Transmission line speakers!


Hi group,

I just pulled the trigger on a mint pair of Falcon speakers. They are a transmission line design. I don’t see many speakers using transmission line. Does anyone here have any experience pro or con with this type of design? BTW, I have always liked sealed type speakers over ported speakers!

Thanks much!

128x128yogiboy

I use transmission line speakers rear ported, new production, not a known brand (custom made). They are rather splendid in my opinion for the price point of about $2K (direct selling from the dude who makes them).

96 dB @1w/1m, 26hz - 30khz +/- 2dB.

I didn’t know anything about TM before buying them. There is quite a lot of reading available, some quite technical which is above and beyond that for other configurations.

As to pro/cons - I can hear only pro things, but I’m biased so don’t go there! Enjoy!

[edit - coincidentally, just yesterday I posted a quote from Stereophile which referenced Falcon speakers - that Prima Luna bloke reckoned PL are a good match for Falcons.  He sells PL by the thousands, so read into that what you may! ]

First speakers I built were the Roger Sanders transmission line design published in Speaker Builder magazine back in 1980. Being dirt poor they were built to fit the 10" woofers from my old JBL L26 Jubal speakers. 

These transmission lines were about 14" wide by 20" deep and about 48" tall. This was way before all the speaker building software we take for granted today. A lot of this stuff was worked out pencil and paper. However he did it the same drivers that put out lumpy bass that trailed off below about 60Hz somehow were a lot more flat and extended way down at least an octave lower in the transmission line cabinet.

It is such a winning design I have to think it isn't used more because of size, construction cost, and weight. Mine were twice the size and three times the weight of the JBL, and that was just for the woofer. They were so good however I was able to put some little car speakers on top of them and this combo was actually a pretty normal floor stander size and sounded far, far better than the JBL. 

Again, this was 1980. More than 40 years ago. It will be a travesty of short-sighted cost-cutting if the ones you just bought aren't light years better. And these were already pretty damn good!

Many loudspeakers use transmission line design and you would not know it by looking at it. Many Infinity designs of the 70s were transmission line.

Being dirt poor they were built to fit the 10" woofers from my old JBL L26 Jubal speakers.

JBL L 65 Jubal’s have a 12’’ woofer not 10’’.