never wrote that there exist one universal neutrality measurement. A set of measurements much more comprehensive than what JA is using will each one show deviations from neutrality on each character the measurements show.

Technology has moved on. Todays best speakermanufacturers like Tidal, Rockport Technologies, Magico, Wilson, Anat Technologies etc rely more heavily on measurements than the top companies of the past and mostly only huse listening evaluations for confirmation purposes. In fact one of the companies most respected for top sound and neutrality is Goldmund. They have made a press release that they only do listening evaluatios to confirm single compnent choice inside their products. Everything else is done by measurements.

Listening is too unteliable because its subjective and situation related.
Roysen, I don't accept that neutrality is objective. I find it strange that you use this term, but I unaware of an neutrality meter. What are the measurements of neutrality? I assume that you would argue that there is total agreement of what are these objective measures.

You say that listening is to unreliable, yet that is all we ever use our systems for. Again I don't really know what measurements other than those I listed that might be used nor do I think they determine quality sound. If Tidal, Rockport, and YG Acoustics share the measurements of neutrality with Wilson and Magico, I put no confidence in them.
Thg,

This is getting tiresome. It really doesn't matter what you can accept. Can you define what you mean by neutrality? It obviously is something different than undistorted, uncolored and uncompressed. I have just written that there is not one neutrality measurement but that you have to use all the measurements and look for distortion, coloration or compression. If there are, the speaker is not neutral.

No speaker is truly neutral. There is no speaker which has absolute ruler-flat frequency- and phase-response without any hint of any kind of distortion. They all have deviations from perfectly neutral. The different manufacturers have different priorities though and use different technologies which result in the mix of deviations from neutral they are able to acheive and prefer most of cost and political reasons. Many brands have a "house"-sound which sells speakers. This doesn't mean that their speakers are neutral. I would for instance guess that a Magico Q5 is far more neutral than the Wilson Alexandria without having seen the measurements. Still many prefer the fun factor of the Wilson speakers. That is because they prefer the Alexandrias deviations from neutral more than the deviations of the Q5.

Still if there was such a thing as a perfectly neutral speaker, it would not be a guarantee that it would be the universally preferred choice. Many listeners actually prefer more than less coloration in certain areas. Also keep in mind that no electronic component or recording is perfectly neutral either. So a perfectly neutral speaker would reveal all the deviations from neutral in the electronics, cables, the room and the recording. Many would not prefer that. This is the reason matching is so important. We need to find combinations of equipment that mask out each othersdeviations from neutral to a degree we like. Still if this sounds neutral, measurements will show that its not. The ears can be unreliable and our taste misleading if the goal is neutrality. However most don't really prefer neutrality and that is where subjectivity comes in because it is of course different what kind of combination of mix of distortion, coloration and compression we prefer.

Neutral is never ever subjective. How can it be? Its like claiming that the length of one feet is subjective.
I think I see the issue here. You don't accept that high fidelity (neutral) is the goal. OK, that's your take on it.

But the larger problem with your posts, Tbg, and I don't mean to be disrespectful of you, is that you are ignorant when it comes to how good speakers are designed. If you can honestly say that you put no confidence in companies that share some standard measurement protocol, then you truly are ignorant of what goes on. Things like smooth frequency response, wide dispersion, low distortion . . . these aren't just words, these are goals of good design. It's like saying you would not trust a car maker that uses engineering to design an auto. Of course these companies also use listening, but engineering is the backbone of the design process. YOU don't understand the measurements that equate to neutrality, but that is a YOU problem. I'm sorry, but it is difficult to debate intelligently with someone that has not bothered to learn a few simple truths.
Talking about measurements, can anyone tell me where can I find any measurements of any Tidal loudspeaker?
Holenneck, I think you misidentify my orientation and my experience. As I said repeatedly, measures of frequency response, phase, and dispersion are goals and used. But there is much beyond this and that is where listening comes into play. I have personally experienced designers coming to grips with their prototypes that meet the measurement criteria but fail to sound good

I was primarily reacting to Roysen exaggeration of the word "neutral," as though it had some objective measurement. I don't think most designer seek to "voice" their designs to be something other than realistic and uncolored, but I have never known a designer who didn't go for the best sound within their "price point."

