New "Minions" on AA....

[crwilli]

Mark, Having fun watching your progress from one great system to another! Congratulations! Craig

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by Frank E

Those are some serious looking Jumpers.!!!! Looking forward to more pics and most definitely your listening impressions.

Thank you...they are basically a mini speaker cable portion in and of themselves. The SG cables I have are more complex and many more ribbons.
I have had these for the last few years and they are never leaving the system (really!). Getting larger gauge banana ends next week on one end only as the TAD posts are HUGE. The Bocchino spades for the other end are the best in the world I have ever heard....they are good to go.

More pictures later today...

[Masterlu]

Listening impressions?

[SCAudiophile]

I like that neither of us is impatient 😂😂😂!!!

I will put detailed comments out after they are broken in but for today I will say that with about 3 hours of listening that it is apparent that top to bottom this is an amazing speaker, extremely musical, prodigious output, excellent imaging from the first notes I heard and overall amazing how great they are from the time I hit play...exceeded my expectations by a mile. They obviously need breakin from what I hear in the bass and sub bass regions, mids and highs but it is clear that will come in time.

Truly an incredible speaker. I was also getting ample information down to 19 to 23 Hz easily and without difficulty (pipe organ tracks) I believe these perform well beyond the conservative specs right from day 1.

[salamander]

Congratulations on your new speakers! They are pretty incredible looking and I hope you enjoy them in good health. I was perusing the owner's manual online and was somewhat amused by the following statement on page 8.

"As a precautionary measure, be sure to not place the unit anywhere where it might fall on a sleeping individual in the event of an earthquake"

Can't say I've ever seen this statement in a speaker manual before.

[SCAudiophile]

Thank you very much! That statement is wild but is not surprising at all given the reality of earthquakes in Japan and the more compact typical apartment and home size in Japan compared to what we chase here in the US. A separate audio room at the opposite end of a home away from sleeping/living areas is a true luxury there....

[salamander]

Guess that statement really underscores the size and weight of those bad boys!

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by crwilli

Mark, Having fun watching your progress from one great system to another! Congratulations! Craig

Thank you! These speakers are some serious business to say the least; I have NEVER heard a speaker regardless of cost on day 1 that does what these are doing in under 12 hours.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by salamander

Guess that statement really underscores the size and weight of those bad boys!

They are massive....try tipping them up 5-6" to put on/take off footers with one arm and not having them drop on floor, other gear, self late at night. I know I did and that is a task for which one has to be very careful. Big difference from a 200 lb speaker that is taller and balanced on 4 feet but much more easily controlled....

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

I like that neither of us is impatient 😂😂😂!!!

I will put detailed comments out after they are broken in but for today I will say that with about 3 hours of listening that it is apparent that top to bottom this is an amazing speaker, extremely musical, prodigious output, excellent imaging from the first notes I heard and overall amazing how great they are from the time I hit play...exceeded my expectations by a mile. They obviously need breakin from what I hear in the bass and sub bass regions, mids and highs but it is clear that will come in time.

Truly an incredible speaker. I was also getting ample information down to 19 to 23 Hz easily and without difficulty (pipe organ tracks) I believe these perform well beyond the conservative specs right from day 1.

A bit more...throughout the day they've been playing and the 'whole-house' listening aspect where a speaker not only sounds great in the sweet spot but all around the house, down the hall in office, down the stairs around corners in the main living area, etc....is a very strong experience with these speakers.

I've also thrown my top 30 "SHOW ME" tracks at these throughout the day, even pipe organ and complex drumming along with more delicate (jazz, violin, piano, native percussion & wind instruments, etc...) tracks plus those that with a well seasoned set of speakers and system will portray instrument 7-8+ to the left or right of a speaker, pans across, back and forth, etc...with full range material (didgeridoo in Oystein Sevag's "Global House" album, track 2", a go-to crucible track for the last 15 years...), those with tremendous 3D sound stages, high and deep in all 3 dimensions and these speakers are frankly 'chowing down' on anything I throw at them with a finesse, accuracy, imaging and natural musical playback that I am finding hard to adequately describe. As resolving my system is and my prior speakers were (quite amazing actually), I'm hearing nuances that were never fully revealing before or in ways that were not made apparent. I am 'hearing into the performance' to new levels.

All this with only 10 hours into the play/burn-in cycle. Benefit of existing great high-end power, system components, cables, etc...definitely yes, but it is absolutely clear these speakers are a force to be reckoned with. Out of everything I've listened to at or above this price point, these do it all and from the outset, seem to be doing it better and more musically. Simply amazing to me at this young point in the TAD R1s life.

Let me put it this way; I'm supposed to fly out tomorrow morning at 6 up north for the next 5 days (during which you know these will continue their burn-in). The way these speakers sound, I'm getting a flare-up of the 'audiophile HERMIT' condition and want to change flights and have them all fly down here instead!!! Evil, mischievous/selfish yes(!), will it happen, NO(!), but if you heard what I'm hearing you'd be tempted too!

Have a good evening all and a very Merry Christmas. These are simply outstanding in every way thus far!