The 45Ds are the flagship of the Tocaro Loudspeaker brand. You can hear them at The Rocky Mountain Audio Festival 2012 in room 542. You can also hear them at our showroom in Austin Texas.
Here's a close-up view of the 45D's high-frequency driver.Announcing the arrival of the new Tocaro 45D Loudspeakers from Gütersloh, Germany!
We've been offering the Tocaro 40 Loudspeakers since 2008 (Austin Hifi is the U.S. importer and distributor), so naturally we were very excited to hear the new D-Series drivers (which are now standard-issue in The Tocaro 45D, The 42D and the 40D Loudspeakers. Owners of pre-D-Series Tocaro Loudspeakers can upgrade their speakers to D-Series specs. Contact us for details!)
The verdict? The D-Series Tocaro drivers do just about everything better than their already-impressive C-Series predecessors. More bass. Clearer highs. Better timing. As one listener said: "Damn, it sounds like music in here!"
The Tocaro 45D Loudspeakers each have twin 10-inch drivers with independent chambers (the bottom driver's chamber is ported while the middle driver's chamber is not.) The 45D Loudspeakers also employ the new Tocaro 5-inch high-frequency driver built around a proprietary laminated wood membrane (see picture above!) Overall sensitivity is 103dB/2.83V/m.
The 45D uses no electrical crossover or filtering and there are three pair of speaker terminals so that the 45Ds may be used with one, two, or three amplifiers. All internal wiring is Crimson Audio Cable.
The overall height of the Tocaro 45D Loudspeakers (with stands, which are included, and are an essential part of the sound of the 45D) is 50 3/4". They're 17 3/4" wide and 13 3/4" deep and are available in a variety of finishes.
Tocaro Loudspeakers are entirely hand-built. The 10-inch driver membranes are made by hand from raw cellulose. The cabinets and stands are made from hand-selected beechwood. There are some terrific photos of the Tocaro Loudspeaker factory in Gütersloh at Tocaro's own page on the subject.
But, of course, the sound is everything, so let's get to that. First of all, if you've been listening to "conventional" high-end speakers, the 45Ds are going to take a little getting used to. Just remember: they're getting you closer to the sound of real music and further from a polite, reserved simulacrum of same. They've got enormous scale, great pitch-definition, excellent timing and impressive dynamics. And as an added bonus, they'll play loud as heck if you want them to. These are extremely revealing loudspeakers that have an amazing way of "digging deep down into" recordings.
A note about amplifiers: usually when people (especially hifi magazine reviewers!) talk about high-efficiency loudspeakers, they say that you should use a low-powered amplifier. And while you can use a low powered SET amplifier with the Tocaro 45D Loudspeakers (did we mention their 103dB sensitivity rating?), we use and recommend (and import and distribute!) the incredible 175-watt Crimson 640E-III Monoblock amplifiers. which will allow you to experience all the scale and dynamics that the Tocaro 45D Loudspeakers can dish out.
