What do TIDAL loudspeakers and amplifiers sound like? Are TIDAL systems the best on earth?



We always do smile with relaxed kindness and friendly goodwill about marketing like "Best loudspeaker on earth. Period." and other funny lines like that. Some say maybe we should write then "Best loudspeaker in universe. End.". But we would never do such thing, therefore here our answer:

The answer for the refined spirit
Some people prefer an English sports car over an Italian "macchina", a hand crafted Davenport over a modular wall unit, a Saville Row tailor made suit over off-the-rack premium label apparel. Count us in with the former, each time. And, indeed, given the choice, we noticed that people leaning to the former would rather prefer to call a TIDAL their own, whereas others will likely find complete satisfaction with another major league speaker.

By which we only wish to document that in the pantheon of speakers there are numerous products manufactured in assiduous adherence to as many philosophies as there are people they are aimed to satisfy.
Lucky the ones who have the luxury of choice. Wherever the senses are addressed, only experience can teach us to fully appreciate things and enable us to express our very personal emotions and preferences. When it comes to the beautiful things in life, subjectiveness rules. What is "best", then, is in the eye - or indeed the ear - of the beholder. Nowhere else.


The answer for the seasoned audiophile
Our loudspeakers are no Divas whose conceptual flaws need to be straightened out somewhere upstream by electronic equipment. Most of us will have made acquaintance with the breed of "lean and nervous sounding speakers calling for warm and rounded-off tube amplifiers".
We need not go into detail (pun not intended ;-)) TIDAL speakers as well as amplifiers deliver the musical information that is presented to them untainted; their richness of fine detail together with the lack of any added artifacts result in a self-evident truthfulness. The latter enables the audiophile to focus on source equipment and apply the ultimate stroke of the brush in satisfaction of her or his tonal preference.

It also works the other way around and it will sharpen awareness of shortcomings. What precisely do we mean by the latter? Masterpieces they may be, our products cannot perform magic. If any other component or accessory in your system or, indeed, the room in which they reside is sonically deficient, TIDAL equipment will show it, mercilessly, instantly. In most cases, though, if you spend the appropriate time and dedication to the set-up of your system, you have some well mastered recordings at your disposal, and your listening room is not plagued by major acoustic flaws, then you will find yourself in the enviable position of other TIDAL customers; you will have the comfortable knowledge that your quest for the finest is over for many years to come.
TIDAL components are engineered and built for no lesser goal than that. From the beginning.


The answer for the technically versed listener
Hearing is a subjective act. Measuring, on the contrary, spawns objective results: reliable, without room for interpretation. Measuring, therefore, is the only way to ascertain what is "best".
No hiding behind philosophical concepts or factoids allowed. Certainly, people have come up with the most astute justifications for roller coaster frequency characteristics, awkward step responses or breathtaking impedance drops that flirt with fatal short-circuits; none of those will bring us any nearer to the desired outcome.

Of course, at TIDAL, we are very aware that measuring alone will not lead to the audiophile goal either; however, once we lose the objective base to build upon, every further effort may be filed under "philosophy" or "marketing" resulting, in the best case, in a passable approximation of the original signal. That being so, guess why everyone who's listened to a TIDAL loudspeaker is convinced these speakers represent the state of the art. There are blatant, documentable technical reasons for that.

Frequency responses that look as if they had been drawn with a ruler, step responses beyond comparison and RF suppression that leaves detectors motionless, are just a few noteworthy characteristics. A few of many that find their highest accomplishment in all our speakers, which is why we can't help claiming the crown after all ;-), sort of.

Why are TIDAL speakers so expensive, and aren't there any cheaper models on offer?



Admittedly, a TIDAL is not a cheap acquisition. Even our entry level Amea will set the purchaser back about the same amount of money she or he would have to dig up for a cruise across the Atlantic, cabin with ocean view, naturellement! At the other end of the price scale, we enter the range of two convertible German sports cars with all paraphernalia included.
At that point, we must take a deep breath of fresh air ourselves. The fact of the matter is, though, our products just cannot and will not be cheap, full stop. Cost constraints are not the guiding principle at TIDAL; each component is designed and engineered without consideration of cost of the material necessary to build it.

To be sure, that has nothing in common with the widespread misconception following which the highest possible overkill of - for example - gold-plated massive high-grade copper by itself equals High End and, by the same token, justifies any otherworldly pricing. Instead, at TIDAL the cost drivers are lengthy, dedicated engineering, manual production in highly skilled craftsmanship and a fleet of expensive parts - but with a purpose.

And so, the cost of our speaker cabinets or the front-plates of our amplifiers alone is likely to bring the ordinary cost-cutter to tears. We shall be pleased to demonstrate this to you any time on our premises (demonstrate our way of doing things, that is, not the weeping cost-cutter ...) Certainly, it is possible to build gear - or imitations thereof - cheaper. However, a premium quality product, manufactured in accordance with the highest professional standards, sporting a "hand-made in Germany" label cannot be offered at dumping prices.
In any case, to our customers the purchase of a TIDAL loudspeaker or amplifier will not be driven by cost considerations. Instead, they will make their choice based on performance, build quality, service and the certitude that they are acquiring a benchmark product that addresses the senses in a way that can never be reduced to a mere number.
Then again, human we are, so everyone may be forgiven for also being allured by the exclusiveness of the product that goes hand-in-hand with its price ;-) So, lest we forget, nice and cheaper models do exist in a multitude of colors, clad in handsome cardboard boxes, readily available to everyone! However, they will never be labeled TIDAL.

Why do TIDAL loudspeakers as a standard come in black only?



