Description: Two-way, transmission-line loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1", ferrofluid-cooled, metal-dome tweeter, 6.5" plastic-cone woofer with vented poles. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Crossover slopes: first-order, high-pass; second-order, low-pass. Frequency range: 28Hz$n20kHz. Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Amplifier requirements: greater than 30W.
Dimensions: 28.5" (724mm) H (32.5", 824mm, on stands) by 9" (230mm) W by 13.2" (335mm) D. Weight: 39.5 lbs (18kg) each.
Finishes available: walnut veneer or black, with a brown grille cloth.
Price: $1445/pair (matching stands cost $180/pair) (1990); no lonmger availabel (2017). Approximate number of dealers: 37.
Manufacturer: Transducer Developments Ltd., High Wycombe, Bucks HP13 6LN, UK (1990); in 2017 the TDL brand is owned by Audio Partnership Plc. Web: www.audiopartnership.com. US Distributor: Transducer Developments Ltd., Stamford, CT 06906 (1990); no US distribution (2017). Web: www.tdl-loudspeakers.co.uk.
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COMMENTS
John, I appreciate that it's historic text but " TDL is part of ELAC, one of the most successful OEM drive-unit manufacturers in the UK".
I have always thought of ELAC as strictly German so what did you mean back then by saying ELAC was an OEM manufacturer in the UK?
Their official history makes no mention of a UK offshoot.
http://ftp.elac.com/en/elac/history.php
I have always thought of ELAC as strictly German so what did you mean back then by saying ELAC was an OEM manufacturer in the UK?
Two different ELAC companies. I am not sure if there was any business connection between the English and German ELACs.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Thanks John, that answer stirs up a distant memory of the two. It probably explains why I happened to use an ELAC drive unit in the first loudspeaker that I built aged 15 at school in London back in the 60s. Considering that the idea of tweeters and crossovers was beyond me , using imported drivers would have been inconceivable.
JA, IIRC you generally disfavored TDL designs (correct?). If so, what was your first negative experience with TDL?
JA, IIRC you generally disfavored TDL designs (correct?).
Not really. The IMF TLS 80 impressed the heck out of me when I first heard it in the 1970s - the combination of the Celestion HF1300 soft-dome tweeter and Coles 4001 supertweeter produced some of the best high frequencies I had experienced at that time. John Wright struck me back then as a very talented designer who continued that pedigree with TDL.
If so, what was your first negative experience with TDL?
It wasn't so much a negative experience with TDL but the fact that over the years I became dissatisfied with so-called "transmission-line" speakers that didn't load the woofer with a true line. Such designs almost always had a line resonance in the upper bass that colored the sound too much for my taste. This small TDL had such a problem, as revealed by the impedance trace and my auditioning comments.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Indeed. There were a number of smaller TLs but the concept doesn't scale down very well. The volume of the chamber behind the LF driver and the entry port from that chamber into the upper part of the line are critical for decoupling the line from the driver. Those dimensions are frequency-dependent while the smaller TLs, unfortunately, scaled them down in relation to the driver size. The opening at the other end of the line, conversely, was uncritical
John Wright was gracious to send me his notes on the TLS80 design penciled in on a copy of his HFN article. I built a larger version of it and the KEF B139 performance was remarkably flat (although I admit to using a lower crossover than in the original).
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