The Canadian winter hits hard here in Ottawa, where I live. From mid-December to mid-March snow is a near-constant companion to us, punctuated by occasional major snowstorms. We call those events snow days—sporadic snow flurries don’t really count here. Despite great advances in weather forecasting, the time of onset of such storms all too often eludes accurate prediction. Two of this January’s heavy snowfalls seemed set to foil my hi-fi adventures.
Arrival of the new speaker of the house
In early January, a pair of Treble Clef Audio TCA-M loudspeakers arrived at my home for review. These are no ordinary speakers, a fact strongly hinted by the two massive all-wood crates they came in, each weighing around 200 pounds. (Not a particularly heavy box, as a matter of fact, considering that the speaker inside weighs 187 pounds.) Unboxing these speakers and moving them into my living room (my main-floor listening room) was a challenge I couldn’t tackle alone. This much was obvious.
With no neighborhood help immediately available, I turned to Chris Chitaroni, our chief videographer, and Jorden Guth, also a videographer and our podcast host. Chris joined me in Denmark last October to film some footage for videos on Treble Clef Audio and its ambitious TCA-M speaker, so he already knew what we were up against. (A video featuring TCA’s founder and designer Ole Siig talking about the company and the TCA-M loudspeaker is now available on our YouTube channel.) Jorden was unable to join us on that trip—he and his wife were expecting their third child at the time—but he was eager to hear the TCA-Ms in action; of all the products introduced to us in 2024, this was the one that excited him most.
Unfortunately, Chris and Jorden were unable to come to my rescue right away, and the TCA-M pair had to remain in their crates for about a week in my garage. The big day arrived with no snow in the forecast, but nature had other plans. A heavy snowfall began just before we set out to transport the crates from the garage to the front door, and a thick layer had blanketed the sloping driveway by the time we attempted the move—an extra layer of difficulty.
We made it safely to the front door, where it became apparent that attempting to pass those crates through would most likely damage the doorframe. We had no choice but to unpack each speaker right there, out on the doorstep—Treble Clef Audio’s packaging was decidedly up to the task—and wrangle them in. Thankfully, the TCA-Ms come equipped with casters that allowed us to roll them once inside, after assembly. We placed the two speakers in the living room, adjusted their positions to be as close to optimal as we could without testing, and then swapped the casters for sturdy metal footers.
Standing back to reap the fruits of our labor, we gazed in awe at the TCA-Ms’ stunning physical presence. Photos don’t do justice to these speakers. Of course, we expected to be impressed given their price, $103,900 a pair in the United States, but their visual impact far exceeded our expectations. The TCA-M’s statuesque shape must be among the most extraordinary ever divined: a stylized treble-clef form constructed of thick aluminum, which serves as a framework supporting the driver enclosures, all handcrafted in wood—bowling-pin-like tweeter and midrange enclosures in the top part, opposing hemispheric woofer enclosures in the lower part (a patented configuration TCA calls a folded dipole). According to a recent visitor, a speaker designer himself, who carefully examined this structure, it is a complex and expensive one to machine.
The TCA-M’s frame is available in powder-coated black or brushed aluminum, and several finish options are available for the bass enclosures. Ole Siig, having seen pictures of my living room, had suggested that the brushed aluminum frame with the walnut driver enclosures would look best. I thought so too, and it was a pair of TCA-Ms in this finish combination that now graced my living room.
By the time we had the speakers all set up, Chris had to leave, but Jorden stayed a little longer, eager to hear what these speakers sound like.
First impressions
The TCA-M is a fully active speaker, requiring neither an external amplifier nor speaker cables. It has no built-in streaming capability, and so I connected the pair to a Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamp using the XLR analog input on each speaker. The TCA-M converts the analog signal from the preamp to digital using an onboard 32-bit analog-to-digital converter, processes the digital stream through a DSP for crossover and frequency tuning, and sends the resultant signal to three onboard Pascal amplifiers: one for the tweeter, one for the midrange, and one for the two woofers. Ethernet (RJ45) and AES-EBU (XLR) connections are also available for a pure digital signal path, but I’ve yet to use them.
