tad

Best of 2015 and Product of the Year

December 30, 2015

2015 is over, much to my shock and chagrin. Honestly, I’m not quite sure how it happened. No. Seriously. I kinda feel like I’m Rick Grimes; I just woke up, everyone is gone, and WTF is the deal with all the freakin’ zombies?!? Oh. [...]

RMAF 2015: Suntory time with Koetsu and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab

October 10, 2015

Suntory time. Who could forget Bill Murray in Lost in Translation? An all-time classic film moment, and if you mixed that with Groundhog Day, you’d find yourself sitting next to me with Jon Derda in the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab room at RMAF [...]

High End 2015: End of Line and Best In Show

July 1, 2015

The thing about Peat and Scotch There was a moment I thought I might be in serious trouble. One moment, in particular. One wrong step, and I’d be in it for sure. But I couldn’t see. Not then. I was blind to the immanent threat until it [...]

High End 2015: Wrapping the Un-Wrappable

June 28, 2015

An entire month passed since we got back from Munich and our combined efforts produced more than 50 extended show reports, many of which are closer to mini-reviews than a mere system and price tags list with a few pictures. Munich offers so much [...]

High End 2015: TAD Labs

June 21, 2015

TAD Labs brought a show-stopper room, featuring their new Compact Evolution One (CE-1) loudspeakers. This system was, in a word, dominating. The speakers, shown here in an olive finish, are elegant and quite robust — but somehow, like the [...]

RMAF 2014: Zesto Audio, WyWires and TAD team to show where the children play

October 25, 2014

George and Carolyn Counnas of Zesto Audio were spinning records all weekend long, but when I walked in, it was Cat Stevens’ shivering voice that sent me down the spirals of memory to a place where all I could do was clap and grin. Just wow. I [...]

CAF 2014: Backert Labs floats a gorgeous new pre

August 6, 2014

Backert Labs was a new-to-me venture here at CAF, showing off their fab new preamplifier, the Rhythm 1.1 ($7,500). First thing — any audio component that can successfully manage to incorporate toggle switches is already doing better than [...]

Newport 2014: Zesto Audio cooks to the tune of awesome

June 25, 2014

George and Carolyn Counnas of Zesto Audio usually present a close variation on the same recipe. You’ll have some great TAD speakers, a Merril-Williams turntable, a Tri-Planar arm, a Dynavector XX2 cartridge, a full loom of WyWires cabling, [...]

High End 2014: Technical Audio Devices shows how it’s done

May 26, 2014

By Dr. Panagiotis Karavitis TAD brought the complete series of products and in the big F130 room gave a spectacular presentation, hosted by chief designer Andrew Jones. On two different sessions we managed to hear the Compact Reference and the big [...]

RMAF 2013: Bel Canto Black and TAD

October 21, 2013

Oh ho! This was an eye-catching room. I don’t know about you, but I associate Bel Canto with wee little attractive silver boxes, not with the dead sexy, completely black triumvirate ruling the equipment rack here at RMAF. Bel Canto is debuting [...]