Help to identify my speakers

[cheungjc]

I got these 2 way transmission line speakers a few years back. They sound good. The guy who sold me the speakers said the defunct company also made large transmission line speakers. Anyone could tell me what company or brand or model number of these speakers is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[TLS Guy]

I got these 2 way transmission line speakers a few years back. They sound good. The guy who sold me the speakers said the defunct company also made large transmission line speakers. Anyone could tell me what company or brand or model number of these speakers is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.View attachment 59888View attachment 59889View attachment 59890

I have no idea who made those speakers, I have a good suspicion they are DIY.

I can tell you that the woofer was made by Eton of Germany in the 1980s. I am pretty sure the tweeter is Vifa, but I can not be certain.

I suspect DIY, as there is no manufacturer tag, and in that era TL speakers were popular in the DIY community. They are bookshelf speakers and likely a labyrinth design.

 

[cheungjc]

Thank you for your quick answer. I thought the company was existed before. I just don't remember it's name. Not sure if someone has a list of American companies who only made transmission line speakers.

 

[everettT]

Thank you for your quick answer. I thought the company was existed before. I just don't remember it's name. Not sure if someone has a list of American companies who only made transmission line speakers.

As TLS mentioned, almost no commercial companies were making TL speakers. You had a few companies that didn't spend anything on R&D, let alone as an investment with the loading, and most designs were in the DIY community.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thank you for your quick answer. I thought the company was existed before. I just don't remember it's name. Not sure if someone has a list of American companies who only made transmission line speakers.

How do you know it was made in America?

Most TL speakers were made in the UK. Irvin "Bud" Fried was an American, and as far as I know the only US manufacturer. He started making them in the UK under IMF.
Then moved to making them state side. He was part of the Radford group that did intensive research on TL designs back in the sixties.

I am certain that speaker was not designed and built by Bud Fried. If that speaker was made in the US, then it is DIY. The drivers are European for sure. If that speakers is not DIY, then it was likely made in Europe.

 

[Swerd]

There is one speaker manufacturer, PMC, that makes transmission line speakers, in the UK. They've been around since the early 1990s.
https://pmc-speakers.com/home-audio

However, I can find no PMC, or any other speaker, exactly like the speakers you have. None have an Eton woofer, but some older 2-way models do have tweeters that resemble tweeters made by Seas or Vifa.

Also note that your speakers have what could be magnets buried under the veneer that keep grills in place while exposing no attachment hardware. See the black stains in the veneer on either side of the tweeter. Before recent years, very few commercial speaker makers did that.

Like @TLS Guy mentioned, these could easily be DIY speakers, with nicely done cabinets.

The older PMC twenty.21 speakers have a sloped cabinet front (see below). The tweeter sits further away from the listener than the woofer – an effort to achieve time alignment between the two drivers – something rarely seen today. But those drivers are clearly not the same as yours.

PMC still sells something similar, the present-day PMC twenty5 speakers

https://pmc-speakers.com/products/consumer/twenty5i

 

[Swerd]

I noticed the golden color of the tweeter dome. For what it's worth, gold colored tweeters have been popular in Japan and possibly other Asian countries. Seas or Vifa might have sold an aluminum domed tweeter anodized to a gold color aimed for that market.

Is it possible to show a better photo of the lower rear portion of these speakers? I can see three wires attached at the terminals. I'd expect to see either two or four. Just curious.

 

[cheungjc]

Good observation from Swerd that the speakers grills are held by magnets. I don't have the courage to open the drivers to see if I could verify what makes they are. The cabinet was solidly built and very heavy. I did remember to check the company website when I first got these used speakers. I never wrote down it's name. After these years and my age kicks in and don't even remember a bit about it's name, now I just hope another owner happens to see this post. But I guess they are so unique and not too many people know them. Sound wise, they are very sweet and rich sound. For the bass, it goes deep, feel like down to 30Hz. The speaker measure 9.5" x13.25" to 14"x 16".

 

[lovinthehd]

Interesting speaker terminal section....got a better photo of it? I'd pull the tweeter and woofer off and see if there's anything identifying things inside....

 

[Swerd]

I found this list on Wikipedia. It may be out of date, but you might recognize a name.

Transmission line loudspeaker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Other companies and individuals who have produced or researched TL speakers:

• Lentek
• Newtronics (Temperance line)[6]
• Gini B+ (Bass Extenders line)
• Quadral
• T+A Electronics (Criterion line)
• J M Reynaud,[26]
• PMC
• Salk Sound
• Rega (their Naos then RS7)
• Adelaide Speakers
• TBI Audio Systems LLC (subcontracted by Asis to research and design smaller TL speakers suitable for embedding into laptops)[27]
• Marantz (Karoke range)
• Merkel Acoustic Research/Jeff Merkel[28]
• Albedo (Helmholine range)
• Transmission Audio[29]
• Audio Reference (Acoustic Zen line)[30]
• Radford[31]
• Philharmonic Audio (BMR Tower)

DIY kit manufacturers:

• UK – IPL Acoustics (article), Falcon Acoustics "Thor"
• USA – GR Research "N3"
• USA – New York Acoustics, loosely associated with New York Audio Labs [1], kits and plans for 8" and 10" driver TL speaker cabinets, active in the mid 1980s.

 

[TLS Guy]

I found this list on Wikipedia. It may be out of date, but you might recognize a name.

