"When matching woofers and tweeter, the rated sensitivity of the tweeter was 95dB, each woofers is 92.5dB. When paralleling woofers in one cabinet, it increases their sensitivity by about 4dB. To solve several issues, the tweeter mounts from inside the baffle. This aligns the woofers and tweeter voice coils in phase whilst the flare on the baffle provides a hornloading effect that increases the tweeter's sensitivity to match the woofers and eliminate the need to place extra attenuating components on the woofer crossover. The waveguide flare also widens the dispersion to dramatically increase the soundstage in all directions. And to the non-technically minded, it looks bloody great."

The TC-Towers 2 use a hornloaded 28mm fabric ferrofluid cooled dome tweeter with powerful neodymium motor which is high-passed at 2.25kHz. Placed in separate internal enclosures, the paralleled mid/woofers are 152mm curvilinear paper diaphragms featuring 44mm aluminium voice coils, neodymium magnets and unique angled wedges pressed within the rubber roll surrounds. TC Loudspeakers quote a frequency response of 36Hz to 20kHz within ±3dB tolerance. Power handling is a nominal 200 watts and maximum short term (10 milliseconds) is 500 watts. Efficiency is a high 96dB and impedance 8 ohms. These should certainly be very tube-friendly speakers even for single-ended triodes (SETs).


Having said that, from my experience with the speakers over a few weeks, preamplifier gain required for my normal listening levels was not that much different from what I use with my 92dB reference Wilson Audio Alexia. Nevertheless, the benign 8Ωs load coupled with a reasonably efficient design makes for compatibility with a variety of amplification devices regardless of tech. The speakers are a room-friendly 950x260x270mm HxWxD and weigh in at 30kg. TC Loudspeakers provide rubber feet or wood-turned spikes which can be attached both to the speakers directly or to the optional plinth which is recommended for added stability. The review pair was provided with what in my opinion were cheap binding posts in a biwire provision with OFC cable jumpers. They did not correspond to the quality of the overall design. Caloia was in the process of evaluating more suitable options and settled on ETI’s minimalist but highly-rated binding posts. These will be used in all subsequent builds.

As already stated, the quality of the wood finish was exceptional and the review pair came in solid Australian Rosewood on the front baffle and Camphor Laurel on the sides, top, bottom and back, with Camphor Laurel pedestals. TC Loudspeakers offer a very wide choice of wood species. The timber is hand-polished to a fine lustre with natural non-toxic timber oils and bees wax. Metal perforated grilles are optional and, upon request, can be provided in colours to match the speaker finish. Other aspects of the design such as the bespoke wooden specifications panel, the handle above it and the strategically positioned laser-etched numerals/logos give the impression of a product that is entirely bespoke. Each unit is aesthetically unique and no one other will be exactly the same.