Transmission line speakers!

Irving M (Bud) Fried of IMF and Fried became a good friend of mine, and I was one of the owners of Fried Products.  He graciously gifted me his own personal loudspeakers shortly before his passing.  Bud famously championed the transmission line loading.  No one came close to evangelizing the advantages of the alignment.

What few realize is as terrific as TL is in the bass, it's even better in the midrange, as the notes simply fly out of the speakers.

Recently finished a new pair of TL subwoofers for myself to replace Bud's.  Their lovely cosmetics fit right into my living room, play cleanly and powerfully into the teens, and cost me so little most in this day and age dismiss them immediately out of hand.  More than that, the quality of the low frequencies they produce leaves me happy like few, if any I've encountered when it comes to musicality.  They simply sound more like real music, and astonish people with their sound and modest dimensions. 

I knew Bud and spoke with him several times when he was still running Fried. He was a real gent, full of knowledge and eager to share it. I owned one of his large bookshelf speakers, a transmission line design, and I remember well that he was one of the very first to design a sattelite/subwoofer system, (Model J?) and it was really impressive.

@roxy54: Are you thinking of the FMI (Fulton Musical Industries) Model J loudspeaker? It was comprised of three separate boxes: on the bottom a transmisionline-loaded woofer enclosure, in the middle a small sealed enclosure with an 8" woofer and dome tweeter (marketed separately as the Model 80), and on top an RTR ESL tweeter array (6 ESL tweeters per side iirc)---the same tweeter Dave Wilson used in his original WAMM loudspeaker. I bought a pair of the Model J in 1974, when it was priced at $1200/pr. JGH loved it, putting the Model J at the top of his recommended component list.

Before ESS introduced the Heil AMT loudspeaker, their flagship model was the TranStatic I, which was also a three way: a KEF B139 woofer in a transmissionline enclosure, a KEF B110 5" cone midrange, and three of the RTR ESL tweeters mentioned above. It retailed in the early-70’s for $599/each, and was competition for the Infinity Servo-Static I. I have a pair sitting in my spare room.

bdp24,

Hi, I might be giving it the wrong letter, but it was definitely Fried. They were the first mini monitors I had ever seen, and they were really mini! A small two way, amd an rectangular subwoofer that was fairly large. I saw it demoed at House of Hi Fi in Trenton NJ around 1976, when I was considering my first pair of speakers. It sounded really good, but I was 19, and nothing was going to keep me from buying either Bozak Concert Grands (which they also carried) or Klipschorns, which their competitor Hal's Hi Fi carried. The Khorns won.

My main speakers are the Stax F-81 electrostatics. Difficult load and brutally inefficient, but with the most refined and realistic midrange that I have ever heard in a beautifully stable and realistic, but small scale soundstage presentation. Love those speakers. When I crave a larger scale presentation with a livelier rhythmic vibe and much better bass performance I rotate in a pair of Paragon Regent transmission line speakers.  

Paragon Acoustics was a relatively short lived company that produced some outstanding speakers. The 92 db efficient Regent, with its lead lined interior walls (140 lb ea.) sound like a more dynamic, fuller and more extended version of my Stax. The least “boxy” sounding box speakers that I have owned. They don’t have the beautifully refined and detailed midrange of the Stax, but are not too far off in that respect. I like tomic601’s description of TL’s in general and applicable to the Regent.

*** TL speakers roll off more slowly (less steeply) at low frequencies, and they are thought to provide better driver control than standard reflex cabinet designs,^[3] are less sensitive to positioning, and tend to create a very spacious soundstage. ***

As an aside, my Manley Reference 100W triode/200W pentode switchable amps work great with both. Should be obvious which mode I use for each speaker.

Not my pair:

https://www.hifido.co.jp/sold/11-62535-22980-00.html?LNG=E