Highend 2015 – SOUNDSTAGE ULTRA

"The presentation of the TIDAL Audio Akira loudspeaker was unique at High End 2015 in being fronted by an all-TIDAL system: amps, DAC, preamp -- you name it, TIDAL produces it. The advantage was that TIDAL founder Jörn Janczak could get exactly the sound he wanted, because he controlled all the variables (well, he hadn’t built the room, but he had exhibited in it before, and knows its acoustics). The sound was TIDAL’s best yet at a High End show: clear, open, ultraprecise, never harsh. 
The Akira lifted a veil from the TIDAL sound, which at High End has always been at least very good. For instance, I felt that cymbal crashes were true to life, without the whitish splash that many speakers produce. Another hallmark of the design was the perfect blend of the five drivers’ outputs, with no hint that disparate drive-units were handling different parts of the audioband. 
Imaging? Superb: a Norah Jones and Willie Nelson track produced accurately formed images on a wall-to-wall soundstage. That track also made clear that the Akiras were tonally neutral, reproducing these singers’ distinctive voices without wavering. And their room-energizing bass showed that the Akiras had real dynamic punch when that was needed. My takeaway: TIDAL’s best speaker yet, and by no small margin." (Jeff Fritz, Soundstageultra.com)