New Speakers -- Taylo Reference Monitors

Early B.

This must be new speaker day 'cause my Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference Monitors arrived today. These are my "dream speakers" -- been wanting them for about a year now. I'm breaking them in as we speak. These speakers will be used in my 2-channel system and on my HT system. Since we only watch 3-4 movies per month, I'm just gonna carry the speakers into the other room and hook them up to the receiver when it's time to watch a movie. It'll only take two minutes to do that. I decided to sell my HT fronts and 2-channel fronts to fund the purchase of the Taylos. Going for quality, not quantity.

More to come...

dorokusai

Very nice.

cfrizz

LOL You beat me to it Zero!

dorokusai

This is a pair in Cherry....

Early B.

I'll snap some pics tomorrow and post them. Got the ribbon mahogany. They're huge!!

mldennison

very nice, i have been thinking about something from tyler for my next purchase, little uneasy since i would not be able to listen first. please do let us know how you like them.

Early B.

OK, here's a pic:

EricT43

Nice-looking speakers (nice-looking amp too). How do they sound? How about a review!

steveinaz

Cool Early! Nice 2-channel setup brohampster. Is that integrated a Cary?

Joey_V

Cool 2ch setup there Earl..

For the million $ question, how do they sound?

Oh and how much?

audiobliss

Those do look like they have some awesome build quality. Believe it's the first time I've seen your equipment rack...looks like you got a nice stack of electronics! Oh, and valves, too!

Shizelbs

Totally rad.

polkyphil38

Early B. wrote:

This must be new speaker day 'cause my Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference Monitors arrived today. These are my "dream speakers" -- been wanting them for about a year now. I'm breaking them in as we speak. These speakers will be used in my 2-channel system and on my HT system. Since we only watch 3-4 movies per month, I'm just gonna carry the speakers into the other room and hook them up to the receiver when it's time to watch a movie. It'll only take two minutes to do that. I decided to sell my HT fronts and 2-channel fronts to fund the purchase of the Taylos. Going for quality, not quantity.

More to come...

Congratulations there Early. Thought I would mention that I live less than 30 miles from where Tyler Acoustics is located in Owensboro, Kentucky and I have met Ty himself. He is a very good guy and got to see first hand how he builds his speakers. Lets just say Ty's cabinetry skills are second to none. The Taylo Reference Monitors are very nice indeed--you lucky guy you....LOL!!! The absolute best speakers I have heard to date are the Linbrook Signature Monitors with the MTM design. Heck they weigh in at 55 lbs. each and the sound is just amazing. One thing is for sure and that is Ty knows how to build a speaker---in other words Ty is the real deal if you know what I mean.

Early B.

steveinaz wrote:

Cool Early! Nice 2-channel setup brohampster. Is that integrated a Cary?

Nope. Jolida 502A.

audiobliss

That sure is an interesting strip outlet/power line conditioner you have on the bottom shelf. Never seen one flat with the outlets on top like that.

Early B.

audiobliss wrote:

That sure is an interesting strip outlet/power line conditioner you have on the bottom shelf. Never seen one flat with the outlets on top like that.

It's just a budget Acoustic Research power conditioner I bought recently at Best Buy for $40. Made of plastic, but actually looks OK. Works fine.

Early B.

Well, I wanted to put some time towards listening to the Taylos before I wrote a mini review, but I’ll go ahead and provide a few preliminary comments. I was interested in Tyler Acoustics because I wanted to acquire highly regarded speakers built with the highest quality parts at an “affordable” price. The Taylos fit this description, so I finally took the plunge and bought a pair. Glad I did.

I’ll start by talking about aesthetics. It’s a big and beautiful speaker. Mine is ribbon mahogany, although I expected more of a ribbony look. If you look closely (at the bottom) you can tell that they were hand finished. Notice that the speakers do not come with holes for the grilles. This is for aesthetic purposes. What’s odd, though, is if I decide to use the grilles, I’d have to attach them to the baffle via stick & peel Velcro pieces. This is the only low quality aspect of the speaker, but it is inconsequential because most people would rather show off the Seas Millennium driver with its pure copper phase plug. Sweet.

I’d say the most important aspect of the Taylos is clarity. The instruments are more realistic, most notably the cymbals and piano. The cymbals simply sizzle. And if a triangle is struck, it sounds like someone actually struck it from inside the room. The clarity is more evident on some CDs than others, and even on some songs on the same CD and not others. Because the music is cleaner, I can pick out all of the instruments. While listening, I find myself identifying specific instruments, whereas in the past I didn’t bother to notice. This is particularly evident in the upright bass which often gets lost behind the guitars, pianos and drums.

The Taylos are very laid back, IMO. The vocals are slightly recessed, but very natural. The specs indicate that the Taylos dig down to 44 Hz, but they sound like they go deeper than that. I have a sub currently hooked up, but whenever I engage the sub, there’s no reason for it to be on. Therefore, no subwoofer is needed. In fact, the bass on the Taylos sounds just as good and sometimes better than the sub I used to own (Onix Rocket UFW-10). Highs are totally non-fatiguing. To illustrate, I put on Anita Baker’s latest CD because it is poorly mastered and extremely bright, so much so that I couldn’t listen to it. I don’t know how they did it, but the Taylos scrubbed off the brightness and made listening to the CD quite pleasurable.

There’s a small toggle switch in the back of each speaker. The switch in the up position is the normal position. The down position engages a filter that takes the 600-1200hz range down about 3 db. This supposedly works well at louder volumes. I haven’t experimented with the switch, so just leave it in the normal position.

