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Thread: True Acoustic Art Takes 1400 Man Hours, $US320,000

  1. #1
    Senior Member Audionutz's Avatar
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    True Acoustic Art Takes 1400 Man Hours, $US320,000

    Worth a browse .....

    Cheers

    'Nutz

    http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/09/tr...o+Australia%29
    Thats not a speaker ......*That's* a Speaker !
    (With apologies to Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee)

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    Senior Member richluvsound's Avatar
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    Not Sure !

    The more I see them ,quirky as they are ,the do have a beauty. You also got to take you hat off to the craftsmanship.....


    Someone suggested the were a K2 knock off . I would say thats a tad horn a more in the style of the Exclusive 2402

    Rich

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    Senior Member louped garouv's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by richluvsound View Post
    The more I see them ,quirky as they are ,the do have a beauty. You also got to take you hat off to the craftsmanship.....

    another link, if anyone else is interested in some reading

    http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatur.../olympian.html

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    The mid horn looks like a modern version of something Vitavox (the precussor to Living Voice according to the 6moons article) has had for over 50 years. I started a thread in the general audio forum asking about the origin of this design that often gets called a TAD or Yuichi horn.

    (I attached a pic of the Vitavox licensed Klipshorn built and sold in the UK in the mid 1950s, showing the Vitavox radial horn with the vanes near the throat.)
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  5. #5
    Senior Member richluvsound's Avatar
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    Nice Guy !

    I spoke to the man behind the speaker design earlier this week .... The Tad is obvious , Ale CD, Vitaox 151 15 " woofer .... 60 Htz up to whatever the 703 can handle .

    I did not wish to ask too many details about the crossover FQ's .....

    I spent about an hour talking to a real down to earth gentleman , a gent that shares the enthusiasm and excitement that a lot of us here share . Not at all one of those hifi snobs . I managed to get myself an invite up to meet him and them while drinking some tea . Its in a part of the UK that my family originates .

    I will see if he will share a little more about his speakers and post a proper thread .

    Rich.

    PS , they are nothing like the K2 . These speakers have their own lineage dating back some 50 years .

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by richluvsound View Post
    I spoke to the man behind the speaker design earlier this week .... The Tad is obvious , Ale CD, Vitaox 151 15 " woofer .... 60 Htz up to whatever the 703 can handle .

    I did not wish to ask too many details about the crossover FQ's .....

    I spent about an hour talking to a real down to earth gentleman , a gent that shares the enthusiasm and excitement that a lot of us here share . Not at all one of those hifi snobs . I managed to get myself an invite up to meet him and them while drinking some tea . Its in a part of the UK that my family originates .

    I will see if he will share a little more about his speakers and post a proper thread .

    Rich.

    PS , they are nothing like the K2 . These speakers have their own lineage dating back some 50 years .

    I look forward to reading about what the builder has to say about these. They are unique looking, but a pair will set you back as much as 4 pairs of JBL D66000s. Yet I don't doubt for minute that they'll sell more than a few pairs!

    BTW, I don't think the mid horns are TAD or TAD copies (with 3 instead of 4 vanes), but very much the other way around. I think Living Voice make them, perhaps to the same design as the old Vitavox CN157 cast horn. A TAD driver looks to be used with the brass horn. I'd really like to know why the upper tweeter is mounted at an angle.

  7. #7
    Senior Member RedCoat23's Avatar
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    I know this is an old thread....but I just discovered the speakers somewhere else. Regardless of how they sound (and I've no idea) that construction is the work of artisans. It's stunning.

    http://www.livingvoice.co.uk/products-vox-olympian.html

  8. #8
    Senior Member svollmer's Avatar
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    Thanks for bringing this up!

    This is way off topic, but because of this thread, I downloaded Living Voice's 26 page book. On page 21 is the Cosmotron speaker (REALLY cool looking to us sci-fi buffs!). Anyway, it says the bronze work has "liver of sulpher" patination. I've been looking for the right term and chemical to turn copper brownish to black; not the typical green patina one sees everywhere. So, I did a search on the term and found the exact chemicals available in abundance. I'm making some monitor speaker stands with 4" diameter copper water pipe and will use it on that.

    It's cool how one thread can help others with disparate needs. Thanks again!

    By the way, these are some absolutely fabulous looking speakers.

    And now, we return you to the original thread..........

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    Quote Originally Posted by tomee View Post
    I'd really like to know why the upper tweeter is mounted at an angle.
    If it's the same pair I'm thinking of, (brass "trumpet" on the HF driver, UHF driver in a mount at the very top, I haven't opened the link) there was a whole article on them someplace once. The TAD ET-703 is mouted in a fixture where it can be rotated. It has a certain dispersion pattern above and below a certain crossover frequency, and the guy decided that having it at about 45° degrees was a good compromise for the crossover frequency he was running. Anybody that would buy on of those tweeters is an idiot because it has a billet aluminum horn fixed to it. There are plenty of more affordable tweeters out there that don't need a billet horn.

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    Senior Member 1audiohack's Avatar
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    I never thought the "billet proof" movement would make it out of the hotrod domain and into the audio philos domain. Will you at least bring the suicide girls? Wait, your not going to go down the "rat stereo" path are you? Oh I can see it all now, exposed motor start capacitors and magnet wire at the speakers and raw frame organ and or console tube amps,,,
    If we knew what the hell we were doing, we wouldn't call it research would we.

  11. #11
    Senior Member grumpy's Avatar
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    Rat-rod, steam-punk stereos... LOL... there's a latent market (or not so latent anymore).

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    If those are the speakers I'm thinking about, they have sort of a steampunk look already.

    My main concern is TAD's ostentatious use of billet aluminum for the tweeter horns when a nice thermoplastic would have done the same thing.

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    Moderator hjames's Avatar
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    Oh baby ... Pimp my sub ...

    show me the flame job on that baffleboard ...

    Flash your custom grill ...

    Wow - this is like ultimate troll speaker pr0n ... ugh!

    Besides, I thought all that billet stuff was from the tuttles and the Harvy biker crowd

    Quote Originally Posted by 1audiohack View Post
    I never thought the "billet proof" movement would make it out of the hotrod domain and into the audio philos domain. Will you at least bring the suicide girls? Wait, your not going to go down the "rat stereo" path are you? Oh I can see it all now, exposed motor start capacitors and magnet wire at the speakers and raw frame organ and or console tube amps,,,
    2ch: WiiM Pro; Topping E30 II DAC; Oppo, Acurus RL-11, Acurus A200, JBL Dynamics Project - Offline: L212-TwinStack, VonSchweikert VR-4
    7: TIVO, Oppo BDP103D, B&K, 2pr UREI 809A, TF600, JBL B460

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    Senior Member RedCoat23's Avatar
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    My statement of interest was referring to the veneer work - that's done by hand. As someone who's interested in woodwork I appreciate fine craftmanship when I see it. Whether it's worth the cost...that's another matter entirely. I'm under no illusion that there's a correlator between cost and performance when something like this is concerned. Nor do I care to win friends and influence people by a vulgar display of oppulence. But it doesn't stop me appreciating art for art's sake.

    Apologies to those offended by my particular artistic sensibilities.

  15. #15
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    Wood's fine. It's that freakin' aluminum that'll get you in trouble.

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