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Speakers for Tony

I think he ought to at least hear my ATC 100 As before proceeding with his decision. In my opinion, they are speakers which will see me out. Plus, it would be nice to see him. Perhaps Ribee-San could give him a run.

In Tony's room, 50s would be very adequate.
 
I've just bought a pair of Meridian DSP5000s - technological overkill compared to valve amp / efficient speakers but the sound is marvellous.

The only downside is you'd need a good ADC to play your vinyl....
 
So, in summary, Tony should buy whatever model of speakers someone else is using*


* except mine, which are Harbeths.
 
Tony should get some dual concentric 15" Tannoys in an acceptable enclosure. But in the meantime we can organise some fun. There could even be sticky buns.
 
Tony , tannoys are tuneless arhythmical boom boxes

Why not get something befitting a man with your collateral in audio?

Surely a bespoke active three way in aluminium with isobarik time aligned bass,

Composite mid cab with neutral neoflex coned driver?

The point I am making is you could do so much better than a pair of tannoys
 
Noel Keywood had something interesting to say about Quad ESL's in his review of the 989's.

He said that they have plenty of bass, but that what can happen is due to the dipole nature of their design the rearward firing bass can get reflected off the back wall and come back out of phase with the front firing bass, cancelling it out.

Tony has lots of records stored behind his speakers which would help to break-up and absorb the rear firing bass. So Quad ESL's might work very well in Tonys room.
 
A few competitors to vintage Tannoys include the 1970's US monitors: Altec Model 19's, JBL 4430 and 4435, EV Sentry III's, Urei 813. Trouble is, they all take up a lot of floor space.
 
A close friend reported that his friend sold a pair of Harbeth SHL5's after he got his hands on a pair of Altec Model 19's.
 
Tony has lots of records stored behind his speakers which would help to break-up and absorb the rear firing bass. So Quad ESL's might work very well in Tonys room.

I did very briefly try Jonathan's ESL57 in my room and felt I could probably get them to work, so Quads are a potential candidate. I didn't find them thin sounding at my usual listening levels (around 75-80db at listening seat), so no issues there. The problem I did have was some weird dust attraction thing when I was playing records, I couldn't get through a side without a huge ball of dust finding it's way to the stylus, I have a feeling the deck or arm was somehow picking up a charge from the relatively close proximity of the left hand speaker. This was with spotlessly clean records, I even cleaned one on the VPI just prior to playing to prove the point. IIRC I have since changed the whole vinyl front end, I think I was using the Spacedeck, Hadcock and DL110 back then (now 301, M2-10, AT33PTG).

Tony.
 
What an interesting speaker thread!

I got as far as HPD's in rect. GRF style cabs and have heard several pairs of Golds in rect. GRF cabs too.

I got the mid horn / horn tweeter bug and have never looked back.
I have kicked the Tannoy habit (for now) but I do still get why they are so popular in the right cabs. The DC thing is quite special but the mid dynamics, clarity and crispness of a stand alone compression big horn is something else.

I now use Eminence 15 pro Low Frequency drivers in backloaded horn cabs crossing over at 1KHz and JBL 2435 Be compression mid drivers, tweeters added to taste. Simple crossovers and Lpads to get everything working sweetly together.

It's quite a sound in a 5.5m x 4m highish ceiling room.
 
Tony,

I think I've reached the point where it's safe to say there are three main categories of speaker that I like: big high efficiency horns e.g. Tannoys, Klipsch etc, panels e.g. Quads, Maggies etc, and tiny little mini-minitors e.g. Proac 1SCs, Kans, LS3/5As etc.
Did you ever manage to get a listen to the wall-mount version of the E-IX? I can't remember how you found the free-space version, but I think the wall-mount variant might be more to your liking.

James

P/S: I'm only suggesting this as there could be a 'group-build' coming up soon.
 


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