My experience was more inline with ... http://www.stereophile.com/content/day-3-high-end-2015-hits-its-stride
Tidal Akira
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Here is te link to the comments made by Roy Gregory. His comments concur with my listening experiences at the Tidal factory. There I heard the La Assoluta as well as the Akira.
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/highend2015/highend2015_overview.htm
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/highend2015/highend2015_overview.htm
BTW, Roy Gregory was not the only professional reviewer that was seriously impressed with the Tidal Akira. Jeff Fritz wrote the following:
SOUNDSTAGE ULTRA
"The presentation of the Tidal Audio Akira loudspeaker was unique at High End 2015 in being fronted by an all-Tidal system: amps, DAC, preamp -- you name it, Tidal produces it. The advantage was that Tidal founder Jörn Janczak could get exactly the sound he wanted, because he controlled all the variables (well, he hadn’t built the room, but he had exhibited in it before, and knows its acoustics). The sound was Tidal’s best yet at a High End show: clear, open, ultraprecise, never harsh.
The Akira lifted a veil from the Tidal sound, which at High End has always been at least very good. For instance, I felt that cymbal crashes were true to life, without the whitish splash that many speakers produce. Another hallmark of the design was the perfect blend of the five drivers’ outputs, with no hint that disparate drive-units were handling different parts of the audioband. Imaging? Superb: a Norah Jones and Willie Nelson track produced accurately formed images on a wall-to-wall soundstage. That track also made clear that the Akiras were tonally neutral, reproducing these singers’ distinctive voices without wavering. And their room-energizing bass showed that the Akiras had real dynamic punch when that was needed. My takeaway: Tidal’s best speaker yet, and by no small margin." (Jeff Fritz)
SOUNDSTAGE ULTRA
"The presentation of the Tidal Audio Akira loudspeaker was unique at High End 2015 in being fronted by an all-Tidal system: amps, DAC, preamp -- you name it, Tidal produces it. The advantage was that Tidal founder Jörn Janczak could get exactly the sound he wanted, because he controlled all the variables (well, he hadn’t built the room, but he had exhibited in it before, and knows its acoustics). The sound was Tidal’s best yet at a High End show: clear, open, ultraprecise, never harsh.
The Akira lifted a veil from the Tidal sound, which at High End has always been at least very good. For instance, I felt that cymbal crashes were true to life, without the whitish splash that many speakers produce. Another hallmark of the design was the perfect blend of the five drivers’ outputs, with no hint that disparate drive-units were handling different parts of the audioband. Imaging? Superb: a Norah Jones and Willie Nelson track produced accurately formed images on a wall-to-wall soundstage. That track also made clear that the Akiras were tonally neutral, reproducing these singers’ distinctive voices without wavering. And their room-energizing bass showed that the Akiras had real dynamic punch when that was needed. My takeaway: Tidal’s best speaker yet, and by no small margin." (Jeff Fritz)
Lastly I refer to the comments made by Jonathan Valin.
THE ABSOLUTE SOUNDS
"The Tidal Akira multiway has a passive radiator array on back that is user adjustable to suit your room and a 5" diamond mid/woofer with 7mm excursion (a joint project of Tidal and Accuton). This single midrange driver crosses over from the active woofers at 150Hz and covers the entire range up to 6kHz, where it passes the baton to the diamond tweeter.
In other words, it is very nearly a single driver speaker. And it has the purity of same. Very fast, very delicate, very clear on tubular bells, percussion, and wood blocks with just the slightest bit of diamond tweet glare on the very top, but also with simply extraordinary timbre and resolution in the mids. An outstanding floorstander." (Jonathan Valin)
THE ABSOLUTE SOUNDS
"The Tidal Akira multiway has a passive radiator array on back that is user adjustable to suit your room and a 5" diamond mid/woofer with 7mm excursion (a joint project of Tidal and Accuton). This single midrange driver crosses over from the active woofers at 150Hz and covers the entire range up to 6kHz, where it passes the baton to the diamond tweeter.
In other words, it is very nearly a single driver speaker. And it has the purity of same. Very fast, very delicate, very clear on tubular bells, percussion, and wood blocks with just the slightest bit of diamond tweet glare on the very top, but also with simply extraordinary timbre and resolution in the mids. An outstanding floorstander." (Jonathan Valin)
Thanks, Audiocrack...Jeff's comments are interesting to me given that my main experience (as we've discussed) was at AE with their older Tidal Sunrays + dual Tower Subs, preamps/amps...and i found it extraordinarily revealing in a GREAT way...but i found on certain test tracks i have heard on dozens of systems...a bit 'white' as Jeff hints in his comments above.
It seems that i have observed as many designers have sought for detail, retrieval, and all the technical exactitude, the balance sometimes goes a bit white-ish (I recall CJ had this with their ACT 2 by some people's standards...) but once they get that part right and they continue to advance, the tonal quality comes 'back' to the middle...which CJ certainly did with the GAT (all the detail, clarity, low noise floor of today and all the midrange magic of old). Perhaps comments around Magico have some similarities (someone just mentioned they felt the new M series actually sounds more similar to the older Mini and M5...but with even quieter noise floor, greater detail, linearity, etc, etc.)
