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Tannoy Canterbury Corners

Mick P said:
Tony

I have heard 3 old Tannoys and 2 new ones but I cannot even now remember the amps that were on them etc. The Tannoys were all either 12 or 15 inch DC.

The two new ones sounded better and certainly looked better but havinng said that, one old set of speakers that was powered by a valve system certainly had a unique sound that could grow on you.

You can buy a well made set of Turnberrys for around £2k and I think they would go well on my NAP300s.

I am just waiting for the Briks to give up the ghost.

Mick
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Mick,

Turnberrys look too small. That fellow looks like a younger Mick.

100111MikeHamelin-TannoyTurnberry-600.jpg
 
John said:
Turnberrys look too small.
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They look far too low. The proportions don't seem too dissimilar from mine:

5815027964_c67d1c8f20_o.jpg


The difference being that's a 15" driver, not an 8", so it's a whole different scale! Even so the centre of the cone is an inch or so below ear-level when seated. I'd like to hear more of the Prestige Range though, the next model up, the Kensington, is more interesting; a 10" driver in a larger cab. I've heard the Canterbury SE and liked it a lot. I'd have a pair if I could justify the (considerable) expense.
 
I thought the Turnberrys were 10 inch. My 15 inch Tannoys are on stands and the tweeter is at hip height which seems about right. I'm sure the 10 inch models are just fine. I wonder if Turnberrys would fit on Micks DMS stands.
 
John said:
I thought the Turnberrys were 10 inch. My 15 inch Tannoys are on stands and the tweeter is at hip height which seems about right. I'm sure the 10 inch models are just fine. I wonder if Turnberrys would fit on Micks DMS stands.
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Just checked the Tannoy site and you are right - it's the Sandringham that's the 8". The one that appeals the most is the Yorkminster as it looks like a proper vintage Tannoy rather than the slightly kitsch 'gentleman's club' styling of the rest of the range. I bet it's a fine speaker too.
 
my 12" golds in lancaster cabs, and 15"golds in corner cabs ( cheers tonyL) will be in the same room next sunday at scalford for all to compare the differance for them selves
 
Tony L said:
Just checked the Tannoy site and you are right - it's the Sandringham that's the 8". The one that appeals the most is the Yorkminster as it looks like a proper vintage Tannoy rather than the slightly kitsch 'gentleman's club' styling of the rest of the range. I bet it's a fine speaker too.
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I had a pair of Sandringham for a few months. I never liked them. They lack life. I used different amps to drive them including modern transistor amps and vintage valve amps like Leak Stereo 20, 12.1, etc. I just couldn't get involved with its lifeless sound. I sold them to the owner of a well known audio amplifier manufacturer and he sold them quite quickly as well!
 
Tony L said:
Has anyone done much comparative listening between the various Tannoys? I've not had the opportunity having heard only my own (15" Golds) and various other later Tannoys, e.g. HPD, LRM, LGM, SRM, SGM, FSM types and some more modern domestic ranges e.g. GRF Memory, Canterbury SE over the years. Always in isolation, never against one another, and never in locations or systems I know well. I've never heard Reds or Silvers at all.

I get the impression from reading the Japanese sites (and it is they who know such things) that the 12" Silver is the sweetspot of them all. Apparently it runs the bass cone full-range, i.e. has the best behaved bass driver / simplest crossover combination and has a life and vibrancy the later models dilute to some degree. There certainly seemed to be a progression to heavier more rigid cones, increased crossover complexity and increased power handling as new ranges were released. Would be interesting to hear views from those who have heard many. I'd also be interested in views of 12" vs. 15" - I'd love to compare them and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I didn't end up preferring the 12" - I'd expect the mid to be a little clearer, I'm amazed a 15" cone works at all at 1Khz!
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I've previously owned a pair of corner yorks with 15" silvers and a pair of rectangular yorks with 15" reds with about 3 months when both were in the house. I swapped drivers between cabinets to try to establish if the myth of the silvers was true. In fact there was no perceptable difference between Red or silver. I've also had 15" golds in studio cabinets and I found them more shut in than I remembered the earlier models to be. My favorite Tannoys though were the 111LZ 10" reds that given their cabint size, were oustanding speakers. I have heard a pair of these 10" reds in some home built, scaled down autograph cabinets and they were wonderful. After my Tannoy adventures I got into vintage JBL studio monitors and BTH although I have an option to buy a pair of Rectangular GRF's with 15" reds that a friend who's not into hifi inherited.
 
I currently have the following in storage:
12" Reds in Chatsworth corner units -
12" Reds in corner Yorks -

Currently in use:
15" Reds in GRF rectangular enclosures

Previously I have owned
12" Silvers in Corner Canturbury type enclosures
15" Golds in York rectangulars
15" reds in Lancaster enclosures
10" Golds
15" HPD 385s

The best I've heard by directly exchanging drivers in various enclosures was probably 15" reds in GRF rectangulars Vs 15" Golds Vs HPD 385 (I'm sure the corners or Autographs would top this in terms of performance in all cases)
 
EMTBTHJBL,

In fact there was no perceptable difference between Red or silver.
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Phew, Monitor Reds are expensive enough, but the going price for a pair of clean Monitor Silvers has truly entered the Land of the Crazy.

