Speaker Mystery - Trevor Lees

[reesy2000]

I have a pair of Trevor Lee Floorstanders, large sentimental value. Weight 30kg, Height: 112cm, Depth: 39cm, Width: 22cm 

Previously run through a Sherwood Amp / Pre-amp  (gold coloured..) then an Onkyo Tx-nr801 which i have in storage.

I'm currently running them as a 2 channel system through a Yamaha rx-v479 as that matched my budget at the time.

Now in a position to do them some justice with a decent Amp. Probably remain a 2 channel system in a smallish room. 

 

Seeking any feedback on:

- How I can find out what's inside. Believe they were custom made and my memory is of them going seriously loud when powered by the Sherwood.

- Melbourne based audio shops that I can visit to inspect the speakers, source recommendations on amp etc

- Are there any creative ways to use the NR801 in 2018? ie as a pre-amp to the 479 or similar as the 801 has no hdmi. cant see any audio outs from the 479

 

Would love to get them cranking up again.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by reesy2000
image change

[Snapper()]

These have focal tweeters and (i think) audax drivers in them.

Not sure about the amp situation but typically those older analogue yamaha amps are very good 2ch amps. I would be using that over the onkyo.

If you are amp shopping id start at trevor lees as these are his .. the tla-150 [emoji1]

[Misternavi]

I have a pair of Trevor Lee Floorstanders, large sentimental value. Weight 30kg, Height: 112cm, Depth: 39cm, Width: 22cm 
Previously run through a Sherwood Amp / Pre-amp  (gold coloured..) then an Onkyo Tx-nr801 which i have in storage.
I'm currently running them as a 2 channel system through a Yamaha rx-v479 as that matched my budget at the time.
Now in a position to do them some justice with a decent Amp. Probably remain a 2 channel system in a smallish room. 
 
Seeking any feedback on:
- How I can find out what's inside. Believe they were custom made and my memory is of them going seriously loud when powered by the Sherwood.
- Melbourne based audio shops that I can visit to inspect the speakers, source recommendations on amp etc
- Are there any creative ways to use the NR801 in 2018? ie as a pre-amp to the 479 or similar as the 801 has no hdmi. cant see any audio outs from the 479
 
Would love to get them cranking up again.
 
 

i had these speakers and they are far better than most speakers below $3000 - internal wiring was kimber 8TC for the bass units and silver solid core for the tweeter.
wondercaps and handwound inductors.

excellent value speakers that sell for too cheap 2nd hand.

best bass i’ve heard

needs a powerful amp to sound best. forget those cheap home theatre receivers. i ran it with a A200 benchmark power amp and my systems since i regretfully sold it all off hasn’t sounded as good.

[blybo]

8 hours ago, Snapper() said:

If you are amp shopping id start at trevor lees as these are his .. the tla-150

Trevor closed his shop around 12 months ago. Still sells on ebay I believe. He told me a few months before he had had several lucrative offers from property developers. Timed that 1 perfectly I'd say.

[Sub Sonic]

9 hours ago, Snapper() said:

These have focal tweeters and (i think) audax drivers in them.

Not sure about the amp situation but typically those older analogue yamaha amps are very good 2ch amps. I would be using that over the onkyo.

If you are amp shopping id start at trevor lees as these are his .. the tla-150

I reckon you’re correct on the Focal tweeters, but the mid bass drivers don’t look like Audax. I’m thinking perhaps Scanspeak Classic 18w??

 

Cheers,

 

SS

[Mat-with-one-t]

I bought the recent set of the classifieds here for $400.  Running with a 250wpc Music Labs.  Bloody bargain of a speaker!  Same focal tweeters as my Osborn Epitomes.  

[afa]

The woofers look like Vifa M18WO or PL18, you could take one out to see.

[blybo]

38 minutes ago, Mat-with-one-t said:

I bought the recent set of the classifieds here for $400.  Running with a 250wpc Music Labs.  Bloody bargain of a speaker!  Same focal tweeters as my Osborn Epitomes.  

Yeah they are. I had the earlier smaller floorstander which was a Proac clone, and needed to spend $4.5k to better them. The only issue with them is the jarrah real wood laminate fades. I guess ones where people didn't use the grill would still look perfect.

[reesy2000]

Awesome feedback from everyone. Thanks! They were definitely custom from the standard trevor speakers. 

 

So last q, with Trevor Lee's shut does anyone have any good melbourne shops I should chat to or amp recommendations?

Second hand ok. 

[Misternavi]

Awesome feedback from everyone. Thanks! They were definitely custom from the standard trevor speakers. 
 
So last q, with Trevor Lee's shut does anyone have any good melbourne shops I should chat to or amp recommendations?
Second hand ok. 

i think you need to try a few , wish i had a class D amp back then to try it.

how much do you want to spend on a amp?

i rec. a high power class A/B

but i did try a 12w tube amp on it and it sounded good too.

[reesy2000]

5 hours ago, afa said:

The woofers look like Vifa M18WO or PL18, you could take one out to see.

Correct - Vifa M18WO! Unscrewed the plate on the back and could make that out on the bottom speaker. 

[wen]

@reesy2000 Mat-with-one-t stated he is using a Pass Lab 250wpc amp and is happy with sound, your reciever is 115wpc but not dedicated 2channel, this should give you an idea which direction to go, good luck

[tubularbells]

I built a number of TLA150's during my brief tenure and although I cannot say what happened before or after my (somewhat frustrating) experience is that practically every pair is unique depending on what parts were on hand at the time. Sometimes you got lucky and wound up with Goertz ribbon inductors or Hoveland caps while others got standard air cored inductors and Solen caps but more critically Trevor kept changing the crossover or parts were not available which drove me insane trying to series/parallel caps in order to get the correct value as the correctly valued cap wasn't in stock at the time 

 

You'll also find the tweeter attenuation consisted of a bunch of metal film resistors which was tweaked by snipping of one at a time until the balance was right.

 

Also he obviously changed drivers at some point as the ones I worked on all had ScanSpeak 8545's in them.

 

In saying all that they were a great speaker and when on point they sounded as good as the competition costing many times the price. Oh and another tip (which was another ProAc ripoff) was to stuff the rear port with straws either cut to the same length as the port or longer if you wanted to tune the bass a little. This reduced port chuffing when being driven hard

 

Here's a really old pic of the ones I built for myself including a custom matching centre channel. BTW in case you didn't know Colin Whatmough used to build the cabs for these as i used to drive to his factory and pick them up for Trevor.

[reesy2000]

That's great, gotta love the madness.

Thanks everyone. I will test out some amps and get them humming!

[tubularbells]

2 minutes ago, reesy2000 said:

That's great, gotta love the madness.

Thanks everyone. I will test out some amps and get them humming!

Great! I do honestly miss mine sometimes.....

[5L15]

On 25/01/2019 at 6:29 PM, reesy2000 said:

Awesome feedback from everyone. Thanks! They were definitely custom from the standard trevor speakers. 

 

So last q, with Trevor Lee's shut does anyone have any good melbourne shops I should chat to or amp recommendations?

Second hand ok. 

Trev is still around in Melbourne I believe?

You can email him ( might be best to pm it, just in case ) also added his phone number in the pm.

Edited January 26, 2019 by 5L15

[reesy2000]

10 hours ago, 5L15 said:

Trev is still around in Melbourne I believe?

You can email him ( might be best to pm it, just in case ) also added his phone number in the pm.

Will do!

[Yardbird]

Yep, Trevor and his brother Christopher are operating out of Hawthorn. Picked up a pre of them about two months ago. PM and I'll pass on their numbers.