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Just wanted to report that i received the new subs and they are working quite well...a heck of a deal for $350 incl shipping.Stereo subs are freakin amazing. the improvement to the size & depth of the soundstage is really cool. quite a difference from having only 1 sub the last few months. highly recomended regardless of sub.
the finish quality is a bit more than i expected in some areas, spot on in other areas. When i 1st pulled them from the shipping boxes, the port in each speaker bottom popped right out. They had a dab of hot glue on them, but this didn't survive shipping. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as there were plastic bits still stuck to the ports, interfering with unobstructed air flow. 5 minutes with a corner of sandpaper took care to smooth the ports and a few dabs of Silicon RTV gasket material sealed down the port...not a big deal really.
The cabinet finish is fine, the vinyl covering matches my Thiels. the subs come with 2 sets of feet, i'm using the 3" rubber ones which are quite nice. Also supplied are standard brass footers. the subs sit right on the carpet. sitting on the floor looking at the curvilinear cabinet top reminds me of behind behind the wheel of a cigarrette boat.
I'm listening via speaker level connections, with anti-cables. the amp on each sub is really beefy, and resides in its own MDF enclosure...not open on the inside to the speaker cabinet like prevoius subs. incredibly loud (but controlled) volume is easy to achieve with 25%-30% volume. Right now each sub is directly behind each speaker and firing toward the side walls.
The only subs I can compare this too are the Hsu STF-1 and VTF-2 which i owned briefly. In terms of $ spent and the desire to have stereo subs, i'm thoroughly impressed with the TAD Aural Ersatz 12" subs. i could've bought a 2nd STF-1, but wouldn't have been as happy. Not enough budget $ to own 2 VTF-2's.
i'll do a more formal review in a month once these brutes are broken-in, but will say they are musical. I was worried 2 12" subs would be too much, they aren't. so far, there's little cone excursion...maybe 1-2mm. the deep bass is tight but integrates perfectly.
these subs each have 3 curvilinear sides. looking inside the cabinet this was achieved via 1cm wide slats of mdf arranged and glued together...looks like the vinyl siding is a part of the cabinet structure, not just a finish. Both the Hsu and these subs have slight cabinet resonances. by placing a small pointed mapleshade heavyhat weight on top of each it changes the tone, makes it deeper sounding & i like that. the pointed weights are tweaks though and not needed. Problem with the TAD subs is the top is rounded & the weight slides. Might add a dab of RTV to each point on the weights to stop this. the nuckle rap on the TAD cabinet gives a somewhat loud hollow thud...definitely not dead, one of the livelier sounding cabinets i've owned.
there's a host of pro's & con's that I can list, but i'm gonna wait a while to really put these through the ringer.
One incredible outcome thus far is that it doesn't seem like the Room Tunes Deluxe kit i have is outmuscled by all the deep bass notes. i figured extra bass trapping might be needed, but its not - whatsoever.
most impressed by this.i'm pretty sure these will be priced at $179 a piece for a while, but it was good saving $130 on shipping while TAD was having the March sale.
Paul Gryzbek, the TAD guy, has been awesome this last week. i've sent him 4 e-mails to him re: set-up, and all were returned within the same hour. I get the feeling that if i have a problem with these in the future he'll be more than willing to help out.
Follow Ups:
I too purchased a stereo pair of the TAD Aural Ersatz subwoofers. I am currently awaiting a new replacement pair from Paul Gryzbek, as the first pair exibited a very slight low level raspy buzz (one more than the other) Paul has been first rate in dealing with this problem and I anticipate no problems with the second pair. My overall first impressions of these subwoofers in my system (minus the very minor buzzing along with not being even close to broken in) is absolute amazement, that something this cheap could sound as good as they do! My system is comprised of a pair of Eminent Technology LFT 8's (Magnetic Planar Ribbons) powered by a pair of vertically bi-amped Eagle 2c prime stereo amps. Pre-amp is a Spectron model 10 fed by a modified Toshiba 9200 DVD player. Interconnects and power cords are Cardas Golden Cross. Speaker cables are a DIY construction of 6,8 and 10 guage (per leg) type THHN (Home Depot electric cable) Once I got them reasonably tuned in (low pass set to around 60-70hz), I was rewarded with an expansion of sound stage and low end solidity that took my system to another level of realism. Taking advantage of the front firing design, I positioned each sub between the main speakers on the floor next to each main speaker carefully placing them for time alignment with the other drivers. (this put them slightly forward of the main grill) I must say that I have never heard a downward, bottom, side or rear firing sub that I liked, they all sound disconnected from the main source to my ears), so when I saw that Paul's design was front firing, I knew it was worth a shot. It is way to early to give my final assesment, but I can easily say that without a doubt, this was one of the bigest bangs for my buck I have ever had in Hi-Fi. They are far from perfect and the build quality in some areas reflects the low low price, but overall the quality is suprisingly very good. I will have more to say on the actual sound once my new pair is installed and broken in. Initially, I do hope more detail will be revealed once they're broken in. But stone cold, they play powerful, tight and tuneful low distinct notes and they do not boom or overload my room.
Matt, are you a frugal audiophile on a budget? lol!~ Nice to hear that your happy with your purchase, Keep me posted on the sub sound progress. However, you get what you paid for keep that in mind.Stop by this week to listen to my setup. Enjoy and happy listening!
"However, you get what you paid for keep that in mind."Couldn't agree more, why it's hard to find a decent power cord for $350 let alone a pair of subwoofers for $350....er..uh...what was I thinking....probably too late to cancell my order. Guess I can use them for the computer.
Yeah, i got a killer deal on these subs...quite happy budget wise or not. If i'd spent $1000 and bought the same performance i'd be pissed...this next weekend should be cool for a demo... Hopefully i'll have the Imod by then & can bring it by.
Hey, glad you got back to us about the TAD subs. I've been looking forward to your opinions. For the little amount of cash spent, the little shipping issue seems irrelevent. The simple fact that you didn't repack these subs and sent them back to TAD says a lot. Looking forward to what you have to say after some break in time.
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