Bottom line – the Taylos simply provide more realism to the music. For the price/performance ratio, the Taylos gotta be at the top of the heap. Look at it this way – the Scanspeak Revelator 9900 Tweeter costs $208 ea. and the Seas Millennium Magnesium 7” driver costs $160 ea. for total cost of $736 (I paid only a “few” dollars more than this for a slightly used pair). The crossover also uses very high quality components such as Hovland Musicaps and Alpha-Core inductors. In other words, it would have cost me more money than I paid to build these speakers from scratch. That’s value, my friends. Plus, customer service is exemplary. What else can you ask for?

My plan was to buy a high quality set of speakers that would be tough to justify a future speaker upgrade. With the purchase of the Taylos, I believe I achieved that goal.


Edit: I should add that the speakers are powered by a Jolida SJ502A integrated tube amp (60 wpc) and a badass Bada tube CD player. Placement sucks -- 1 foot from back wall (windows, ugghh). It's the best I can do in that room. The Taylos will also be used as my HT fronts in the den. I'll experiment with 2-channel in the den (a larger room). More placement options are available in that room. If they sound better, I may relocate the 2-channel system.

opus

Very nice set up Early, That is a cool looking audio rack.

EricT43

Looks like a VTI rack to me. I have one too, very good for the price.

unbridled_id

I have had tyler bookmarked for a long time. Really interested in his products, if I was able to I would purchase the used Linbrook Signature Monitors in a heartbeat...

Lsi9

Congrats! they look like nice speakers,
I have two questions that you might be able to answer...1st I guess you didn't audition the speakers first, what convinced you to go for them besides the build quality, secondly did you ask how the copper on the driver is not effected by exposure, and what Polks or speakers did you have before?
Thanks

Early B.

Lsi9 wrote:

Congrats! they look like nice speakers,
I have two questions that you might be able to answer...1st I guess you didn't audition the speakers first, what convinced you to go for them besides the build quality, secondly did you ask how the copper on the driver is not effected by exposure, and what Polks or speakers did you have before?
Thanks

1. No, I did not audition them first. What sold me on the speakers were the consumer reviews (4.92 out of 5 with 50 reviews on www.audioreview.com), price, aesthetics, customer service, and the quality of the components.

2. I thought about the copper phase plug oxidizing, but I won't worry about it until/unless it happens.

3. The speakers I used before have been Norh 5.1, Polk Lsi7's, Polk RTi10, Polk RTi70, Polk Rti38, Polk RTi28, Soliloquy 5.3's, Rega Naos, and a few others.

Lsi9

Thanks for the quick response, Im in the market for speakers in the same price/class range...and I do indeed like a lot of aspects on your Taylos, some more reveiws in the future would be helpful, thanks

Joey_V

Thought about going Tyler when I was shopping for my reference speakers at the recommendation of Joe (unbridled)...

Earl.... you got solid speakers for sure.

pjdami

Nice review and great looking setup Early. What type of bookshelf speaker stands are those? They look way cool. I like the spikes too. I'm in the market for getting some new bookshelf speaker stands and I think I would like the brand that you have there. Thanks.

tryrrthg

The speakers look pretty sweet. High quality craftsmanship for sure.

pjdami wrote:

Nice review and great looking setup Early. What type of bookshelf speaker stands are those? They look way cool. I like the spikes too. I'm in the market for getting some new bookshelf speaker stands and I think I would like the brand that you have there. Thanks.

I don't want to speak for Early, but they appear to be Parts Express Stands. They appear to be nice stands for the money. I think PE has caught on too, they used to sell for well under $100. I just wish they sold them with a smaller top plate, not all bookshelf speakers are that wide...

Early B.

Correct. PE speaker stands. They're excellent if you like the style of them. High quality. Each one weighs 25 lbs. Can be filled with sand or buck shot. I bought it mainly for the large top plate and the price. PE sometimes puts them on sale or offers free shipping.

pjdami

Early B. wrote:

Correct. PE speaker stands. They're excellent if you like the style of them. High quality. Each one weighs 25 lbs. Can be filled with sand or buck shot. I bought it mainly for the large top plate and the price. PE sometimes puts them on sale or offers free shipping.

Thanks guys. Those are awesome looking and I bet great performing stands for the price. I'm ordering some tomorrow.

F1nut

Congrats, sweet set up!

W WALDECKER

i have read nothing but good things about Tyler Acoustics loudspeakers. enjoy! thanks....WCW III

Early B.

Put some more listening time in them yesterday and have a couple more comments I'd like to add. In terms of bass, I mentioned that I don't need a subwoofer. I listen mainly to jazz and for me the bass is fine, but if you play bass heavy music you'll certainly need a sub with the Taylos.

I am continuing to enjoy the speakers as I listen to them. It took a little bit of adjusting to them because they have changed my reference for what good speakers ought to sound like. Again, all I can say is that the music is extremely realistic and detailed. It's quite evident with piano solos. So far there have been two or three songs that sound entirely different. I've noticed, however, that a couple of songs sound worse than they did before. The speakers must be more revealing with some of my less than stellar recordings.

I also realized last night that they need a little more power. I turned up the volume on my Jolida beyond the 12 o'clock setting (I've never had to do that), and the Taylos sucked it up without getting much louder. If I played music loudly, I'd probably have to search for a more powerful amp.

Overall, the Taylos are a major improvement. I feel like I crossed over into another level of performance. That's bittersweet 'cause I'm already thinking about cable and component upgrades. Damn.