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Tannoy Lockwood Academy 2's. First listening impressions and advice sought.

Chas B

pfm Member
For the last ten years I have been listening to Proac Response 1SC’s, they are lovely things but probably not the best choice for rock music, I think I am missing a lot of low frequency information and so rock music doesn’t have the impact that it should.
When I spotted some nice Tannoys in the classifieds section recently I decided to buy them. Tannoys have been on my list for a long time and I read all the related posts here on PFM.

Having had a bit of listening time I would like to share my observations and hopefully get some feedback from the many Tannoy users here at PFM.

The most obvious thing that I noticed was the rather surprising lack of bass, I really expected a 12” driver to deliver more. It’s more than the Proacs produce but not by much and certainly isn’t ground shaking.
I am also noticing an occasional ‘hardness’ on vocals which I guess is a form of distortion? When it happens it is quite unpleasent. There might also be a little more sibilance than I am used to.

I am hoping that with some good advice from fellow Fishies I can get these Tannoys to sing.
Specs taken from the advert are as follows -
Speaker cabinets made out of birch ply by Lockwood Loudspeakers and veneered in oak.
Immaculate HPD drive units, refoamed with Kurt Muller surrounds.
Original crossovers, but modified with Jantzen caps with help from Mainly Tannoy.
Lockwood grilles using retro-finish peat fabric.
Dimensions - 86cms x 51cms x 36cms, including feet.

Room measures 10 x 14FT, speakers firing down the length of the room. At the moment they are pulled out of the corners although bass boom certainly isn’t a problem. I am using a Sugden A21a to power them. Listening mainly to vinyl.
 
Do try the other crossover settings, i.e. the ‘level’ and ‘roll-off’ controls, you may find you prefer -1 or more cut. No ‘right’ answer, what sounds best is best. Also check the drivers haven’t been cranked-down to the baffle by a chimp. You want very, very little torque here, just gently nipped up. Too tight sounds thin, pinched and harsh. You will unquestionably hear changes and just set it by ear.
 
My Berkeley II sounded a little hard to begin with: certainly they lacked the sweetness and polish of the Harbeths they replaced. I farted around with amplification for a while but eventually they just seemed to soften up a bit by themselves. I don't know if I just got used to them, or they needed time to settle in.
 
Do try the other crossover settings, i.e. the ‘level’ and ‘roll-off’ controls, you may find you prefer -1 or more cut. No ‘right’ answer, what sounds best is best. Also check the drivers haven’t been cranked-down to the baffle by a chimp. You want very, very little torque here, just gently nipped up. Too tight sounds thin, pinched and harsh. You will unquestionably hear changes and just set it by ear.
I will try the crossover settings next. Re. the tightness of the drivers I will give that a go, the drivers arn't easy to get at though, I think the front baffle has to be removed to access the drivers. Not the easiest design to mess with!
 
I will try the crossover settings next. Re. the tightness of the drivers I will give that a go, the drivers arn't easy to get at though, I think the front baffle has to be removed to access the drivers. Not the easiest design to mess with!

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There is usually a back door on a Lockwood (and don’t do that up tightly either!).
 
I ran a pair of Academy 2 with 15” HPDs for a couple of years in a 13 x 11 room and I’ve heard 12” HPDs (in different cabinets) so have an idea of what you’re experiencing. It felt like I spent the whole time trying to get them sounding right.

Firstly, the surrounds will need about 200hrs to fully loosen up and increase the bass to full level (at least my Lockwood recones did). Easiest way is to put them face to face as close as possible to each other and swap the speaker cables at the back of one of them so that it is running out of phase with respect to the other one which will cancel out most of the sound you hear in the room but will exercise the drivers. Put on Radio 1 at high volume, you should just hear a tinkling sound hopefully. After a lot of hours swap the cables on both speakers so that the other speaker is connected in reverse polarity and the first one is correct polarity.

If this doesn’t do the trick, you could try adding a bass port to the cabinets if they are sealed, infinite baffle (Academy are). @cooky1257 is the best man to advise here.

