The well known audio and home cinema specialist/ distributor in MALAYSIA, AV DESIGNS SDN BHD have recently launched the latest offerings from TAD (JAPAN). They were the Grand Evolution One (GE1) loudspeaker, and their flagship line stage preamplifier, the C-700. I am sure their respective specifications are easily available at the internet.
To me the more serious question was, were they serious improvement and advancement in sound quality and built quality over the others?!
The GE1 loudspeaker was a beauty to look at. A pair of them would definitely enhance the scene in any space, hall, room or setting (in my book, anyway). They were testament to Japanese Design and Craftmanships.
At the recent launch and set up at AV DESIGNS, the GE1 loudspeakers demonstrated to me that they could sound bigger than their enclosures, ‘Out of the Box(es)’. The projected audio presentation enveloped the entire sizeable hall at AV DESIGN showroom. Eventhough, I was seated at the third roll of seats behind some heavy bodies, yet I could easily feel the energy and dynamic punch.
In addition, at that higher than normal listening level, there was never the sensation of fatique and never the audible and irritable piercing highs (unless that highs were in the native recording),…thanked to the TAD’s proprietary CST Driver, ‘which controls the directivity of the concentrically mounted midrange and tweeter over an extended frequency range from the point of matching phase‘.
I had some listening experiences with TAD’s previous flagship line stage preamplifier, the C-600 that to me, an already good and hard to beat audio component/ perfomance. Therefore, I knew the C-700 has to be an ‘exceptional audio component/ performance‘ in order to be launched as a successor to the C-600.
Not fully run in, the C-700 already demonstrated to me its exceptional transparency to detail. It was an honest linestage preamplifier, ‘a conduit of whatever sent to it and connected to it‘.
There was ‘NO LACK’ of energy, dynamic, resolution, and granduer in its presentation of all musical genre. Even the slightest nuance in human expression was audible and felt. The space and air between the musicians was easily given and presented, even in (the most) complicated passage of the full Orchestra, or the Big Bang Band presentation.
What more could be expected from a First Class line stage preamplification?!
I strongly suggest a visit to AV DESIGNS for that aural and visual experiences of ’em fine audio components from JAPAN.