Jorden, always curious, dove into the speakers’ mini-touchscreens to explore their settings, among which he found multiple preset frequency-response curves tailored to different room sizes. We started with the one intended for a small room, but in my 16′ × 18′ living room it was too light on the bass. Switching to the large-room preset unleashed an overwhelming low end that seemed to set the whole room vibrating, plausibly reaching down to the 18Hz the speaker is rated to deliver. Not only was the bass too much for the room, it was also obscuring the frequencies above. We finally settled on a middle-ground preset, which balanced deep bass with overall clarity. Other presets are available and await experimentation, but for now, I am staying with this preset to establish a sonic standard—a reference against which to assess the effect of altering this and other settings.
Jorden and I played several familiar tracks, and the TCA-Ms didn’t disappoint, delivering prodigious bass, balanced tonality, and impressively high volume. My initial impressions are promising, and as I continue to explore the TCA-M’s performance envelope, I will have more specific assessments—stay tuned for a full review.
A winter jaunt and all that jazz
Back in December, musician David Chesky invited me to a concert his trio was going to give on January 23 at Bourgie Hall, a converted church and part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The program included selections from the trio’s latest album, The Great European Songbook. My wife was interested in joining me, and we looked forward to it, a pleasant, relaxing musical outing.
On the day of the concert, reassured by a favorable forecast, we left Ottawa late in the afternoon, expecting the usual two-hour drive to Montreal. Halfway through our drive, however, heavy snow began falling, and our progress became alarmingly slow. Ordinarily, I would have pulled over to wait out the storm; but now, running late, this wasn’t an option. We plowed on, braving slippery, snow-covered roads, and somehow made it to the venue just a few minutes late, ready for the pleasant, relaxing part. Chesky was still introducing the program to the audience. We didn’t miss much.
The trio—Chesky on piano, Walter A. Stinson on double bass, and Jim Doxas on drums—performed jazz interpretations of well-known classical works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Johann Strauss II. Midway through, Anne Bisson, a jazz singer and former Quebec TV personality, joined in on one piece. What a memorable vocal performance that was.
Bourgie Hall is quite reflective acoustically, but it served the trio surprisingly well. Even from our seats, at the rear, there was no objectionable mingling of the instruments. The trio played loud enough for the music to feel close and intimate but not so loud as to overwhelm the space. I’ve often heard audiophiles claim that the perceived position of instruments imaged by a good stereo setup is more precise than the sonically perceived position of instruments in a live performance. I doubt this would hold true here.
After the show, I learned from Chesky that the performance had been entirely acoustic. The microphones that could be seen on the stage were there only for recording. As it happened, Quebec-based recording engineer René Laflamme, who had previously worked with Anne Bisson, asked to record the concert and Chesky was game. If the recording of this concert comes out well, it will probably be released either by one of Chesky’s own record labels, Chesky Records and The Audiophile Society, or the one of those Laflamme is involved with, Fidelio Music and 2xHD. I’d love to test it on the TCA-Ms, if I still have them, to see if they can recreate the magical acoustics of that evening. I’m sure Ole Siig will be interested in hearing it too; he’s a big jazz fan.
After the snowfall
January had some tricky weather in store for me but also some wonderful musical experiences: listening to recordings through the TCA-M speakers, with their bass-shaking power and balanced tonality, hearing those great jazz renditions of classical works and Anne Bisson live in Montreal.
The author and David Chesky
I hope that a recording of the Chesky Trio concert is released, while the TCA-Ms are still here. Having just heard this music live, reproducing it from a high-quality recording will be very helpful to my assessment of these speakers. Reliving that musical experience through them is certainly a prospect I look forward to.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com
