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High-mass stands for Tannoys?

I will be very interested to know how the oak stands work out - I have my Chatsworths on fairly lightweight open metal frames that sit on castors... They were the only stands I could find that were the right size at the time. I have wondered whether they would benefit from something more substantial...

Have you been quoted a price for the oak stands yet?
 
Monitor Gold 12".

Fabric surrounds or rubber? I have no experience with the rubber surround MG12 but have read they are more bass-heavy than the fabric version.

FWIW I didn't think think my Chatsworth enclosures were any flimsier than other Tannoy enclosures, in fact I thought they were pretty inert. They were very heavy for their size and only the back panel gave any audible resonance with the "knuckle rap" test. I didn't peak beneath the polyurethane foam though so they could have been lined with lead sheet for all I know!
 
They are the rubber surround version.

My chatsworths are a good bit lighter than the 8" Greenwich I have which are less than 2/3 of the size. The side and rear panels are pretty tuneful.
 
Had a pair of 12" Golds with rubber surrounds for years; my favourite model of all the vintage 12"-ers I had.

You obviously prefer the Chatsworths over the Greenwich ('cos you're selling those), in which areas do you think they have the edge?
 
Haven't got a price yet but I'll let you know how I get on

Have just made a pair if stands for my 12" monitor golds, about 8" high 30mm thick old oak, but left the front open, seems to have tamed the bass slightly, think in part it helps to prevent the lower part of the speaker cabinet forming a horn and accentuating lower freqencies. Perhaps an old wives tale, but can assure you that old speaker cabinets and books are not the best idea for stands on speakers with 12" drivers. The baked bean cans will probablty be better. Although the cabs on mine are a bit tatty, ( made in the 70's) if you are anywhere near Harrogate you could have a listen
PS you could try the oft recomended 9" concrete blocks
 
Calorgas, I would certainly be keeping the Greenwich if I could afford to. I can well imagine I'll miss them in the future if my circumstances change.

They go really quite low for their size, and there is a coherence to the presentation that the MG can't manage - though admittedly that might not be the case if I was in a larger room and could get more distance from the speakers. They also have a beautiful bell-like clarity and a more pronounced midrange than the MGs.

On the downside the tweeter is a bit hotter than the MGs, though this is workable with the energy control. And though they can hit the lowest notes that crop up if I'm listening to Basic Channel (dub techno if you're not acquainted) or similar, they don't do it with the effortlessness of the bigger cousins.

The Greenwich really can put a credible image of the performance space in my room, and they do it as well as the best BBC monitors I've owned but with an aded dynamism and agility I've never heard from those. But the Chatsworths seem to put me in the performance space, if that makes sense. Or to put it another way, they are able to portray a double-bass or a piano, for example, on a human scale, more so than any other speaker I've had. The obvious downside is that I am having to work to tame the bass, but as I only use digital replay this is pretty easy to do with EQ if necessary.

The Greenwich have a more modern sound and think if I was to keep them I'd be too tempted to look for a valve power amp to go with them, and this is an area I really want to avoid, mostly for financial and convenience reasons. The MGs, being that bit warmer, are working brilliantly with my First Watt M2, which I'd very much like to keep - it sounds very very good and being a clone was pretty darn cheap.

I could certainly live with either, but for now, as I have a suitable space for a larger speaker for the first time in ages, I want to see how good I can get the Monitor Golds to sound. Their ability to give me complicated, dynamic, even noisy music in an uncongested, involving way, and yet be intimate when required, is totally addictive and it's exciting to think how much they may be being held back by the cabinets and the crossover.

I've declared a number of speakers to be my last, but honestly it's hard to imagine changing from Tannoys now I've found speakers that can do natural tone/timbre as well as pace and dynamics. More than any other speaker I've had they are able to cope with a truly complete range of music, and that for me is the holy grail, and the source of a huge amount of box-swapping these past five or six years.
 
but left the front open, seems to have tamed the bass slightly, think in part it helps to prevent the lower part of the speaker cabinet forming a horn and accentuating lower freqencies.

Can't quite picture this - can you share an image?
 
I'd lose the 'support' speakers, they could be droning away in sympathy with the bass from the Tannoys, with the Tannoys playing touch their cones if they are moving they are reradiating.

Had a chance finally to unwrap the speakers underneath and take the grilles off. Sure enough the cones are moving. Sooner I get these wooden stands the better...
 
Great write-up of the MG vs Greenwich, thanks. Very interesting and certainly pretty well aligned to my experiences with various vintage and modern Tannoys I've owned :).
 
Hi Jules

Yes I did and they arrived this weekend. They're sturdy little things and well put together.

I've just filled them with sand and the effect on the bass is significant. I've taken the EQ out of play entirely and haven't run into any problems so far.

Could be expectation bias but I do feel maybe the overall sound is a bit darker / less airy. But I'd want to listen with them in place for a while before I make a final judgment on that.

All in all I'd say go for it - for the money I very much doubt they can be beaten.
 
Excellent, thanks for that - would love to see a pic of them in situ if poss!

How did filling them effect the bass?
 
Sure, I'll try to get a pic in the morning when there's some light.

The bass is clearly better controlled and defined. It has some real punch now whereas before it was a little indistinct and liable to overhang on the heaviest tracks. Wouldn't say it's super taut but then I wouldn't ever expect that from these speakers or this amp.
 
Interesting, I found the opposite with my speakers, I found the sound to be clearer, livelier, more open with a cleaner top end, though I have mine empty, didn't see the need to fill them as they don't ring.
 
This has been an interesting experiment. I'm amazed just how sensitive the Tannoys are to the material inside the central column.

Unfilled was clear, fresh and open, but the bass was loose on heavier tracks.

I then filled with sharp sand (pretty coarse stuff). Hugely solid sound, but very thick and too heavy in the bass.

I then tried cat litter which was some chalk/mineral compound. The bass overhang disappeared, but the overall sound was washed out and vague.

Today I've filled with rice and added some gobs of blu-tac between speaker and stand. I expected it to be overdamped to be honest, but in fact it's great. Just listened to some Massive Attack and now some Lou Reed. The bass, so far, is smooth and controlled, with real weight, but the overall sound is big and open, without over damping the upper frequencies. This is the best sound I've had out of the Chatsworths, by miles.
 


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