Insights from Mr. Hiromitsu Numazaki, General Manager, Technical Development Department, TAD

Posted by Tan

Mr Numazaki, in his position as General Manager of Technical Development, serves the role as TAD’s Chief Designer for Electronics. I had the pleasure of meeting him at KLIAVS 2024, where we discussed various aspects of TAD. Here are some interesting highlights from our conversation (this is not a verbatim transcript, but rather a write-up to convey the essence of our discussion).

left: Mr. Hiromitsu Numazaki, General Manager, Technical Development Department, TAD;  right: Mr. Takehito Sekiguchi, Sales and Marketing Department, TAD

Tan: Currently, TAD’s product line seems to be complete for both the Reference and Evolution series. What are your plans moving forward? Do you intend to expand your product lines, perhaps with something more high end? Or something below the Evolution Series?

Mr. Numazaki: Indeed, our current line-up is complete. We shall continue to incorporate improvements and updates into our designs over time. As for a higher end product line, there is nothing concrete yet. Indeed, many of our distributors/dealers and customers have asked us to come up with higher end models.  We are thinking about it - what are the things that we can do to substantially better the designs we have right now, this requires a lot of thinking and design effort.

As for a product line below the Evolution Series, we do not plan to introduce one.

Tan: Can you tell us about the design philosophy between the Reference Series and the Evolution Series? Do they share similar designs?

Mr. Numazaki: We apply the same design philosophy to both. The Reference Series represents the ultimate expression of our designs while the Evolution Series is a scaled- down version. For example, the transport mechanisms used in the TAD-D700 and TAD-D1000 disc player are of similar design, and both are made by us, the one in the TAD-D1000 is just less elaborate. For the Reference Series we push the boundaries further, in the disc player and preamp, we beefed up the power supply and placed it in a separate chassis, resulting in significantly better noise performance, giving a much quieter background.

Tan: TAD’s product update cycle is quite long. Unlike some hifi brands that update a model every 2-3 years, TAD’s product updates are few and far between. The TAD-D600 disc player, for instance, took more than 10 years to be updated to the TAD-D700.

Mr. Numazaki: We must be certain that there are substantive performance improvements before releasing a new product to market. Our products are already of very high quality to start with, which is why our update cycle is long. The TAD-D600, which I designed, actually took 12, 13 years to be updated to the TAD-D700. It took me 5 years to improve the player’s internal master clock, and another 3 years to enhance its power supply, among other design improvements.

By the way, since we do our own design and manufacturing, we provide technical support for all our products, all the way back to the first generation.

Tan: You also don’t significantly change the look or aesthetic of your products from one generation to another.  

Mr. Numazaki: Yes, the chassis is an integral part of our design. Changes to the physical design affects performance, which means we’d have to review and revise the circuit design, reroute the cables and connections, etc. These will add cost to the product, ultimately impacting our customers.

Tan: I have been asked this quite a few times by friends - what is the difference in sound performance between the M700 monoblocks and the M700s stereo power amp, aside from the M700 being more powerful?

Mr. Numazaki: If we think of the high, mid, low frequency regions as a triangle, then the M700 would be like a equilateral triangle, while the M700s would be an isosceles triangle, with a narrower base (representing the bass region). This also gives a listening impression that the M700s has a bit more treble energy in its tonal balance.

The M700s is also slightly quieter. As a 2-channel amp, the M700s has more electronic components, we pack the parts closer together with shorter signal path, which actually gives a slight improvement in noise performance.

Personally, I tends toward bi-amping with a pair of M700s, with the top and bottom of the loudspeaker separately driven, and also for the slightly better noise performance mentioned earlier.

Tan: Thank you for your time and sharing. I look forward to have more interaction with TAD in the future. 

By the end of our discussion, I could not help but be convinced that TAD is a company that steadfastly upholds a very high standard of excellence. While it is a high-end brand with a corresponding price tag, the substantial effort, thoughtful design, and superior quality behind all its products are evident.

My Best of KLIAV 2024

Posted by Tan

In this post, I’d like to share my list of top 5 systems that led in sound quality in the recently concluded Kuala Lumpur International Audio Visual Show 2024.

I found that the sound quality of the systems on show was very high overall. The rooms seemed to be friendly to most systems, I didn’t come across any system suffering the biggest audio bane, the annoying bass boom  for example. 

I prefer systems that sound alive and lifelike, not a fan of a lazy or overly laid-back sound. Music in real life, even from just a solo voice, a single instrument, playing a slow song, always has a certain liveliness to it. A system that doesn’t convey that musical ‘tension’ will render the music un-interesting and will fail to hold the listener’s attention.

My choices here are selected based on the music I heard when I visited the respective rooms on Sunday afternoon. The systems are presented in the order that I heard them in the Show, there is no implied ranking. They range from the highend to the mid-tier, so it was not a matter of the more expensive the better.

