TDL Speakers - Pls. Read & Share Your Thoughts

Hi Everyone I am also a proud owner of a set of TDL standard reference M and i have over the years brought and sold 1000s of speakers and none have been able to match the realism of these speakers they are outstanding in every way there production of sound can be summed up as follows MAGIC! The sound is fast and tunefullyet not bright; it is open and clear with so much midrange detail you will think the band is in the room with you, fatigue-free and grain-free allways sounding like you have only just started listening and still have hours of enjoyment ahead of you. Bass notes are precisely defined, deep and tuneful and they deliver right down to 14 HZ when correctley partnered and the bass hits you with amazing impact. The midband, especially vocals and solo instruments, takes on a naturalness never before heard from a pair of speakers they are truly inspireing. The treble is smooth and fast with both brilliance and sparkle. But the speakers never sound bright, brittle, grainy or spitty. They just sound ‘right’. They are in my opinion one of the greatest speakers in the world and represent the pinnacle of Transmission line speakers, The bass units run individualy from the crossovers one on 8ohm and the other on 16ohm so that you recieve the full bass range as the speakers ressonate slightly differently at diffrent ohm inputs, The tweeters go upto the dizzy hieght of 35khz without sounding harsh which is quite some task, If you get the chance at owning a pair of these speakers you will be utterley amazed at the pressence and impact they realy will change your life.

I am from UK. I own TDL Studio reference 1M since 1996 and they are great! There must be a good reason one rarely comes across TDL Studio/Reference range in the 2nd hand market or on Ebay. Very relieved to come across your good selves equally satisfied with the TDLs! I'm really sad they went out of buisiness. US maker Shannian Acoustics use Transmission Lines too. There is a German who builds Transmission Line speakers following the TDL but not quite the Refererence/Studio range.

I own a pair of TDL Reference Standards circa 1993. I would like to replace the capacitors and I would like to find a 16ohm replacement tweeter. Do any of you have any info relative to either? Thanks

I have the XO schematic and other documents on the RSTL. A good resource for parts for the RSTL is DHS Speakers in Saginaw, MI. You should be able to source anything you need from DHS. 

Are yours the original RSTL's or the later RSTL-M?

Hi all,

Hi mre28m5 - is that a reference to the old BMW? My favourite car ever, wish I could find a good one of those!!! I had a couple of e28 M535

I digress.

I recently bought what I though were a pair of TDL Studio 4 - but I’m told I actually have a pair of TDL Studio Monitor M - which is not a model I was aware of before, and I am finding it hard to find information on the net about these - Apparently they were released at the same time as the "M" revision of the RSTL. They are a 3 way, very similar looking to the Studio 4, but with a metal midrange driver.

Anyway, they have had a somewhat chequered history. The crossovers have been replaced with something home-made, for whatever reason, and the bass drivers are currently running about 6dB down, so I am running them bi-amped so I can separately control the level of the bass driver. I would love to return them to original spec, but its very hard to find info. Does anyone here have circuit diagrams for the original crossovers on these?

My bass drivers are Elac 3021GT 01 (8Ω) - I was expecting these to be GT 03 (6Ω) as per the spec of the Monitor and Studio 4? Does anyone know what the correct driver should be for these?

The mids are unmarked but share the same chassis as the bass drivers in my 0.75M - so they are an Elac unit and do have the correct metal cones - but they do not have the phase plugs as shown in the original launch brochure, instead they have a generic dome dust-cap. Not sure whether this is the result of a repair, or a later revision to the spec of the drivers.

The HF drivers are Vifa D25AG-67-06 (6Ω) - which I am assuming are replacements, and possibly the reason why the original crossovers were replaced??? I was expecting to find some variant of the Elac 25DT, like the rest of the TDL Studio & monitor range. But if anyone can confirm what the correct driver should be, that would be helpful.

If anyone has any info which would help me restore these back to original spec I would be very grateful. Elac 25DTs are hard to come by, but not impossible - but I really need the circuit diagrams for the original crossovers so that I can make a pair. (or the crossover for the RSTL M, I might be able to extrapolate)

many thanks,

Dan