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Recorded run of the mill but ingenious for those who like it a bit noisier at times, on "Here comes Dudley" from Goat by the sadly long since paled Chicago noise rockers Jesus Lizard, colleague Ralph commented that the treble was more saturated and less pastel-colored than with my Thiel CS3.7. On this piece the cymbals and hi-hat routinely are overlaid with scratch noises. Though my Thiels handle this brilliantly, the Titans had such rich texture, such easeful realistic articulation that I was astonished by what this album still held hidden.

The Thiels perhaps rendered the treble a tad more pronounced and incisive yet it wasn’t any actual dose which made the difference. Tonally I couldn’t call one or the other speaker more right or pleasing. The particular forté of the Quadral was the complete tracking of endless high-frequency sustains which rendered the upper registers not only more relaxed, organic and silken but also more informative. This listener won with both cleaner and more definitive tone colors and textures. Even so compared to my microdynamically exceptionally agile Thiels, the Quadral played at an equally exalted level on matters of zing. The Titan’s treble thus really hit all of my hot buttons and had me wonder whether I’d ever heard better in this room before. Though otherwise pursuing different directions, the only speakers I could think of which were perhaps a tad crisper were the Myro Whisky and Stereokonzept’s 3. The latter’s treble might have had somewhat greater plasticity but wasn’t as microdynamically accelerated.


With ribbon, AMT or magnetostat tweeters I often think—even though it’s a very subtle thing for sure—that their special qualities protrude in particular ways to not perfectly mesh with the other drivers no matter how their celebratory press releases claim otherwise. Here Quadral’s Aurum Montain VIII, which I’d very much enjoyed at the time to affix a fairaudio’s favourite award, had struck me as separating out from the mids with a somewhat fresher treble. The Titan VIII’s uncompromising seamlessness, homogeneity and interplay between tweeter and midrange thus deserve a special mention.


Listening to this model any concerns about tonal balance and sonic integrity of the mid/treble range evaporated since nothing stuck out to have my attention bump into. What ruled was pure self-assuredness. This model thus transcended any basics to reach for higher. And I really did enjoy how wonderfully the disparate textures of Dan Treacy’s lazy vocals, clangy hi-hat and scurrilous e-guitar were sussed out on the UK combo Television Personalities’ highly commendable 1986 album Painted Word and its title track. No easy job with such music. With the volume pedal to the metal and relative to infrasonic authority I really felt like being inside a somewhat dingy but acoustically benign Berlin club live even though this really is a studio recording.



Similar live vibes arose with Worship’s "You are the one" from A Place To Bury Strangers. It was brilliant just how pressurized the shrill sawing of e-guitars flashed through the room, how vital and undiminished their distorted textures were. Though categorically edge and noisy, such fare still shouldn’t frazzle nerves but remain fun and impress in a very particular manner. That’s no task for wall flowers. Needless to say, the Titan VIII applied itself to this with true bravado.

A few more words on the bass whose full-pressure assuredness I already covered. All the way down in the first octave very close listening would discern some extra pounds. Since this was applied not in the upper bass or lower midrange and administered just so, the Titan never got into any trouble of unduly warming/thickening up the vocal range. And in case of doubt there’s always the rearward toggle to shave off 2dB. My listening session had that mostly at neutral though.