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sad day for coatbridge tannoy factory

No, it’s a magnetiser used to activate the magnetic field in all of the speakers’ magnets. When drive units are built the magnets are supplied un-magnetised for ease of assembly (if you’ve ever tried to align a speaker’s motor unit around a magnetised magnet you’ll know it’s damn near impossible!)

Once the drive unit is built, the last step is to sit it into this unit, and press the button which discharges a large electrical charge from some hefty capacitors into a coil around the magnet. This lines the particles in the material up properly and establishes the magnetic field.

As has been mentioned, if you get it wrong, it can be a bit dangerous....
It wasn't just for ease of assembly. A magnetised motor unit is a -er- magnet for metal particles on the production line. Magnetising was generally the last thing you did with an assembled driver, after a good blowout with an airline. Another downside would be the drivers would stick to anything metallic on the way down the line, causing all sorts of traffic jams :)
 
The whole UK is going to be well and truly fuccekd after 31st December anyway, so it really makes no odds in the long run. Any form of Scottish self determination would be preferrable to the shitstorm that is the present Westminster Government.

Here endeth the lesson. Back to Tannoy.

A Scotland in the U.K would look an attractive place to be if you were a manufacturer in an England and Wales outside, there would be a lot of inward investment.
 
Chaps

The biggest threat to the Hifi industry is tight fisted old men who keep buying second hand stuff and won't buy new. Not even Tannoy are immune from this. If you really want Tannoy to survive then buy a brand new set of speakers.

Buying second hand is fair enough, I have done it myself but it seems a bit hypocritical wailing about the demise of an industry when you are listening to music on a system that is 50 years old. You cannot have it both ways.

Regards

Mick
 
Chaps

The biggest threat to the Hifi industry is tight fisted old men who keep buying second hand stuff and won't buy new. Not even Tannoy are immune from this. If you really want Tannoy to survive then buy a brand new set of speakers.

Buying second hand is fair enough, I have done it myself but it seems a bit hypocritical wailing about the demise of an industry when you are listening to music on a system that is 50 years old. You cannot have it both ways.

Regards

Mick

I just have! They are due to be delivered hopefully Monday or Tuesday this week. Does anybody know where they are being assembled now? I assume it is still somewhere in Scotland and. There was a delay on my order of approx 10 days so either they were on the slow boat from China or the production facility was just being set up( Wishful thinking!). The stuff advertised in the Coatbridge auction looks like mostly ancient stuff. The factory site itself looks like a horrible ancient industrial unit. Google the Fyne factory unit it could be anywhere. It is just a modern rectangular box in a nice new industrial estate. The romantic ideal of rustic stone buildings housing a warren of Harry Potter type characters beavering away on turning out magical products is just an advertising dream.
 
The biggest threat to the Hifi industry is tight fisted old men who keep buying second hand stuff and won't buy new. Not even Tannoy are immune from this. If you really want Tannoy to survive then buy a brand new set of speakers.
Well, that's one way of looking at it: the customer is at fault for not buying what the industry produces - the customer must change to serve the industry.

I get it when a favourite product is in danger of becoming unavailable and the customer is not prepared to adapt. But there is another way of looking at it.
 
Well, that's one way of looking at it: the customer is at fault for not buying what the industry produces - the customer must change to serve the industry.

I get it when a favourite product is in danger of becoming unavailable and the customer is not prepared to adapt. But there is another way of looking at it.

Yes I agree that companies need to adapt in order to survive. The problem for the Hifi industry is that we, the customers, go automatically to the second hand market usually through sites like this or ebay. I am not criticising, I have done it myself and will probably do it again. This is now the culture of the Hifi market and it can be justified by saying the old stuff is better and we are preventing landfill etc. However we are not supporting the industry in sufficient numbers to prevent companies such as Tannoy closing factories down.

Regards

Mick
 
The biggest threat to the Hifi industry is tight fisted old men who keep buying second hand stuff and won't buy new. Not even Tannoy are immune from this. If you really want Tannoy to survive then buy a brand new set of speakers......

Regards

Mick
The number of PFM members who can afford and would get permission to buy something like the UKP28k Fyne flagship is close to zero.
That represents 25 years income at minimum wage where I am.

I wonder how many under 30s know what a "Tannoy" system is, I don't hear the word used as a generic for a PA system these days
 
Chaps

The biggest threat to the Hifi industry is tight fisted old men who keep buying second hand stuff and won't buy new. Not even Tannoy are immune from this. If you really want Tannoy to survive then buy a brand new set of speakers.

Buying second hand is fair enough, I have done it myself but it seems a bit hypocritical wailing about the demise of an industry when you are listening to music on a system that is 50 years old. You cannot have it both ways.

Regards

Mick

Surely it takes both buyers of new equipment and pre-owned for the industry to flourish?
 
However we are not supporting the industry in sufficient numbers to prevent companies such as Tannoy closing factories down.

Regards

Mick

I don't buy that at all, companies are moving production to the Far East for reasons of reduced labour costs and therefore increasing their net profit.
 
The number of PFM members who can afford and would get permission to buy something like the UKP28k Fyne flagship is close to zero.
That represents 25 years income at minimum wage where I am.

I think you’d be surprised. Just have a look through the systems pics threads, lots of high-end stuff here. From my perspective it’s not even being able to afford it or not (I can afford far more than I spend, as most sensible people can), it is whether it is a logical purchase or not. What does the new product offer over the high-end vintage equivalent? Is it even better? The problem with hi-fi is anything analogue was pretty much perfected back in the 50s and 60s and its largely been ‘emperor’s new clothes’ since that point. To my eyes Tannoy’s Prestige Range, like say Naim’s Statement, just make no sense. I don’t understand who’d actually want it beyond oligarchs and football players wanting some ostentatious Trump aesthetic. The real Tannoy fans all go for the vintage classics.

FWIW If I was Tannoy I’d grasp where their market actually was and start remanufacturing authentic Silver, Red and Gold drive units* along with supplying the spares & repair industry with compression drivers, cones etc. Learn from the success of the LS3/5A market etc. Tannoy’s recent fail is that quite simply the vintage stuff is better and more desirable, so no one is going to buy a Canterbury or whatever at a higher price than you could land an original pair of Reds or Golds for. The recent Arden, Cheviot and Eden were very well pitched and remarkably good value IMO, to be honest if my house burned down and I lost my Lockwoods I’d likely buy the Ardens (assuming they aren’t made in China!).

*Next to no difference in construction, it would cost little more in the way of tooling to offer replicas of all three compared to just one as much of the difference is in the cones, voice-coil winding and crossover.
 
Spendor is Indian owned. Same company that owns SME. The other two are wholly UK owned and run.

I’ve heard this too, but I’m unclear when it actually happened. The Wikipedia page hasn’t been updated and suggests Philip Swift is the owner. I have a pair of Spendor S3/5Rs in my TV rig, so about a decade old I guess, and they are certainly made in the UK. Fabulous little speakers IMO!
 


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