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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Much more effective and predictable to tweak your target curve to dial in your system versus swapping cables, interconnects, DACs and amps.
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    I don’t have the numbers, but if anything the room is a little on the over damped side. Mitch Barnett did look at the RT60 and waterfall plots. His assessment was that the room was on the dry side but within spec for what you’d have in a mastering studio. It sounds great with R1s. It was not...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    True, but they surely could make a modern version of it using modern parts. The real answer I suspect is there is very little demand. Every now and then used ones show up for around 5000. That’s how I got mine. Kent checked the unit to make sure it was working to spec. All no charge, Pass...
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    Does Analog EQ belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Tried this in my system before going full tilt DSP. It’s quite good. You will be surprised what a small tilt applied to a wide spectrum does to change how your system sounds. It’s extremely well made and transparent. https://www.dangerousmusic.com/product/bax-eq
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    Does Analog EQ belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Having owned a Cello Palette, channel to channel tracking was pathetic, but it did sound ok …
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    DSP is applied full bandwidth. This was contrary to Andrew Jones’s advice. That said, the TAD coax did benefit from a little smoothing and shaping. Having gone through this experience, selling a $20,000 system without educating the customer on DSP and offering a basic convolution filter to...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Roon, Meitner MA3 (source via Ethernet), Pass XVR1, 4 Benchmark AHB2 amps in mono, TAD R1s with the woofer LPFs bypassed. Pass XVR1 was set up by Andrew Jones, as a personal favor. This is a very complicated thing to do, I would not try to DIY this step. The passive HPF for the coax TAD driver...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    I would have thought TAD R1s, Berkeley Reference DAC and Constellation Centaur Mono were close enough to state of the art, at least back when I first owned them. My sample size is just one, but in my case judicious application of DSP made a huge difference. Switching cables, amps and DACs made...
  9. P

    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    The two Benchmark amps driving the dual 10” woofers are wired directly to the drivers in each TAD R1 with no passive LPF in the way. The amps are in bridged mono mode and don’t ever clip. The LPF for the woofers is implemented in the Pass XVR1. Andrew Jones set this up for me.
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

  11. P

    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    If you look closely at the magnified chart the light blue and red lines are pretty much at the Harmon target curve. Also there is no boost. Just attenuation in the DSP. Notice there is quite a lot of attenuation in the deep bass. This translates into additional headroom. And even above the...
  12. P

    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

  13. P

    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    There are two sets of graphs, the darker ones are before DSP, the lighter ones after. I don’t see any peaks in the after DSP graph, just the dips that are caused by the room and a gradual Harmon curve slope
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    There is an old saying in sales "if a guy wants a green suit, sell him a green suit". It's very difficult to "get the room right" and since our hobby is someone else's business/livelihood, the practical business solution is to sell us expensive boxes and cables that don't do much to improve the...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    This is the before and after response of the TADs in my room with the speaker close to the corners. Note these R1s are actively biamped using a Pass XVR1 set up by Andrew Jones. The LPF in the TADs for the woofers is bipassed. The internal crossover for the coax is still in place. The woofers...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

  17. P

    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Yes. You would need very large bass traps to fix the bass problems I have in my smallish room (12x18x8.5). It’s just not a practical solution. What ended up working extremely well was placing the TADs essentially in the corners along the 12 foot wall and eliminating the bass boost with DSP...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    Respectfully disagree. At least in my case, I was only able to really tune in my system with DSP. And it’s not just about the bass. Getting the midrange and treble just right is equally important. The TAD R1s are great speakers and are nearly ideal transducers, but still DSP made a huge...
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    Does DSP belong in State of the Art Systems?

    After fiddling with my system for 40+ years I must agree with Analog Scott and Kal. I tried everything, including having my room professionally treated with RPG abfusors, diffusors and bass panels. Also went through many speakers including Wilson, Cello, Dunlavy, TAD and Magico. And many...
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    DSP/DRC for Grimm MU-1 + Mola Mola Tambaqui

    Ditto again recommending Mitch Barnett. My TAD R1s now using his convolution filters running on Roon never sounded this good. Absolutely spectacular. And Mitch also did the same for my friend that owns CR1s with similar excepcional results. Nothing I’ve done has ever made such a difference...
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    Amplification options with TAD speakers

    I swapped Constellation Centaur mono for AHB2s in mono. Never looked back. More detail, less grain, same dynamic, 1/10th the cost
  22. P

    Amplification options with TAD speakers

    With CR1 and R1s for me hands down best amplifiers have been Benchmark AHB2s in mono. Had many other options at 10x the cost. None came close to the Benchmark that coincidentally was designed by Andrew Jones’s twin.
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    Spectral Repair

    It's a shame that a supposed premium brand, like Spectral, does not provide better support. I even remembered when HD formats were coming out that they wrote a white paper on the upgradability of the SDR 2000. Never happened ... Disappointing because it has some of the best internal DACs ever...
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    Tad reference 1

    The big loss at TAD was when Andrew Jones moved on. I can only imagine where TAD would be if he was still there. Even though the R1 is a dated design, and perhaps not even as good as the M1, it’s still very competitive vis a vis everything else.
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    Tad reference 1

    I'm almost certain that my R1 Mk2 came in a similar cardboard box several years ago. No issues at all, but I agree it was surprised with the packaging. M1s that these R1s replaced were in wood crates.
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    TAD R1TX speakers and M700 monos at Tokyo International Audio Show 2019

    Perhaps there is a great explanation for why TAD would use two internally dual mono pre-amps, but I'm really scratching my head thinking how/why this would improve the system. If anything, with two preamps one needs to worry about having both of them at the same volume level and making sure...
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    TAD R1TX speakers and M700 monos at Tokyo International Audio Show 2019

    This is ridiculous. A properly designed pre-amp, and we should expect no less from TAD, should have totally inaudible cross talk and a power supply that is robust enough to easily handle two channels, if not a dual mono power supply. None of this is beyond what's been possible technologically...
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    Need advice on cables for full TAD setup

    I agree that the DSP done on a miniDSP, DEQX, Accuphase, DIRAC ... or even a convolution filter designed by REW running on a PC does perhaps more harm than good, especially in a small to medium size room where the Schroeder Frequency is rather high. I also went the route of trying mastering...
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    Tad reference 1

    I had my room treated professionally by RPG with absorbers on the ceiling and one side wall (the other side has a window), bass traps and absorption on the front wall (and a TV ...) and diffusion and abfussion on the back wall. Overall the Rt is on the low side, similar to what a mastering...
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    Pass Lab owners - Check in!

    XVR1 is a real gem. Too bad that it’s discontinued. Interesting to see Magico and Wilson both introducing new crossovers.

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