TL-2520

TL-2520 is a smaller model in the TL series. It is a well known and highly regarded speaker in Scandinavia.
This pair was found online at a Red Cross thriftshop in the UK, £50. Condition was not good, which I was aware of. A great restoration project.

On closer inspection:

A common problem on 70’ies speakers, crumbled speaker surrounds. But worry not, it can be fixed relatively easy. New surrounds can be bought at many different places, one online shop I have used, which also stocks surrounds with Tandberg specs (and many others) is https://www.repairyourspeakers.com/nl/

So, they will need a cabinet restoration, realigned magnet on one bass driver, new filters, new gaskets and new foam surrounds. This is not something I felt comfortable doing myself, so an expert took care of them, Andrew Bratt in the UK.
https://www.anapeachloudspeakerrestoration.co.uk

Total restoration cost would be £160, not too much considering what that amount would buy you today.

On first inspection, Andrew said:

_{The bad news…
Both bass drivers need a complete rebuild. It looks like they have been dropped at sometime in their life (not during their delivery to me). Both the magents are mis-aligned. The coils look like they have survived so I will need to rebuild the magnets completely. The challenge is that I don’t have the original alignment template so I will need to find a way to recreate one. They will also need refoaming.}

_{Good news first..
Both sets of mid and treble drivers are good.}
_{I can repair the broken cabinet. The tops are sealed on, so I will need to fix them as they are.
The crossovers can be rebuilt and upgraded with matched components and of course new cable.}

_{I have glued the core magnets back in to the bass drivers and they are set solid, never to move again. Next I have to bring the two halves together and align them with the coil. This is the more tricky bit because I will be fighting against the massive magnetic pull as the two halves get close. This is particularly difficult because one slip of centre will wreck the coils. The safest way to do it is to remove the cone, spider and coil first which I think I will take the time do as these are original Tandberg branded drivers.}

The alignment procedure was difficult, but Andrew did it.

_{The damage to the magnets is usually caused by receiving a shock such as being dropped, however the effect is also exaggerated when the original driver glue dries out and doesn’t retain the core magnet in place.}

_{On the back of the drivers it says Tandberg HT104 or maybe HT164. The ink stamp is very faint. They do look like the Peerless 8 inch drivers used in many of the 70’s B&O and Goodmans designs. If it is not possible to restore the bass drivers, we will be able to source some original Peerless units of the original specifications.}

_{The other drivers are testing well so I am confident that they are in good order. I am just analysing the crossover components at the moment. The inductors and ceramic resistors are all testing very well but the capacitors are miles out of specification. We will change those anyway so the crossovers will end up better than new and matched of course.} _{When they are done they should be the best sounding TL2520’s in the world. Fingers crossed!}

_{I have had a good look at the damaged cabinet and I think that it has been caused by someone pulling it from the top. There is no evidence of a compression fracture, it’s more of a pulling fracture. I will get them glued and clamped and see what we have when the glue dries. I am hoping that I can keep the original veneer for you. If not, I will replace the veneer on the top of both cabinets so they match.}

The new top front of the broken speaker.

Crossover work – all the inductors are tested and resealed to the boards, the resistors have been removed, tested and reinstalled and the capacitors removed ready for the new ones.

The original fracture line is visible if you look closely. I don’t mind, it’s part of their history. The repair of the damage however was better then I ever would have imagined possible.

All the drivers were checked. New gaskets. New solder.

The terminals were kept original. These labels were kept of course and tidied up.

And the restoration went well!
Extremely fulfilling to be able to contribute to bringing these wonderful speakers back to life. I did not restore them myself, this project needed expertise. I warmly recommend Andrew’s services if you want to restore a pair of vintage speakers.

Do people today realize how good these 70’ies speakers sound? These are my smallest Tandberg speakers and for any room where you can’t have big speakers, they’re perfect. Great with voices and accoustic music. The impression is natural, airy, human. They do not lack detail at all but never get harsh or cause listening-fatigue. I really recommend them. I like them so much that I started collecting other Tandberg speakers and I since then bought TL-3520, 5010, 5020 and just recently Hifi System 15.

Later, I bought the smaller model TL-1520, which you can read about here.

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