# TBI Mobile Sound - Sold your soul, eh?



## Spasticteapot (Mar 5, 2007)

Let's have a look at some of their products.




DIYMA said:


> Into an 8 ohm load the MILLENIA MG3 amplifier provides 8 watts of power per channel at less than 1% distortion and 10 W at 10% with controlled clipping recovery when operating on 8 internal AA batteries. When using the AC power supply, which provides twice the voltage of the battery, this unique product delivers 32 W of power per channel for musical passages at less than 1% distortion while having a maximum power rating of 40 W at 10%. High quality gold binding posts assure that you can use your favorite termination and cable to deliver this quality sound to your speakers.
> DIYMA


1%? 10%? What is this, 1939? A Sonic Impact T-amp will distort much less, and is conveniently $440 cheaper. 

Next, let's look at their speakers.










That is a 3" fullrange driver with a pressed metal frame. It's used in their $400/pair Majestic Diamond I speakers, and, as likely as not, the $600/pair Majestic Diamond IRs. It looks physically identical to the ones in my $10 Durabrand HT speakers. I'm pretty sure it is.


Now, let's examine some of the text for the Diamond Audio I speakers. There's a lot of meaningless jargon about how excellent these speakers are, which is to be expected from any manufacturer. There are, however, a few points of interest.



> Wide Dispersion Listening With No Lobing


All fullrange drivers beam to some extent, and for good reason - the difference in distance between each side of the cone when standing off-axis causes phase cancellation at some frequencies. 



> 35Hz – 20Khz +/- 6db (room boundary reinforcement)


This means that some frequencies will be more than twice as loud as others. WTF?



> Useful Bass Response To Below 30 Hz


From a 3" driver? You have to be kidding me!

_And my favorite of all..._


> HDSS® Certified


Guess who owns the trademark on HDSS?

(NOTE: TBI submitted that information to Reuters, just in case you're wondering.)

There's also the issue of their ETL system, which sound rather similar to another companies' "Acoustic Waveguide Technology". While you may well have a transmission line in there, I severely doubt it will have the magical effects on high-frequency response and breakup that you promise. 

I'm sorry, but I have to call foul - this looks like rubbish!


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## Spasticteapot (Mar 5, 2007)

Autiophile said:


> I started quoting certain sections about the amp but realized I was going to bold most of the description. Read for yourself.


I found myself doing exactly the same thing.

They should've gone somewhere else. This forum is intended for people with the engineering knowledge necessary to read between the lines.


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## benny (Apr 7, 2008)

Seems like TBI is on the other end of the spectrum from most DIYMA-people. *cough*snakeoil*cough*

I could build a 3886 chipamp and a set of fullrange single driver t-lines for A LOT cheaper than their little package system.


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

After reading this I just hit myself over the head with an "electronic crowbar"


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