This past fall, I was at Capital Audiofest, and one of the rooms I wanted to check out was Mark and Itai’s room. They had a simple but wonderful setup comprised of Mark of MC Audiotech’s TL-8 speakers and Itai of Heaven 11’s Billie Amp MKIII. I was pretty enamoured by the sound and wanted to spend more time with the TL-8s so after the show, we packed them up and brought them home. Mark’s speakers have a very unique design that, to be honest, I’m not sure I have seen on any other speaker. They use 2 drivers, the first being a Wide Band Line Source Driver that is vented on the sides and works like an open baffle speaker. The bass driver is an 8″ transmission line woofer, which does an incredible job of filling in the low end. The cabinets are a unique design as well, which slightly widens towards the back with a curved rear panel. With no parallel surfaces, internal resonances should be well controlled. On the front, you have an integrated grille that offers actual physical protection for the drivers. These speakers come in at a retail price of $15,000-$17,000, which means they are not cheap, but they are within the realm of affordability for many audiophiles looking for a new pair of speakers. So do they sound as good as they look? Let’s dive in and find out.

Setup:

I won’t get into unboxing as my review pair was, well, not quite boxed up. Mark didn’t really plan for these to go home with anyone, so we wrapped them up in blankets and carefully loaded them into the car. Now, if you purchase a pair, your experience will be much different. That said, setup is pretty easy with these speakers; they are light enough for most people to move around, weighing in at 55lbs each. The binding posts did pose a small delay for me as I didn’t have any spade-terminated cables handy, so I picked up a set of adapters to go from bananas to spades.

Once I got them hooked up, I started working on positioning, and I’ll say, they don’t seem super picky on position, though, like most speakers, the more room I gave them, the better they sounded. I like to try speakers in non-ideal positions as well, as we don’t all have the perfect listening space, and you may need to place them against the wall or closer to side walls than you prefer, so you want speakers that will work in those scenarios. I ended up with a placement about 1.5 feet from the back wall and 1 foot from the side walls, with a slight toe in, which worked quite well for my room. I also tried them a bit closer to the side walls and noticed that they were a bit less open, as I think the vents didn’t have quite the space they wanted. Moving them back closer to the back wall didn’t make as noticeable a difference, so if you don’t have room to pull them out, they should still sound quite nice in your space.

Sound:

The TL-8s have great overall sound; they play low, high, and all in between. They lean a bit warm in my room and system, though I am playing them through my McIntosh MC250, which is a fairly warm amplifier in its own right. I prefer warm to bright personally, so long as the top end does have enough sparkle to keep them from sounding too bass heavy, so for me they are perfect tonally. The wideband line source driver offers great mid-range coverage and an airy, detailed top end. The bass comes from the transmission line woofer, which is a great way to get extra oomph out of a smaller driver. Beyond tonality, the imaging is incredible as well, creating a detailed stage between and beyond the speakers. With well-mastered tracks, you get a sense of there being a speaker for each instrument and vocalist. The size of the sound stage in my room was quite impressive. Listening to tracks like The Ballad of Bill Hubbard really showcases how much these speakers can throw sound around you. I will say the only thing I did notice if you were standing, you did lose a little bit of the staging. When having people over or my wife listening to some music she likes, and I was standing, I noticed the top end gets a little soft. Now, how much is proportionate to how close I was to the speakers, so a larger room and less effect, though I don’t know too many people who stand while they listen to music in their rooms. This could be my room acoustics playing a part as well, but it is not something I have noticed with my Sonetto V as much, though it happens with those, too. However, when seated, they sound simply wonderful.

Listening Samples

“Leave it Alone” – Caroline Glaser

A song I love to listen to, and happens to be a great audition song, is “Leave It Alone” by Caroline Glaser. Lyrically, it’s a somewhat sad song, but instrumentally, it’s dramatic and has incredible depth and layering. It is one of those songs where you close your eyes and get transported to a completely different space. The use of reverberation and echo creates this incredibly deep sound stage. Caroline’s vocals are front and center on the stage with the guitar panning to the right and the bass on the left. The drums are positioned behind Caroline as they would be on a live stage. The TL-8 handles the song so well, creating that depth. The vocals are crisp and clear and extremely natural-sounding. You end up with a very lifelike live performance that makes it feel like you are in the room with the artist. The kick drum has punch and is defined; it doesn’t take over the other lower frequencies. Overall, the speakers lean into the music and do incredibly well with the track.

“Gloria” – Kingfishr

One of my recent obsessions has been “Gloria” by Kingfishr, an Irish Folk band. They have a great sound; they blend traditional Irish sounds with contemporary pop in a way that is so enjoyable to listen to. Their song “Gloria” off their latest album, Halcyon, is a great example of their sound. The vocals are wonderful, and that is where the TL-8 truly shines. Eddie Keogh, their vocalist, has an incredible voice and great control over his sound. The TL-8 once again delivers a lifelike performance with detail and texture in the vocals. The chorus has such power in it, and reproducing it faithfully really brings the song to life in your room. The whole album’s good to be honest, but if you’re just dipping your toes into Irish Indie and Folk, Gloria is a great place to start. The instrumentals of the song are also represented well with space to breathe, so you can pick up on each detail and layer down to the minutia.

