AV Designs demos high-end TAD system, JBL and Mark Levinson coming

By SEE MENG

The post-lockdown period is indeed full of surprises. An early morning visit to Audio Visual DesignS (AV Designs) to listen to an end-to-end Technical Audio Devices Laboratories (TAD) audio equipment set-up ended up brightening my horizon after discovering how the future is destined to be, as James Tan, founder of AV Designs, laid out his plans for the rest of the year and beyond.



Before I let my excitement cloud the original intent of this article, let's see how the full TAD set-up experience unfolded for me. The system comprised a mixture of equipment from both TAD's Reference and Evolution series. A TAD C200 pre-amplifier and a TAD M2500 power amplifier from the Evolution series provided the amplification for a TAD D600 CD player, whilst a pair of TAD CR Mk2 speakers completed the set-up. The latter two are from the Reference series.

The full TAD set-up is a visual delight, in particular, the unimposing layout of the controls sitting on solid block of milled aluminium chassis portraying a minimalist theme across the equipment range with the exception of the CR Mk2 speakers front lining the marque with their beautifully finished presence. The control knobs give you a fluid damped feedback and gently locks into place as you turn the source and volume knobs. The buttons on the other hand give a similar tactile feel as you make your selections on the CD player. Looks like no stone was left unturned when it comes to quality.



What little I can tell you now without doing a full blown on each of the equipment is that there is a fair bit of carefully orchestrated bits of components to populate each design blueprint. I can understand why they selected Burr Browns over more popular options in recent times as musicality was primarily the top priority. Likewise, a true balanced end-to-end dual-mono topology for both the preamplifier and power amplifier in employed as the best mean of transport to preserve signal purity. It's not about the 500W into 8 ohms or perhaps tweeter/midrange concentric drivers made using TAD's proprietary beryllium vapour deposition technique but instead, this is a leading par excellence class act that I am about to listen to.

The TAD setup sits grandly in the main foyer of the showroom, making full use of the entire 10 sq metres of acoustically treated available space to allow the equipment to literally breathe and sweat. First impression? The image presence takes the cake when Tan played Ernie Ford through his Bryston streamer connected to the TAD equipment (yes, both the CD player and pre-amplifier have USB inputs). We went through a myriad of genres from his playlist before moving on to the TAD CD player as we got carried away with my request for some classical pieces which led to a fair bit of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Hayden. You get a sense of sheer solidity from the underlying foundation to support the pace, timing and slam, although I thought it lacked a bit of musical weight for my liking but that's the compromise when it comes to the need for speed. Don't get me wrong, it did sound good.



It was a total different universe once we started spinning CDs. It doesn't matter if the power amplifier is Class D or if it uses very low on-resistance Mosfets in place of transistors, music blossomed fully once the CD bits of date are sampled  at 44.1kHz (yup, native sampling), transcending through the purity of the entire TAD chain. I don't know how you gauge a good system but for me, a full-bodied tonal richness with the presence of an apparent energy feel that seemingly provide the structural support for the soundstage is of paramount importance. The TAD system had it. The breath of the soundstage extended far beyond the side walls and bass freaks will marvel at the weight of the thunderous waves thumping against one's chest whilst the titillating highs, at my age, made me wonder if I'd regained my upper reach hearing abilities once again like a teenager.

Whilst the TAD system did the talking during the demo, I ensured that Tan did his fair share when he started to sharing his plans for the post-lockdown period as AV Design intends to usher in a renaissance superlative brands of yesteryears currently owned by Harman International Industries.



My eyes brightened like a lovestruck hi-fi nut when Tan mentioned JBL! Is the JBL L100 Classic coming, I asked? Yes, they have the L100 Classic and the smaller L82 in stock waiting for the opportune time to rekindle the emotional attachment that enthusiasts from far and wide have been reminiscing about their previous lives with such speakers. Tan, being an avid AV enthusiasts, demonstrated briefly the JBL Synthesis SDP-55 Immersive Surround Sound Processor (a superlative AV amplifier) through a pair of Bryston speakers. I missed the model designation for the lesser JBL Synthesis model (with apologies) in the other demonstration room as my eyes were distracted by the towering twin-cabinet active PMC BB6 XBD-A with its six-pack amplifiers which I yearn to listen to on another occasion.

Mark Levinson will be making its presence felt through AV Designs. There was a quaint looking No.5805 integrated amplifier sitting innocuously on Finite Elements Pagoda rack alongside the muscle bound TADs. The class AB No.5805 is power-packed with all the features that you would ever need. I can see this being viable alternative for enthusiasts looking for a single box to hook up a turntable (phono), CD transport, Mac or PC, Bluetooth devices and it even has the ability to decode and render Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) encoded audio.



The carefully curated suite of offerings by AV Designs will tempt many a hi-fi enthusiast to succumb to temptation, especially when faced with such musicality in a well set-up environment to bring out the best in what each equipment can offer. This is clearly a reflection of the passion from the people behind AV Design. As for me, the only thing left on my wish list is for them to have an analogue turntable source to satisfy my innate craving. I am certainly looking forward towards reviewing the Harman suite of equipment.

James, I will be Bach (since you didn't have any Bach in your Bryston).

Equipment demo-ed
TAD D600 CD player - RM168,000
TAD C2000 pre-amplifier - RM148,000
TAD power amplifier - RM132,000
TAD CR-1 Mk 2 speakers - RM165,000

AV Designs Sdn Bhd
H-2-6, Block H, Boulevard Business Park, No.115, Jalan Kepayang
Contact : +6036241 1237