News Release：Pioneer to Release Professionally Acclaimed TAD Brand Speaker System to the Consumer Market

TAD-M1

June 18, 2003, Tokyo, Japan - Pioneer Corporation has announced today that it will release the TAD brand speaker system for the first time to the consumer market in October this year. With the suggested retail price of ¥3,000,000 a piece, Pioneer plans to sell 10 pieces a month in Japan.

The TAD brand of speakers for professional use is recognized as the world's leading brand of studio monitor speakers. Consequently, TAD units are the speakers of choice in recording studios around the world. Since they first appeared in the US in 1978 (1981 in Japan), TAD speaker units have been used in many of the world's major recording studios. And over these past 25 years they have earned extremely high kudos from a large number of top artists for reliability and quality as monitor speakers for recording and digital remastering.

Pioneer has further refined the high-performance technology of TAD professional speakers and developed the TAD-M1 consumer-use system to optimize performance for making full use of advanced music software, such as DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD). The TAD-M1 speaker system is the first TAD brand product aimed at the consumer market.

Audio technology has been undergoing change from analog to digital (CD), and in recent years, formats of dramatic performance (with large bandwidth and wide dynamic range) such as DVD-Audio and SACD have appeared. This is an extremely revolutionary development in the history of the art of sound reproduction, a field that has long dreamed of recreating sound as it exists in the natural world. The possibility of realizing true audio reproduction has emerged as a result of these new formats. To richly reproduce the performance of recordings in these formats, play- back equipment also needed to meet stringent new demands. Speaker systems have a particularly vital role to play as the final interface between the performing artist and listener. They need to deliver absolutely superior performance in the areas of large bandwidth and wide dynamic range. The time has thus come for the TAD brand technology with its overwhelming reputation for high performance in the demanding world of professionals to meet new consumer demands.

The TAD-M1 is a combination of TAD's dedication to superior audio technology for pro- fessionals and the company's assiduous attention to advance basic technological elements of large bandwidth and wide dynamic range designs for consumer use. The TAD-M1 is a new reference speaker system of the 21st century for consumers in the high-end audio market.

Main Features

1 ) CST Coaxial Unit

CST(Coherent Source Transducer) is a coaxial speaker technology that controls the phase and directivity of the drive unit across a broad frequency spectrum. By employing a tweeter that is mounted concentrically within a shallow midrange cone, the phasing and off-axis response problems of conventional drivers are eliminated.

2 ) 16cm Beryllium Diaphragm

Beryllium has been used for both the mid-range and tweeter diaphragms. This light and rigid metal, Beryllium performs with strength and damping characteristics unmatched by any of the materials currently used in high-end audio speakers. This produces near-perfect piston behavior in the speaker, resulting in cleaner sound and greater accuracy of reproduction.

3 ) OFGMS Magnetic Circuit for the Woofer and Mid-range Bass

A short-voice-type OFGMS (Optimized Field Geometry Magnet Structure) magnetic circuit has been newly developed for these speaker units. The density of the magnetic flux in the long gap of 37 mm (in the woofer) has been made uniform, and a voice coil has been placed inside the consistently uniform magnetic gap (patent pending) to ensure stable operation, even during large amplitude, and to reproduce the waveform correctly without limitations imposed by the amplitude. A tri-laminate composite cone diaphragm has been newly developed to obtain ideal physicality, including structural strength, for the woofer and mid-range bass. This enables clear, rich bass and a gentle mid-range bass reproduction, with free of coloration.

4 ) SILENT Enclosure for Beautiful Sound as well as Beautiful Style

The enclosure is a vital element in shaping the sound image and sound space. TAD's structurally inert, laminated enclosure technology (SILENT) refers to a bass enclosure uniquely constructed from more that 50 individually machined layers of high-quality laminated Birch. This complex design and integrally cross-braced construction eliminates flexing and is immune to the high forces and pressures exerted by the bass drivers.

5 ) ISO (Isolation) Drive, to bring out accurate, precise strength in sound

TAD's proprietary ISO Drive technology enables the vibration energy produced by the midrange driver to be isolated from the cabinet. This results in significantly decreased contribution to the sound field from the undesirable vibration of the cabinet, and improves the resolution of fine detail.

Main Specification