Perhaps Tidal have done same? What do you think, since you have been an owner of the Sunrays and and have heard the latest Tidals?
Hello Lloyd,
Jeff is referring to experiences with Tidal loudspeakers at various hifi shows. I have been priviliged to work with and listen to the Tidal Sunrays under controlled circumstances with audio components of my choice. I have never experienced the Sunrays in my home set up as 'whitisch' or 'sharp' sounding. On the contrary, they sounded clearly 'darker' and 'milder' than my Coltrane Supremes mk 1. The latter I could not get 'right' in my listening environment although various members of my listening panel disagreed with me and were very impressed with the performance of the supremes. However, I listened to them at the Marten show room in Gotheborg where they sounded to my ears better and less strident than in my listening room notwithstanding I clearly preferred my audio equipment to the components that were used in the Marten demo room.
That said a lot has changed since the Sunrays were introduced. The biggest differences between the LA/Akira and my Sunrays (mark i version, Tidal has now a G2 version of the Sunrays) are:
a. Better cabinets. For the LA a very hard and heavy material called ultra tiralit is being used. This material is so stiff that it seems to remove the 'colouring' of past cabinets. One of the reasons I love my Genesis speakers is because the midrange towers lack a cabinet.
b. Special shielding precautions inside the LA. I am not in a position to elaborate on this but I have seen it and these precautions surely add to the purity of the speakers.
c. Exotic drivers. In particular the diamond midrange woofers promise to be something very special indeed. Yes, they are ultra expensive but very likely also extraordinary. Need to listen to them in my own environment and with my Kondo amps for definitive conclusions, but the purity and explosiveness I heard at the factory - in far from ideal circumstances - was already very impressive. Impulse behavior was out of this world. The diamond tweeter is also completely new and very efficient. The LA are going to be a very efficient loudspeakers with no ugly impedance drops; power amps will have a much easier task than with the Sunrays.
d. A separate and dedicated grounding post has been added to the LA and the Akira. Have not experimented with grounding the LA or Akira yet, but I have very high hopes this will add to the purity of the sound. I do not know if Tidal grounded the Akira at the Munich high end show but I believe they did not.
e. High quality silver wire inside the LA. This wire is of higher quality than the wire they used in the
Sunrays.
I will receive the LA in a couple of weeks and can tell you much more after that.
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Preliminary impressions under unknown circumstances are always somewhat tricky. Promise to come back to you asap after some serious listening in my own listening room and with my own equipment. What is already very clear to me: much better info retrieval, clearly better and deeper bass and the LA sounds so much purer. Jorn, their designer, considers the LA by far the best speaker the has ever created.
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Wonderful...will you drive with your Kondo equipment or something else? Also, are you going to audition with the tower subs?
Audiocrack, just wondering if you happen to have any technical specs on Akira especially frequency response, sensitivity( which Tidal don't like to quote for some reason!) and min impedance? Also, are you using the Kondo Kagura and if so, would be very interested in your thoughts on its sound and also which preamp you are using with it? Many thanks.
Hello Lloyd,
Sorry for not coming back to you earlier but I was in Amsterdam yesterday afternoon and evening visiting a concert of Toto in the Ziggo dome with my daughter, son and a friend (although I listen almost only to classical music so now and then I like to go to a good rock concert with family and friends).
As regards your questions: the LA main towers can be biamped and the total LA system (two main towers and two woofer towers) can even be triamped. However, first of all I want to find out whether the LA main towers can be driven properly with low wattage tube amps. So I will start only with the two main LA towers and my Kondo equipment. If that goes well but at the same time I have the impression that adding the woofer towers will bring the system to another level (and if I can afford it financially), I will start thinking seriously about that option. Please realize that it is not only a matter of adding two woofer towers. Additional (solid state?) amps are needed as well as an external xover. This makes things much more complicated with the risk of messing things up.
If my Kondo amps are not poweful enough to drive the LA main towers, biamping the latter may also be an option. The LA will be tailor made for every customer and I already spoke with Jörn about this option. Adding two power amps (so using in total four for the main LA towers) creates the possibily to change the LA xovers. In that case two amps will be used to drive only the bass section of the LA main towers and thus making life for my Kondo amps much easier.
Hope this answers your questions.
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Hello Ashandger, at the moment I do not have any technical specs on the Akira. I am sorry. I have been much more focussed on the LA. Furthermore and as you rightly noticed, Tidal has indeed never been keen to disclose technical specs as eg sensitivity and the impedance curve. Tidal is of the opinion that a lot of manufacturers are providing inflated numbers.
I am going to combine the LA main towers with the following Kondo equipment:
a. Kondo M1000 mark i preamp. I prefer the M1000 mark i to the M1000 mk ii. The former is using is a fully tubed power supply, the latter is partly solid state.
b. Kondo Gakuoh single ended power amps equipped with Western electric 300b tubes.
c. Kondo KSL Sfz step up.
d. Kondo IO-M cartridge.
