High End 2014: The Darth Vader room, only way better sounding (thanks, TIDAL Audio!)

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By Dr. Panagiotis Karavitis

Let’s see what we have on the “excellent sound check list”.

At least a three-way design able to cover top to bottom extension: check.

High quality drivers with low weight cones, able of fast transient responses: check.

Big/Enough drivers capable of going down to 20Hz: check.

Darth Vader looks, only way more polished and chic looking (or even sick looking): check.

Dark VaderYes, it’s the TIDAL Audio room that I am talking about. These speakers were the most elegant ones of the entire show, and by a long margin. If I had the time I would have spent an entire day just staring at them. In house electronics were even more on the Darth Vader style with piano black faceplate and silver knobs. Pity for those Argento Audio cables, they ruined the all black-silver theme with their gorgeous white silk finish.

But this is a HiFi show report and not an art gallery report.

Tidal brought the new Contriva G2, a three-way four driver speaker and paired it with the also new Contriva X-Tender, a six driver floor stander sub-woofer of the same proportions and finish. All drivers are built in collaboration with Accuton on Tidal specifications and remain unique as Accuton provides these units to Tidal only.

In house electronics included the new Presencio DAC preamplifier and two Impulse power amplifiers equipped with LPX active crossover modules for perfect phase and frequency response of the X-Tenders.

Did all this translate into music? Definitely yes. I heard the deepest, more sensual “Besame Mucho” (and I let you guess which well-known female singer was it) of the show.

Interesting enough, even with all those bass drivers the system was not bloated; it actually presented a balanced and coherent reproduction.

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About Panagiotis Karavitis 212 Articles
Doctor and Editor @ Part-Time Audiophile Publisher @ Audiohub.gr

2 Comments

  1. Yes! Tidal impressed me in 2012 and hasn’t stopped since! They know what music should sound like, and they got the looks department down pat as well!!!

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