I know it’s only been a day (4 hours today and I think 2 hours yesterday), but I wanted to record some of my thoughts 1st impressions before I forget and before the weekend is over. Day 1, first 2 hours, I really was so impressed by the Tiny Radial that I considered buying another Decware speaker with something like the Oliver Sayes 26 / 46 dht tube amp. Day 2, when I really sat down and listened, my excitement died down a little bit, it went from “OMG ITS REALLY GOOD” to “this is pretty nice”. I think my excitement died down when I turn on my Polk R200 speakers and the presentation is nothing alike. I guess you really don’t know what you are missing until you hear it or in my case, are reminded of it.
- Here is my first impression of Tom Stanley’s Tiny Radial Speaker without a subwoofer and in desktop presentation (not near-field):
Setup is ROON Rock - Intel NUC 7i7 > EMM NS1 > Mystique Evo B4B 21 > Nitsch Magni Piety > Schiit Rekkr > Tom Stanley’s Tiny Radial Speakers
Sound is more on the neutral bright side in my current setup to me. My volume preference is low gain, probably like 80% on the Magni Piety on local files. When listening to Qobuz classical orchestra in Roon, I use high gain probably like 60% - 80%.
Pros:
- Midrange is a little smooth
- Imaging is amazing
- Soundstage gets pretty deep and gets pretty 3D
- Small footprint making it perfect for desktop use
Cons:
- Do not want to play a real loud volume (max volume low gain for my Magni Piety) as bass would sound more distorted
- Don’t want to get too far from these. Prefer to be a lot closer like 1.5 - 2 feet because I can feel the bass more. Further away from that, the bass becomes too thin and non-existent.
- Compared to my other under $1K speaker, the Polk R200, the resolution isn’t quite good compared to the R200. But honestly, the average price is like maybe $500 new and about $250 used, the resolution is absolutely fantastic for price to performance ratio. They probably scale a lot better with a better power amp/pre-amp combo since I am using the Rekkr/Magni Piety combo for this vs the R200 have the Vidar 2/Supratek 45 combo.
Notes:
- You don’t want to play it too low because the notes will lack weight and you do not want to play too loud because the bass will distort. You want a “sweet” spot in terms of volume.
- You want to be very close to them, I prefer to be right in front of them about 1.5 feet. One of my other favorite positions is to just put them between my head lol. The soundstage gets huge (mainly height) and resolution gets better when the speakers are between my head.
- 1 thing I really like using the Tiny Radials as as desktop speakers is when I stare into my computer monitor, it feels like I can put my head through it and it’s a whole new world in there like Narnia with the wardrobe. I honestly get that same feeling with my Polk R200 with my TV, so maybe that is just a regular speaker trait or my DAC trait…
- Schiit Rekkr gets decently warm when paired with the Tiny Radials
Comparing the Tom Stanley Tiny Radials to my Polk R200 is day and night in performance. I think desktop listening is just a whole another listening experience compared to near-field and it’s not fair to compare if your preference is near-field. Next weekend if I am not too busy, will probably try the Tiny Radial with a better preamp which is my Supratek 45 DHT Preamp, and in a near-field position basically where my Polk R200 is. I will also try to give the Tiny Radial a slight edge by adding a subwoofer to it. I honestly don’t think the Polk R200 needs a subwoofer, but that might be fun to try out…
Conclusion:
Overall from this quick first impression, I think the Tiny Radials are really good for the price you get them for (in my case, FREE). I also think they are perfect for casual use like YouTube watching and desktop purposes with their small footprint and low power usage. It doesn’t get too loud, so the sound won’t travel too far in your house and cause a ruckus with whoever you live with. But, for some reason, it does sound really huge when you are very close to the Tiny Radials. Match it with the Schiit Rekkr and Nitsch Magni Piety, and it’s really hard to beat this low-price performance lol. This is without a subwoofer, so my impression of these may raise quite a lot after listening to them with subwoofer. I’m getting a cheap subwoofer sometime next week, so I will probably try to get more listening sessions with the Tiny Radial to see how drastic a difference adding a subwoofer to these makes. Whatever outcome happen after I listen to these as a near-field speaker, I will 100% still use these as a desktop speaker because I can’t really think of anything better than these in terms of pricing, power usage, small footprint, and sound quality I get.
I also wanted to add this note for future me, my favorite presentation is currently Near-Field, so pretty excited to try the Tiny Radials next weekend in a Near-Field Position with subwoofer!
- Designer Notes I found from his posts:
User Question: “What do you use for driver(s) in your radial speaker? One, two, full range, co-axial ??”
Maker Reply:
Tang Band T2-2136SA Full Range Speaker Module 2-3/4" x 2-3/4"?
"Full range. A gentleman on here asked if I could build them, you can find them by searching for DecWare mini radials. On that site they offer plans, Bom, etc. I changed the angle on the cabinet design and prefer the bass I get. If you ever wanted to build a set I could make the cabinets for you, after that they go together fairly easily. I make my own tops and bottoms otherwise DecWare sells them. They benefit greatly if you add a small subwoofer or even a Loki or Lokius.
The cabinet cuts are not easy and I developed my own methods to do that. The DecWare site has videos of their builds in case you want to see how tricky the cabinets are to make."
A cool note from the creator of the Decware Tiny Radial:
^ I think I want to try this one day lol. I guess the Tiny Radial really do sound their best close to the user.
