Review TAD CE1TX monitor – off the scale

The Sound

What does a “monitor” speaker from TAD sound like? Well: clean. Really everything comes at us without any distraction or coloration. Partly because of this, it’s immediately clear that TAD has one foot in the studio. We could mix and master perfectly on these speakers. Every layer is audible and trackable. And without any effort on our part. It’s an experience we wish everyone had once.

Layering

Now we again mention layering. Something we also described in the review of the TAD Evolution 2. It is – we estimate – a characteristic of a TAD speaker. And it’s something your author finds incredibly important. After all, it gives a nice glimpse into the music. It lets you hear what a song is made of…. the structures. the interplay. For your author, it brings out the soul in the music. So if a speaker can reproduce that well, that’s a big plus. A TAD does that very nicely. And I’m sure there will be other speakers that can do it beautifully as well.

Sound balance

Do not expect a spectacle of sparkling treble and roaring bass when you press ‘Play’. If that is what you are looking for, you can skip this TAD and look at other brands that might offer that. The TAD is not a carnival attraction and mostly brings balance and calmness to the reproduction. However, as previously reported in an opinion piece by your author, don’t confuse this with boring. For the TAD CE1TX is anything but boring. Indeed, it is a reproducer that lets us look incredibly deep into the music. And we find that very fascinating. The point with this monitor is that it never tires and everything remains very correct. The bass, mids and treble flow perfectly together so you really feel that there is one unit playing. So is this the ideal point source, but in a 3-way configuration?

Because of the fine balance across the spectrum and the calmness with which this speaker knows how to present itself, practically everything can be played. We have played Mammal Hands, Amélie, Radiohead, Massive Attack and Bjorn Riis, for example. The great thing is that the system moves completely with the music. The TAD E2 already does that, but the CE1TX manages to do so with even more conviction. It is also clear after a few tracks that the CE1TX is a class above the E2’s. There is really more resolution and the CE1TX is clearly even more neutral in the midrange. That’s not a bad thing: you get what you pay for…. right?

Imaging

Finally, a word about imaging. Now we are already quite used to stereo imaging. The TAD E2s do that very nicely and also the Focal Sopra No1 was very precise with the placement of voices. The E2s play a bit bigger, especially on the Pass Labs X150.8 which can create a wonderful music-bubble. The TAD CE1TX takes it up a notch. It is not bigger than the E2s in our room, but what is immediately noticeable is how tight and – very strange perhaps – clean the imaging is. It’s incredibly sharp and bizarrely stable. That helps enormously with the sense of realism. When Julia Stone is singing in front of me I would almost believe that she is really standing there. Yes… cliché, but very much true. It’s realy beautiful!