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TAD Evolution 2 Speaker Review

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 66 15.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 208 47.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 149 34.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 14 3.2%

  • Total voters
    437

Rick Sykora

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Rick
Please stop with the common sense and talking from a business understand reference point, very few here will get it and will only get you nasty replies :)

Thanks for the concern, lol. I get we all like to think we can do someone else’s job. But until you really get to experience fully, it is not the same.

Over my career, I moved from engineering to technical management. So, I think I have some appreciation for both roles. I have seen engineers who do not appreciate management and managers who do not get engineering though. I hope what I share gets both sides to think outside their box, but am realistic enough to know I just may piss them both off! ;)
 

lateralous

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The business cases you have presented are certainly realistic, but I'm failing to see the relevance as a consumer. I don't care what market TAD is trying to enter into, for example, but rather that the product I'm purchasing meets my desires at a price I'm willing to pay. It is clear that is not the case for many at this price point, regardless of the businesses reason for releasing it.
 

Rick Sykora

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The business cases you have presented are certainly realistic, but I'm failing to see the relevance as a consumer. I don't care what market TAD is trying to enter into, for example, but rather that the product I'm purchasing meets my desires at a price I'm willing to pay. It is clear that is not the case for many at this price point, regardless of the businesses reason for releasing it.
You (and many others along with me) define a consumer market segment. That segment may be a target one for TAD or it may not. Or they may have mispriced this speaker and will adjust to where they feel they obtain the right combination of volume and profit margin. If you consider TAD's current served market is more on the premium end, just saying am not entirely surprised that they might initially price at on the higher end of the spectrum.

We have also observed speaker pricing vary widely across global regions. Some models of JBL have been discussed here but it can be found with many other suppliers pricing as well. While I get your perspective, my point is there may be more to it than simply price/performance for a market segment that is more technically astute. If ASR members are one of TAD's major target markets, then they likely would have made a different speaker (IMO). Even though they gave Amir a speaker to review, could be simply exploratory on their part. Without a TAD rep on the forum, we are just guessing at their intentions in the end.
 

Arc Acoustics

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IIRC a speaker that's flat down to 20Hz with a 'smoothness' of 1 achieves a preference score of 10. (Edit: forgot to mention PIR..)
Not quite.
For a score of 10, you need a f6≒14.5Hz, even with Smoothness of 1, NBD of 0, which correspond to with sub situation.
And theoretically speaking, if f6 is down to below 14.5Hz, the score could reach beyond 10 cuz the equation does not have any limitation on the LFX, which is obviously a bit surreal.
Anyway, as you mentioned above, looking for a raw score of 10 is nonsense.
 

lateralous

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You (and many others along with me) define a consumer market segment. That segment may be a target one for TAD or it may not. Or they may have mispriced this speaker and will adjust to where they feel they obtain the right combination of volume and profit margin. If you consider TAD's current served market is more on the premium end, just saying am not entirely surprised that they might initially price at on the higher end of the spectrum.

We have also observed speaker pricing vary widely across global regions. Some models of JBL have been discussed here but it can be found with many other suppliers pricing as well. While I get your perspective, my point is there may be more to it than simply price/performance for a market segment that is more technically astute. If ASR members are one of TAD's major target markets, then they likely would have made a different speaker (IMO). Even though they gave Amir a speaker to review, could be simply exploratory on their part. Without a TAD rep on the forum, we are just guessing at their intentions in the end.

I guess I am taking your comments as a defense of the speaker's performance when they were not intended to be. Maybe TAD is performing market research, maybe they mispriced the speaker, or maybe they are geniuses and this is a master plan for all of us to purchase the half-price version to come that performs excellently. In any case we are a majority of consumers on this forum so I'm not quite sure what the intended point is.
 

