trelja, In the early 1970s, I was beginning my quest for sonic Nirvana as a penniless medical student living in NYC. On weekend days, I often wandered down to Lyric Hi-Fi on Lexington Ave, to hear what they had to show off, including the IMF Monitor and Studio speakers. (As many know, IMF = Irving M Fried, a Philadelphian who appreciated British audio products.) Mike Kay, the owner of Lyric, was a very nice guy, a true gentleman who encouraged my interest even though he knew I was unable to afford most of his wares. Eventually, I scraped together enough money to purchase a pair of IMF Studios from Mike, but I really lusted for the Monitor, which sported a KEF B139 in a full-blown TL cabinet, a la the seminal article by Bailey in Wireless World. Once I became an intern, I had a patient who offered me the use of his table saw for building my own speaker. So I followed Bailey's article and built the TL line for the B139 out of 1.25 inch thick HDF, all while also doing my internship. I also bought a pair of KEF midrange speakers identical to those used in the Monitor, and I used ESL tweeters purchased from a West Coast source, to make a full range speaker. Results were excellent, if I do say so myself. Long story short, over a period of 25-30 years during which the full range speakers belonged to someone else for quite a while, I eventually reacquired them, separated the midrange and tweeter sections from the TL woofer cabinets and kept only the latter, in storage for more than 25 years in my basement, not knowing that I would some day own the Bev 2SWs. It's a match made in heaven. (I happened to have been keeping an NOS pair of B139s, still in the factory boxes, as well.)
I quite agree that the TL is more about speed and coherency and only a little bit about extreme bass extension. The KEF/TL woofers keep up with the Bevs at the crossover point such that listeners unanimously agree the transition is "seamless".
I quite agree that the TL is more about speed and coherency and only a little bit about extreme bass extension. The KEF/TL woofers keep up with the Bevs at the crossover point such that listeners unanimously agree the transition is "seamless".