Opinions on Tannoy Arundel and Arden MKII

[audio39]

I've often considered moving to Tannoy's because because of the coincident driver...having heard them many times I always found them "pleasant".

My dedicated room is 14' x 25', I'm thinking very seriously of a pair of these speakers, what is your opinion of them?

Rick.

[petrat]

Hi Rick.
It is many years since I heard a pair of Arundels, but you have both the amplification and the room for any of the Tannoys. The general rule with them is the bigger the cabinet, the better, so go for the Arundels, maybe? If you have the cash, then it would be fun to buy a pair and do an extended comparison with your Harbeths, before selling the 'loser'. Give it a few months to acclimatise to them, though. Older ones usually benefit from replacing crossover components and internal cable for more modern ones, which can be fairly 'standard' quality and still give big improvements. Only downside of this suggestion is if you have to ship them any distance .. here in UK, we can drive pretty much anywhere in a day. I have owned several pairs of Harbeths in the past, and now much prefer Tannoys. I find them to be less room dependent than the Harbeths, which I suspect are really designed for smaller spaces and 'near field' listening. In your size room, Tannoys would really sing, methinks.

[Reffc]

I'd possibly go with the Ardens and I'll explain why a little further on but first a little detail for you. The Arundel uses a different and much later driver to the HPD of the Arden, called the K3839 time compensated driver which uses a Anisotropic Barium Ferrite magnet in place of the ALNiCo magnet of the HPD. Tannoy change materials due to shortages of world supply in the 70's of the Cobalt needed for the HPD magnets, plus the later AB magnets were more efficient and delivered more powerful electrical field. One downshot though was the need for time compensation within the crossover. The time delay circuit was introduced because the change of magnets altered the relative position of the HF voice coil requiring time compensation for phase accuracy. Some say that it was never that successful, but Tannoy still employ some time compensation on later models. The Arundel driver was also used in the first Westminster as well as the GRF Memory so is a very highly regarded driver.

The earlier Ardens HPD ALNiCo magnet is one which which some say gives a better sounding drive unit and it doesn't require the time delay circuit. Tannoy have returned to ALNiCo for their current flagship models today. The Ardens at 175 litres will drive fairly large spaces with ease, so both could work well. Bear in mind that both will (if not already done) need the surrounds re-foaming if not now, then at some stage in the not too distant future which if a competent DIYer, you'll be able to manage. Re-cone kits are also available from the UK and Australia.

Of the two, the Arundels are a rarer beast and were Tannoy's answer to the success of their large broadcast speakers of the early 1980's and when demand picked up in the Far East for the larger speakers, the Arundel was developed as a small footprint large cabinet volume answer which promised lower power demands than the more power hungry broadcast monitors, but retained some serious bass response. The Ardens though for domestic use can deliver the goods in the bass department. Even the smaller 12 inch HPDs can really kick out serious bass in large cabinets. Arundels have a more elegant and smaller footprint cabinet though. Both speakers are similar in volume. The Arundels are 180 litres compared with the 175 of the Ardens.

One more consideration is that if you decide on crossover updates, the HPD is a much easier one to design and build and is less complex. The original Arundels are best retained with the crossovers and the crossovers simply re-capped if found out of spec. They were reasonably well specified and made crossovers (better quality than some of the earlier models).

Tannoy, in the mid 1980s, started to undertake a lot of research on crossovers and concluded that some of their earlier PCB mounted crossovers employing wiped surface switches were quite flawed regrading the detrimental impact on sound quality. Their conclusions were that hard wired crossovers which eliminated earlier switches and PCBs, increased inductor spacing and mounted components rigidly to reduce microphonic issues greatly improved sound quality. Whilst it is possible to rebuild the Arundel crossovers fairly easily, the Ardens are a simpler unit. The switches on both can be bypassed or eliminated altogether but for sticking with the traditions of an ALNiCo magnet-driven speaker and the promise of straight forward and cheaper crossover upgrades, the Ardens would be my choice.

[audio39]

Thanks very much for the feedback and info!

I have been offered a pair of Tannoys, HPD385a drivers, in what is described as Berkely cabinets. They are finished beautifully with very nice looking bases for the cabinets to rest on. Obviously I don't know the differences between the many Tannoy models, but purely by the looks of these speakers I am enamoured already...is this a good tree to be barking up?

