TJL3W
built
by Kuisma/Finland
Hello
Troels
First of all: Thank you of this great speaker!
I finished my 6 month TJL3W speaker project about 3 weeks
ago, and have to say I'm very pleased to have them
finally in my living room. The first time we connected
these speakers to an amplifier and played something was
quite something. They just sounded perfect, and after
couple of hours of listening that impression
strengthened: these speakers were lot better than
anything I had heard before. Even my parents were amazed
of the sound quality of these speakers although they are
not very music orientated.
First tests were made in my parent's house (wood
construction) and there bass section was blameless.
Overall bass level was just right and bass sound was very
tight and accurate. Then we brought speakers to my
apartment (stone walls). The bass section was not so
great anymore. It was easily a LOT better than with my
older speakers but something was not right. My apartment
just simply amplifies these lower frequencies too much
and something had to be done. For the first time of my
life I had to lower the bass level on my amplifier! Now
it is lot better but you can't get the bass sound of
larger room of a wooden house in an apartment (sorry to
say). Nevertheless the bass section is very tight and
easy to follow with right record. Although the size of
the bass cone is only one half of my old speakers, they
still go about 10Hz lower with more detail.
Middle section is amazingly detailed and easy to follow
and same applies to tweeter as well. OWI is just great
tweeter and with W12CY001 they work flawlessly together.
The tweeter sound is just silky. There aren't any peaks
common to different tweeters what makes tweeter sound
uneven and exhausting to listen. I think knowing this is
a low distortion tweeter doesn't hurt either...
Compared to my old speaker (large paper bass cone, soft
dome mid and tweeter, 20year old), it feels like a
curtain of fog would have been removed (maybe removed
distortion). Especially bass and mid are outstanding.
Downside of this speaker is that they are not polite to
bad sounding records. Actually I noticed that in my
collection there are only few records that can really
show most of the potential of these speakers. Good sample
is Liquid Tension Experiment vol 1 (this is an
instrumental rock album). I wish all records would
have same kind of drum track sound quality. My friend has
Amphion Creon2 speaker, which also has very good sound,
but in my opinion they sound a little cold and hollow,
although has very good spatial presentation and high
frequency accuracy. TJL3W has, in my opinion, better
tonal balance and bass accuracy combined with great mid
bass (this is matter of taste of an individual. you have
to test different speakers yourself) . Nevertheless when
the friend was testing my TJL3W's using music common to
him, almost only thing he was able tell about the sound
was: "Speakers sound better when played with higher
volume". With this he meant my speakers sound this
good because I used higher volume than he is accustomed
to when listening...
My conclusion is that TJL3W is a great speaker (even
compared to price) in right environment and good sounding
record. Seas magnesium drivers with low distortion seems
to make the trick. I think my next improvement to my
sound system won't be a better amplifier or better
speaker cables (I use Supra Ply), but better room for
listening. Stone walls are killing some of the pleasure
with loud bass resonances. You need to hear the
difference yourself to believe it. If I can't afford to
buy a new house, I will have to settle for having large
bass resonators (I don't mean my speakers) in my living
room.
My sound reference is Sennheiser HD600 Headphones.
Compared to HD600, TJL3W has equal or better performance
except for bass section where room resonances has an
influence. I really love HD600's but with TJL3W I'm using
loudspeakers more nowadays. And remember, TJL3W get's
better the louder you play them!
As a small gesture of your effort, I have attached a
couple of pictures of my long lasting TJL3W project.
Keep Up The Great Work & Best Regards:
Kuisma/Finland
PS. It would be very interesting to see you having a
project with Jordan JXR6 full range elements (or other
full range elements). Have you tried them? A friend of
mine bought couple of them a while ago and they sounded
quite nice even installed to cardboard box. Of course
they can't be played very loud and they don't have deep
bass, but the accuracy of mid range and tweeter...
Waiting to hear them in proper installation with a
subwoofer. I think the component list of TJL3W lacks 2pc
10uF capacitors...
Thanks
a lot for your excellent report back on the TJL3W. I
couldn't be more pleased. Please allow me to add your
pics and comments to my website. Launching a rather
expensive project like the TJL3W always makes me a bit
uneasy, because will people like it or think it's just a
step on the never ending road to aural nirvana...
A red TJL3W! Why not? Really looks cool. I think you're
right about the TJL needing a bit of power. The
compromise of making a small speaker like the TJL
producing relatively deep bass is lack of efficiency,
thus needs a bit of power. However, due to the good
dispersion of the W12 I enjoy it equally well a low
levels. My 50 wpc valve power amp does well with the
TJL3W - and my 150 wpc Rotel power amp even
better. Possibly a heavy 50 watt class-A amp might
do really well. My experience says that the TJL3W grows
with the gear in front. The neutrality of the magnesium
drivers clearly display weaknesses in recording.
You're right about the 10 uF cabs. Two more
is needed. File has been corrected.Thanks.
Best regards Troels
Hello
Troels
You have my permission to put the feedback and pictures
to your webpage. With power I meant that, similar to
headphones, because distortion level is very low, the
speaker gets better the louder you play it (and for that
reason I always found myself playing at quite high
level). There's a lot of headroom available and sound
won't beam at normal listening volumes.
Ones in Finnish hifi magazine was an article that said:
When similar speakers with diffrent colors were tested
with people, red color was thought to increase bass. Blue
color added treble. Black was overal good color but
little inaccurate. Yellow had the best overall
performance. Maybe that is the reason for my red cabs...
:)
Best regards
Kuisma/Finland
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