It's not very often that we get to hear a new speaker from Japanese high-end audio manufacturer Technical Audio Devices Laboratories, which originated when in 1975, Pioneer decided to develop high-end speakers targeted at the professional market. The project was named the TAD Project. Pioneer invited Bart Locanthi, the former Vice President of Engineering at JBL and a renowned professional audio engineer in the United States, to lead the TAD Project.
The first speaker unit that came out of the TAD Project was the TD-4001 compression driver, which was unveiled at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention held in the US in 1978, and quickly created a sensation in the recording studio world. In 2002, TAD introduced the TAD-M1, its first consumer speaker design, introducing also the famous CST (Coherent Source Transducer) coaxial driver.
The company's roots and fame in the professional audio and studio world are a great match for Pro Audio Design, the Boston-based company, which was already one of the largest dealers and manufacturers of speaker products using TAD Professional components in its own-brand Augspurger studio monitors. With the company's appointment, TAD audio products, speaker components and replacement parts are now available from stock in the US and Canada, and benefiting from the company's support and expert team.
A main challenge with the distribution is that Pro Audio Design now also carries the TAD Hi-Fi range, which will also be sold through its newly established authorized hi-fi dealer network. For Dave Malekpour, the founder and president of Pro Audio Design, this is a unique opportunity to extend its range of services and acoustics expertise to a new market, helping to design and create better-sounding listening spaces for TAD's speaker systems.
Announced in November 2021, the Evolution Series E-2 or “TAD Evolution Two” is the latest addition to TAD’s Evolution Series of hi-fi audio components and Pro Audio Design will now offer the first listening session opportunity in the US.
Featuring newly developed twin 6" (15.5cm) woofers and a 1" (2.5cm) beryllium tweeter and drawing on a wealth of speaker-engineering ingenuity accumulated over the years, the TAD-E2 embodies the long tradition of delivering single-point-source sound for which all TAD speakers are known and takes the sound field and imaging performance to a new level. The speaker enclosure has an attractive, classic woodgrain finish that blends into any room decor.
The TAD-E2 features the same beryllium diaphragm tweeter as in the TAD-E1TX and TAD-ME1 speaker systems in the Evolution Series. The shape of the diaphragm is determined by computer analysis to provide a frequency response up to 60kHz. The directionality of the tweeter is controlled by a newly developed cast aluminum waveguide on which it is mounted to produce a smooth dispersion of sound over an extended frequency range.
The new woofers are a completely new design using a multi-layered Aramid composite front cone, with a softwood pulp cone on the back, both formed separately before they are laminated together. A configuration that TAD says produces a rich and clear bass as well as a coloration-free mid-to-low range sound with excellent linearity. In addition, the woofer cone has a shallowly curved structure to provide smooth directionality and has a reinforcement brace added to its neck that forms a delta bracing structure to reproduce a powerful bass.
The TAD-E2 speakers also feature a new 2.5-way network filter that reduces phase interference around the crossover frequency between the twin woofers and the tweeter, combined with a bidirectional aero-dynamic port system on the bottom of the enclosure with its openings to the front and rear of the enclosure. The port has a horn-shaped interior that reduces port noise, while the symmetrical front-back layout effectively offsets enclosure vibrations. Finally, the cabinets use a combination of MDF panels and rigid birch plywood braces, with a slanted front baffle and rounded edges, featuring also a heavy 10mm-thick base plate made of solid steel, attached to the bottom. The enclosures are finished with an open-pore satin finish that retains the natural woodgrain.
Visitors to the Pro Audio design suite at the Florida Audio Expo will also have the opportunity to hear the TAD Compact Reference One system and the room itself will be powered by the TAD Evolution series amp and SACD/DAC D1000TX and M1000S amps. The TAD Evolution-1 and Micro Evolution-1 will be demoed in Room 715 with hi-fi dealer, House of Stereo.
"I am excited to bring the new TAD E-2 monitor to the Florida Audio Expo 2022. This is the first US show for the new speaker bringing TAD's legendary sound to a floor standing speaker with exceptional performance and price. The TAD sound and engineering on this product brings music to life!", says Dave Malekpour. "Using Jocavi Acoustics to control the room’s performance and Synergistic Research cables and room and power tuning, we expect to provide a studio quality listening experience to the show’s attendees."
Florida Audio Expo 2022, now in its third year, will welcome visitors at the Embassy Suites by Hilton, Tampa, FL. from February 18–20 (Friday to Sunday). The new TAD Evolution Series E-2 floor-standing speakers (USD $20,000.00) can be found in Pro Audio Design's dedicated demonstration suite, in room 415.
www.technicalaudiodevices.com/evolution-two/
www.proaudiodesign.com
