CES 2011

TAD Speakers Sing

John Atkinson  |  Jan 14, 2011

TAD didn't appear to be demonstrating anything new in their large penthouse suite at the Venetian, but designer Andrew Jones was getting such an enormously involving sound from the Compact Reference CR-1 stand-mounts ($37,500/pair plus $1800/pair for stands) that I had to stop to take an extended listen. Jones had some of HDTracks' new 24/192 files that he was playing with Amarra and one track, featuring Hammond organ, double bass and drums, had the audience stumped. (The fellow in front of me even held up his iPhone and ran a song ID app, only for the screen to flash "No Match.") Then I twigged: it was a jazz arrangement of Pink Floyd's "Money," with sound to die for. DAC, preamp, and power amps were also from TAD.

COMMENTS
struts's picture
Submitted by struts on January 14, 2011 - 2:20pm

Sounds like a fun track JA, is it available from the HDtracks store? Do you have the title?

As an aside I would love to hear a round-up of the software that the hardware vendors were using to show off their wares, both the audiophile fodder and the broader repertoire. Judging by the shows I have been to there are always new and often pronounced trends and it is fun to follow them. Maybe you could give this to someone as a specific assignment for future shows?

struts's picture
Submitted by struts on January 14, 2011 - 3:03pm

Jazz Side of the Moon, Seamus Blake | Ari Hoenig | Mike Moreno | Sam Yahel (https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=HD0090368033529)

twinny2nd's picture
Submitted by twinny2nd on January 17, 2011 - 1:55pm

I'm glad that John hasn't lost his hearing, only his eyesight! As witnessed by the two huge posters behind the speakers, and the equipment in the rack, we were indeed showing a lot of new equipment. The brand new C2000 Dac/Preamp and the M2500 power amp were being used for the demo of the Compact Reference that so impressed him.
also, though not quite as obvious, the cabling this year was exclusively Siltech Royal Signature.
The Reference One's were being driven by the same Dac/preamp, but feeding via the M600 amplifiers that we introduced last year.
The music was indeed "Money". David Chesky had dropped it off to me a couple of days earlier, and it was always fun to watch listeners trying to find it using their phones!

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