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Tannoy hierarchy

jimb0

jimb0

Jelly Roll Soul
I am giving serious thought to changing my little ATC SCM7s for something with a bit more scale having moved into a house with a much larger listening space than in the old one. Various comments and threads on here have got me interested in the gentleman's speaker choice; Tannoy.

How pronounced are the sonic differences between 10/12/15 inch drivers or indeed between red/silver/gold? My understanding is that the cabinets are not really worth much unless they are of the large horn-loaded variety, is there any preference between e.g. the Lancaster or Chatsworth varieties?


Cheers,

Jim.
 
The huger the better.
Only bad Tannoys I've heard are the Stirlings + Glenairs which have minging 10" drivers in narrow cabs. Avoid.
 
Don't forget to look at offerings from Klipsch as well, they are well capable of flapping an enlarged trouser... Anything from the Heritage range, Heresy's, Cornwalls or the mighty Klispch horn.
 
As a minimum, 15" Lancasters. My favourites are Westminsters, GRFs, and Canterburys (the latter the only Tannoy I like with a smaller than 15" driver, in this case 12"). A pair of Lancasters for around £1200 is a good buy though, if the drive units are in good nick they're worth about £800 or more on their own. I've had my Lancasters for a couple of years now and still have no particular desire to change them. Once you've lived with a proper pair of loudspeakers, small standmounters become a lot less intriguing (although there are some I like, I don't think I could live with any of them as my main or only speaker for any length of time). Lancaster cabinets have zero second-hand value, so potentially you can run them as they are for a while, get a woodworker to make something like a GRF cabinet, and then install the drivers in the GRFs and dump the old cabs. This is a pretty cost effective way of getting some serious speakers. GRFs are BIG though :)

Joel is right - avoid small drivers in narrow baffles. Tannoys need to be big and wide.

-- Ian
 
The Eurodyn / Klangfilm are awesome, but awesomely expensive as well. Tannoy GRF or modern Canterbury with a pair Marantz 5b or Marantz 2 or Marantz 9 amps (listened to all three types yesterday and they are fabulous) would make me happy in the right room (large & lossy I guess).
 
Sounds like 15" in the lancaster cab will work best in the space I have. I shall be keeping my eyes open. As a counterpoint I did come across an old thread started by Joel about Altec 19s which look amazing aesthetically but I presume are extremely hard to source over here.
 
The nice thing about Tannoys and the like is that they're supposed to be used close to walls and in corners, so even though they're big, they're not really that obtrusive. Here's an old picture of mine:

lancaster.jpg


-- Ian
 
Ahhh, the homely smell of toasted LCD ;-) Do you keep your turntable a fair way from them?
 
Yes, the equipment is the other side of the room (left of the picture). That puts the volume control in reach when I'm slumped on the sofa, my default position :)

-- Ian
 
sideshowbob said:
The nice thing about Tannoys and the like is that they're supposed to be used close to walls and in corners, so even though they're big, they're not really that obtrusive. Here's an old picture of mine:

lancaster.jpg


-- Ian
Click to expand...

Indeed. Mine (same cabinets as SSBs) are far less obtrusive than the rear ported 2-way standmounts they replaced (Monitor GR10). Again, even though some larger horn-loaded cabs would be nice I've no immediate plans to replace the Lancasters - which easily see off some very pricey modern competition. Needless to say, the 15" Gold drivers are 'keepers'.
 
jimb0 said:
Joel - these things? http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/pics/pr_0009.jpg
Click to expand...
Ah, jimbo, you cleverly hid the broken link within IMG tags. Devious ;-0
I assume you're referring to something like the pair of 9s in this photo:

2167970165_36b99425a8.jpg


Those are Marantz 2s at the bottom with what may be a spare pair of 8b on the right there, on top of the spare 9s :)
If they not a spare pair of 8b, then they are the 1s. It can be so hard to keep up.
 
Ah. My linky worked for a bit but is now 403ing (probably peeved the webmaster with deep linking).

I am starting to weaken on the champagne aesthetics...
 
THe Marantz 2s have the finest VU meters in all of audio history. Magnificent. And they don't sound bad at all :)
 
Maybe slightly OT (or not) - I've been toying with the idea of getting some Tannoy 15" DC drivers (I've seen some 3828 drivers with new surrounds to be precise) and was wondering how good they are (compared to other 15" DCs) and what's a fair price for them (drivers only, no cabinets and no crossovers). What cabinets can they be used in?

The only info I could find on them is: "3828 was used for a short period the 3838 replaced the 3828 the ONLY difference is a more rigid frame (basket)"

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Have you seen the Tannoy Dreadnought Studio monitors on Ebay, only 4 days left to save up.I dont think the wife would be happy if she had to pick these up from the Postoffice.
 
If the wife is a member of the Bulgarian womens' mud wrestling team, she might love the exercise...don't you just love those hairy backs?
 
It may be worth throwing in at this point.....

There was a guy called Mike Harvey in Bristol, trading as 'Octave Audio', who was making some very nice 'repro' Tannoy Cabs, up to and including GRFs, Autographs, etc.

Mull
 
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