Tannoy Monitor Golds

[Swann36]

Just a quick update on this as I've now tried the felt washer trick:

I bought a couple of packs of Fender strap-button felts (link) and some 2BA brass washers and the blog writer is entirely correct IMO. I'd already figured out this was a critical interface with vintage rear-mount baffles as very small differences in bolt tightness can make or break the sound to my ears. Too tight and that brightness that badly setup Tannoys can have arrives, too loose and the bass becomes too loose. The felt washers lift it to another level, the midrange is now magical, a BBC-like naturalness and sense of space but coupled with real life-size heft and full natural bass. Not a hint of edge, grain or glare at the top end. I used all eight bolts rather than the four in the blog site as I like the idea of spreading the load given it is such a crazy big and heavy driver.

As suggested in the blog I suspect this is all down to resonance control and probably avoiding any metal to metal contact. The 2BA bolts and felt/brass washers are, by pure fluke, sized perfectly - the bolts are narrow enough to miss touching the basket and the felt/brass washer combo holds the assembly in place securely. Tightness is still an issue and I'm finding, as with most things in audio, 'Tom Fletcher tight' rather than 'Linn tight' is where one wants to be. If you are using classic thin-wall Tannoy cabs I can't recommend this one highly enough, with these Lockwoods it has transformed the 'very good' into the 'bloody amazing'! FWIW I've found the exact same thing with BBC cabs, the screws holding the baffle and back door on really do not want to be tight, just gently screwed up until they stop and maybe 'an hour' from there, nothing more. Anything beyond that and the mid starts to thin-out - the same thing that happens with the Tannoys. How this all translates to modern high-mass rigid Tannoy designs or front-mounted drivers is anyone's guess, I suspect it may be a tip for the classic Guy Fountain period speakers only. Give it a go!

Really interesting tip thanks

 

[Swann36]

A super thread thanks all , I’ve learned a lot

 

[Tony L]

Really interesting tip thanks

FWIW I have since gone back to the plastic washers, mainly due to consistency over time, but still only very gently done up. I still very much stand by the whole ‘tight = bad’ thing.

 

[cooky1257]

As a supplemental to the refoam discussion regarding possible voicecoil offset and cone termination matters upthread another thing to bear in mind is in most cases a front refoam will be a 'quick and dirty' job ie done without removal of the cone assembly. so no driver strip down, gaps not cleaned and no realignment.