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Tannoy Cheviot stands

Evo

pfm Member
I'm sitting in the living room, listening to music whilst on the Pat & Mick and since there is little else I am able to do I have been considering the stands for my speakers.
Following a nasty cat/ Magneplanar incident last year I was forced by said cat, to reconsider my choice of speaker (not sadly choice of cat). Off went the Maggies and in their place I bought a pair of ropey Cheviots. I sent them to RFC and had some nice external crossovers made- all internal wiring replaced and the cabs stiffened and the damping material replaced. I love them and don't foresee a need to ever sell them (perhaps custom cabs might be nice though). When I got them home I was so eager to try them out that I hastily wrapped concrete blocks in black cloth and plonked the speakers on top.I say 'plonked' but they are well positioned in the room. The stands look crap but I don't care however I do see an opportunity for possible sonic improvement as my wife isn't keen on the stands (can't blame her really).
So, the question is this- what stands do you use with your Tannoys to provide the best possible sound? BTW the tweeters are at ear height.
Cheers.
 
I had some made by gee-nius on ebay, after recommendations on a recent Tannoy thread started by eastone. They fit my Eatons exactly. The tricky bit is getting the wood tone to match perfectly. You'd have to send him pictures with a good camera to get it perfect. They are labelled 'oak speaker stands' on the listing, but they are just made of very basic materials; chipboard with oak veneer. So long as you don't expect them to be made of oak, they are a very good buy for the price.
 
Thanks Elephantears, I found the guy on ebay and I'll send him a message. Did you experience any change in performance? I would like a pair of heavy solid wood stands but this is based on an inkling that heavy stands might improve performance rather than any real knowledge (sadly). My floor is concrete so I don't suffer from bouncy floorboards.
 
I now realise that this is a well trodden thread subject and there is plenty of info already here. However, has anyone angled Cheviots upwards a little and did it have any effect on the bass reflections?
 
Thanks Elephantears, I found the guy on ebay and I'll send him a message. Did you experience any change in performance? I would like a pair of heavy solid wood stands but this is based on an inkling that heavy stands might improve performance rather than any real knowledge (sadly). My floor is concrete so I don't suffer from bouncy floorboards.

Me too regarding concrete floors. I've never been very good at ascertaining the different between stands. So I can't say if there was a great deal of difference between these and the IKEA stools I was using as a stop gap. However I then filled the stands with cat litter and decoupled the stands from the speakers with sorbothane pads. That does seem to have made quite a difference to the bass, which I'm quite satisfied with for the first time (it sounds tighter and less porridgy). However I can't say if this is from the decoupling or the cat litter, or both.
 
I found the filling material to make a significant difference but that was before I added mass to the cabs with bitumen and stiffened the front baffle. Your RFC cabs might not be so responsive.

I painted mine with an ebony wood stain which looks tones pretty nicely as the cabs are dark wood but the front baffle is black.

I think the top and bottom plates on mine are solid wood though the central column is veneered mdf as Elephantears says. Still, I'm not tempted to drop £300+ on Something Solids or equivalent. I'd say give them a try...
 
I have been in touch with Gary and he confirms that the centre of the stand is an mdf which can be loaded with sand or similar. He has given me a reasonable quote and I hope can send some pictures shortly. I had originally envisaged am open stand similar to a Kenrick design but I'm equally open to alternatives.
I spent last night experimenting with subtle changes in seating position and speaker placement. At one point I angled the cabs upwards a little. I think the tweeters are currently fractionally lower than ear height so I might ask for stands of around 250 to 300mm high. At present mine are 190mm off the floor. Raising them seemed to aid with instrument separation- I think the bass was a little tighter. The sound stage changed as I moved forwards and backwards on the sofa (I wasn't rocking back and forwards mind!). As I moved forward slightly and away from the rear wall the vocal became a little more fixed in space. I did have the speakers crossed just in front of my position but I have toed them out a little so each driver is now facing me square on (still toed in a little). I clearly have too much time on my hands this week.
 
I found that having my Eatons with tweeter at ear height was far too revealing - this is where they sound like broadcast monitors that are not appropriate to home listening for me. My stands are 50cm tall, which makes the centre of the tweeter about 78cm. My ear height when sitting relatively upright on my sofa is about 98cm.

Evo, what is the tweeter height with your Cheviots with the current stands?

By the way, I'd love to try some Cheviots. I know Paul Coupe is a fan, so Cheviots with RFC mods most be great.
 
Currently the tweeters are at 800mm and Sitting reasonably straight but not bolt upright ear height is about 1m..
I'm very happy with Paul's work on the speakers the only change I would now consider would be Paul's custom cabs which, when I heard them were superb.
 
No harm in getting them up higher-cleans up the low mids a bit but remember it's a concentric point source driver with almost identical horizontal/vertical radiation. The polar plot below illustrates that at anything less than +/-20 deg up/down sideways(!)and you are effectively 'on axis'.

27125329037_037c19f411_z.jpg
 
Hi folks,
This thread popped up whilst researching the cheviots so I thought I'd explain my thinking behind my stands.
I am a lover, and producer of music, Hi-Fi enthusiast and love my profession as a cabinet maker, so combining all of the above has resulted in my stand design .
The aim of a stand is to anchor and isolate the speaker cab as efficiently as possible. My stands are constructed to be a weighty and solid solution. Base and speaker plate are solid oak and my columns are veneered MDF.
The choice of material for the column has two benifits: firstly, i can mitre, and biscuit, the joint to enable the grain of the timber to meet at the corners rather than have a visible join. Purely aesthetic I know. Secondly and most importantly, the MDF core has a different mechanical resonance to the solid oak base and speaker plates, which breaks any intrinsic colouration from a single construction material.
Never has chipboard crossed my tools in my workshop! As I am led to believe, the cheviot's cabinets are also a veneered MDF construction for the benefit of sonic performance .
Thanks to all who have bought a pair of my stands and a few responses also report a low end improvement from filling the columns. Cat litter is a genius thought......the cheaper and heavier the better!
Any thoughts or feedback are most welcome . We're all striving to get the most out of our beloved equipment to enjoy our even more loved music!
Gary.
 
As a Tannoy owner some pics might be niceGary. :)
 
DREDGE ALERT!

I had a day off yesterday (with no children!) so i built soe stands for my Chevs using kitchen worktop and some legs i bought from the bay of e. A def change in the sound, but i need a bit more listening to understand exactly what is going, beyond just the lifting of the soundstage. they have had the 'plinths' removed, so they were already 40mm or so lower than standard.

Untitled by Richard Howard, on Flickr
Untitled by Richard Howard, on Flickr
 
Ah very good. I am awaiting delivery of a new pair of Legacy cheviots and my mind had already turned to pulling some sort of stand together. I have basic homemade stands made of timber and plywood with castors lifting my 63's approx 4inchs higher. I already have stand and deliver stands on them but the increased height works well for me. Might try the Cheviots at that level and see how it works.
 
I had these made a few years back by a local metal worker.
The centre of the cones are 850mm from floor level and stands are 290mm high with speaker plinths removed.
That places the centre of the cones at about ear level when seated.

N7Zbb2H.jpg
 
I had these made a few years back by a local metal worker.
The centre of the cones are 850mm from floor level and stands are 290mm high with speaker plinths removed.
That places the centre of the cones at about ear level when seated.

N7Zbb2H.jpg

Very clever and nicely done. They look like a pair of shallow BC3's (Spendor Classic100's) a completely different look. The dog looks very relaxed in his 'kennel'! A bit like our mute who seems to control the whole house.
 


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