[anubisgrau]

i was just about to ask you what made you choosing 3839 or 3828 cabinets in preference to HPD or golds....

well, HPDs despite being in shadow of much hyped gold drivers are in reality not (that) inferior, on contrary, depending on what are your music preferences. if your choice is rock or modern processed music, HPD may yield better results....

if you are comparing berkeley mk2 vs the HPD one (mk1), my choice would be mk1. though berkley is not an optimal cab (neither arden is), it's a good domestic solution and IMHO it's better to take a HPD version than a later one, not only for sonics but also for value.

maybe i'm wrong - i'm not really a tannoy guy but i helped a few friends here to source cheviots, berkeley or arden so i had a chance to hear them. they are all great and have strengths, albeit different so as i said i would make a choice depending on what is a dominant type of music.

[anubisgrau]

aaargh, now i see you're talking about arden mkII, not berkeley mkII.
i'm afraid you have to hear them both. for my ears both are not too accurate in bass - being boomy to a certain extent that muddles the mids (fwiw i find cheviots better speaker than both, but it doesn't have that "boogie" factor of 15"s).
HPD berkeley would be my choice, especially if it is so eye pleasing.

[Reffc]

Thanks very much for the feedback and info!

I have been offered a pair of Tannoys, HPD385a drivers, in what is described as Berkely cabinets. They are finished beautifully with very nice looking bases for the cabinets to rest on. Obviously I don't know the differences between the many Tannoy models, but purely by the looks of these speakers I am enamoured already...is this a good tree to be barking up?

If you can get them cheaply enough they'd be worth a look, but personally I consider the Berkeley cabinets to be under sized for the 15 inch HPD. They require a cabinet of between 170 and 220 litres to perform optimally.

You're better off in many ways with 100 litre sealed enclosures for the 15 inch drivers than ported enclosures, so may be worth trying the Berkeleys with the ports bunged up. Ardens would be the better choice for ported. If you can get a listen to the Berkeleys first you could make your mind up then. Note that Tannoys are amplifier fussy and despite what some say, really do need some grunt behind them and a reasonable damping factor for best results. HPDs are simply Monitor Golds with stiffer cones for lower cone break-up resonance (distortion) and a more compliant surround for lower bass. They use an identical chassis, magnet and HF compression driver/horn as the golds. The difference acoustically is more bass extension and personally, I find them cleaner in the mids too. As a result of the cones, they are designed for a slightly higher crossover point than the golds and this helps raise power handling slightly. The disadvantages compared with golds are only that every 15 to 20 years, surrounds will require replacement, but that's a small price to pay especially as they're currently half the price on the used market. That will change soon enough. Anyone interested in trying Tannoys would be well advised to buy a set of HPDs sooner rather than later before the prices sky-rocket. 12 inch HPDs could be had for around £350 a few years ago. They're roughly twice that today in good shape.

[audio39]

Thanks again!!

Although I have the big Luxman M-05 I'm considering simplifying my system and moving to the Luxman L590aII, at 30 watts per channel Class A I'm thinking it may drive the more efficient then Harbeth big Tannoys.

There are quite a number of Ardens and Arundels about for sale...the drivers are all either the 3828 or the 3829, my internet reading has suggested the HPD driver is superior.

Your further thoughts are appreciated.

[Reffc]

Thanks again!!

Although I have the big Luxman M-05 I'm considering simplifying my system and moving to the Luxman L590aII, at 30 watts per channel Class A I'm thinking it may drive the more efficient then Harbeth big Tannoys.

There are quite a number of Ardens and Arundels about for sale...the drivers are all either the 3828 or the 3829, my internet reading has suggested the HPD driver is superior.

Your further thoughts are appreciated.

Ardens were originally fitted with 385 HPDs but can also be found with the DC 386 (fitted later) and 3828/9's. The latter were developed as replacements to the HPD and were a domestic development of the professional ceramic magnet drivers using shorter horns and different HF drive units to the earlier Tannoys. The crossovers are necessarily more complex. Personally, I prefer HPD drivers to anything that came later on. You'll still enjoy what a well set up pair can do with the later drivers so as suggested earlier, best to audition if you can and preferably with your own amp. The Luxman 590aII will drive any Tannoy with ease and is a good match. I don't understand why you think it wont drive Harbeths well, as it should do. Despite their lower sensitivity, they're a pretty benign (easy) load. The Luxman is exceptionally conservatively rated. It was tested by a UK magazine at 78 watts rms.

[audio39]

Hey Paul...thanks very much for your time.

The only concern I would have with the L590 and my present Harbeths is when I have a whiskey or two and want Led Zeppelin in the room with me.

It has been some time since I've heard the Tannoys first hand, although each time I did I left committed to making the move. Although I still have CD in the home, I listen to vinyl almost exclusively and have always found the Tannoy drivers well suited to vinyl playback - not to say that they are any less competetent with CD - just that I believe that vinyl is the better format where imaging is concerned.

Rick.