advertisement


Better than Tannoys...?

Colin,

I think everyone who’s been in this hobby long enough gets to the point where they find it — “it” being the speaker that’ll see you through the rest of your life. Sounds like MBLs are it for you.

I’m just glad I found it for me for sensible money. The prices I’ve seen recently for vintage GRFs and other large Tannoys new or old are in stupid territory now, certainly far more than I would or could spend today.

Joe
 
The only speakers I’d really be interested to hear in your position would be Devore Orangutan 93 or 96, but given you can build a 12” HPD based speaker for a couple of grand is it really worth the extra outlay??
 
Colin L said:
Only two tannoys I’ve heard have been a pair of Churchill’s, many moons ago, and more recently the Kingdom Royale Mk2’s. Both were hugely impressive (and huge), but I wouldn’t trade my MBL’s for either pair.
Click to expand...

Each time I have heard the Kingdom, I thought they were poor. The best speaker I owned in a large space was the 801 Series 80. It was much better than later versions I heard and beautifully balanced across the spectrum.
 
yuckyamson said:
Id' say predominately for the drivers. Pretty much the same drivers as in the arden, churchill, a pile of others (there are some variations done but pretty much that's it). Throw them into custom built 160-180 liter cabs and you're gold. (no pun intended).
Click to expand...

Being a studio monitor, I'm pretty sure they'd have a flat response down to where the low frequencies start to roll-off. As I've been trying to explain recently in the DIY and Classic room, If you change the enclosure size and / or port tuning frequency, the frequency response will no longer be flat (assuming it was in the first place). The enclosures of the DMT series are pretty much bomb proof and it's highly unlikely to improve on them.
 
Better than Tannoys at what? Tannoys are the ver best speakers in the world at being Tannoys, nothing else comes close and owners experience an almost cult like bessotedness.

If you have issues with aspects of the Tannoy experience I can offer advice for speakers that are much better in these regards but they will be far behind in Tannoyness.
 
david ellwood said:
Better than Tannoys at what? Tannoys are the ver best speakers in the world at being Tannoys, nothing else comes close and owners experience an almost cult like bessotedness.

If you have issues with aspects of the Tannoy experience I can offer advice for speakers that are much better in these regards but they will be far behind in Tannoyness.
Click to expand...
So offer away! All info is useful!
 
sq225917 said:
I always found tannoys like es14s, you dont notice what's wrong with them until you listen to something else. A big pair fills a room like almost nothing else but they give everything the same scale.
Click to expand...

This is an interesting observation, and I’m trying now to see if my ESLs have the same weakness.
 
The odd thing is I regularly get to hear a lot of very different things, but have no wish to change! The hardest part for me was getting a really good pair as unfortunately vintage Tannoys are notorious for fairly poor pair-matching and I’m a very critical listener when it comes to balance/stereo image etc. I ended up buying selling a few pairs of 15” Golds and I do still have a craving to find a mint pair of period-correct 15” Reds (£yikes!) for my Lockwood cabs!
 
I've owned or had close experience of a fair few classic Tannoy designs.Grf corner, Autograph, Arden etc...
Built a 200l pair of enclosures for 12" golds, which are braced to hell and plaster lined. They have variable length ports, and can be tuned by ear to the room. I use silver crossovers, which run the bass cone wide open. These are the best sounding Tannoy iteration I've had through the system. And are the ones I've kept.

All that aside, I also have a pair of Urei 811As, with subs using JBL 2235s, and a clone pair of JBL 4430s. Both of these are monitor systems which supplanted Tannoys in studios, and to my view with reason...if you like Tannoys you will like these, as most of the Tannoy strengths are retained and built upon, and their weak points minimised. IMHO, of course.
 
ff1d1l said:
I've owned or had close experience of a fair few classic Tannoy designs.Grf corner, Autograph, Arden etc...
Built a 200l pair of enclosures for 12" golds, which are braced to hell and plaster lined. They have variable length ports, and can be tuned by ear to the room. I use silver crossovers, which run the bass cone wide open. These are the best sounding Tannoy iteration I've had through the system. And are the ones I've kept.
Click to expand...
Mind if I ask what frequency you have your ports tuned to? I'm currently have hard-edged MG12 (Fs=49Hz) in 200L distributed port enclosures and am wondering if the rubber-surround MG12 (Fs=27Hz) would work more optimally in this enclosure.
 