I used to own the 211 Kondo Gakuon amps as well but sold these amps a while ago because I preferred the 300b Gakuoh amps in my system. I have not have heard the Kagura amps yet. However, the - non Kondo San - techniques used for the Kagura amps differ from the - Kondo San inspired - techniques used for the Gakuohs and I am far from sure that I would prefer the former to the latter. But I do not know for sure as I never heard the Kaguras. My strong impression is - as mentioned earlier on this forum - that Kevin of Definitive Audio prefers the 300b Kaguohs on his Vox Olympian loudspeakers to the 211 Kaguras (the Gakuoh amps were used by him when he developed his Vox Olympian speakers) and I would not be surpised at all if I would concur with him once I have been able to listen to the latter. So I am not really in a hurry to give the Kagura amps a listen because I still love my Kondo Gakuoh amps very much. The real question for me right now is: will my 22 watts (or so) Gakuoh single ended amps be strong enough to let the (high sensitive) LA main towers really shine? The LA main towers will be set up in my listening room at the end of this month.
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Hi Audiocrack, really appreciate you taking the time to provide great feedback. I actually spoke with Kevin a while back about the Kagura and as you guessed right, overall he prefers the amps you have over the Kagura. BTW, Key Kim published a rave review of the Kagura on Stereotimes a few weeks back so overall I suspect its still a great amp but just not as good as the Gakuohs. Also, you may find the review of Vox Olympian by Roy Gregory on Audiobeat useful as he tried them with Kondos and Lars Type II and he was highly impressed by latter. If I ever decide to go for Akira I would also be looking for an exceptional valve/Hybrid amp to drive them hence my questions about sensitivity, impedance etc. Really looking forward to your feedback on the LA once you have them in your room. Happy listening!
You are most welcome Ashandger. Yes I have read the several reviews of the Kondo Kagura amps and they are all raves. Undoubtedly there will be listeners that actually prefer the Kagura amps to the Gakuoh amps. And because the former amps deliver more power than the latter , maybe I would prefer them in certain set ups as well. I know from Jorn that in one of the shows in the Far East his Agoria speakers were combined with the Kondo Kaguras and he was seriously impressed with the Kaguras (a picture of this show can be found on the Tidal website). However, he ultimately - and this will not come as a surprise - prefers the Tidal amps with his loudspeakers. He always 'teases' me with the words "colouring with the Kondo Amps". In my view solid state amps - if you want to use these words - have their own colouring, albeit in a different way. I clearly prefer the finesse and humane sound of the Kondo amps to the solid state amps I have heard so far and always reply to Jorn: you are still young and will see the light once you gain more experience in life. All kidding aside, I will report my experiences with the Tidal LA/Kondo combination.
Forgot to mention one thing in my reply Ashandger: most of the time Kevin uses the Gakuoh push pull amps with his Vox Olympian and not the Gakuoh single ended amps I will combine with the Tidal LA. I use the push pull Gakuohs in my Genesis set up.
For those who are interested in the Tidal La Assoluta and akira loudspeakers I enclose the following link:
http://theaudiotraveler.com/2015/06/01/high-end-2015-tidal-loudspeakers/
http://theaudiotraveler.com/2015/06/01/high-end-2015-tidal-loudspeakers/
Hi Jazzhead,
I got feedback from two persons that visited the Munich high end show this year that were not impressed with the Tidal (Akira) set up. One of them was you, the other person an audio insider who is of the opinion that the Tidal Sunray set up in Munich a couple of years ago was one of the best of the show (so someone who can really appreciate the Tidal sound). I do not want to question your judgement at all. The main reason for posting all the (very positive) comments of various professional reviewers in this thread is the following: apparently experienced audiophiles hear completely different or maybe value various aspects in musical reproduction so differently that their overall opinion varies so strongly. It really intrigues me that the opinions can differ so strongly.
If the combination of the LA and Kondo amplification and works out well in my listening room, I gladly invite you to come over Jazzhead and listen to this set up.
I got feedback from two persons that visited the Munich high end show this year that were not impressed with the Tidal (Akira) set up. One of them was you, the other person an audio insider who is of the opinion that the Tidal Sunray set up in Munich a couple of years ago was one of the best of the show (so someone who can really appreciate the Tidal sound). I do not want to question your judgement at all. The main reason for posting all the (very positive) comments of various professional reviewers in this thread is the following: apparently experienced audiophiles hear completely different or maybe value various aspects in musical reproduction so differently that their overall opinion varies so strongly. It really intrigues me that the opinions can differ so strongly.
If the combination of the LA and Kondo amplification and works out well in my listening room, I gladly invite you to come over Jazzhead and listen to this set up.
P
Hello Audiocrack ,
Point taken . Here's hoping that the LA and K Amps mesh well . Will be my pleasure to make the journey and come listen , many many thanks for your gracious invite . Cheers !
Hello Audiocrack ,
Point taken . Here's hoping that the LA and K Amps mesh well . Will be my pleasure to make the journey and come listen , many many thanks for your gracious invite . Cheers !
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