Eetu

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Not quite.
For a score of 10, you need a f6≒14.5Hz, even with Smoothness of 1, NBD of 0, which correspond to with sub situation.
And theoretically speaking, if f6 is down to below 14.5Hz, the score could reach beyond 10 cuz the equation does not have any limitation on the LFX, which is obviously a bit surreal.
Anyway, as you mentioned above, looking for a raw score of 10 is nonsense.
Well, f6 at 14.5Hz is f3 (or less, depending on the roll-off rate) at 20Hz isn't it? I think we can assume Sean Olive meant the max score to be 10 within the audible band of 20-20k.
 

Arc Acoustics

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Well, f6 at 14.5Hz is f3 (or less, depending on the roll-off rate) at 20Hz isn't it? I think we can assume Sean Olive meant the max score to be 10 within the audible band of 20-20k.
Sean himself mentioned that if he could do the research over again, he would like to adjust the equation so that the highest rated loudspeaker would score 10 or 100.
So, it wasn't intentionally adjusted to cover the hearing range as long as I understand/assume.
 

Spocko

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You are the person to ask as you have two excellent multichannel systems. So here it goes: Genelec or Perlisten? ;)

Nuanced answers such as "depends on what you want" are absolutely welcome!
Genelec all day long for me because built in amplifier, GLM room correction, multiple matching speaker sizes for ceiling/heights and so many matching stands/wall-mounts/ceiling mounts! However, they're very utilitarian looking so most people would prefer the look of the Perlisten. Ultimately, sound quality will sound very similar if both systems share the same subwoofer and you run them through Trinnov or Dirac.
 
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Vacceo

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Genelec all day long for me because built in amplifier, GLM room correction, multiple matching speaker sizes for ceiling/heights and so many matching stands/wall-mounts/ceiling mounts! However, they're very utilitarian looking so most people would prefer the look of the Perlisten. Ultimately, sound quality will sound very similar if both systems share the same subwoofer and you run them through Trinnov or Dirac.
Looking at spinoramas, they look quite similar in the sense of a super controled directivity, (narrower in the vertical for the Perlistens, similar on the horizontal), very flat frequency response and very clean and neutral sounding. Perhaps listening to both on the same space gives a completely different result though.
 

Spocko

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Looking at spinoramas, they look quite similar in the sense of a super controled directivity, (narrower in the vertical for the Perlistens, similar on the horizontal), very flat frequency response and very clean and neutral sounding. Perhaps listening to both on the same space gives a completely different result though.
Definitely depends on your room, room treatment and content. For multichannel music, differences should be minimal because of the volume LOL as the heavy dose of bass and effects will mask "audiophile" grade distinctions. But critical listening of multichannel at 75dB or less would probably yield differences but then again, Genelec GLM Smart speakers can be tuned to match the frequency curve of most speakers.
 

Vacceo

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Definitely depends on your room, room treatment and content. For multichannel music, differences should be minimal because of the volume LOL as the heavy dose of bass and effects will mask "audiophile" grade distinctions. But critical listening of multichannel at 75dB or less would probably yield differences but then again, Genelec GLM Smart speakers can be tuned to match the frequency curve of most speakers.
It will be some time before I upgrade my speakers, but it is good to know that the options I got on my shortlist (Genelec, Kef, Perlisten) will render good results and not a huge difference in quality; even more so considering I'll be using Dirac.

Thanks for the heads up! :)
 

Christoph-ASR

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Thanks that you help people who bought this loudspeaker into a better live with more scientific confidence and not more esotherical subjectivity in one corner of the world. i am sure that all buyers have seen a physic auditorium from the inside, if they have not even stood at the desk, where they discussed about the latest news in the stringtheory and the sumpland conjecture, and the terrible contempt in the last 100 years of the Nobel Prize award, because they know all the theories of single each. For sure. Peace hey...
 
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Hart

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Sigh, then name a brand instead of telling us that they are 5-7 k speakers... what full range speaker has that well known record ( I guess I won't get a reply like many others not respond at my question to name speakers which are worth the 20 k, or 15 k when living in Europe)...
Is the sigh necessary? I like the Revel Performa BE 328 at around that price point. I really doubt those speakers are superior. Probably people don't answer you because you lack civility.
 

