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To Tannoy or not to Tannoy

jon l said:
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.
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Sounds like you need to build some. People do use 15" Tannoys in rooms like yours, but you lose little with the 12" driver. You'll make a pair of 12" golds with luck for around 2500 Euros, if prices are like the UK. If you don't DIY the caninet, maybe add another 500.
I did just this and made cabinets for 12" Golds. The thread is in DIY if ever you are interested. https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/thr...2-tannoy-monitor-gold-rs.237172/#post-3890841

My previous speakers were Harbeth's SHL5 Anniversaries.
In my opinion, the Tannoys are better in most ways, but are less polite than the Harbeths. I never heard a recording that made me hide with the Harbeths...a gentle but good experience. The Tannoys are very 'truthful', which is great when it's a nice truth.
I'd say the AN-E's are even politer than the Harbeths, so your choice is maybe to turn left or right.

Personally I'd go Tannoy every day. When you have the drivers (you could contact Cookie1257 on PFM, who specialises in the supply and repair of vintage Tannoys), then choose one of the cabinet designs that Tannoy built in that Era. There are 1000 reasons to do it this way, rather than trying to make them 'better' It rarely works well. If not DIY then the Legacy range are more expensive but lovely.
 
@cooky1257 That wasn't a complain about the Tannoy, it was meant be an advice for @hifinutt (and his sons) experience.
Harbeth speakers as most others aren't designed to be placed close to a wall.
@hifinutt 1. graph Tannoy eaton, 2. graph Harbeth SHL5+ 40th. A.E..
@Rockmeister Tannoy heritage studio line speakers are very rare in Germany.
 
cooky1257 said:
Theres every possibility that when you factor in room loading/boundary reinforcement the Harbeth bottom end could become a soggy boomy mess whereas the effect on the Tannoy would be to flesh out the bottom end to complement the mid bass snap.
For the uninitiated, Mansfields are 75L sealed 15" HPD's (and are one of my favourite Tannoys) they sound good placed close to the front wall-you can get a similar (tight/slight tubby)result fully blocking the ports on Berkeleys.
Once I've re-foamed and serviced the pair of Berks I recently picked up from Brumjam I'll be playing about to see how they perform in a smaller spare rooms.
I say go for it, the coherence of the Dual Concentric also allows you to get up close and virtually eliminate the room too should you wish to.
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@cooky1257 love these Mansfield's, there the ones you worked your magic on and sold to killie,look damn fine as well. Cheers, Paul
 
hifinutt said:
yes so true . the eatons seem to perform better in my lounge which is way over damped . cooky mentioned the coherance of the dc concentric , thats what i like . just every so often you just still get that wow factor as the realism and imaging sounds so good . if i had my ref 5se back in the system i would drive you all mental with superlatives .... the current ss pre with a dc3 psu really brings out the best in these speakers . it really made a difference to the bass putting the dc3 psu in .
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I've heard Tannoys and Harbeths sound really good in different locations, I've also heard Harbs sound not so good, with problems in the low end. What I did notice though, was in the situations where I heard the larger Harbs sound really good they were invariably in plenty of space and the room was decent size.

Tannoys I've heard sound good in a variety of places, near field use in smaller space does seem to work very well too. Once you get used to the visuals (of near field listening, not the speakers).
 
Looking at the measurements in post #35, the Tannoy Legacy Eatons do look like they have a very safe, room friendly low frequency response. In my room, the Harbeth would probably sound better in the low frequencies than the Tannoy. Straws in the Harbeth port should reduce the output at the port tuning frequency. Rather than kill all output like a piece of foam stuffed in the port, straws just flatten the hump at the tuning frequency.
 
friend of mine is an organ fanatic , he has a MASSIVE one in his lounge powered with tannoys and subs . he came round to hear the eatons and was more than happy with their bass response with the organ
 
Fatmarley said:
Straws in the Harbeth port should reduce the output at the port tuning frequency. Rather than kill all output like a piece of foam stuffed in the port, straws just flatten the hump at the tuning frequency.
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Not even that, it caused a big but small Q dip around 80Hz. Can't recommend to close the port with any Harbeth speaker.
 
This has become a very problematic thread, since a lot of people are now making presumptions based on two graphs with no details on source and measurement methodology.
 
Elephantears said:
This has become a very problematic thread, since a lot of people are now making presumptions based on two graphs with no details on source and measurement methodology.
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Aren't they both taken by Hifitest.de? Clio is a very good measurement system. Apparently they use cherry pickers to raise the speaker way off the ground, so the low frequency part of the measurement should be far more accurate than the Stereophile near-field spliced with far-field guess.
 