One important fact to bear in mind: TIDAL-black is not just black ash or any similarly uninspiring finish. At TIDAL, black stands for the noblest of all finishes: genuine black piano lacquer. We take pride in being the first manufacturer, worldwide, to have offered all our speakers with this finish serially.

To us, piano lacquer documents elegance, timelessness and value, both optic and haptic. We trust you will not have seen that many grand pianos in trendy aluminum or rustic beech. Neither have we, for a reason. And that is precisely why TIDAL and black piano lacquer are inseparable. Now that we have broached the topic, there are huge variations in what has been called piano lacquer.
What is labeled piano lacquer by some manufacturers would not stand the test to serve as undercoat at TIDAL. Look at the saturation of "blackness", the undistorted reflections and the optical depth of the images in a TIDAL speaker: you are looking in a perfect black mirror. Moreover, the lacquer coating which is several millimeters thick, serves an acoustic goal since it lowers self-resonance and improves the acoustic impenetrability of the cabinet quite considerably.

Music lovers all over the world have very well understood this, which is why this finish is requisitioned in most cases. As an alternative, we offer superior wood veneers coated with transparent lacquer and polished to mirror finish.

Why don't TIDAL loudspeakers look as exciting as organ pipes, walk-in closets or vessel hulls?



In-crowd intimie often assert that TIDAL products do not look as exciting as many creations from the drawing-boards of our esteemed competitors in the monthly novated "New Best Speaker In The World Now Even Better"-series. Tastes and colors are not argued over as the saying goes, indeed, we think sometimes they can't be.
Which is why we unerringly adhere to our own clear and sober concept; we will not surprise our customers every new season with semi-detached tweeters, fashionably curved cabinets or fronts that are barely a few inches wide. We have a good reason for that. We do not build mere design objects, at TIDAL shape is a means to an acoustic end. Trends will come and they will go, our achievements are here to stay.

Would this imply after 80 years of evolution in the construction of loudspeakers that TIDAL could not come up with anything more exciting than, say, the TIDAL Piano? Now then, compare shape and functionality of the decanter shown above with the plain and simple milk bottle. A wise man once said that perfection has been reached where nothing more can be taken away (and nothing more must be added) …, we rest our case.
We invite you to take a few moments and get acquaintanced with our products. You will discover the same obviousness that tells you why a wheel comes in a circular shape. When all is said and done, everything our products have been praised and awarded for was the reward for the painstaking implementation of our unshakable conviction that form must follow function. Yet, there is ample reason for amazement if one cares to take a closer look.

Consider a lateral cut of the TIDAL Piano for instance. We believe we are not being overly immodest in finding that rather more impressive than loads of tinsel surrounding a tweeter, bizarrely jagged cabinets or chrome-plated ornaments that blind the eye. Lo and behold! Many of our products even count among the most beautiful worldwide and manifold are references to the Bauhaus principles.
That makes us feel genuinely proud and it proves that a fine product will almost unavoidably look attractive as well. Just like the wheel does.

What do references tell us about TIDAL?



References, reviews, awards, ... To some these are the primary tool for marketing and advertising, to others merely someone else's opinions and sentiments.

Of course, we aware of the power that the written word can have if, faced with a lack of decisive rational factors, one finds her- or himself in the state of mild perplexity that the vast choice of music performing gear is bound to conjure up. We also know the rules of reciprocal action that apply where such words are being published. We know of ardent supporters of a certain product and such that will strictly only show enthusiasm for another.
We have witnessed stark discrepancies between hymn-like praise in print, bitter disappointment and subsequent resale. On some occasions, it would look like the one-eyed is leading the blind. We believe it is rather more rewarding to use one's own eyes - or ears, rather. Then again, as the saying goes in Germany, "other mothers have gorgeous daughters as well" and so, if they are to be married off, puff is part of the trade, everywhere.

Bearing all that in mind, we are really pleased to notice that finding a used TIDAL on the second-hand market is very much like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, in spite of the fact that several hundreds have been sold, meanwhile. And we are proud of our complete order book as illustrated by delivery periods. In the knowledge that every TIDAL has been built to stand comparison with the original music, we are actually quite happy to take on any such comparison with other products.
Within the last ten years of our existence, no TIDAL customer needed to be taught what wine or what car was the Best for her or him. Therefore, we thought it might look inappropriate if we were to refer to strangers' opinions when it comes to taking a decision over the spending of one's hard-earned money on our products.

Nevertheless, people who assign major significance to references can be served as well. For that purpose, we have compiled statements by music lovers, our importers, dealers and professional reviewers that can be found on our NEWS page. Ideally, with the help of those we would like those to stir up interest in a personal audition, nothing more. With thanks for any such referral.

At this juncture, we would just add that we like to think of ourselves as a manufacturer that goes about crafting loudspeakers and amplifiers with enthusiasm, assiduity and true passion to yield products that are consistent with our own high demands and that we like to offer to customers that entertain likewise requirements. Claiming that we had found the holy grail of musical performance is something we gracefully leave to other people.

How susceptible to damage is piano lacquer?



TIDAL piano lacquer consists of complex multilayered polyester coating that is polished to perfection in an extremely laborious and time-consuming manual process. Deep carves or dents in "naked" veneer are mostly irreparable. Piano lacquer, on the other hand, has the advantage of higher resilience compared to such veneer.
On top of that, it is much easier to mend and can be repolished to its original high-gloss even after decades. It is also possible to preserve lacquer by treating it with car wax every few years, thus lending even better protection.
It can be cleaned free of stains with the microfiber cloth that is delivered with all speakers and a feather duster will be sufficient for every day's care. It is not quite recommended to apply a hammer to our little gems forcefully, though.