This really is the classic "subjectivist" v. "objectivist" argument once again. There is no resolution to it. I am as are the vast majority of the designers I know, subjectivists who use some measurements when appropriate.
05-02-11: Roysen
Neutral is not subjective. Neutral is no coloration, no distortion and no compression. The degree of neutrality can be measured by comparing the input with the output.

05-05-11: Fiddler
Every component, including speakers, puts it's signature on the sound. The only way one could know if a component is neutral is to listen to that component (without any other components in the system - which is not possible) and compare it against the original, live event...Neutral is subjective - PERIOD!

05-07-11: Tbg
Roysen, I don't accept that neutrality is objective. I find it strange that you use this term, but I unaware of an neutrality meter. What are the measurements of neutrality?

I think there are two separate, but related, issues contained in the comments above...

(1) IS component x neutral?
(2) HOW DO YOU KNOW if component x is neutral?

As far as I can tell, Roysen is using the term "neutrality" to mean the same thing as "accuracy." Hence, for him, neutrality is: The degree of absence of inaccuracies. Inaccuracies are deviations of a component's output from its input. By those definitions, the neutrality of a component is OBJECTIVE. That is to say, there are objective truths about the ways in which a component's output deviates from its input.

But Fiddler and Tbg seem to be asking a different question, namely: HOW DO YOU KNOW the ways in which a component is inaccurate, and hence HOW DO YOU KNOW the extent to which it is neutral? This is a valid question. One possible response is: the various measurements of accuracy, some of which routinely occur in Stereophile. But I believe that that response does not entirely answer the concerns of Subjectivists.

The reason is because it is often difficult to know the ways in which a component is inaccurate. The measurements available to consumers, and even those available to manufacturers, are often not exhaustive. Because of that, the neutrality of a component may be difficult, or even impossible, for the end user to assess. In that sense, our KNOWLEDGE of a component's neutrality is, to some extent, SUBJECTIVE.

Personally, I do believe that some components are more neutral than others. I also believe that there are methods of assessing the neutrality of a component, WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITS. Roysen proposed one method: measurements. I proposed an alternative method in a another thread in which the topic of neutrality was discussed at great length.

Hence, I am an Objectivist. In other words, I believe that there is such a thing as truth. But many truths are elusive, and our knowledge is therefore incomplete. In the context of audio, Subjectivism is valid to the extent that its truths are elusive and our knowledge is incomplete.

Bryon
Bryon,

When I hear/read the world netural, I associate that with something without a character of its own. No matter how we can and can not detect neutrality it can never be subjective. Either it is neutral or its not even if we can't measure it. There is of course a lot of ways to do measurements and the avaiable equipment and methods to measure attributes of the output of a speaker are morer than used by the hifi magazines. So to measure neutrality or to what really is done in practice, to measure one the absence of neutrality is fairly easy. One measurement of anything from frequency response to bandwidth will show deviations from neutral on all speakers.

Neutral is a world not really worthy for audio equipment because there is nothing in the chain from the output of the microphone during the recording to the output of the speakers during playback wich does not have a character of its own which is added to the signal which in the end is output from the speakers. Nothing is neutral in regards to audio playback.
Bryoncunningham, you said on the other thread, " A subjectivist does not believe in objective truth." I cannot speak to other subjectivists, or more accurately those who put an emphasis on listening to make the judgment of whether they like a component, but I do believe in "objective truth."

My career was forty-five years as a researching social scientist. I constantly assessed hypotheses, such as whether states that adopted a policy to cope with a social problem improved the problem. This included whether states with concealed handgun laws had less crime. I would say that is "objective truth."

When it comes to audio, however, I would imagine that it would be very difficult to find agreement as to what objective measures might be used to assess which speaker is better. It is easy to assess frequency response, phase correctness, and dispersion. Perhaps we could even agree about distortion. Were we to then choose the ten best speakers and conduct listening sessions, I doubt that we would have any agreement about which is best. The reason is we are missing too much of what makes a speaker better and don't share opinions about these other attributes, much less having the capability to measure them. For example, in my opinion planar speakers don't imagine worth a damn. How do you measure imaging?