Ultimately I couldn’t get on with the hardness/harshness of the treble and sold them on. I had tried a number of amps too.

Ironically I am using Proac DT8 in this room now and they are giving the best overall sound I’ve had in here with no weaknesses . Totally fatigue free with great bass and almost Tannoy like imaging, almost! Nothing puts a singer in the room quite like big pair Tannoys!

I remember someone posted that Tannoys were akin to a mistress, great for an hour or two but too demanding to live with long term, this was my experience but they seem to work well for a lot of people. I think the Lockwood Academy are particularly difficult as they are a smaller (compared to Majors) studio monitor and so are very mid-centric and forensic. I honestly think the HPDs need bigger cabinets to sound properly balanced.
 
I don't know, is it easy to tell visually ie if I take a look at the drivers out of the cabinet?
You'd need to remove the magnet covers to see, the originals have Tannoy molded into the black diaphragm cover rim while the Lockwood ones say Lockwood(I think). Perhaps as John/Sean mention, you just have to wait for them to break in. I'd go -1 on energy controls myself...
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. So yesterday I adjusted the energy control to -1 and also slackened the four dome nuts on the back of each speaker. There are four long studs that run from front to back of the Lockwoods and tie the front panel to the rest of the cabinet. The dome nuts on these were squeeky tight so slackened them and retightened just enough to hold everything together.
I have to say that this has made a dramatic improvement and I had a very enjoyable listening session last night!
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. So yesterday I adjusted the energy control to -1 and also slackened the four dome nuts on the back of each speaker. There are four long studs that run from front to back of the Lockwoods and tie the front panel to the rest of the cabinet. The dome nuts on these were squeeky tight so slackened them and retightened just enough to hold everything together.
I have to say that this has made a dramatic improvement and I had a very enjoyable listening session last night!
In hindsight you probably should've done these two mods one at a time to see which one had the greater effect!
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. So yesterday I adjusted the energy control to -1 and also slackened the four dome nuts on the back of each speaker. There are four long studs that run from front to back of the Lockwoods and tie the front panel to the rest of the cabinet. The dome nuts on these were squeeky tight so slackened them and retightened just enough to hold everything together.
I have to say that this has made a dramatic improvement and I had a very enjoyable listening session last night!

Great result :) (I always have the energy level on my Golds at -1 as well).
 
the energy control to -1

Essential for HPDs - to me they're not listenable above that.

I don't know about 12", but the 10" HPDs can be peaky around 3-4Khz. I originally had mine with original crossovers that had been recapped to original spec. They were very revealing, but sounded like they were made for studio monitoring rather than home listening. No good for me. Then I had Paul Coupe tweak the crossover to take the problem area down and it was a magical transformation. He said it was only a matter of 1.5dB, but it's the area where the ears are most sensitive and it made a huge subjective difference.
 
Many thanks to all of you that took the time to reply. The Tannoys are sounding great at the moment so I'm very pleased with them as they are. I didn't expect them to match the airiness and detail of the Proacs but they have exceeded my expectations!
At some point I will have the front panels off and check the tightness of the driver fixings but for now I'm happy to just listen to them. I was also given some nice gold-plated four pin connectors which I can fit some time. What wire do people recommend is used here? I've read that it's a bog-standard lamp wire and can benefit from improvement. I've also seen similar speakers on low stands, worth trying?
But for now I'm just going to enjoy them, I haven't even missed with placement yet, just put them down angled vaguely toward the listener.
 
I used stands with mine to get them up to ear level, still have them actually.
Bass will probably be fuller the closer they are to the floor.
Any half decent cable will do, I used tinned copper myself as I felt it took a bit of the sharpness off the treble.
 
Although the Sugden has quite a low damping factor for a SS amp it might still be overdamping the bass.Valve amps or a Bakoon or Dartzeel SS amp will have higher output impedance and lower damping factor and would be worth a try.
 


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