compact size, bass, coherence, pleasure

detail, imaging

I bought the TDL RTL G30’s on a whim. They are the last in line of noble race of speakers stretching back to the very first transmission lines by IMF. So these nifty little floorstanders are the great-great-grandchildren of my huge IMF’s. Sadly, TDL went out of business in 1999. The idea of a transmission line (TL) is simple. In a normal speaker you only hear the sound coming out of the front of the cone. But a cone radiates as much backwards as forwards. A TL also uses the sound coming out of the back of the cone, filters out all but the lower frequencies and lets it come out in phase at the front of the loudspeaker, so doubling the amount of bass. A silk dome tweeter sits between two 16,5cm fiberglass woofers in a so-called d’Appolitto configuration. All units are made by Vifa, a very good Danish speaker manufacturer reputed for the purity and linearity of their speakers. So the crossover could be kept a simple 4-element affair. Internal wiring is good quality. The G30’s have a frequency response of 30-22khz and this borne out by the full and balanced sound they produce. Even at low volumes, the music can be felt. The TL pressure-loads the room. I like to think a deaf person would know whenever the g30’s are working. My room is about 6 x 5 metres, but opens up upon other rooms. Imaging is OK, nothing special. Bass is wonderfully ample and effortless. Detail and impact are good without being as good as –say- the B&W 602 S3’s. But they make up for this relative lack of detail by being a joy to listen to for hours on end and by sounding more natural, more "live". However, or should I say luckily, these speakers are completely insensitive to popular hifi tweaks such as special cables, interconnects…. Their sensitivity is good. 90 dB will give you a good sense of dynamics, something that speakers of lower sensitivity sadly lack (in addition to needing a heavier amp. Most floorstanders nowadays sound like they look: THIN. Not the G30’s! In fact I often wonder how they dare call speakers hifi that start falling off below 150 hz (Warfedale Diamonds 8.1 , Quad 11L, Missions). Reproducing music without bass is not hifi! If the argument is : Yes, but the rest of the spectrum is correctly rendered… then why not make speakers that don’t go above 10khz and say " yeah, they’re hifi, they just don’t have any treble!" The G30’s are the kind of speakers everybody immediately comments on and admires for the distinctive sound. No other speakers I have owned had this effect on guests.

Similar Products Used:

eltax universe 200, eltax monitor III, IMF TLS 50 II, Mission 782,

Strong, very controlled sound. Linearity across large dynamic ranges. Can give extremely impressive and articulate sound given the right room. Even when pushed to high volumes they maintain a very controlled sound. At low volumes they perform equally well - something their glass fibre cones were designed for (apparently!).

I was initially disappointed with lack of any bass. I currently have them sat on shelves (yes I know they are floorstanders!), where the bass is frankly amazing and very tight. We have a hollow, very poor wooden floor and they really don't like it. I suspect given a better room they would sound amazing as floorstanders.
Finish could be better!

Give them a nice amp (I have STRDB930 from Sony) and they sing. Give them a better room than mine and I can't imagine how good they'd be.
A very nice speaker.

Similar Products Used:

Eltax Symphony 3 & 5s. Compared with many other floor standers upon purchase.