TDL Electronics Owners Thread

What are you running yours with? What kind of space setup?
I have an Emotiva XMC-1 processor and Emotiva XPA 1L Monoblock Amps. The room is 16x21x8. I use an iMac with Audirvana. Even though the TDL's are great on the bottom end I like to use a pair of stacked Kreisel DXD12012 Subwoofers crossed over at 80Hz. I also use Dirac to EQ system. It sounds truly great. When. They were new I bi-wired the TDL's with a pair of Bryston 4B's. The room back then was 14x28x8. The TDL's loved that room.
 
I've managed to pop out my domes, they are in OK condition, but have figured out why one of the woofers is not working or at least the likely cause, corrosion and oxidation of the terminals and leads. And unfortunately the magnets for the dome tweeters say they are 16 ohm the ones on ebay are 4 and 8 ohm, so have to live with it. Also one cracked dome, such is life. Now time to clean the oxidation off.

Ok perhaps not the corrosion, but the leads are greenish in color, volt meter was dead and too late to change the battery.
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Got pics of your dome repairs? What is the last pic?

Hmm, if you can, clean off the oxidation and use soldering iron and sucker or braid to remove all old solder, then apply new flux and solder.

Wonder if you could use an 8 ohm dome replacement and use a 10-20 watt 5 to 8 ohm resistor inline (in series) with it to essentially simulate a 16 ohm unit. The 16 ohm'ers probably hard to come by. The cracked cone may buzz or resonate.
 
BTW, do your speakers have the grille or cabinet badges? There's a pair of them for sale on Ebay UK.
 
I've managed to pop out my domes, they are in OK condition, but have figured out why one of the woofers is not working or at least the likely cause, corrosion and oxidation of the terminals and leads. And unfortunately the magnets for the dome tweeters say they are 16 ohm the ones on ebay are 4 and 8 ohm, so have to live with it. Also one cracked dome, such is life. Now time to clean the oxidation off.

Ok perhaps not the corrosion, but the leads are greenish in color, volt meter was dead and too late to change the battery.
View attachment 788698 View attachment 788699 View attachment 788700 View attachment 788701
How did you go about popping out the domes?
 
I've managed to pop out my domes, they are in OK condition, but have figured out why one of the woofers is not working or at least the likely cause, corrosion and oxidation of the terminals and leads. And unfortunately the magnets for the dome tweeters say they are 16 ohm the ones on ebay are 4 and 8 ohm, so have to live with it. Also one cracked dome, such is life. Now time to clean the oxidation off.

Ok perhaps not the corrosion, but the leads are greenish in color, volt meter was dead and too late to change the battery.
View attachment 788698 View attachment 788699 View attachment 788700 View attachment 788701
Have you been able to determine the date of production for your TDL's?
 
No idea on the production date, not even sure where to look, have to take a closer look at the serial numbers for a clue perhaps. To pop out the domes, I removed the 4 outer bolts first, then, when the tweeter is detached I removed the 4 inner bolts to part the diaphragm from the magnet. I then used my thumb and thumb nail to smooth back out the domes as much as possible, it takes a fair bit of pressure and I was worried more than once it was too much pressure. One did crack, perhaps a bit more thought about my approach might have made the difference but no way to know that now.

I was able to remove that white oxidation easily and it does not appear to have any issue visually on the connectors, no chance since last post to even listen let alone get out the volt meter again to do any diagnostics. The cone moves freely though, no sign of any rubbing voice coil etc. Also, I did not measure the impedance of the dome, I noted the 16ohm impedance on the magnet, but imagine the same? I'll research more on using resistors to match impedance, might be my only shot to get 4 matching new dooms, although the ones at $39 with many available are 4ohm.
 
Might consider pulling all the drivers to get pics of the driver labels. The 447 on the tweeter might be a production date although then you have ask yourself is it the 44th week of year 7 (87 I think) or year 4 (84), 47th week? One probably has to look up the history of TDL to see when the Reference Monitor was produced.
 
Got pics of your dome repairs? What is the last pic?

Hmm, if you can, clean off the oxidation and use soldering iron and sucker or braid to remove all old solder, then apply new flux and solder.

Wonder if you could use an 8 ohm dome replacement and use a 10-20 watt 5 to 8 ohm resistor inline (in series) with it to essentially simulate a 16 ohm unit. The 16 ohm'ers probably hard to come by. The cracked cone may buzz or resonate.


