tSc TSAT-1000-HT8-B Listening Tests

Two Channel Listening - Nearfield Computer System

CD: A Special Tribute to Pink Floyd
What do you get when you mix in a group of rock legends such as Tony Levin from King Crimson, Tommy Shaw from Styx and Chris Squire from Yes? A tribute CD to Pink Floyd that not only at moments arguably rivals the original instrumentally, but also sonically. The vocals sounded a bit thin on track #1 “Money” which is to be expected with a small satellite speaker like this. This is why I highly recommend running dual subs on systems like these placed up front close to the satellites and equidistant from the main listening area. Regardless, tonal balance was very good and the ASW-8 really belted out the bass line in this song. Track #4 “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” showed off the liquid smooth top end of the TSAT’s tweeter. Guitars were clean and loud and the ASW-8 sub once again complimented the TSAT’s by fill out the sound which would otherwise make these speakers unlistenable due to their lack of bottom end.

CD: Daryl Stuermer – Another Side of Genesis
Track #1 “Follow You, Follow Me” showed excellent ambience from the percussions and bass was tight and clean. Imaging was good. At times things sounded a bit congested which is typical of small systems, especially when played loudly. In this scenario, I never had any issues of bottoming out any of the drivers.

Track #10 “No Son of Mine” bass drum was surprisingly tactile. Electric guitars really screamed out and I enjoyed turning the volume up. The ASW-8 and TSATs were playing quite well together making things sound much bigger than their diminutive size would suggest.

Despite I was doing this listening in a nearfield environment where the sub was literally 3 feet away from me, it didn’t draw attention to itself because it refrained from sounding boomy or one notey like so many low priced subs. Instead, my chest was pumping with bass as I visualized the boy running from his abusive father in the classic Genesis video for this song. Darly’s guitars exploded on the scene in a way Mike Rutherford (no offense Mike but you’re a bassist) could only dream of playing. The TSATs were right at home showcasing this marvelous performance.

Multi Channel Listening - Large Home Theater Room

It was time to move the tSC system into my theater room to gauge its performance as a full fledged 5.1 system. I had low expectations for what this little system could do in my nearly 6,000ft^3 theater room and I treated it more as a spot check to ensure the system wouldn’t crap out at reasonably loud listening levels. I placed the front speakers on 32” stands, the center channel on top of my RBH Sound T-1/SER center channel and the rears on top of my chair riser elevated by some disconnected bookshelf speakers. I had to place the rubber feet on all of the speakers to keep them from moving during loud listening levels due to their low weight, smooth cabinet surface, and ability to play louder than I expected.

DVD: Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis
For Jazz lovers, this is a must have DVD. A Blu-ray version is also available which I recommend assuming you have a Blu-ray player. I started out with track #3 “The Panther” which features one of my time favorite jazz guitarists Lee Ritenour. Right from the start, I was rewarded with the deep, snappy bass I’ve come to expect from well engineered subwoofers. The ASW-8 was delivering the bass notes of Marcus Miller’s bass with aplomb. So much so that within a few minutes of really cranking it up, I got a call from my wife downstairs complaining that the ceiling was shaking and it was worrying our 21 month old daughter who kept saying “daddy boom boom”. I honestly didn’t believe a little 8” sub like this was capable of such a feat until I ran down and took a listen. The TSAT’s were doing an excellent job of reproducing all of the ambience of the venue and the reverb of Lee’s guitars. Track #4 “Senor Blues” featuring legendary jazz alto saxophone players David Sanborn and Phil Woods was up next to test out the tSc system. The system did a commendable job in recreating this performance but this time you could tell the saxophones were being played on smallish speakers. The tonal balance was good but the sound seemed a bit congested at times especially since I had recently listened to this track on my $30k RBH reference system (not exactly a fair comparison). Despite my criticism of how the saxophones sounded, the TSAT’s were playing back cymbal brushes and piano admirably.

FIOS TV Watching – Moving McAllister & The Invasion

I decided to do a little channel surfing on the premium HD channels of my Verizon FIOS service and came across two movies that had some really good sound and looked interesting enough for me to PVR for watching at a later time. During the boxing match of Moving McAllister, the tSc system did a nice job enveloping me in the ambience of the arena. A few of the punches and slams worked the ASW-8 a bit beyond its limits where I heard a slight rattling sound emanating from the port. Turning down the sub a tad helped remedy this problem and I still had good impact for movie watching.

I caught the opening scene of The Invasion staring Nicole Kidman. The TSAT’s surrounded me with the freaky inner monologue of Nicole’s voice while the camera panned around the room. Vocal clarity was good but a bit thin which is to be expected on a system as tiny as this. The space shuttle explosion seemed frighteningly real via the ASW-8 subwoofer. In general this system did nicely at captivating my attention on two movies I ordinarily wouldn’t have considered.