1. Perfect HiFi – Nagra electronics, Sonus Faber

Perfect HiFi got it perfectly right this year. The Sonus Faber Amati loudspeakers used in this year’s demo were smaller than the SF models used in the previous years, but with the Nagra electronics, these Amatis had the command of the big hall. Bass was solid and very assured, further up the frequency spectrum there was an organic-ness, a flow to the music that was the strength of Sonus Faber. The sound never turned aggressive or harsh despite playing at a high volume level

2. AV Designs – Innuos streamer, complete TAD system

Huge soundstage, wide ranging dynamics, big sound. The top loudspeaker model in TAD’s Evolution range, the TAD-GE1 (Grand Evolution) is not a small loudspeaker, but they did look somewhat small in this big conference room, regardless, the pair of TAD-GE1s produced a room-filling sound and the whole system practically disappeared into the immersive soundscape.

3, HiFi Creations – Pink Faun, Playback Designs, Accuphase, Clarysis

HiFi Creations’ debut of the Clarysis panel loudspeakers was impressive to say the least. I loved their top to bottom seamlessness and coherence, there was no feeling of different drivers playing separate spectrum of the music. Transparency was excellent with a wide-opened window into the soundstage. Bass performance was a surprise to me, I always had the impression that bass was not a strong suite of panel speakers but what I heard here was well defined, deep and punchy bass notes.

4. Dream Audio – Shanling, Denon, Polk Audio

The first thing that attracted the attention of visitors to this room would be the flashy and flying saucer like Shanling CDP, but when I sat down for a longer listen, I noticed that the music coming out from the Polk Audio floorstanding loudspeakers (the extreme left right speakers in the photo) was quite nice to listen to. It was a lively, balanced and musical presentation. These loudspeakers are worthy of serious consideration indeed if one is putting together a mid-level system.    

5. D&A Analogue HiFi – Melody. Canton

These Canton bookshelf loudspeakers were absolutely punching above its size, they are worthy of their 'Reference' label indeed. I enjoyed the tonal balance of this system very much, the sound was rounded, had a pretty good body and no lack of details. The music presentation was lively too. The Melody tube amp were a very good match with these Canton loudspeakers.

Insights from Mr. Shinji Tarutani, President, TAD

Posted by Tan, 

I count myself a TAD fan. TAD’s disc player and loudspeakers are permanent residents in my audio system since the day I got smitten by the TAD-CR1 loudspeakers. So, when AV Designs, TAD’s distributor in Malaysia, told me that TAD’s President Mr. Shinji Tarutani was coming to the KLIAVS 2023, I jumped at the opportunity to meet up with him. We sat down for a conversation on all things TAD. Here is a brief write-up (this is not a verbatim transcription, but rather I hope to convey the essence of our discussion).

Tan: About TAD’s motto we see on TAD’s website and in brochures – “The Artistic Intent, Intact”, can you share with us the thinking and the philosophy behind it?

Mr. Tarutani: That is the guiding principle for our designs. 

You see, the recordings we listen to is the product of multiple parties – the singer, musician, producer, recording engineer, mastering engineer etc., each one of them contributes his/her artistry and professionalism to the process. The final product is the culmination of every party’s expression, their artistic intent. Our aim is to respect this artistry and professionalism, as such, our role is to reproduce everything they put on the recording faithfully, for you, the listener, to experience every bit of it.  

The role of our electronics and loudspeakers is to retrieve all the details on every recording accurately, not adding, subtracting, or altering anything. We don’t want any coloration in our music reproduction.

Tan: Can you tell us a bit about your current product line-up?

Mr. Tarutani: Our home audio line-up is complete as of now with the latest additions of the TAD-GE1 (Grand Evolution) loudspeaker and the TAD-C1000 pre-amp in our Evolution Series.

We now have disc player/DAC, pre amp, power amp/monoblock and multiple loudspeaker models in both the Reference and Evolution Series. We are one of the very few HiFi brands in the world from which a user can assemble a complete system.

I wonder whether you have noticed something about our loudspeakers. Our loudspeaker designs come in pairs. Every floorstander model has a smaller brother in the form of a stand-mount/bookshelf, or, looking at it the other way round, every standmount/bookshelf model has a corresponding bigger floorstander version. 

In the Reference Series, we have the R1TX (Reference One) and CR1TX (Compact Reference One), you can see similar design language from the floorstanding R1TX distilled down to the standmount CR1TX. 

In the Evolution Series, we released the CE1TX (Compact Evolution One) first before its bigger brother, which is now being brought out as the GE1 (Grand Evolution One). The GE1 is the CE1TX extended to be a floorstander with an additional woofer. 

