heard the agoria in munich..... so many drivers("specialblack ceramique"), solittle sound. bass, like a disco-(,boom,boom), and the rest like regular tidal speakers- harsh midrange, bright,screaming tweeter.nothing new.
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If you page down on the following link you will see a good picture of what appears to be the Piano Diaceras with the new Xtenders. http://www.avguide.com/blog/munich-2012-part-2-electronics Always interesting to see how TAS covers the Tidal speakers at shows. In this case the Constellation amps sound excellent but no mention of the speakers through which they heard this sound. |
Guess I have to step back a little regarding how TAS covers Tidal. On this link Jonathan Valin actually says something nice, though a little left handed, about the Piano Diaceras. http://www.avguide.com/blog/jv-reports-the-munich-high-end-show-2012-updated-addendum?page=4 |
I'm soon to join the club and become a "Tidalist". Well you guys did it, cost me a small fortune. ;) I went ahead and ordered a pair of the Piano Cera's! Actually I ordered them a while back after reading this thread (and a few others), talking to you guys(and a few others). They are due sometime in the next few weeks, I can't wait. Thank you all for the great thread, good read for sure. |
Johngp, congrats on your new acquisition. I was thrilled with the performance of my Piano Ceras. It was an unusual event (not Tidal related) that necessitated a trip back to the factory that made this possible. Quite honestly, they were the best speakers I have ever owned by a significant margin and that would inlude the Avalon Eidolon Diamond, albeit a 10 year old plus design but still highly respected (with good reason). BTW, I was the first customer for the Piano Cera. |
I'm soon to join the club and become a "Tidalist". I bought a pair and Tidal diacera piano( I did pot receive it yet), and I will use with audiopax maggiore a SET 100 watts class A1 that I will receive later this month, my doubt is related to the cables, someone already used copper cables like Jorma. |
I went to hiend show in Munich this year, and heard the marten django as also the tidal piano diacera, and marten do not compare with the tidal piano diacera , even taking into account the different electronic, the Agoria was a fantastic speaker, but needs a big room, I listen Marten speakers in Denver in 2010 and in Munich 2011 and was a disappointment, so I bought the piano tidal diacera. I put a movie on you tube of tidal. |
Georgmg, what was your impression of the reception given to the Piano Cera and Piano X-tender subwoofer combination? While I'm sure they sounded excellent, the aesthetics of four towers the same size seemed a bit "eccentric" to me. I've seen no mention of price of the sub-woofers yet and I wonder what prospective customers will think when considering a set of Diaceras versus Pianos and the subwoofers. Plus, most wives and decorators are not going to be happy with the visual statement a set of Piano Ceras and X-tender subs make. |
IMHO there are far too many in the audio community, along with recording artists and studios, that are obsessed with bass. With that being said I would definitely get the X-tender subs if I had the space. Do I believe they are essential? No, but rounding out the bottom end would not be a bad thing either. I will add that I am totally happy with my Piano Diaceras as they are and won't think twice as to whether I am missing anything by not having the X-tenders. Regarding aesthetics I would think the additional subs would probably work nicely in a dedicated listening venue. |
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! |
I believe the Sunray will be redone using Tiralit (Tidal's proprietary cabinet material). Schubertmaniac, I have owned the Eclipse, Eidolon and Eidolon Diamond and can assure you that Tidal's Piano Cera will exceed the performance of the Eidolon Diamond in all parameters except for low bass extension. This is in no way intended to critisize Avalon as the Eidoln Diamond came out over 10 years ago. The Radian was a step down fron the Ascent II and I never understood its raison d'etre so to speak. |
If you are in Germany and considering Tidal speakers, maybe take a look at these first for potential cost savings: OHM Walsh Speakers IF you get to hear them and compare I'd be interested if you could post findings here on Agon. |
just a heads-up about a cable change i have made in my system that truly has been a significant improvent.i have been reading the thread in the 'Cable' forum about the CT-1 interconnect of rick schultz..High Fidelity Cables..with interest and decided to audition a 1.5m rca cable against my Echole 'obsession' cable from my preamp to amps...the cable price is very resonable at $1600/1m and $1800 / 1.5m.this cable truly is the 'poster child' for more is not necessarily better.they are superb and bettered the 'obsession' in every way.i do not claim to know anything about the workings of the cable but what my ears hear is magic..obviously, your results my vary. i will be trying a 1m CT-1 soon against my Echole ' signature' cable from my meitner/ PWD to preamp and see if what rick says regarding the synergy is true. for now i am truly a happy camper.they are the best cables i have tried to date.. |