“Thoroughfare” – Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain is a wonderful artist, and her album Preachers Daughter has been in pretty consistent rotation for me, and if you spent any time with me at Capital Audiofest, you probably heard this track. Preachers Daughter is a gritty story told in the first person, though I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t listened, I will say it explores some darker themes. Thoroughfare is a song that builds up with each bar, adding in another instrument. In the first, it’s just Ethel singing over the lead guitar. After the bridge, drums get added in with a distant echo, creating a sense of depth with a strong kick and slow snare. If you listen closely, you can also hear the addition of a faint shaker, which, to be honest, on less revealing systems can get lost. The last chorus is my favorite part. Ethel solos for a moment, then the whole band comes in loud and fast, leading into a great guitar solo before a slow, gentle fade out. The song is dramatic and powerful, with such a great crescendo, and having speakers that translate that so well and immerse you in the sound is crucial to getting the full experience, and in that respect, the TL-8 delivers in spades. As I said, the whole album is a masterpiece; it is so well composed, and Ethel’s storytelling is unlike anyone else I have ever listened to; she paints such vivid imagery that takes full advantage of a great system. When I sit down to listen, I can see the scenes in my head she is singing about, and I think that is the mark of a truly powerful lyricist. The TL-8s do so incredibly well with vocals; it is as if I am listening to a live performance in my room. It is hard to articulate just how much I love this album on these speakers. I think I listened to it at least a couple of dozen times since I brought them home.

“Wings” – Birdy – Nu:Logic Remix

If you like indie meets electronic, this track may be just what you’re looking for. It blends two very different genres so well. With great bass and synths that draw you in, it’s one you can listen to on repeat. While this isn’t the ethereal storytelling of Ethel, it is still a song that has emotion and depth in the instrumentation. The lyrics are juxtaposed to the beat, melding this sound that is unlike anything else I have really ever heard. Its fast and slow at the same time, and the TL-8s don’t miss a single beat, and the song really lets the transmission line sub shine so well. The bass is impactful and detailed; nothing gets muddy even at some higher-than-usual listening levels. Also worth noting is that the rapid hi-hats and snares are super crisp, and the clarity of the high end in general is superb. When a track like this plays so well, it really highlights the versatility of a speaker and how it can shine regardless of the genre. I listen to quite a bit of electronic music and not to stray to a different song, but another one that really exercises the bass, and I listen to on all speakers is “Northend Nightlife” by Headphone Activist. It reaches extremely low and can really show how well a speaker does at playing low, and the TL-8 articulated the bass in that song with ease.

Pros and Cons

Specs:

Size and Weight

• Boxed Weight 85 Lbs
• Net Weight 55 Lbs
• Height 37” 
• Width 13.25”
• Depth 19.25”

Technical Details

• Wide Band Line Source Driver “WBLS”
• Open Baffle From 475 Hertz and up
• Transmission Line Loaded 8” Woofer
• Crossover Point 475 Hertz
• Efficiency 91 dB
• First Order Crossover Network
• Frequency Response 32Hz to 22kHz 
• Nominal Impedance 8 Ohm (minimum Impedance 6.8 Ohm)
• Recommended amplifier power 25W – 500W

Price: $15,000-17,000 U.S, depending on finish

Associated Equipment

• Marantz SR7009 Preamp
• VPI Avenger Phono
• VPI Prime with 10″ Unipivot arm on VTA base with Ortofon Quintet Red and Shyla Cartridges
• VPI Forever Model One with Fatboy 12″ with Shyla Cart
• Sonus Faber Sonetto V
• YG Cairn
• Magneplanar LRS+
• Paradigm Defiance V8 Sub
• Mcintosh MC 250
• Onkyo M5140
• Synergistic Research Powercell 8 SX
• AVM PCM 3.3
• Synergistic Research Foundation SX cabling
• Synergistic Research Foundation Power Cables

Conclusion

The TL-8 is a great speaker; it does everything well and looks great doing it. They are not cheap, but in the world of Hifi, a pair of speakers of this caliber for under 20k is quite impressive. I want to compare them to something but there really is nothing I have heard that sounds quite like these, nor anything I am aware of that has their architecture. They are in a league of their own. I could say yes, they have more bass than the YG Cairns I had in the room, but then again, so do other speakers, or that the top end is so much better than my Sonus Fabers, but the reality is they are so different that it’s not really a comparison. They are incredibly articulate and detailed. They have speed that you don’t expect, and edge over anything else I have had in for review. They sound massive, but don’t take up a room; they are something you need to experience to fully understand. If I had the spare cash, they would supplant my Sonetto Vs as my reference speaker. I really can not say enough good things about these speakers, and I am so happy I have had the chance to really get to know them. The only negative thing I can say is they do have a bit of a classic aesthetic that may not fit your current decor, but to be honest, it’s a sacrifice well worth making for the sound you can get out of these speakers. If you have not heard any MC Audiotech speakers, you really should try to make it to one of the shows or talk to Mark about how you can audition a pair.

We would like to present Mark and MC Audiotech with our Diamond Feather Award, signifying top performance and value within Hifi Audio

Disclaimer: MC Audiotech provided a pair of TL-8 speakers for the purpose of this review; neither MC Audiotech nor any affiliate paid in part nor in full in exchange for this review.