A large Tannoy will usually be ported/tuned low, the port tuning freq will, in a smaller room, be below the lowest room mode and will serve to pressurise the room below it.
Any room excitation indeed wont defy the laws of physics and will behave just like any other speaker-except the 'any other' for the purposes of the point discussed will be a smaller standmount speaker and could well be ported and tuned smack bang in the middle of the other axial modes frequency wise. What you also benefit from of course is the controlled dispersion of the Dual Concentric.
No one is saying/recommending they need a small room, rather that they work in smaller rooms too.
 
Jono_13 said:
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.
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Good to hear of someone else using a Tannoy/Naim combination. I've only ever heard that they don't go together and that pairing them is a terrible idea. Trouble is it sounds better than any other system I've ever had, so I'm happy to ignore. I moved Sugden amplification into the main system for a while but the Naim is far better to my ears so has now permanently returned.
 
Fatmarley said:
Aren't they both taken by Hifitest.de? Clio is a very good measurement system. Apparently they use cherry pickers to raise the speaker way off the ground, so the low frequency part of the measurement should be far more accurate than the Stereophile near-field spliced with far-field guess.
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They are and they do it like you have described.
 
david ellwood said:
If you can’t hear what they do badly then you have found your perfect speaker!

Me pointing out their foibles isn’t going to change your mind.

All speakers are compromises, the trick is finding the speaker whose downsides you don’t even notice.

Well done you!
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I agree with you David. The problem is what they do well, for many, simply overshadows most of the problems. But again, it's personal.

The best way to navigate this, for me, is to start with something like La-Scalas. It's kind of a given if you start with those massive Klipsch's in your room, in spite of the fact that they have actually ZERO bass and some peaky nastiness....go try and put down a pair of "regular" speakers of any kind and take the la scalas away and you'll be staring at something that feels just so small and lifeless that you have to give it about 2 weeks before you can adjust. (perhaps really expensive things like big Wilsons might fit the bill but still....)

If we're sitting with the La-Scalas and thinking, "Jeez, I wish I could get this presence and sense of projection but with just a bit more tonal roundness, bottom end, smoothness, and detail", then your wish comes true--big tannoys.

SO when you haul the tannoys out and bring in, for example, a slim floorstander with high end construction....yeah, you realize that the tannoys have some colouration, they don't really "image" in the conventional sense...they certainly aren't as "neutral" as some speakers (a loaded term, aren't they all?), but they seem to be the only thing that combines the toe-tapping, rhythmic, get-up-and-dance elements of a classic British monitor, with the projection of a horn design, and most importantly, with top-tier dynamic "Scare the sh*t out of you" quality that, when removed, is sorely missed.

I think the point is for me at least (still mourning the day I sold my 15" golds), they happen to be a great series of compromises, but without ever feeling like you've compromised. They happen to be a good amount of "some of this and some of that", but in the end, they're just pure Tannoy.
 
Colonel_Mad said:
Good to hear of someone else using a Tannoy/Naim combination. I've only ever heard that they don't go together and that pairing them is a terrible idea. Trouble is it sounds better than any other system I've ever had, so I'm happy to ignore. I moved Sugden amplification into the main system for a while but the Naim is far better to my ears so has now permanently returned.
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The first Tannoys I heard with Naim were the Signature Minis and they wiped the floor with all the other speakers I listened to. I couldn't quite afford them at the time, but the wait and move up to Cheviots was well worth it. Unless we move house and they don't/won't fit they are here for a while..
 
Just popped one of Stefans sa01 on the eatons. Just been running for 4 hours but more bass still than my icepower.. will be doing a separate thread. Certainly if they did a test on them they would be very different with the 2 amps
 
I must admit I'm a latecomer to the Tannoy fan-club mostly as a result of hearing Mike P's Ardens. Previously I had a pair of Ruark Crusader 2s which I was happy with but, overall, I listen to more music through the Cheviots I now own than the Crusaders. As Yucky has mentioned in the thread above, the Tannoys are a great set of compromises. In some ways the Crusader are a better 'hifi' speaker than the Tannoys - they have a far better sense of 'air' and 'space'. The Tannoys counter with more warmth, scale and a drive that gets your toe tapping. At the end of the day they give more of a sense of an actual live band playing in the room and I guess that's the most you can hope for in this hobby.
 
So, I read the above to say do it, on balance. Thanks for all the replies, those advocating caution included. Would be far easier in another part of the world than this (otherwise very agreeable) SW corner of Germany, most everything tannoy within collecting of even mailing distance is overpriced, certainly compared to UK, and from UK transport is difficult and now there are taxes. Guess I will just have to be patient.
 
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