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Tannoy BERKELEY 30 years on.

Kenny said:
Hi,

I bought a pair of Tannoy Berkley speakers back in 1977 for £350 and have used them ever since. I now notice that the rubber dope area around the perimeter of the speaker cone is tacky, bubbled and probably perished. Worse still is that the paper cones have split circumferentially and to a certain extent radially as well at the perimeter.

I have made some preliminary investigations and found a company in north London that will change the cones for £175 per speaker which is more than I paid for the original speakers.

Is there an affordable source of new old stock for these speakers or an affordable upgrade kit ?

Regards

Kenny
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Kenny - A few thoughts. Those speakers are worth fixing! You paid £350 in 1977 money and that isn't the same as 2009 money. What kind of speaker could you get for £350 now? If it's Lockwood you are referring to, I posted on here asking for info about them and everything I have heard since is positive. I believe kit repair is possible though (ebay) if you want to risk it. As for NOS, people ebay them with the rubber totally shot and the HF coils blown and they still sell!
 
Hi John,

I have now backchecked through my archives and yes indeed it was Lockwood that quoted me £150 + £20 fitting. This is lower than a price quoted me direct by Tannoy for supply only of the units several years earlier.

I am attaching a link to a digi pic of the damage that has happenned to the speaker cone after a period of 32 years in fairly light domestic operation but I do confess that the tangential split was probably the result of an over zealous ZZ Top session.

Tannoy%20Speaker.jpg


I would be interested to know what you consider that Tannoy Berkley speakers might be worth when retro fitted with the new cones as I am totally out of touch with this kind of thing these days.

Apparently it is possible for a competent amateur to replace these units themselves and I would value opinions on this matter as well since frankly these units are more than a little heavy and awkward for me to transport to London by car to say nothing of the risk of incurring additional damage to same.

Do you know what speaker unit was fitted to the Berkleys in 1977 and also the replacement cone unit number ?

Where is the "foam" located as mentioned in several other posts on the forum ?

Regards

Kenny
 
It is also apparently possible to recone HPDs with Gold (i.e. non-foam surround) cones, have a chat to Lockwood. The only real difference between Gold and HPD is the bass cone and a couple of small differences to the crossover. The basket, alnico magnet and compression driver are the same.

Tony.
 
Kenny - This site will tell you everything you could want to know about vintage Tannoys

http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy52.htm

Yours will be HPD385 (High Performance Dual, 385mm diameter).

I'm not sure that they will be 'worth' much more than the cost of repairing them (if the cabs are in good nick, probably £400 - maybe more since you'll be able to show they were recently reconed), however getting anything of equivalent quality new will cost a lot more. Does anyone even make speakers with 15" drivers these days? If it was me, I'd get them repaired and if I had room I'd get someone to make me some horn loaded cabs. I definitely wouldn't sell them.
 
johnfromnorwich said:
Does anyone even make speakers with 15" drivers these days?
Click to expand...
Plenty, but you mostly have to "go pro" (which of course was the case with these Tannoys back in the seventies), and you will end up paying considerably more.
I would think about it in these terms, for 400 quid you get another 30 years of worry-free great sound. That's quite a bargain.
 
Hi Joel,

I feel sure that the speakers might last for another 30 years but not quite sure that I will be there to reap the benefit of this investment, that said, good advice and I will now check out John's link and Ton's advice.

Regards

Kenny
 
Although the speakers had too much bass for my room, I have to say that Roger at Lockwood Audio did a fantastic job with my speakers and I would certainly endorse his workmanship, very helpful person too.
 
HI,

Before taking the plunge with Lockwood I wonder if it would be possible to repair my paper cones using a suitable paper applied with a rubber dope solution ?

If I am going to replace the cones and each one will cost £170 then it might be fun to have a go at repairing them to see if this is possible ?

Any idea on type and sources for paper and dope ?

Kenny
 
Looking at that picture the cone looks fine so in the interest of saving a few quid you could just re-foam them-remember to fix the new surround to the rear of the cone not the front.
I do recommend full recones though as you get an uprated voicecoil and new spider too.
 
Hi Cooky,

Please forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by re foaming ? and where does one buy the materials for this operation ?

Regards

Kenny
 
Hi Kenny, From your photo, the foam surrounds(the bit that's on the outside of the cone) are about to fail, the areas identified as having tears in them would in fact be cut away and replaced by new foam surrounds-2 birds with one stone. Kits are available from;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tannoy-HPD385...aultDomain_0?hash=item23047cd5f0#ht_552wt_941
http://www.speakerbits.com/products...m-kit-foam-ring-suspension-ring/list-154.aspx
and http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/good-hifi__W0QQ_armrsZ1

With patience and a bit of care it's a straightforward job.
Cooky
 
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Hi Cooky,

I have just rechecked my photo and the actual speakers and agree that the deterioration / damage sustained is only to the rubber / foam surround ring and not to the paper cone within and thus a replacement kit for the ring part will more than likely rejuvenate these speakers.

