SpeakerTalk

CrazyRodney

Dear speaker and audio enthusiasts, Strange as it might sound, I am disappointed with the bass response of TDL Reference Standard speakers. They don’t seem to be producing the really deep bass which they are famous for. Briefly, I would like to mention the background of these speakers. I was very lucky and privileged to have been given the TDL’s last year (2013) by a long standing audio friend of mine, who no longer had room for them. My friend was a Quad 63 owner but wanted a deeper bass for organ music, so he purchased these TDL speakers back in the 1980’s as they were the only conventional speaker at that time that came close to the uncoloured sound of the Quads. Before being shipped to my new home in Sri Lanka, my friend replaced all the capacitors in the crossovers, which were supplied by Falcon in the UK. My music/home theatre room measures 28ft x 19ft x 11.6”ceiling height. With such a nice big room I expected to hear some really deep bass, but unfortunately that is not the case. I do love the natural and uncoloured sound they produce but need a bit more low bass. When I mentioned this to the friend that gave them to me, he said that his TDL’s never did quite sound as deep as was often heard wafting down the hotel corridors from the IMF demonstration room! He feels that this was due to the fact that IMF was using very large Krell amps! I contacted Jerry Bloomfield of Falcon about the lack of low bass and he suggested that I apply DOT 4 brake fluid on the neoprene bass surrounds to make them more supple, as over the years (30) they usually become a bit hard and therefore restricted the cone movement. Unfortunately, DOT 4 didn’t seem to make any difference to the bass response. My music room floor is concrete, laid with carpet, so nice and solid for the speakers and with plenty of soft furnishings to deaden the acoustics. The equipment I am using is an Oppo 105EU player, played through an Onkyo 818 receiver which had good reviews, practically for the stereo sound quality. The heavy duty speaker cables are tinned copper 12 awg, but not bi-wired. The speakers stand either side of my 10ft wide screen and about 12-18“angled in from the rear wall. My listening position is halfway down the room at about 14 ft. Any ideas what might be restricting the deep bass please. Rodney.

CrazyRodney

This is to let you readers know that I have discovered the reason for the lack of low bass on my TDL's. Two of the bass units, one from each speaker was not working. They will be going away for repairing. R.

canuckaudioguy · Junior Contributor 10+ Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 17

Glad to hear you got this sorted out.

Could you post some pictures of these rare, beastly monoliths? Smile

Gary · Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:00 pm Post subject:

Sometimes it's the room itself that limits the bass. Glad you found the real reason!
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mech986 · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:32 pm Post subject:

Did you ever get the drivers repaired, or was there a problem with the crossover? Usually, the TDL woofers are pretty robust, seems odd that one from each speaker would have failed.
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mech986
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CrazyRodney · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 5:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks Bart for your interest. The two bass speakers have been repaired. I'm now waiting for a friend to bring them out to Sri Lanka. Should be out here by the middle of May...can't wait. The company in Great Yarmouth that repaired them said that they were quite corroded. I knew that the magnets were tarnished, so perhaps the windings were too. They recommended for piece of mind that I get the other two units looked at. The TDL speakers have only been out here in Sri Lanka for about 6 months, so I don't think it is anything to do with the climate conditions. Rodney.

proffski · Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:50 am Post subject:

Please keep us informed on your progress with these veritable icons! I for one am fascinated as I always yearned for a pair when they 1st came out...
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