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Old 01-03-2020, 09:22 PM
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Weirdcuba Weirdcuba is offline
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Originally Posted by SL1800 View Post
Thanks guys for all the kind words.

Buck ask me to elaborate on my story, and maybe this explanation will help Mike to understand my switch from ML.

I think we all buy into a sales pitch or technology used, in our quest for our hifi gear. I bought into the idea that open baffle should be better at producing a 3D soundstage than a normal front driver speaker. I had a short stint with a pair of Soundlab electrostatics many many years ago so I have also had a thing for the idea of how a stat works, maybe it's my physics background at play there.

I built a pair of the Linkwitz Orion speakers around 2003, a kit project from Siegfried Linkwitz. They used 2 dome tweeters, one front and one rear, a 6" mid and 4 10" woofers in a "H" frame open baffle structure and had an active crossover. The major hurdle there was the need for 6 to 8 channels of amplification. I really enjoyed those speakers and it was fun to build, built out another set for another Oklahoma audiophile back in 2005. I ran them for a few years then went onto other open baffle dynamic speakers in kit form and a pair of open baffles with planer mids and tweets with 12" cone woofers.

But I always found myself longing for the clarity of stats. Bought my first Logan's in 2013, Summit X, then upgraded to the 13A 2 years ago. I enjoyed them but felt I was missing out on the dynamics of a cone speaker.

I have developed fantastic friendships with several forum members which all have the other type of speaker, non open baffle and non electrostatic, and these speakers cost way more money than my diy projects or my MLs. So what's up with these, expensive to me, super speakers that use conventional drives, domes and cones in a box.

I traveled to a few shows and dealers but was never impressed with what I heard vs my home system. Hence I decided to travel to my friends homes to see what their systems sounded like in their homes. This started with a trip to Tim's to hear the larger Martin Logan CLX so I could hear what was possible with the best of ML designs. Then onto Seattle to hear two systems using Wilson Alexia, Marc's and Ed's. The Alexia has a fantastic heavy cabinet which is critical for a non open baffle speaker, minimize cabinet wall sound. It also has a very pleasing sound but I wanted to hear more than just that. Also had the chance to spend an evening visiting with George listening to the Wilson Sasha 2. Next trip was to hear Buck's Avalon Isis, why? Two reasons, accuton drives and his system was dialed in by Jim Smith, once again another great sounding system. On that same trip I got my first experience with Legacy, monitors and subs at Marks house, never have a seen such huge cables. Next up was the Magico M3 courtisy of Aditya, another great speaker that just almost pushed me over the edge and sent me on a search for used Magico's for a month or so. The last trip was to hear Adam's top flight system with Bowers 800D3s driven by all that ARC gear and Esoteric Grandioso. Also his system was setup by Stirling Trayle. Last was the next day with Rick, the owner of the Tidal Contriva which he had for sale. His system was all Tidal gear with a Grandioso one box SACD player and his system was setup by Stirling Trayle.

The Tidal hit all the hot buttons for me for sound and good looks, my other hobby is wood working so the veneer and gloss finish of the Tidal is to die for. The Tidal sound is, to me, so open and neutral it's amazing..........................oh wait, I guess I should say I found that open baffle isn't the end all be all that I had previously believed it to be. I found cone and dome boxes can also create a magical soundstage with convincing image size. I have found that quality drivers such as the Accutons used in the Tidals can actually produce a open clear sound that exceeds that of stats, dynamics, grace and detail all in one. I found the tech and theory I once believed in isn't all its cracked up to be. Mostly I'm now a firm believer in that you get what you pay for, the Tidal is an expensive speaker but worth the price to me.

Mostly I have come away from the with a long list of new friends that all come from different backgrounds but have this common love of music and audio gear. To think a guy that works on cars for a living like myself and having grown up in a small town in OK, under 300 population, can have visits all over the country and conversation with programmers, business owners, pharmacist, doctors, salesmen, astro physicist and government contractors, ........... it actually makes me think how special and diverse this audio hobby can be.

Thanks guys, this has been a blast getting to this point where I now have a state of the art speaker in my home and a whole new group of friends from all over the country. And you are all welcome to make a trip to Oklahoma to hear them if you want.


Just awesome. Huge congrats. I’m only sorry to have missed you in Atlanta. Now, buck and I will have to come see you. Heard the tidals in Munich - amazing.

Wowza. What a story.
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