RTA 11T vs 11TL?

pkquat

I found a set of really nice RTA 11TL's for a reasonable price. My rabbit hole is near full I hope. The first thing I noticed besides the obvious was the cabinets are a different size. Are both PR's the same between models? I haven't openned them up yet. The front face is not beveled either, althogh the grills are. They look ok, but odd at the same time.

The bass on the TL's is less especially as the volume increases, but I suspect cabinet leakage, and hope that is the cause. The MW's drop quicker on the TL's

The SL3000 is an interesting tweeter. Its a smoother version of the SL2000, but still pretty crisp and detailed. I still detect some harshness, but haven't listened long enough. The SL2500's on some other speakers were mushy and almost quiet IMO. All are in need of crossover rebuilds, but I don't think that should effect upper end, cymbals and such much. I will be putting in some RD0-198's in soon.

The midrange still sounds pretty decent, and better than the 11T's. I'm not sure if that is because of the plastic blocker thing, the tweeters, or the crossover being in better shape.

It will be interesting to see if there is a difference once the crossovers are rebuilt, the 11T TL'd, and RD0-198's in.

Has anyone compared differences yet?

CGTIII

Congrats! I'd like some of those.

Here's a thread.

You can use the search function below your avatar to find others.

K_M

Speakers this old, (about 26-27 years) obviously the crossovers are bad.
We only own the Rta11t, not the Tl version, so can not compare.

A new cap(s) of any brand will bring forth much cleaner and clearer treble.
We found clarity of female singers voices to be very dulled with the original vintage caps.
The speaker had an overall moderately "veiled" sound, and with the new caps, was far clearer and detailed sounding, when we A/B ed our redone version to one of the originals.

pkquat

Thanks for the replies. I should have stated I now have both 11t and 11TL's. I was interested if others founf similar differences in sound and PR's between models, and had similar thoughts on the tweeters. I've had very mixed luck with the search function, and was on my phone at the time which made it harder to sift through the results.

I had the chance to check the PR models on one of the speakers and found at least one leak. The PR models are different between the t and TL.

The RTA 11t uses the SW80 as the mid PR and the SW81 as the low PR. Both designations were written in hand.
The RTA 11TL uses the SW81 as the mid PR and the SW81* as the low PR. Both designations were printed stickers.

*The SW81 on the RTA 11t still shows the pulp in the cone. The SW81 in the RTA11TL has a smooth cone similar to the SW80 and 83.

I wonder if the SW83 triggered the cabinet size change. On paper the t goes down to18Hz, and the TL 22Hz. Once I get hurricane nuts or rings in them, I can swap them around and see if there are differences.

codycatalist

Let me know what you think. I have some 11TLs but I was never impressed in 2 channel listening (granted they are NOT in the best shape) after I resealed the cabs and replaced some drivers. I stuck them in HT duty and they do great, plus what's the point of having the RTAs in a 2 channel system when I have my SDA 2Bs doing just that.

pkquat

I'll have to see what the final results are when I get the crossovers rebuilt. Some really like them, but others find issues. It makes me debate on going a cheaper route for the crossovers than sonicap. I'll have to see what the total $$ differences are.

In theory the MTM design should work well. So far, with the proper toe in, both sets have seamed to image well.