TAD Technical Audio Devices and Innuos Launch Event at AV Designs

Posted by Tan 

AV Designs recently held a launch event for new products from TAD and Innuos.

For TAD, the primary focus was on its flagship loudspeaker, the TAD-R1TX, which was the first pair AV Designs brought into Malaysia. The TAD flagship loudspeakers are now in their third iteration, from the first-generation TAD-R1 to TAD-R1mk2 and now the TAD-R1TX. The TAD-R1TX largely retained the key design features of the series, being a 3-way design using a concentric mid-tweeter driver made of Beryllium and dual 10-in woofers, but also went through internal design improvements and subtle changes to its look.

The woodwork of the TAD-R1TX enclosure, which feels luxurious and looks excellent even on very close inspection, is now a collaboration with Tendo Mokko, a renown Japanese furniture maker, who on its website says that “when we at Tendo consider excellence in furniture, we imagine family assets original owners can hand down to the next generation. Tendo delivers furniture that parents will want to pass on to their children, who will in turn leave it to their own children”. So now TAD loudspeakers can also be considered heirloom.

In the case of Innuos, a digital music server and streamer brand from Portugal that AV Designs took on as distributor, we saw the introduction of its top-of-the-line Statement music server. AV Designs also put some of its entry level models on display. The Statement is a beautifully made 2-piece machine, consisting of the streaming electronics in one chassis and the power supply in another. The Statement is idiosyncratic as it is an all-USB affair, it does not provide RCA or XLR input or output.

The supporting cast of the demo system was no less impressive. It consisted of the TAD-D1000TX DAC, TAD-D700 CDP, TAD-C600 pre amp and TAD-M700S power amp, wired throughout with Wywires Diamond series cables. The TAD-M700s power amplifier was perched on a massive hifi stand from made by Bassocontinuo of Italy, called Gargantua. I believe we’ll hear more about the Bassocontinuo line when the full range arrived in the near future.

Joki leading the attendees through the varied music selection in the demo session

This listening session confirmed with no doubt for me that moving up TAD’s product hierarchy consistently brought added sonic improvements. You can name any hifi performance parameter, such as details and resolution, frequency extension, dynamic range, soundstage size, loudness capability etc. the higher in the range you go, the more you’ll get. The performance envelope simply expands in all directions.

At the end of the listening session that saw music of multiple genres played, I was left with one simple word in my head. That word was ‘COMPLETE’. The music I heard from this system did not require my brain to have to work to fill in any blanks, nor the sound I heard needed me to, consciously or subconsciously, interpret as to what it is. I enjoyed the musical presentation tremendously at the same time. This was a realization that I hardly ever had in any listening session with any other systems in the past. Absolutely impressive!

Innuos Pulse and Zen Series on display

TAD Evolution Series on display

Sharing a couple of video clips from the demo session (videos taken on an iPhone SE):

Nicki Parrott's "Fever" 

Jeff Beck's "Space for The Papa"

Call AV Designs James Tan at +603 62411237 to arrange a listening session.

Delightful digital !

 USB - Is it a bane or a wonder for digital world in audiophile ? USB or Universal Serial Bus is a universal connector can be found almost any where in digital world from computer to mobile devices and almost anything digital like TV or an amplifier. We cannot deny that USB has become an important part of life while we are using the digital device. What about the context of USB in the audio world ? Well USB is mainly being use for many different hardwares like AV receiver, an integrated amp or most of the digital playback. Although USB is a very useful connection but is also well known for being noisy or not so perfect signal. I am sure many will think about error correction and such but in reality is not what we all think. If you are not someone who agrees with this than probably is time to stop reading. 

Now for those who want to look for the improvement of USB in your audio, this is one piece of hardware that is going to do the job. Today we are going to be talking about Innous USB Phoenix, a USB re-clocker. Pretty fiery name to called the device "Phoenix". A little bit of background of Innous. Its a UK based company founded back in year 2009. Not too old or too young, is almost the time that digital audio getting heat up. The company aim is to have digital audio quality with simplicity. The picture here with the introduction of the re-clocker.

From the outside (Top and Bottom), the hardware is 2 pieces of metal. The top cover and the bottom base. Simple yet solid box for the unit. 3 pieces of legs at the bottom with rubber ring and a little suspension from the leg to the bottom plate. The unit  about shoe box size but the weight is about 9kg for a small box. Majority of the weight is due to the transformer inside it.

Once the cover is lifted, the belly of the beast is revealed. The component arrangement nicely done with possible of shortest route for the wiring. Cables are properly arranged and also as much as possible with similar length. 

The toroidal power transformer made by Innous in house. Pretty big piece for a USB re-clocker. As for any audio product, the power supply is always important. No doubt that Innous do want to give the best for this Phoenix. 

Innous spare no expense to give what is best possible. When comes to capacitor (Mundorf) is like the gold standard. Of course is a pretty penny on this. Each of this Mundorf capacitor has10,000 μf.

This is a lot of capacitance for re-clocker. 

Than it comes to the heart of it all. The clock and the USB chip regeneration. The Phoenix USB Reclocker takes the USB signal from any source and completely regenerates it to an extremely high-precision signal to feed into your DAC, allowing it to perform at its best.

 

Next will be how it is connected link up to your chain of equipment. The simplicity of the re-clocker is allowing any kind of USB playback to be use with it. It can be a simple laptop computer, or digital steamer. The simple rule is as long as it has USB output from it. Simply plug it in and switch it on. Looking at the back of the hardware is as simple as it can get with one input and one output for the USB. On the right side is the on/off switch and the power cord. The input is from the source. It can be a computer or any digital playback device. The output will be from the re-clocker to the DAC. Once connection is all plug in, what you have to do is just to turn on and play as usual. Simple 😏

For myself, I have always been the fan of single board computer. I have hook this up to the USB of the Asus Tinker board. From it output to the re-clocker and than to the DAC. 

I am going to up a simple summary on this box. Not going to go into the detail of what I heard or what I think about the audio but I will say that its something I will miss. What I mean by that, I have been using it for 2 weeks now. Taking it out of the chain I can definitely notices the difference. Is this an upgrade, my answer is yes. It might not be for everyone unless you are very much into USB connectivity for your audio. This box will cause you quite a few penny, being SGD 4000. Not easy to justify for it, is also subject to what kind of level in audio nirvana you want to reach. Simply to put it when you are starting of zero, any small thing will be quite a jump but when you are at 80% level, to squeeze another 5% is not going to be the challenge not just the setup but also to the cost of it.