Tony L
Administrator
I've now heard a pair of 15" monitor gold (I think) drivers. How much difference is there between them and 12" HPD in basic sound?
As a rule of thumb the 15” drivers have better scale and impact, but less midband clarity, the 12” drivers just have that bit more clarity in the mid. Both have their fans and to my mind its not a ‘better/worse’ thing, they are both great with a slightly different character. Golds vs. HPDs is more complex and as much down to what you want to do with them. I view earlier than Monitor Golds as being valve era, later as being solid state, the Golds being the pivot point between the two. Basically HPDs etc expect a rather tighter drier amp upstream whereas Golds and before are perfectly happy with a 10 Watt Leak or whatever. With every generation Tannoys got heavier and more robust as they had to cope with crazy loud rock music in studios and adapted to ever more powerful amplification and higher volume levels.
PS FWIW there is something close to a consensus in the far east that the 12” Silver is the best Tannoy. As I understand it it runs the bass cone wide open with no crossover and has an immediacy, life and delicate nature with the best valve amps one hears from single drivers (Lowthers etc) but without the shortcomings. I’d love to hear a pair sometime.