Some on the forum know I received a pair of Tocaro 42E speakers in trade for a Border Patrol 300B amp. My trading partner and I became fast friends and he agreed to sell me a pair of 211 amps he had built in Vietnam along with the matching EL55 preamp. Both the amp are overbuilt and would probably cost 50k and 15k respectively if they were commercially available. This was basically the system he was using before getting a pair of 211 amps with custom silver transformers to drive a pair of horns he built around the AER BD3 drivers.
I read both good and bad things about the Tocaro online. If you don;t know the speaker it's an interesting two driver crossover-less design that draws inspiration from the highly regarded (and long gone) Rehdeko speakers. The speakers are far from optimally in my way too small 12x12 office. Despite that, I can tell they are quite revealing of upstream gear and using the right audio files they sound like live music. No, they're way overmatched on big scale stuff like some of the 70s rock I like and probably on large orchestral recordings (though I haven't tested them on that because I'm not a big classical fan). However on smaller groups and solo acts (Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Lightnin Hopkins, etc.) it's almost as if real musicians are in the room. There is a purity to them that I haven't heard often, certainly in part because these tube electronics are more free of artifacts than anything I have heard. Disclaimer, I have not heard the crazy expensive Aries Cerat, LAMM or Audio Note gear, but the seller told me that his buddy got rid of his Audio Note Kondos when his custom-built 211 amps arrived. He said the Kondos were terrific and romantic sounding but that these 211s were more neutral. I've never heard them side-by-side so I can't say and historically I've liked romantic over neutral.
Anyway, I hope forum members found this interesting. There's really not out there on these speakers.
Cheers from S. Florida
p.s. I apologize the room is a mess because I have been testing interconnects and speaker cables trying to get just the right match. I tell my wife to just close the door when I'm not in here so she doesn't have to see it.
I read both good and bad things about the Tocaro online. If you don;t know the speaker it's an interesting two driver crossover-less design that draws inspiration from the highly regarded (and long gone) Rehdeko speakers. The speakers are far from optimally in my way too small 12x12 office. Despite that, I can tell they are quite revealing of upstream gear and using the right audio files they sound like live music. No, they're way overmatched on big scale stuff like some of the 70s rock I like and probably on large orchestral recordings (though I haven't tested them on that because I'm not a big classical fan). However on smaller groups and solo acts (Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Lightnin Hopkins, etc.) it's almost as if real musicians are in the room. There is a purity to them that I haven't heard often, certainly in part because these tube electronics are more free of artifacts than anything I have heard. Disclaimer, I have not heard the crazy expensive Aries Cerat, LAMM or Audio Note gear, but the seller told me that his buddy got rid of his Audio Note Kondos when his custom-built 211 amps arrived. He said the Kondos were terrific and romantic sounding but that these 211s were more neutral. I've never heard them side-by-side so I can't say and historically I've liked romantic over neutral.
Anyway, I hope forum members found this interesting. There's really not out there on these speakers.
Cheers from S. Florida
p.s. I apologize the room is a mess because I have been testing interconnects and speaker cables trying to get just the right match. I tell my wife to just close the door when I'm not in here so she doesn't have to see it.
