advertisement


To Tannoy or not to Tannoy

J

jon l

pfm Member
The idea that I should live with some large Tannoys for a while will not go away. Room is 3.5m by 5.5m, speakers need to go against shorter wall, which has sloping roof above, so basically where the Harbeth SHL's are currently

IMG_3582 (2) by Jonathan Lever

The room is not as lively as it looks in the photo, walls are unfired clay brick with clay plaster, sloping ceiling is reed matting also covered with clay plaster.

Amp is 47 Labs gain card with two humpties, reluctant to change this. I listen to wide range of stuff, classical all periods, jazz, electronic, know someone local who could make cabinets. Questions running through my head are, 12" or 15", what cabinet style (R-GRF?), would be grateful for input and guidance.

If I don't go this way, considering Audio Note AN E's.
 
tannoy eaton legacy will be almost exact size and fit there perfectly . you will want to toe in the tannoys a lot more to get superb imaging
 
You’d also get away with either Legacy Cheviots or Ardens; none of these particular Tannoys are especially tall…
 
JTC said:
You’d also get away with either Legacy Cheviots or Ardens; none of these particular Tannoys are especially tall…
Click to expand...

would love to try. I'm in Germany, and AFAIK not possible to get the kind of deals on the Legacy range as available in the UK.
 
[QUOTE="jon l, post: 4424640, member: 2209" 3.5m by 5.5m,[/QUOTE]

How have you fund the bass in your room? I had SHL5+ in my 3.5m x 4.5m room and had issues - the 40Hz hump was quite a mountain. Perhaps that 1m extra in length makes the difference for you, but with the sloped roof I can't see you having much greater overall volume.

It is tricky using speakers on the 3.5m wall, as I do also (my positioning is limited by having doors on each of the long walls). I think it makes the big-Tannoy dream a bit harder to achieve. I suspect the people using big Tannoys in medium sized rooms on this forum have layouts similar to Tony L, with the speakers on the long wall but well into the room, effectively near-field. That's the only way I can see it working. Ian (eastone) had Chatsworths in a room the same size of mine but on the long wall, and they worked.

Since selling the SHL5+ I have used Eatons, and now Legacy Eatons. Cheviots don't work in my room. You might get away with it if you're lucky, but on that 3.5m wall you've got corner proximity to deal with.
 
Yo Jon. I ran a Gaincard with a variety of Tannoys for 15 years (Lancasters, Chatsworths, Mansfields). That room looks perfect for 12" Chatsworths or Canterburys. Go vintage. They will work in that space.
 
I have Cheviots firing across the narrow axis of a room about the same size and they work beautifully. They’re driven by a Naim Atom. See my avatar and pictures for more images. Good luck finding a pair to try.
 
Elephantears said:
Are you sure? They're pretty damn big for a 3.5m wall - I know this dimension well, and it's a squeeze.
Click to expand...

Yep. I had 15" Lancasters in a room with a 4m wall and they worked without any problems, and 12" Canterburys are quite a bit narrower. Not bass monsters either, despite their size.
 
I aslo have 15 inch Mansfields in a 12x12 living room firing out from the corners, no problem at all sound wonderful
 
psd122 said:
I aslo have 15 inch Mansfields in a 12x12 living room firing out from the corners, no problem at all sound wonderful
Click to expand...

How do you manage that 47Hz room mode?

I'm still puzzled at this whole wardrobe in a closet concept. Other than having different laws of physics to mine, I can only understand it might work if you are radically under powering the speakers, and that Tannoys have a special aptitude to being under-driver, so that you can use a low powered valve amp and just not get much bass out of those big drivers.
 
Elephantears said:
How do you manage that 47Hz room mode?

I'm still puzzled at this whole wardrobe in a closet concept. Other than having different laws of physics to mine, I can only understand it might work if you are radically under powering the speakers, and that Tannoys have a special aptitude to being under-driver, so that you can use a low powered valve amp and just not get much bass out of those big drivers.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of older Tannoys (and older speakers in general) were designed to be used up against a wall, or in corners so not having much if any baffle step compensation.
 
Watching with interest, still missing The Tannoy Cheviots I bought for buttons from what was pretty much an electronics junk shop :( About £40 iirc, I really need to get out and about and find more bargains like those!
 
The friend who has the Tannoys is using them in a small room and they work fine. They have bungs for the bass ports, adjustments for the crossover and with careful positioning and a few bass traps he's done an excellent job of it. Speakers are out from the wall a bit but not crazily so. It can be done.
 
Older Tannoys, even the bigger ones, were mostly designed for close to wall or corner placement in standard sized UK living rooms. They just work in that context. I've never had any problems with them setting off the room. My current 15" Mansfields are in a huge room, but before that, for a while, I was running a pair of 12" Chatsworths either side of my desk in my office, which is about 2.5 metres wide by 3 metres long, and even that worked pretty well. Never ran any of them with less than 25WPC into 8 ohms. TonyL of this parish heard my 15" Lancasters run by my Gaincard in a 4 metre square room quite a few years ago, and that seemed to be one of the experiences that convinced him to try Tannoys for himself.
 
Doesn't seem to be a problem at all, like others have said they seem to like corners or back walls these are sealed cabinets, my stepson doesn't think they lack bass with rap music and reggae and I have to agree.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top