Quote :"the cable price is very resonable at $1600/1m and $1800/1.5m.this cable truly is the 'poster child' for more is not necessarily better." I'd say same thing of the FM Acoustics PIT (Precision Interface Technology) ICs. Very unassuming looking, thin (almost stringlike), highly flexible cable priced around similar bracket. Think it was $2300 for the 1.5m/pair XLR. They are no tone control, just one very honest and musically un-impeding signal carrier. One of the most natural sounding, least signature, and neutrally balanced cable I've yet tried in my system plus few others', including those using previous top line ICs from Nordost, Shunyata, Kimber, Synergistic, Siltech. I'd say though that their PIT ICs are more universal, whilst the Forceline SCs seem to work best on proprietary Forceplugs with their amps. In current world of stratospherically priced esoteric cables, its always refreshing to share findings as these. |
Hey Tidalist folks, I've just taken delivery of the Contriva Diacera SE in gloss piano black and am very glad to join the camp of Tidalist finally after quite some wait to have this come true for me. Setup this pair in quite a small room by most standard(11ft width by 15ft depth and 10ft height). Room's ceiling is fully treated with Vicoustic diffusors, helmholtz traps and absorbers in the mid ceiling. These treatments certainly help in a small room. To my surprise, I am getting very defined and detailed bass without booming from the tracks played so far, live orchestra or low drum pieces. Apart from the bass, am very impress by how natural and lively the mids and highs are presented. Whole spectrum of frequency flowed in a very balanced, enjoyable and addictive experience. At current spot, measuring from the center/front of the woofers, they are about 4ft from the front wall and 2ft from the side wall, toed in almost fully pointing to the listing position which is about 9ft away. I've plugged in the jumper and lower bass ports to have the most linear sound production of highs and lows. Tried other config but this gives the most enjoyable & addictive experience. Always looking forward to pushing the play button to start the flow of music and emotion.... Cheers |
My Piano Diaceras will arrive on Monday!! Epic2776 congrats on your purchase. I am amazed that you are able to shoehorn the Contriva successfully into such a small space. My room is approximately the same size and it is on the small size for the Pianos IMO. If you move to a larger room you will get better bass performance and soundstaging. |
The following link is a review of the Marten Coltrane 2 loudspeaker. I found the first three paragraphs very interesting because the reviewer speaks about the importance of properly running in new ceramic drivers. I can say from my own experience with the Piano Diaceras that the more hours I have on them the better they sound. I thought they sounded great right out of the box but what I am hearing now goes far beyond what my expectations were or even what I could have dreamed possible. Also, I found interesting the first sentence in the second paragraph on page two. http://www.avguide.com/review/marten-coltrane-2-floorstanding-loudspeaker-hi-fi-90 |
Epic, these are two different products that share a cabinet and bass drivers (different tweeters and crossovers). Each offers remarkable value at their respective price points. My Diacera only has around 260 hours so it still has a long way to go. It has a coherence and transparency that the Piano Cera only suggests. It also has a greater sense of depth and dimensionality, along with more precise imaging within the soundstage. The Piano Cera probably offers greater value at its price point (be happy about this!)and I am unaware of anyone else who has gone this route. The caveat here is that I could change my opinion in another 600 hours as the full potential of the Diacera is revealed. I had an unusual set of circumstances that presented this option to me. |
Nice comments from Mr. Atkinson of Stereophile at the Capital Audiofest about The Voice That Is and Tidal. Page down about half way. http://www.stereophile.com/content/capital-audiofest151day-two-early-afternoon |
I was at CAF yesterday and got to listen to most rooms there including the two Tidal based systems. They sounded very good but dynamics were noticeably compressed with the rig using the smaller Tidals with smaller drivers as would be expected. Other than that, sound was top notch but for those $$$s I would want it all. I think the Stereophile guy sold the GT Audio works rig a bit short, probably due to unfamiliarity and not enough time to listen. I would have liked to heard more but for $3000 including two separate standalone subs, these were the giant killers there that I heard. I was there on Sunday and the presenter did have to make some tweaks to the subs for bass levels still during my audition, so possible this was off prior when the Stereophile guy listened. I agree the Mapleshade room sound was nothing to write home about although they won the award for best cable elevators and I liked the build quality of their stands. Mapleshade's recordings are their unique contribution to audiophilia I would say and I bought several while in the room. Why one of their own recordings was not playing when I went in I have no idea but they seemed to be going for something more mainstream with REM and such, which was probably not a good idea at an audio show. |