Received my TA-2020 from ebay china, in just under 4 weeks. Arrived well-packed, in good shape, and accompanied by the power supply i'd separately ordered. (cost me approx USD 70, plus Rs. 300 that the postal dept took as duty)
The only speakers I had lying around at the time were these aged but decent (and slightly boomy) sony bookshelves that are usually tied to my computer thru an Akai amp.
I can safely say that i've never, ever heard those speakers sound that way. It was just as psychotropic reported. Warm, detailed; exact and well-staged. And clean. So clean!
These were 6 ohm spkrs so power suffered, but with the right source, the sound was loud enough. I tried this as a setup for a cd source, bluray (on the laptop), ipod touch and the digital cable box signal.
I heard everything from vintage clapton to beastie boys to mj with stops at floyd, ccr, WA phoenix, and excursions to AR rahman and SEL etc. A Maclaughlin album i didn't like before fully tripped me out.
The good: Waaaay better than anything i've heard at that price. Well built. Simple. Perfect for a tight stereo setup in my study (i'm fantasising about an LP setup now).
The umm: The transparency and accuracy mean that every flaw in the source (including low-bitrate mp3) was apparent. The IDT sound processing app on my laptop that i previously thought was ineffectual, finally showed what damaging shapes it was giving to the music.
The bad: with weak sources (or non-leveled mp3s) the output was low. Of course, the inefficient speakers were to blame for that too.
All the low-end oomph and muscle that constitutes 'experience' wasn't there. I don't see this being useful in a TV or gaming setup (unless you want to tell exactly where the footsteps in counterstrike are coming from!)
And the usual, very limited options for input and output.
I will head out this weekend, amp in tow, to request the ever-resourceful Rishi at Alliance4 to find me a matching pair of speakers.
This cost less than one night out at sports bar. There's no reason not to have one!