I will have a go.

Regards

Kenny
 
Just make sure you get genuine Tannoy replacement foams(not available from Tannoy btw) although the drivers are '15"' they are in fact slightly smaller and standard 15" foam surrounds don't fit. Cellulose thinners are good for loosening the glue on the dust cap-you need to remove this in order to re-center the cone correctly using the shims supplied.
Good luck.
 
After the holidays, it's worth contacting Lockwoods and they'll explain WHY they replace cone/coil/spider as an assembly.

Your Barkeleys with light use are an exception I suspect, as many have been mercilessly thrashed by many owners in 35 years use. For the majority of HPD models, a re-cone means the work can be warrantied safely...

The new coils are higher power handling and the new spiders will probably give better support too.

If the foam surrounds can be replaced with the corrugated ones and the crossovers tweaked to suit, then that may be a good idea for better bass reproduction, as the HPD's were supposed to improve bass extension at the price of a couple of db sensitivity. this is what Lockwoods can advise you on.

P.S. It's said that Tannoys from this period have a smoother treble with the "dust cap" removed as current models are. Check the quality of the "pepperpot" though, as some were a bit rough..
 
Hmmm, As I said earlier if they were mine, I'd recone.
The spider, cone and surround act as one unit, over time various areas can fatigue/rot, spiders can sag which can affect the rest position of the driver voice coil and therefore the transition between the horn and cone flare it can also affect the compliance and resonant frequency of the driver.
Another thing to consider is wether you intend to keep them-this should influence wether you opt for a 'hard edge conversion' ie fitting a cone from the Prestige range(they will fit a HPD/Gold) and end up with a bastard Tannoy , recone/restore to stock with a HPD/tanoplas cone or go for a Monitor Gold cone.
The hard edge is state of the art cone termination and would bring your units up to the latest pepperpot Prestige level. You would in any case need to ask Roger at Lockwood if he would be prepared to do this 'upgrade'.
Cooky
 
Hi,

I have just been studying the foam replacement proceedure downloaded from the Australian Speakerbits website. They charge £17.50 for a new foam surround, dustcap, adhesive, brush and spacers. i.e. one tenth of what a a complete cone replacement upgrade would cost. I intend to keep these speakers and so logically would it not be worth having a go at replacing the foam rings knowing that if this does not work out for any reason then I can still opt for the upgrade ?

One thing that that I do not quite understand is that Speakerbits say that their kit is a genuine Tannoy replacement kit but as outlined above apparently Tannoy no longer supply these kits so how does this work ? New old Stock ?

Regards

Kenny
 
Have a go yes in the understanding that if you don't like the result you can opt for the full recone. Tannoy get their surrounds made elsewhere so they (speakerbits) get them at source.
 
Remember Kenny . It is not Tannoy who make the cones and surrounds. They specify them and have the tooling to fit and tune. I know for a fact that Teac bought tons of old Tannoy stuff. Where it went to after that.......

However Tannoy have the right to the stuff and will take lots of money from companys infringing their rights.........nowt to do with us bargain hunters mind ya:D

AFAIK it is a misnomer that the voice coils on HPD 385 are/can be uprated with new stuff. I was told at Tannoy that newer coils don`t fit and could not be done............so it wasn`t. If it could have I`m sure they would like to have charged for it? That being said: It is posible that Tannoy sold the stuff on and that`s why they can`t do it.........Dunno about that?

Did the power handling not go up when the Ceramic Magnet hpd was introduced?. I think my Tannoy engineer was saying that these voice coils were not interchangeable to the Alnico version.

The truth may be out there somewhere...
 
lexi said:
Remember Kenny . It is not Tannoy who make the cones and surrounds. They specify them and have the tooling to fit and tune. I know for a fact that Teac bought tons of old Tannoy stuff. Where it went to after that.......

However Tannoy have the right to the stuff and will take lots of money from companys infringing their rights.........nowt to do with us bargain hunters mind ya:D

AFAIK it is a misnomer that the voice coils on HPD 385 are/can be uprated with new stuff. I was told at Tannoy that newer coils don`t fit and could not be done............so it wasn`t. If it could have I`m sure they would like to have charged for it? That being said: It is posible that Tannoy sold the stuff on and that`s why they can`t do it.........Dunno about that?

Did the power handling not go up when the Ceramic Magnet hpd was introduced?. I think my Tannoy engineer was saying that these voice coils were not interchangeable to the Alnico version.

The truth may be out there somewhere...
Click to expand...

When the 38** series came out they had the same 85w rms handling, later increased to 120w thanks to the use of aluminium formers.
HPD Hard edge (Prestige) recone upgrade now available at http://www.lockwoodaudio.co.uk/tannoy.htm
 
Yes Frank......I asked for mine (hpd 385) to be uprated to 120 watt...........Tannoy man say no can do..........Mmm ? Maybe Lockwood could elaborate on the actual facts.
 
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