Further down the line, we have the E1TX (Evolution One) and ME1 (Micro Evolution One) pair, where we took the top half of the E1TX and made it the ME1. The enclosures, the finishes and the drivers are of the same design.  

There is an exception though. Our TAD-E2 (Evolution Two) floorstander is unique, in the sense that it will stand on its own without a smaller brother. The TAD-E2 serves the purpose for us to show that we can also do great loudspeakers apart from our normal design. The TAD-E2 2.5-way design is a departure from our usual 3-way design. The TAD-E2 does not use a coaxial driver for the tweeter and midrange, rather, the tweeter is set into a horn guide, which harks back to our early days of producing horn speakers, it is an expression of TAD’s early tradition. 

Tan: I see that for source equipment, TAD focuses on disc player (CD/SACD) and DAC but not a streamer. Will TAD consider releasing one? 

Mr. Tarutani: We currently have no plan to build a streamer. We see our music making role begin at the point where we receive the digital music signal. There are many excellent streamers available on the market now, our customers can choose one to match to our DAC and get great result. 

By the way, do you notice that our Reference TAD-D700 disc player/DAC does not have a USB input? The reason is to keep our reference disc player pure and avoid any possible source of noise pollution. If you prefer to stream using USB but want to get the best performance by using the converter inside the TAD-D700, the best way is to use our DA1000TX or D1000TX (which are also standalone DACs in their own right), to receive the USB signal, and let one of the DA1000/D1000’s digital outputs (S/PDIF or AES/EBU) feed the TAD-D700. This is what AV Designs’s demo system in this Show does, and that is the best way to do it. 

Tan: An interesting function on TAD’s stereo power amps is its ability to switch from stereo to bi-amping use. At the same time we also have the TAD-M700 monoblock. Comparing the bi-amp arrangement using two M700S to a pair of M700 monoblocks, which is better?  

Mr. Tarutani: That is an interesting question, I was asked this quite a few times. We don’t like to delve into which way sounds better as listening preference is subjective, suffice to say that no listener will be disappointed with either, though my engineer did mention that using a pair of monoblocks could be more powerful. Both approaches are equally valid, it boils down to personal preference at the end of the day.

On the other hand, I’d like to ask you this, you have heard the TAD-R1TX driven by just one M700S power amp, right? Did you even find the performance inadequate? 

Tan: No, I didn’t find anything amiss. I found the control, accuracy, speed, dynamics, scale etc. quite amazing even from just one M700S! I reckon using 1 stereo power amp, or biamp with 2, or using a monoblock pair is just a matter of how far you intend to push the performance envelope.

Tan: Some HiFi brands have regular product updates. Every 2-3 years they would come up with a mk2, mk3 etc.. However, TAD seems to have a very long product lifecycle, up to 10 years even. How do you decide that a model is due for an update? 

Mr. Tarutani: We want our customers to enjoy their investment in TAD HiFi equipment for the long term, so we don’t do regular model changes just for the sake of it. We usually do a model change when the parts used are no longer available. Since new parts are used, we need to give it a new designation. Design improvements may be made in the new models, and most likely there would be sound differences since the parts are different, but whether it sounds better or not, again, our view is that it is a subjective matter for the listener to judge for himself/herself.

Do you know that in our lab we still use the first-generation TAD-R1 loudspeakers as our reference? Our engineers do their listening tests on the same reference loudspeakers in order to ensure that we always achieve a consistent TAD sound quality.

Tan: How about your future product development plan? Will TAD release something cheaper than the TAD-ME1 loudspeaker? Or will you come up with a speaker model above your flagship TAD-R1TX?

Mr. Tarutani: No, we’ll not be bringing out a loudspeaker below the TAD-ME1, we can’t achieve TAD quality and performance at a lower cost unfortunately. 

On the other end of the scale, there are indeed some demand/queries for a bigger loudspeaker than the TAD-R1TX from some of our markets, such as China and Vietnam. We need to look into this further, we have not decided yet. 

Tan: TAD has a ‘Professional’ division that makes raw loudspeaker drivers, but I don’t see TAD using these drivers in your finished loudspeaker models. Is the Professional division totally separated from the Home Audio division? Will these professional drivers be used in TAD’s future loudspeaker projects? 

Mr. Tarutani: No, both are the same team. We have been making the Professional loudspeaker drivers since our early days, they are our important legacy and tradition. The professional loudspeaker units are currently not used in any of our finished home audio products, but I have a personal dream, my dream is to revive our horn loudspeaker designs from decades ago that use these drivers. Those loudspeakers were marketed under the Pioneer Exclusive name then, and they are still treasured by many enthusiasts till this day. However, nothing is concrete yet, but I hope I can realize this dream. 

