Last year, I managed to rekindle my love with an old flame....the Sony CDP XB930E CD Player.
It was true sentimental moment.... and since then, I have this urge to get back all my older kit when I was a student in the UK.
Back in 1997, I have purchased this pair of TDL RTL3SE from Richer Sounds, Brighton. It was my first 'major' hifi purchase at GBP400. At that time, the exchange rate to Malaysian Ringgit was 1:7, hence it was about RM2800 for the pair. Big money for a first year student there. How lucky I was to be able to work part time manning the Dinky Donuts kiosk in Brighton's famous Palace Pier.
Anyhoooo..... this pair have been driven with various amps.... Starting with Sherwood, Marantz PM57, Musical Fidelity X-A1/X-A50 bi amping and lastly Yamaha RXV795RDS. It has seen a share of 2 channel stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS home cinema. I have lived with my home cinema without the need of a subwoofer for quite sometime as with the bass I am getting from this pair, there is just no need of a sub.
However, 10 years later in 2007, after moving from Brighton to Dungeness to Folkstone to KL to Bangi.... one of the tweeter died on me. It just stopped working. After Yahoo-ing for TDL, I was shocked to read that TDL has gone bust. Further research led me to Wilmslow Audio. Though not the same brand, I managed to locate an equivalent tweeter. But of course, I then had to move house again. Hence, instead of bringing this pair from my late mum's house, I decided to purchase a new pair of speakers... the Mission M34i. And thats it, this TDL was kept in the store room until this year. After my mum's passing in June 2013, I finally had the courage to start cleaning my late mum's house. And that when I was rekindled back to this pair. Immediately brought it back to my house and started to Googling for Wilmslow Audio. A quick email to them, and sure enough within a day, I received a reply with a suggestion from Neil. After exchanges of a few emails (and a few delays due to my normally hectic life), I purchased a pair Monacor DT-99 was purchased via Paypal. About 3 weeks later, the parcel arrived. It costs me RM338 ~ GBP66.66 for a pair plus postage from UK to Malaysia.
My 3 steps Tweeter Replacement (not to be followed)
1. Test the new tweeter by connecting an extension cable from existing tweeter to the new one to ensure the crossover is working
2. If the new tweeter works, uninstall the old tweeter. I just cut off the old tweeter
3. Strip off enough length of the cable and wrap it around the terminals of the new tweeter
....all in 20 mins
I then put my ProAC D18 to rest..... and the TDL RTL3SE took centre stage....
Jazz on my TDL RTLSE
And now.... my TDL RTL3SE.... is being bi-amped by Musical Fidelity M6i and M1 PWR. Playing this jazz track.... it just bring back memories of my Brighton life.
The bass from this pair somehow is more open than the D18 but not as widely spreaded out by the PMC Twenty 23 and 26. But it still delivers quite a stunning performance for a 17 years old speaker.
So thank you Wilmslow Audio in the UK. Pleasant company and people to buy hifi components from.
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