Transmission line loudspeaker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Other companies and individuals who have produced or researched TL speakers:

• Lentek
• Newtronics (Temperance line)[6]
• Gini B+ (Bass Extenders line)
• Quadral
• T+A Electronics (Criterion line)
• J M Reynaud,[26]
• PMC
• Salk Sound
• Rega (their Naos then RS7)
• Adelaide Speakers
• TBI Audio Systems LLC (subcontracted by Asis to research and design smaller TL speakers suitable for embedding into laptops)[27]
• Marantz (Karoke range)
• Merkel Acoustic Research/Jeff Merkel[28]
• Albedo (Helmholine range)
• Transmission Audio[29]
• Audio Reference (Acoustic Zen line)[30]
• Radford[31]
• Philharmonic Audio (BMR Tower)

DIY kit manufacturers:

• UK – IPL Acoustics (article), Falcon Acoustics "Thor"
• USA – GR Research "N3"
• USA – New York Acoustics, loosely associated with New York Audio Labs [1], kits and plans for 8" and 10" driver TL speaker cabinets, active in the mid 1980s.

They left out the most famous UK manufacturer of TL speakers, TDL. Founded by John Wright, it produced really fine TL speakers. People just won't part with them now. Unfortunately John Wright died in 1999. His company then became part of ELAC. But they never designed speakers of the outstanding quality of John Wright.

Anyone see a connection with this TDL speaker?

 

[cheungjc]

Swerd, the connection to the speakers is a 4 wire connection, not 3 wire. I stood at a bad angle when I took the picture. There are 2 wires for the tweeter and 2 for woofer inputs.

 

[Swerd]

John Wright was mentioned in that same Wikipedia article I linked above. See the section titled Prominent individuals and companies. For brevity, I had previously quoted only the list of company names. This list of 'pioneers' appeared immediately before it.

Pioneers:

• Benjamin Olney – originated the idea of a duct in speaker enclosure design, which he termed an "acoustic labyrinth", while working for Stromberg-Carlson as an acoustic engineer and studying the effect of enclosure size on output sound.
• Bailey and Radford – worked together and developed the concept for loudspeakers (1965). Their design was a significant development from the earlier work. Bailey's name was on the article and Radford built the first commercial TL speaker.[16]
• John Wright together with business partner John Hayes and (later) David Brown, and their company IMF Electronics Ltd (later: TDL) – Wright, a "fanatical" pursuer of quality, had designed an award winning tonearm and to demonstrate it, brought to New York a non-commercial TL speaker he had also designed. The speaker gained considerable attention and Wright, Hayes and colleague Brown formed a company that specialized in TL speakers, and won numerous awards (1968). TDL disbanded following Wright's death in 1999 and the brand—as a shell—was bought by Richer Sounds.
• Irving M. "Bud" Fried – American audiophile and TL advocate, who encountered Wright and Hayes in 1968, recognized the potential of Wright's unnamed speaker, and began marketing their TL speakers in the United States. Later set up a TL company of his own to design speakers.
• Bo Hansson – Swedish designer of HiFi equipment and founder of Opus3 Record Company created the "Rauna Njord" concrete speaker as a transmission line design.[27]
• Martin King and George Augspurger – researchers and designers who succeeded in modeling realistic TL speaker designs in the early 21st century.

 

[cheungjc]

Hello everybody, after going through my old email and I found an old email about 13 years ago, when I brought these speakers used. The brand of these speakers are Buggtussel and the model is Cingulate. The gold tweeter was a special modified Vifa tweeter and the mid woofer was a modified Eton 7" driver. They are very good speakers and they still sound very good in today standard. It is too bad since year 2005, Buggtussel loudspeakers company from Michigan closed its business. Once again, thank you for everyone who had provided all the information.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello everybody, after going through my old email and I found an old email about 13 years ago, when I brought these speakers used. The brand of these speakers are Buggtussel and the model is Cingulate. The gold tweeter was a special modified Vifa tweeter and the mid woofer was a modified Eton 7" driver. They are very good speakers and they still sound very good in today standard. It is too bad since year 2005, Buggtussel loudspeakers company from Michigan closed its business. Once again, thank you for everyone who had provided all the information.

Thanks for the update. I have never heard of that firm before. TL speakers properly designed are incredible, so I'm not surprised you like them so much. However with a name like that, they had to be good. However if they had a PR guy, then he committed malpractice. "Buggtussel" is a name for the ages, and sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch.

 

[cheungjc]

You could still Google buggtussel speakers and some older reviews come out. All are good reading.

 

[lovinthehd]

My first impression of the name was something along the lines of ya gotta be brave to go with a brand name like that.....even if the product is good or its your family name....

 

[NINaudio]

My first impression of the name was something along the lines of ya gotta be brave to go with a brand name like that.....even if the product is good or its your family name....

With a name like buggtussel it has to be good.

 

[Swerd]

Buggtussel Speakers … who knew?

I searched and found a number of interesting looking models. One link talked about 1/8 wavelength TL designs. I've heard of ½ and ¼ wavelength TL speakers – they usually require floor standing tower cabinets. But I never heard of 1/8 wavelength cabinets before. That could explain those smaller bookshelf TL speakers you have.

Buggtussel Loudspeakers

Sadly, there are many now defunct speaker makers, who made good products but found that good designs alone weren't enough to stay in business. For example, Meadowlark, who also made highly regarded TL designs.

Unfortunately, the world of commercial speaker makers is also well populated with large companies who know how to stay in business by mass-marketing poor designs.