Descartes

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the TAD Evolution 2 tower 2.5 way speaker. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $20,000.
View attachment 241950
Sorry for the cellphone shot of the speaker on Klippel NFS. I have not had the time to test it in the house.
The fit and finish is impeccable. The binding posts is likely representative of the quality inside:
View attachment 241953

It is full custom with a level of precision that makes it a pleasure to tighten the screw on the terminal. The fit is so perfect against the threads that make you feel there is fluid/oil in the thread but there is not! An example of very high precision machining.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

Reference axis for the measurement was the center of the tweeter. No grill was used. Measurement axis is parallel to ground plan. 1500 measurements were performed in 3-D space (50% higher than my normal standard) generating 1.2 gigabytes of data.

I have shared my results with the company representative. Alas, I have not heard anything back despite checking a couple of times.

Here are the company specs:
View attachment 241956

TAD Evolution 2 Speaker Measurements
As usual we start with our CEA-2034 frequency response measurements:
View attachment 241954

Great to have good bass extension. Alas, the rest of the response is somewhat variable which is likely due to interference from multiple sound sources. Here is the near-field response:
View attachment 241955

Nice to see port/cabinet resonances being suppressed well. Company specs the first crossover point at 90 Hz. I am not seeing that effect so perhaps the near-field measurements are polluted by the other woofer?

Anyway, here is our early window reflections:
View attachment 241957

Nothing to add other than the comment on the graph. Here is our predicted in-room response:
View attachment 241958

Horizontal directivity is good so we should have good luck with EQ:
View attachment 241959
View attachment 241960

Here is the vertical:
View attachment 241961

Benefit of 2.5-way design kicks in lower distortion, at least at 86 dBSPL:
View attachment 241962

View attachment 241963

At 4.5 ohm minimum, lowest impedance point is slightly better than average which is appreciated:
View attachment 241964

Here is our waterfall and step responses:
View attachment 241965

View attachment 241966

As I noted, due to lack of time, I do not have listening impressions for you.

Conclusions
I guess I can state the obvious that given TAD's stellar reputation in speaker designs, I walked in expecting perfection. We did not get that. I let you all vote with what you think of the measured performance. I am delighted about the quality of the speaker though.

I should also mention the incredible support and generosity of the company to work with me and send me these samples for testing. No other company has offered such expensive speakers for testing.

-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Great review as usual thank you!
Nice to see companies sending you expensive speakers, maybe KEF could send you the Blade 2 Meta
 

Vhond

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@Hart I know it SEEMS 'bad-mannered", but I am done with people so easily 'shouting' about 'too high priced' and other ways of expressing their opinion about gear which is not THEIR thing WITHOUT naming speakers which are 'really good' regardless of the price OR for the same price as these TAD's.

Some of them did but count the people who didn't.
 

fpitas

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@Hart I know it SEEMS 'badmannered", but I am done with people so easily 'shouting' about 'too high priced' and other ways of expressing their opinion about gear which is not THEIR thing WITHOUT naming speakers which are 'really good' speaking of bang for the bucks...
No...it really is bad-mannered. Just go down the list of high-rated speakers here and pick your poison.
 

Vhond

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@fpitas : No, it isn't. Have you seen my attempts asking for brands (examples in this price) in a WELL-mannered way?
That's something else than pointing to a list of high-rated speakers which I also looked at.
 

fpitas

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@fpitas : No, it isn't. Have you seen my attempts asking for brands in a WELL-mannered way?
Yes, and I bet everyone else just assumed you would go down the list of well-reviewed speakers. Plus, some people here have named examples.
 

fpitas

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As I mentioned I went down the list and YES some people answered my question, but many people only shouted about too high priced (it was for them)
Yes, people here think in terms of value. There are speaker brands like Revel that offer better performance at a much lower price, hence value. If you value the TAD name of course, then you must place your own value.
 
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