Well, as a TAD user yourself, which one would you like to see TAD do? Should we extend our lineup to include a bigger loudspeaker than the R1TX, or consider reviving our horn loudspeaker design with our Professional drivers? 

Tan: Me? As a TAD fan I personally like to have a listen to TAD’s horn loudspeaker design. That will be a great audiophile experience as it is something hailing from TAD’s illustrious loudspeaker making tradition. Not that I don’t like to see a bigger TAD loudspeaker than the R1TX, but I believe the R1TX is already an awesome flagship loudspeaker in its own right.

Tan: What is TAD’s relationship with Pioneer? Is TAD a totally independent company now? 

Mr. Tarutani: Pioneer still owns 100% of TAD. On the design, engineering, and commercial side, TAD is operating entirely separately from Pioneer, since Pioneer is no longer involved in home audio (Pioneer now focuses on car audio and ICE (in-car entertainment)). 

In the last few years, we worked extensively to project TAD into the HiFi community. We participated in shows, we built up our distributor network, and I personally travelled to many places to gain greater exposure for TAD. We aim to build a greater awareness of the TAD brand as more and more audiophiles get to experience TAD’s performance and sound quality. 

Tan: Indeed, I now see more news and reporting on TAD. It is great to see TAD getting the exposure that it deserves. 

There were much about TAD that I would like to ask Mr. Tarutani, but time did not permit. Hope we’ll meet again in the future. I’d like to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Tarutani for his time and sharing. Looking forward to Mr. Tarutani’s future visits to KLIAVS and Malaysia.

Highlights from the KLIAV 2022 Show

After a 2 year hiatus, the 2022 version of the KLIAV Show was finally held from 28th to 30th of October at the InterContinental Hotel. Let me share the photos I took during my visit to the Show. 

I'd like to start off with, in my opinion, the best discovery from this Show, It was the 2 made-in- Malaysia loudspeaker models from JW Speaker Lab, with their introductory prices set at RM3,699 and RM3,999 respectively. I found them to be of extremely good value with their performance at the Show. They were matched to Bluesound and Kinki amplification. JW Speaker Lab's website - https://www.jwspeakerlab.com/.

  Rather than a bass reflex port, JW Speaker Lab used passive radiators on their loudspeakers instead. 

AV Designs came up with an impactful exhibit for both visual and audio, as usual. Video clip selections from James Tan covered a wide spectrum of materials, ranging from blockbuster action movies to musical concert. The demo was one of the most enjoyment experiences in this Show for me.

An audiophile friend who was with me commented on how solid and well defined the bass was, which i agreed. Given the number of Ascendo subwoofers (5) and their sizes (ranging from 15" to 24") used in this system, such performance was just to be expected.

In this Show, there were also a number of ultra high-end systems which the showgoers got to conveniently savour in one place:

From Centre Circle Audio - Accustic Arts, DS Audio, Aries Cerat, Pilium and the massive Kharma loudspeakers:

From Audio Perfectionist - McIntosh and Borresen:

From DALI APAC and Lenbook Asia - NAD and the new DALI KORE flagship loudspeakers:

There were a few mega halls in this Show where multiple systems were demo'ed in a rotating manner. You'd need to spend perhaps 1-2 hours in the hall to listen to all the systems. 

CMY occupied one of these mega halls, and it was stuffed with multiple highend systems:

Perfect Hi-Fi was also in one of these mega halls, with their main Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Nagra and Vivid product ranges:

These Vivid loudspeakers with their funky shapes and colours attracted quite a bit of attention. I was really interested to listen to them, but my rounds to the Perfect Hi-Fi's room didn't coincide with their demo time, hope I'd have other opportunities to experience them.

Absolute Sound also had multiple systems set up on their hall, here are 2 of them with dCS, Boulder, Neukomm and Stenheim:

Other exhibitors at the Show:

MAXX Audio Visual has its extensive line of JL Audio subwoofers on static display:

YL Audio was producing pretty nice sound from its system:

Hi-Way Laser's ATC SCM100 ASL active loudspeaker was really rocking with rock music:

The Expert Group's Rotel Michi and B&W system:

Style Laser - Esoteric, Dali, Audiolab, Wharfedale:

Creative AV attracted a lot of eyeballs with its darTZeel electronics:

Lenbrook Asia demo'ed with a simple system consisting of Bluesound Powernode Edge all-in-one unit with PSB loudspeakers:

Audio Concept / Audio Art paired the Egglestonworks Kiva loudspeakers with the cost-effective Tonewinner electronics and amplification:

Lu Kang Audio from Taiwan, matched with Musical Fidelity, their loudspeakers was a comfortable listen:

A&L Audio Station's Canor and Acoustic Energy system:

Hoe Huat's KEF galore:

Choy Audio Visual:

Double GT Audio: