Leak Troughline FM Tuner
The Leak Troughline family of FM tuners were produced by H. J. Leak and Company who were one of the oldest audio manufacturers in the UK before they ceased production in early seventies after being sold off to the Rank Organisation.
The Leak Troughline is by far the most well known of all Leak's tuners and the one most collectors and valve enthusiasts collect, although there were several models and revisions made during the course of it's product life and not all are avidly collected as some others.
The original Leak Troughline first made in the early fifties is the least popular of the family and does not carry as greater following due to its early design and higher drift (how well the tuner locks on to an FM signal and keeps the signal stable and distortion free). Later versions of the Leak Troughline provided lower drift and Automatic Frequency control improved sound quality and listening enjoyment considerably. The Leak Troughline II launched in the late fifties is one such example although an all valve mono tuner, Leak cleverly left an upgrade path by including a stereo FM multiplex output signal at the back of the Leak Troughline II that could be connected to an external decoder to provide stereo reproduction.
In later years the Leak Troughline was to incorporate a built in MPX decoder although many consider its design and implementation poor being transistor based and very much an afterthought. Fortunately revival in the interest of the Leak Troughline has meant several modern high quality decoders have appeared on the market such as the one designed by Tim De Paravicini which made use of valves and received very favourable reviews and credit from magazines like Hi-Fi World.
The Leak Troughline series were some of the finest FM tuners ever built and like Quad tuners of a similar age are keenly sought after by enthusiasts.
This entry was posted on Tuesday November 13th, 2007 at 7:33 PM and is filed under Tuners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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4 Responses to Leak Troughline FM Tuner
Richard payne Says:
April 27th, 2008 at 11:17 AM
I have a Leak Troughline tuner, adapted to stereo in goood working condition and wish to sell it. Can you recoomend the best way to sell. I am not an technophile and cannot say what work is required to restore it to full condition
Jim Says:
August 11th, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Richard, you might want to try Ebay or Audiogon. What kind of shape is your Troughline? Has it had a recent service or any modifications?
You can contact me at peaceseeker12@hotmail.com
Regards,
Jim
Don edge Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 12:13 PM
Hi Jim,i have a t/l 1,two 2's and a three,all of which have been converted to stereo spec by ron at one thing audio,i didn't want the t/l1 as a museum piece just to look atso i aquired a replacement EM81 from richard at past times radio and took the set over to one thing at coventry,two weeks later it was ready,complete with 75 ohm aerial and multiplex socket beautifullt fitted to the rear of the chassis.When i connected it to my one thing decoder and fired it up i was amazed at just how good it sounds,no drift wat so ever the superb leak soud signature just like the t/l 2/3 .I can pick up classic f/m also as ron gave me a little more top end frequency,most people say that the t/l1 isn't suitable for conversion to stereo spec,but with the superb one thing decoder and ron's expert knowledge,this is i think no longer applicable,the only real problem is if the I/Fslugs are seized .ron's rebuilt more than 300 t/l's and the quality of his work's superb.The only snag is when your friends hear the set they all want one!!.ATB Don.
Brian Says:
February 14th, 2010 at 12:34 PM
Looking for a Troghline 2 just now, must be in excellent condition with a recent service, Thanks