ToTo Man said:
Mind if I ask what frequency you have your ports tuned to? I'm currently have hard-edged MG12 (Fs=49Hz) in 200L distributed port enclosures and am wondering if the rubber-surround MG12 (Fs=27Hz) would work more optimally in this enclosure.
Click to expand...
Really sorry...tuned them by ear. And they're the butyl surround 12"MGs.
FWIW I rate the butyl surround 12s as one of the very best sounding Tannoy drivers. Did a comparison many years ago, and with silver crossovers preferred them to 12" silvers.
 
I think it’s partly that you like what you get used to, regardless of the short-comings.

I’ve had the Harbeth P3ESR since April 2011 - apart from a short period where I tried Harbeth C7-ES3, B&O BeoLab 5 and Tannoy Kensington SE. I’ve now got the P3ESR and the M30.1 here, and although the extra bass and scale is an obvious improvement over the P3ESR, there’s something in me that says ‘keep the P3, you like them and you know them’. That extra bass that came with the Tannoys and B&O ultimately was not welcome and distracted me. I expect I’ll come to my senses and keep the M30.1, but familiarity is very comfortable to live with.

I wouldn’t move to Tannoys again myself after Harbeth and I do wonder if the time you’ve spent with the SHL5+ will make you uncomfortably aware of jarring differences with any Tannoys you get.
 
Rockmeister said:
no mention of big JBL's?
Click to expand...

Fabulous things IMHO, I really like all the huge blue-face monitors I’ve heard, but the drivers are just too far apart for typically tiny UK rooms. The point source aspect of Tannoys makes them more suitable to my ears.

PS Interestingly the Japanese, who I acknowledge are far ahead of us when it comes to wonderfully extreme audiophile behaviour, don’t seem to mind the driver spacing and happily use huge amazing stuff like 4355s in rooms that are barely large enough to physically fit a pair in.
 
Rockmeister said:
no mention of big JBL's?
Click to expand...
JBL 250ti's could be a domestic JBL option. Not really heard Tannoy's though so can't give any guidance on how they compare. 4 x drivers inc 14" bass, so possibly very different.

They are certainly full range and pretty neutral, a big amp is recommended though.
 
Nagraboy said:
I think it’s partly that you like what you get used to, regardless of the short-comings.

I’ve had the Harbeth P3ESR since April 2011 - apart from a short period where I tried Harbeth C7-ES3, B&O BeoLab 5 and Tannoy Kensington SE. I’ve now got the P3ESR and the M30.1 here, and although the extra bass and scale is an obvious improvement over the P3ESR, there’s something in me that says ‘keep the P3, you like them and you know them’. That extra bass that came with the Tannoys and B&O ultimately was not welcome and distracted me. I expect I’ll come to my senses and keep the M30.1, but familiarity is very comfortable to live with.

I wouldn’t move to Tannoys again myself after Harbeth and I do wonder if the time you’ve spent with the SHL5+ will make you uncomfortably aware of jarring differences with any Tannoys you get.
Click to expand...
I know this well. Each time I put the 5's on again I think..why change? But in a month or 3 I turn the big 7, and life is short ( ho ho), so some things still need to be experienced. Harbeths are, IMO VERY good value...I mean Spendor's classic 100 which addresses the same kind of market and is a similar size is twice the price. H's are a near perfect compromise of a speaker, esp the Anniversaries, which address so many of those old Harbeth, 'too polite' issues. Are domestically ok size and appearance wise, and play every genre of music I bung into them at least well and sometimes brilliantly; but as I mentioned upthread, my room is very unforgiving at the top end, and I can certainly hear the metal in that tweeter on occasions, and at the other end, although there is much better bass, it's not 15" tannoy/Huge JBL bass, which I could edge a little closer too.
I need to go listen. Planning that right now, with an afternoon with Cheviots and Ardens, my own amp and a few cups of tea.
 
eastone said:
The only speakers I’d really be interested to hear in your position would be Devore Orangutan 93 or 96, but given you can build a 12” HPD based speaker for a couple of grand is it really worth the extra outlay??
Click to expand...
I can't. My rooky error...closer investigation has near doubled that price for a finished, restored pair.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top