CR-1 set-up
 

I’m looking for a new pair of speakers, and had thought of adding the TAD CR-1s to my shortlist. My question concerns the set-up, or specifically the speaker to listener distance.
The owner’s manual is somewhat unclear; at least it is to me.
The main body text states that the listening distance should be roughly equal to the distance between the speakers.
The diagram text states that the listening distance must be greater than the distance between the speakers. If the diagram is to scale, then the listening distance appears to be approx. twice the distance between the speakers.
In my 9 x 4.2 metre room (29ft 6” x 13ft 9”), with the speakers firing down the length of the room, I sit around 5.8 metres (19ft) from the front wall, making my listening distance around twice the distance between the speakers.
The question is, can they work in my room, or is the listening distance just too great?
I’ve just found out that the retail price of the TAD CR-1 in the UK is £37K (46K Euro, 57K USD). Which is completely ridiculous, so unless there is a very large discount available, they won’t be joining the Vivid Audio Giyas on my, very short, shortlist, but I would appreciate any information, just in case.
I’ve attached a photo of my room; sorry it’s a thumbnail Joost, I’m afraid you lost me after “Simply….”:sigh:

:D

I run my CR1's in a room that is pretty much exactly the size of yours (3.9m x 10.5m), also firing down the long end. The speakers are roughly a meter away from the back wall, distance between them around 2.5m and distance to listening spot around 3m. Speakers are thus well out into the room and I am sitting relatively close to them.

From your picture it seems you have a bit more space between them and are sitting much further away. I do not think this is an ideal position for any speaker to be honest, you want to try to get close to a equilateral triangle and as per TAD's recommendation the listening position could be moved back away from the speakers a little bit. The TAD's do image well outside beyond the speakers so I guess the they would be a good choice for such a setup.

The general guidance principle for speaker setup is an equilateral triangle as jdebonth has mentioned. For example, Dynaudio recommends placing my speakers 7 ft apart and sitting 7 ft in front of them. This seems roughly comparable to jdebonth's dimensions.

Thanks for the reply Joost,
The front of the speakers are 1.5 metres into the room, and the listening position a further 4.5 metres or so.
For listening sessions I often moved the white chair out into the room, to a position closer to the speakers. However adding the 948 into the system had the effect of pulling the image forward, so that I no longer felt the need to do that. Hopefully that will also apply to the TADs, making them a very good choice to replace the Raidhos. :thumbsup:

Looking at your photo, Colin, I think you're sitting way too far away from the speakers. Based on your info, about 15 feet.

In my setup, I have my speakers 7.5 ft apart and sit 9 feet in front of them.

I can't get an equilateral triangle as a permanant set up in my room. I am in the process of altering the room, which will, in effect, move the front wall nearer to the listening position, not by much, but every little bit helps.

Ok, I'm going to throw a real monkey wrench into the conversation.

Are you a fan of horns? Do you like (can you live with) HUGE speakers in the room?

If that is a picture of your room, here's what I'd do.

I'd look into a pair of Klipsch Jubilee speakers. Folded horn woofer, big horn on top. If you are able to get near Slough or Norwich, I could probably get you an audition with someone who owns a pair.

Here is where it gets interesting.... you can then replace the stock 2" tweeter horn with the TAD 4002 driver and bring in the TAD clarity of sound.

This is what a handful of people have done, myself included. Many people cringe at the idea of horns or perhaps the idea of Klipsch.... I smile though because if they only saw the back of the speaker and didn't know the brand of the box but saw the "TAD" on the driver, I'd imagine they would change their comments 180 degrees to the other direction and be much more intrigued.

So, here's what I'd do if I had that room.

You'd have to move the chairs in the corners, put the speakers there. That would force the chairs to go somewhere but if they were simply removed along with the speakers sitting out in the floor, you would actually GAIN some usable floor space.

These can be ordered in nice ugly black or for a small upcharge, they can be ordered with a Walnut or Cherry front panel. There is no way to hide the huge horn on top though unless you get creative yourself, which some have also done.

Like I said, it's a wrench in the conversation as I don't perceive an interest in speakers the size of a tall appliance in the room but, for the cost savings, the dynamics AND the ability to still slap a TAD driver on the HF horn (crossing from at 400 hz on up), it is an incredible value for sound.

Coytee,

I really like that idea. I bet it sounds great. I wish I had the room for something like that. I'd love to see a photo sometime. Thanks!

If you want to PM me your email address, I'll send you several. Showing the speaker in black, walnut and Cherry.

Make no bones about it.... they are huge. About 5 1/2' tall if I'm guessing correctly however, they are very sensative and very dynamic. Being a 2-way they are also very cohesive.