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Tidal speakers... particulary Tidal Sunray

Hello all,

I've been reading about Tidal speakers and was curious if anyone ever heard the Tidal Sunray or perhaps any other of their speakers.

The Sunray has 2x7" ceramic mid ranges, a 1.2" diamond tweeter and 4x9" woofers per speaker.

Based on the reading/research I've done it appears that Tidal manages to use the advantages of ceramic/diamond drivers, being detailed, transparent and fast, but managed to control their drawbacks namely potentially dry, clinical and thin sounding.

I currently use the Marten Coltrane but the Tidal appears very interesting as upgrade.

Appeciate if anyone is able to give their views on this speaker based on a listening session and if you agree with the above sound.

Also your view of this speaker in comparison with eg. the Avalon Isis, Rockport Altair, Peak Consult Dragon and Magico M5 is appreciated.

Many many thanks
maxx1973

Showing 3 responses by fizzletop

fizzletop
6 posts
 
I was at the show on Friday and Saturday and visited the Tidal room on both days. On the Friday the sound was ok, on Saturday it was poor. One of the key products I travelled to Munich to listen were the Tidal speakers...I really wanted to like them but ultimatley didn't. They were flat sounding with little weight to the sound. The room was immaculately presented, the people were professional, the guy spinning vinyl was fantastic. I happened to fly out and sat next to someone who knows Tidal speakers and they told me they were capable of much more....maybe it was the electronics? FWIW, my two favourite speakers at the show were the Purist electrostatics (Euro 58k...ouch) and the Raidho C3s in the Nordost room.....two brands I had never heard of before the show. Biggest disappointment, Vandersteen 7s....Richard was in the room so I figure they were setup ok but they sounded midfi to me.
fizzletop
6 posts
 
Husk01, yes I visited the actual Magico room twice with the Q5 (Magico speakers were in several other rooms as well). I actually thought that the Q5's were very good and my take is that Alon has taken his experience and customer/dealer feedback to date and come up with a speaker that is more practical to drive and better sounding than past efforts. Personally, this is more a speaker I respect than love though.
fizzletop
6 posts
 
The Magico Q5's were one of the better sounding speakers at the show (Purist, TAD and Raidho were at the same/higher level). The Magicos were very dynamic and coherent. The Tidal Sunrays were quite different and not as good (remember that for some reason they were quite different on the two days I heard them). The Tidals had good micro details and transparency. Something was odd with dynamics and harmonics though and I suspect the Tidal amps had something to do with this. Vinyl was very good and the Da Vinci turntable and Tidal preamp shone. All in all, the Tidal room was not up to expectations/hopes but I can't help but think the speaker is capable of more than what I heard. FYI, I preferred the Kharma room.
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