Anyone remember this speaker.. maybe Tannoy?

[Arkless Electronics]

I remember there being a 3 way speaker released around 1982 ish which had an elliptical bass driver (which was not a B139 or EMI unit) which was made possibly from glass fibre, and was sold as being very high power handling and with pro monitoring in mind as well as home use... it was maybe BC1 ish size but taller and narrower IIRC.... I never heard of it again bar I think one review and have a bizarre idea it was made by Tannoy... there may have been an active option.... £1800 or so then. Definitely UK and very odd for the brand I recall... not what you would expect them to make!

Any ideas? I'm sure I'm not imagining them... and they must have been very few made...

[Arkless Electronics]

"HPM" rings a bell but google says a Pioneer model has that title... could be not the only HPM of course...
I vaguely remember veneered front baffles as well but could be wrong...
Not much to go on but I have faith in you lot;)

[British high fidelity]

The only ones i remember were the goodmans alnico but they were earlier i think

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[walpurgis]

Elliptical drivers in the eighties? You have a choice of Mordaunt Short, TDL and of course KEF, who supplied the TDL drivers and used similar units in their own models. There may be more.

[British high fidelity]

Geoff out of curiosity which mordaunt short 3 way?

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[British high fidelity]

Its ok i remember now the 400s

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[British high fidelity]

B&W DM3 were fiberglass

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[walpurgis]

B&W DM3 were fiberglass

I've heard that said, but don't think it's correct. The cone is I believe the regular EMI stiff paper/aluminium composite. They date from the sixties/seventies though.

[British high fidelity]

Hmm the search continues....

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[Lawrence001]

What about the TDL studio 4 I forget who made the bass driver on that but it wasn't Kef.

http://www.imf-electronics.com/Home/tdl/studio-4


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[CornishPasty]

Elac made the drivers for the TDL Studio 4. They're lovely speakers.

[Lawrence001]

That would make sense as I think Elac made the metal dome tweeters in most of the TDL range.


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[Arkless Electronics]

Nope ... all wrong... I wish I could remember... I am sure I have hi fi mags from the time that heavily featured them for a very short while but it would take ridiculous effort to find the info.
Aha! You know when something just jogs the little grey cells and you don't even know why....? HPCM rather than HPM just came to mind and I put it into google... bingo! These are what I was thinking of and they're actually IMF http://www.imf-electronics.com/Home/imf/speaker-range/reference-speakers/hpcm God knows how Tannoy came into mind.. but odd for IMF as well I would say... I knew they were odd:)
I recall the mags saying it could be the new latest greatest... and then no more...

[British high fidelity]

Nope never heard off them, but glad your intellectual thirst has been quenched, now we just have to find a pair to see if they are that good lol

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[spendorman]

I've heard that said, but don't think it's correct. The cone is I believe the regular EMI stiff paper/aluminium composite. They date from the sixties/seventies though.

EMI 13"x8": The 92390DJ was paper/ fibreglass/ aluminium composite, mainly used in the B&W DM3, but some went elsewhere.

The 92390GF was paper/ paper (laminated) / aluminium, and used in many speakers including the Mordaunt Short MS400.

[anthonyTD]

What was it that stood out about them for you Jez ?
Nope ... all wrong... I wish I could remember... I am sure I have hi fi mags from the time that heavily featured them for a very short while but it would take ridiculous effort to find the info.
Aha! You know when something just jogs the little grey cells and you don't even know why....? HPCM rather than HPM just came to mind and I put it into google... bingo! These are what I was thinking of and they're actually IMF http://www.imf-electronics.com/Home/imf/speaker-range/reference-speakers/hpcm God knows how Tannoy came into mind.. but odd for IMF as well I would say... I knew they were odd:)
I recall the mags saying it could be the new latest greatest... and then no more...

[CornishPasty]

The bass drivers used in the IMF HPCM are the same as those used in the TDL Studio 4. IMF also used Elac drivers in the later RSPM MkIVs and onwards.

[Arkless Electronics]

What was it that stood out about them for you Jez ?

Just that I recall them being released to great fanfares and there being much talk of high technology and to expect great things from this new high end British speaker... and then pretty much nothing was ever heard about them again.... I kind of could see them in my "minds eye" from ads for them back in the day but couldn't remember at first who made them. They seemed to offer the potential for what, at the time could have been a "game changing" combination of high SPL's, low colouration, accuracy etc, if one believed the press releases etc anyway! Anyway I was just curious as to first of all who made them, second for confirmation that I hadn't imagined them! and third I was interested to know why they disappeared so quickly and completely from the marketplace.... maybe they were crap in practice? Did IMF go bust weeks after announcing them? (seems likely)

[RothwellAudio]

... and third I was interested to know why they disappeared so quickly and completely from the marketplace.... maybe they were crap in practice? Did IMF go bust weeks after announcing them? (seems likely)

Product quality and business success are only very loosely connected - if at all - in my experience. There's a good chance that IMF went bust because the product was too good in terms of performance and therefore not as profitable as a piece of rubbish would have been.
Sorry, I don't really know much about IMF - I'm just speculating.

[Arkless Electronics]

Product quality and business success are only very loosely connected - if at all - in my experience. There's a good chance that IMF went bust because the product was too good in terms of performance and therefore not as profitable as a piece of rubbish would have been.
Sorry, I don't really know much about IMF - I'm just speculating.

Oh I've noticed... to put it mildly!

As to IMF... look up Bud Fried ;)

[anthonyTD]

Ohh, ok,
Well, it would seem that what ever it was that they may have had' they were'nt around long enough for the rest of us to experience, a shame posibly, but its interesting what the old grey matter brings up from time to time.:)
Just that I recall them being released to great fanfares and there being much talk of high technology and to expect great things from this new high end British speaker... and then pretty much nothing was ever heard about them again.... I kind of could see them in my "minds eye" from ads for them back in the day but couldn't remember at first who made them. They seemed to offer the potential for what, at the time could have been a "game changing" combination of high SPL's, low colouration, accuracy etc, if one believed the press releases etc anyway! Anyway I was just curious as to first of all who made them, second for confirmation that I hadn't imagined them! and third I was interested to know why they disappeared so quickly and completely from the marketplace.... maybe they were crap in practice? Did IMF go bust weeks after announcing them? (seems likely)