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Tannoy Berkeleys

M

Martin J

pfm Member
I have just taken delivery of a pair on Tannoy Berkeleys.

Sadly one of the cabinets was cosmetically damaged in a prominent place during transit and I am in a dialogue with the vendor and hope to resolve the matter amicably.

The cones and foams are original. The foam has lots of small (<1mm) pock marks on it but is intact. I knew this before I bought the speakers and plan to get a recone done over the summer. Lockwood Audio is just a couple of miles from my in-laws house.

Temporarily the speakers are firing up the room with a patio window behind them with my SBLs still in place along the side of the room. All far from ideal. However my initial impressions of the sound are really good; big, spacious and with a tuneful but in no way over powering bass. Not too sure about the treble yet (might need a bit more) but I will have a play with the crossover controls to see what effect they have.

My wife thought we should listen to some 70s music on them so we are sat here listening to ELO and very nice it is too. We are just "Getting to the Point"!

Can anyone advise on the best way to connect speaker cable? The terminals on the back are spring loaded jobs with a very small diameter hole that only seems to take about 3 strands from my spare NACA5 cable. Do I need to solder some sort of needle onto the end of the cable?
 
If you solder a single pin on the end of your cable you'll seriously reduce the contact area so the more strands you can get into the terminal the better. Better still is to replace the spring loaded terminals for some decent binding posts.
 
I guess a cable with finer strands would give a better contact overall. I think I have some Linn stuff in the loft I could try.

It would be nice to have proper binding posts but I would prefer not to modify the speakers.
 
I understand where you're coming from and yes a finer stranded cable would give more cross sectional area and hence a better contact.
 
I used to have Tannoy Cheviot speakers so know the problem. It is easier to change the terminals for higher quality ones, perhaps when the HPD driver is out of the cabinet being re-edged, so you can access the terminal panel. The WBT ones are very nice and allow all types of termination - bare wires, spades or 4mm plugs. I heard the Berkeleys once in the shop. I found them a bit subdued in the treble, even with the Level and Energy switches at maximum, possibly as a result of the full bass end that they have or the switches need a good clean up. Maybe Lockwood can advise.
 
I had set the roll off the wrong way around i.e. killed off too much of treble. The treble is much better now and I still have one notch of roll off and energy left if I need it. Some vocals still sound ever so slightly adenoidal, most don't so maybe they just are!

I really like the bass, it is the most tuneful I have ever heard and brings out a whole side to some songs that I didn't really know was there. Hopefully the foams will last until the summer and then I will get Lockwood to checkout the drivers and do whatever is needed.

I think the Berkeley are keepers, especially now the Lancaster/Golds I have been watching on ebay are now unto £1850.
 
Decent binding posts can be bought at Maplins. I use Chord Rumour cable which fits Tannoy spring loaded clips. I much preferred the Chord cable over NACA5 which seemed to dull the treble.
 
berkeleys are great 15" speakers if you have the room to let them play. i tend to favor the 12"s in the devons over the cheviots - smaller in size but crisper.
 
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