Joe
 
So does one need Golds, or are HPD just as good? I hope to be in the market for some 12s or 15s in a few months or so.
 
Anex said:
So does one need Golds, or are HPD just as good? I hope to be in the market for some 12s or 15s in a few months or so.
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The baskets, magnets and compression drivers are pretty much identical, the difference is the Gold has a lighter cone with a hard edge, the HPD a foam surround that will almost certainly be shot and need replacing. Beyond that is the crossover, which most people replace or modify anyway. I'd not overlook the later drivers either e.g. the 38xx, they seem fine to my ears, and I bet DMTs are too though I've not heard any.
 
Kewl, thanks. I might try for some newer ones if it'll save a bit of money as I'll probably need an amp too, moving from active back to passive.

Or at least moving to passive as well as active.
 
Anex,

The price of vintage Tannoys is only increasing, but the DMT-12s and 15s are still sensibly priced. That's where you should look, unless you have Mick money to burn.

Maybe UK prices are different, but this is what $1,500 Cdn will buy in my town.

Joe
 
Tony L said:
The baskets, magnets and compression drivers are pretty much identical, the difference is the Gold has a lighter cone with a hard edge, the HPD a foam surround that will almost certainly be shot and need replacing. Beyond that is the crossover, which most people replace or modify anyway. I'd not overlook the later drivers either e.g. the 38xx, they seem fine to my ears, and I bet DMTs are too though I've not heard any.
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I picked up three 3838's in their original cabinets for £4 each about 3 years ago. They were part of a clearance of an old laboratory and the guy who had them was desperate for the space. Two were perfect and one had a rotted surround. I sold the two good ones to a musician for his home studio and the other one went to Australia sans cabinet. I still have the cabinet for that one in the shed.

They produced really deep and natural bass, more so than I remembered from earlier versions. I think they were engineered for better LF at the expense of sensitivity as I had to turn the volume knob futher than I would usually with Tannoys.
 
Thanks Joe. I'm not interested in any of the mystique, just interested in big woofers so I shall certainly look out for those.
I can't find any for sale in the UK at the moment after a quick Google, but I'm not ready to buy so it's not a problem.

There's a nice looking pair of DC 6000s on eBay at the moment for £1500 which seems Ok for 15" drivers in nice boxes.
 
audio grail said:
I currently have the following in storage:
12" Reds in Chatsworth corner units -
12" Reds in corner Yorks -

Currently in use:
15" Reds in GRF rectangular enclosures

Previously I have owned
12" Silvers in Corner Canturbury type enclosures
15" Golds in York rectangulars
15" reds in Lancaster enclosures
10" Golds
15" HPD 385s

The best I've heard by directly exchanging drivers in various enclosures was probably 15" reds in GRF rectangulars Vs 15" Golds Vs HPD 385 (I'm sure the corners or Autographs would top this in terms of performance in all cases)
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This is an impressive list indeed!

A well-constructed R-GRF in many ways is the ideal cabinet and I should be a little surprised if you spent much time with anything else after your present experience and it is experience (that is to say, living with these things for a lengthy time) which really is the arbiter in these matters. I have been very lucky in that a pair of corner Autographs have shared their life with me for many years. In exchange, I have had to share half my house with them! But I shall never change them for in my judgment, they are the ultimate for the reproduction of my sort of music. I suspect they might not do well with heavy metal but anyone who listens to this does not need a Tannoy of any type.

However, if something dreadful happened and I was forced to "downsize" (what a ghastly term), I would be very happy with a 12" driver. I have come to think that the performance gains flowing from the relative size of the big 'un do not justify the added size and weight involved and many of the supposed advantages are largely illusory. A Canterbury with double baffle and front-mounted driver so that the loose panel at the back can be dispensed with, would suit me very well indeed. Certainly, I would not go back to 15".

Of course there is a huge difference to be heard in the behaviour of cabinets; but anyone who seriously believes he can hear a demonstrable difference between a DC unit from 1950 and one from 1970 is either deluding himself or is in need of psychiatric assistance. It should be only collectors of these things who need concern themselves with relative prices obtaining between models. To do otherwise would be to suppose that Tannoy spent the best part of 30 years producing a range in which each model introduced up to 1974 was sonically inferior to its predecessor. Urban legends, eBay and any half-baked opinion on the internet has served to gull the feeble-minded into thinking that a Silver is better than a Gold and a Black beats them all. Bunkum! However, I have no direct experience of the HPD and later models.

I really get fed up with the tripe that attaches itself to Tannoy.:mad:

Richard.
 
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