I started a new thread to get more detailed, images here: http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/tdl-reference-standard-repairs.733501/#post-9926371
 
Picked up a pair of tdl monitor compacts with a blown bass driver today. Not had chance to do ewt with them yet. They are a very early pair, serial number 00006
 

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Picked up a pair of tdl monitor compacts with a blown bass driver today. Not had chance to do ewt with them yet. They are a very early pair, serial number 00006

Nice, is that some type of acrylic edging on the cabinet? Pull the woofer out and check the model number - the DHS company link might be able to find you a spare or NOS driver. Looks like the cobex driver.
 
The edging is aluminium or chrome i think. Tdl used this trim on the early models and then changed the colour to a more goldish colour.

Had a look at the bad driver today and the voice coil has been that hot it has fused itself to the speaker and the speaker is stuck inwards.

You are correct on the cobex driver. Ive managed to source 2 brand new ones and are now on their way to the uk from the states. I only needed one speaker but i thought the other bass driver thats working must of took similar punishment.

The guy i bought them off was a nice chap but didnt really know what he was doing with amps and speakers. He gave me a demo of the tdls and took the speaker wires out of his mordant shorts whilst his technics amp was on, he dropped the speaker cable and i thought poor amplifier. The cables almost touched.

The new cobax drivers are quite expensive but i had no other option really. I rang falconacoustics this morning and they said no one in the uk is re-coiling speakers at present.
 
Wonder if DHS might be able to replace the voice coil on your duff driver. Overseas to and fro shipping would be a bear though.
 
I have an Emotiva XMC-1 processor and Emotiva XPA 1L Monoblock Amps. The room is 16x21x8. I use an iMac with Audirvana. Even though the TDL's are great on the bottom end I like to use a pair of stacked Kreisel DXD12012 Subwoofers crossed over at 80Hz. I also use Dirac to EQ system. It sounds truly great. When. They were new I bi-wired the TDL's with a pair of Bryston 4B's. The room back then was 14x28x8. The TDL's loved that room.

Was thinking about your setup, I just got an HK990 in my system, which has DSP, and I'm am pondering how best to take advantage of it perhaps I can bi amp with the 1/2 channels, need to read the manual. But I am finally understanding why you use the subs, these guys are great on bass, but also completely unimposing…..bass is effortless but does not boom or bloom, makes me wonder how many speakers out there are trying for the bass notes unsuccessfully. Anyway will read up on the DSP and see if I can biamp with the 1/2 channels or if it only works with the LF outputs.
 
Picked up some TDL Studio 0.5's thanks to a D&S alert from baco99. In pretty good condition and came with the metal stands, though grill badges were missing and stand spikes MIA as well. I'll need to repaint the stands at some point.

They're surprisingly small/short, but once I get spikes I should be able to tilt them back to align the tweeters more toward my ears.

I had both IMF TLS 50 II's and RSPM Improveds. These are more modern looking and sounding I'd say, but not as big sounding. Pretty small drivers, so probably just physics.

I like them a lot so far.
 
Hi all just signed up today :)
Looking for Reviews/Opinions and Tech info on TDL G30
I believe the Bass/Mid units are Vifa P17WJ-00-08 which Wilmslow endorse
No idea on tweeters or crossover
Would they make a good base unit for a project for tweaking ?
Was wondering how these speakers compare to TDL 3 and Studio 0.5
They appear to be better quality than the TDL 2 and 3
Possibly the last models to come from TDL ? before Richer Sounds bought the name
 
Sadly I've had to let my TDL Reference standards go, they were very un-SO worthy, but still crave the sound. Can anyone comment on how the TDL Monitor compares? The implementation is different, no slanted fronts and not MTM configuration, but wonder if it shares any of the magic of the reference standard.

Monitor.jpg
 
Sadly I've had to let my TDL Reference standards go, they were very un-SO worthy, but still crave the sound. Can anyone comment on how the TDL Monitor compares? The implementation is different, no slanted fronts and not MTM configuration, but wonder if it shares any of the magic of the reference standard.

Monitor.jpg
 
Hi the monitor sounds very similar to the reference standards just smaller and slightly harder to image
I have owned a round ten pairs of monitors and at least 8 pairs of reference standards as well as building two sets now I have plenty of knowledge if you guys have any questions I will do my best to answer
 
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