Leak Transmission Line 2075 Speakers

[Wakefield Turntables]

Been offered a pair of these for £350 is this a good deal or not?

[Alex_UK]

Adam (Beobloke) is probably the best person to answer, as he exhibited a pair at Scalford - they were pretty good, great bass as you'd expect with 15" drivers - I'm not sure on the price, but doesn't sound too far off.

[Reid Malenfant]

If you are thinking of replacing the ATCs then forget it As a second system they will be okay though. I'm not sure they are transmission lines either in all honesty, more like a slot ported reflex with tons of damping material stuffed in there from what I saw

[Jonboy]

price is good

[DSJR]

They're big, I suspect they're LOUD!!!!!!! But in proper HiFi terms, I'm not sure the colourations could be got round these days, despite all the faff that went into the drivers at the time - a four-way crossover in dire need of an update and re-vamp..

Just my impressions, but you'll be blown away by how "big" they sound by modern standards, but how they'd do long term is anyone's guess I'm afraid...

[Wakefield Turntables]

If you are thinking of replacing the ATCs then forget it As a second system they will be okay though. I'm not sure they are transmission lines either in all honesty, more like a slot ported reflex with tons of damping material stuffed in there from what I saw

They are just another set of speakers for the collectio and not a replacement for the ATC's, chance would be a fine thing

price is good

Thanks mate, will try and get them cheaper if I can

They're big, I suspect they're LOUD!!!!!!! But in proper HiFi terms, I'm not sure the colourations could be got round these days, despite all the faff that went into the drivers at the time - a four-way crossover in dire need of an update and re-vamp..

Just my impressions, but you'll be blown away by how "big" they sound by modern standards, but how they'd do long term is anyone's guess I'm afraid...

Thanks for your comments, as for refurb and rebuild, this dosen't phase me I've done a few pairs of speakers now so its not a big thing!

[shane]

If you've got room for them, you should definitely give them a try. They're very much of their time, but the things they do well they do really well, and after all, you could always flog the house, move into the cabs and retire on the proceeds!

My least favourite memory of 2075s was delivering a pair to a third-floor flat on my own. That was 35 years ago and I still get twinges...

[Beobloke]

£350 is a good price for a pair of 2075s but check them thoroughly before committing. Look for:

(1) Bass, upper midrange and lower midrange drivers scraping or, at worst, jammed. These can ‘sag’ over the years, causing the voice coil to rub. A quick fix is to pop the drivers out, rotate them through 180 degrees and carry on, but it’s not really a proper repair. The upper mid drivers were used on a number of other Leak and Wharfedale speakers from the 1970s and do pop up on eBay fairly often, but the 2075s use a different mounting escutcheon so a bit of drilling will be required to fit those from a different speaker. Also remember, any other drivers you buy are just as old and likely to be rubbing just as badly, or even worse! The lower mid driver and the bass driver are unique to the 2075s so replacements are few and far between.

(2)Tweeter wiring – this can fracture where the voice coil is soldered to the tag panel. Repair is not difficult but requires a steady hand and some heat shunt tweezers.

Operation-wise you won’t hear them anywhere near their best until you do the following:

(1) REPLACE THE WIRING! The stuff that Leak used is appalling and actually removes a bit of the bass frequency range.

(2) Update the resistors and capacitors in the crossover. There is no need to go silly on most of them, although it is worth spending a bit extra on the couple that directly feed the tweeter as this improves its performance and sweetens it up no end.

(3) Did I mention replacing the wiring?

Sound-wise, I love them! As Dave says, they have a properly ‘big’ sound with super midrange and lots of detail. Bass is ‘healthy’ although you may be surprised initially by the way in which they appear a little light sounding. This is because the lower half of the bass cabinet is very solid and doesn’t boom. Stick on your favourite bass torture test track, however, and you’ll soon find that there’s not much missing at the low end. For me, the only thing that I really hear that could be improved upon is their upper bass/lower mid which is a trifle bloated. This is down to the upper half of the bass cabinet which is a bit resonant. I suspect some extra bracing or some sound deadening on the panels would help a great deal here, and is something I shall be doing when we move house and mine come out of storage and into my new, bigger listening room.