Harkening to my profession, choosing the most neutral, best, etc. speaker is like assessing the quality of public policy making by state legislatures. Fortunately, in audio, all we need to do is listen and buy what we like. Granted that access to listening is greatly reduced thanks to fewer and fewer dealers and more and more different manufacturers, but who is to argue that if someone like speaker X, they are wrong?

I totally agree with your concluding sentence.
Roysen, I am at a loss as to what you are saying in this post. You say, "Nothing is neutral in regards to audio playback." How can the concept "neutral" have any utility, if what you argue is true?"
the term "neutral sound" is a subjective matter. there is no machine whiich can detect and measure"neutrality in sound".
maybe some audipphiles switch "neutral sound" with clean bright not sweet sound.
some "famous" speakers measure corrctly, but sound terrible. some sound excellent but don't have "perfect" graphs.
arguing about the concept of"neutral sound" is silly- you like the sound or you don't.
Thg,

Neutrality is what we are searching for. Its the ultimate goal. That is why we upgrade. To get sound played back closer in quality to the real thing. But we will never get there. We will never achieve a sound played back in our listening room equl to being present at the actual event. Since we can't the sound will never be truly neutral.
Focalfan,

Lets keep taste out of the discussion. Some like warm, soft sound and others like bright, direct sound without either being neutral.

Even though there is no single neutrality measurement, it doesn't mean that neutral can be subjective. That is like stating that if we have no measuring tool to measure the length of one feet is subjective.

Its easy to measure that no speaker is neutral. Just measure distortion and you not find a single speaker without any measureable distortion of any kind and since its output is distorted it is not equal to being present at the actual event and by that not neutral.

Even if we didn't have any tools available to measure distortion, the speaker would be equally distorted and not neutral even if someone would claim otherwise. So neutral is not subjective,
Unfortunately it looks like a few have taken the path to smudge the image. I don't own one, but am very happy for the owners to have found their nirvana. It really does not matter if it is "neutral" -- probably better than most in "attempting" to do so.
Whether it does or not I don't care, but to hear from so many content audiophiles, is good. Will I buy a pair of tidals, may be yes may be not, I'm happy with my current setup, and will be for some time.
Focalfan,

Lets keep taste out of the discussion. Some like warm, soft sound and others like bright, direct sound without either being neutral.

Even though there is no single neutrality measurement, it doesn't mean that neutral can be subjective. That is like stating that if we have no measuring tool to measure the length of one feet is subjective.

Its easy to measure that no speaker is neutral. Just measure distortion and you not find a single speaker without any measureable distortion of any kind and since its output is distorted it is not equal to being present at the actual event and by that not neutral.

Even if we didn't have any tools available to measure distortion, the speaker would be equally distorted and not neutral even if someone would claim otherwise. So neutral is not subjective,
Roysen, we are communicating but I have no comprehension of why you say what you do. Your argument again that "So neutral is not subjective" just makes no sense to me.

It is probably best that we just leave it there.
Smudge the image Dadlyvj. I am seriously considering a pair of Tidal T1 myself. The neutrality discussion really is misplaced in this thread because it has not direct relation to the Tidal Audio products even though it is an interesting discussion.
I will be receiving my Piano Diacera's sometime in July.

In the meantime I am doing a little bit of upgrading in other parts of my system mainly the amp. When listening to the Piano Ceras they sounded terrific with the Spectron amp in stereo mode. While the Piano's may not need a lot of power to sound great they will take any additional power fed to them quite happily. So, I decided to upgrade to Spectron mono amps. They will be here any day and that will give me the time to break them in thoroughly before the speakers arrive. I also ordered Elrod's Silver Statement pc's and Silver Signature speaker cables. I am a big fan of Elrod cables.

That's it for now. Over and out.
Roysen and Tbg - In the interest of not hijacking this thread further, I have responded to both your comments on the thread devoted to the topic of neutrality, which you can read here.

Bryon