Напольная акустика — TAD REFERENCE ONE R1TX

The TAD-R1TX, or Reference One TX, is the three-way bass-reflex floorstanding loudspeaker at the head of the Reference series of the Japanese maker TAD Laboratories. TAD worked on its enclosure with Tendo Mokko, a furniture company in Japan whose history starts in 1940, and it is finished in natural Pommele Sapele wood in Emerald Black or Beryl Red.

Key specs that matter

Two 25 cm woofers work below a concentric CST unit that combines a 16 cm midrange with a 3.5 cm tweeter. The crossover points are 250 Hz and 2 kHz. TAD quotes a response of 21 Hz to 100 kHz, a sensitivity of 90 dB at 2.83 volts and 1 metre, a nominal 4 ohm load and power handling of up to 300 W. Each speaker measures 554 mm wide, 1,293 mm high and 698 mm deep and weighs 150 kg.

Engineering and use context

In the CST, or Coherent Source Transducer, both the tweeter dome and the midrange cone are beryllium, made by a vapour deposition method of TAD's own, and the unit reproduces a wide band from a single point with uniform phase. The woofers use an OFGMS magnet structure for linear motion, a TLCC cone with a foamed acrylamide core between aramid fibre layers, dual spiders and a 100 mm voice coil driven by a large neodymium magnet. The SILENT enclosure is framed by 21 mm birch plywood bulkheads, with 50 mm side panels formed by high-frequency hot pressing and CNC-machined plywood sections up to 137 mm thick. Its teardrop form is meant to limit diffraction, ABD technology removes higher-frequency standing waves inside, and the cabinet leans back by 4 degrees for time alignment. The reflex port is shaped using compression driver and horn principles so that airflow stays quiet at maximum excursion. Bass, midrange and treble each have an isolated crossover network built from PP film capacitors, air-core inductors and non-inductive resistors. These boards sit on a rear plate of aluminium 27 mm thick, which doubles as a heat sink.

Pairing

Heavily gold-plated machined terminals take the speaker cables, and the speaker rests on a three-point spike system with a choice of cone or dome-shaped feet. TAD also lists a limited version, the TAD-R1TX LTD, among its Reference models, next to the stand-mount TAD-CR1TX Compact Reference One TX.

Alternatives

In the Evolution series TAD offers the TAD-GE1 Grand Evolution One, a three-way floorstander with two 18 cm woofers and a 14 cm concentric CST driver.