Tube Audio Design TAD-803 Single Driver Speaker

I picked up a factory blemished pair of TAD-803's on a lark for my bedroom and man was I surprised! Even up against my reference Harbeth Compact 7ES-2's and Soundlab Dynastat hybrid electrostats, these amazing, lightweight little speakers proved to be pure, lively, coherent, smooth, detailed, and on 18" stands away from walls very three dimensional. They actually ended up replacing the Harbeths in my living room, but only after two significant changes:

1) To my ears the TAD-803's need serious EQ, +4 to +6 db (depending on recording) wide Q lower/mid bass lift at 90 Hz, -4 db narrow Q notch-out at 2.5kHz and -3 db shelf down above that in the treble to sound anything like my references and keep me from crawling the walls with upper-mid/lower-treble peakiness and missing bass harmonics. I guess I'm the perfect example of the audio customer who needs the "BBC dip" to be happy, or at least stay sane.

2) They absolutely need a subwoofer for deep bass extension, but will integrate with one incredibly well. They roll off at just the right place to keep boom out of the room even with all that EQ.

So what's the point of having them if I have to do non-purist EQ and use a sub? Once octave-balanced and bass-integrated, the TAD-803's sound great on anything I throw at them, not just jazz or classical, with trueness on vocals, and actually show up the Harbeth 7's in the area of pure treble extension because of the supertweeter. They've really changed my mind on where to spend what percentage of money on a system. Before I thought, spend it all on speakers. Now I think, with these guys, a decent sub and an integrated or preamp with some EQ, the lion's share of money can go to a great amp and source equpiment and you'll have a real giant killer system. I would love to hear Sam Tellig's opinion of them in Stereophile!

So if you're still with me, here's my very satisfying, relatvely low cost, vintage, semi-vintage and TAD-803 living room system that seduces me away from my main Dynastat/Musical Fidelity system every single day:

-TAD-803 speakers on cheapo 18" Monitor Audio metal stands
-Cambridge Soundworks' Original 12" Subwoofer (don't laugh!)
-Sony CDP-CX400 CD Changer feeding its digital out to:
-Sony TAE-2000ES-D Preamp with 3 band digital EQ and sub out
-McIntosh MR-67 Tuner with cap and resistor mods
-McIntosh 2105 Amplifier so far unmodified

I really like this preamp's D/A converter, and I've had a wonderful Benchmark DAC1 for comparision. In case you're wondering, the Harbeths went into my home theater where they sound awesome enough to leave the Center off, and the bedroom is still waiting for its system. Another pair of TAD-803's perhaps?

I'd like to semi-clarify that my review was PROBABLY of the older NON-SD version with the crossover. I say probably because I bought them for a very low price (albeit blemished), they say "TAD-803" NOT "TAD-803SD" on the back (do the new ones actually say SD?), and people are complaining about the SD version not having enough treble which is defintiely not my problem. I tried to title my review "TAD-803 Needs EQ and a Sub" to be safe but it defaulted to "TAD-803 Single Driver" to stay on thread. Hope that didn't cause confusion or cast bad light on the newer SD version.

I must say Paul's site could have been a bit more clear on the exact differences between the old vs. new versions when both were available. The cabinets look identical, both versions really have two drivers, both have a yellow basketweave bass/mid cone. Which all of course begs the question, do the new ones have the same drivers as mine and the only difference is the crossover design? If so, let me at their innards with some retrofit parts! Give my TAD-803's a BBC dip and much less supertweeter!!!