I purchased some early Tannoy 12" Monitor Golds, in Chatsworth sized cabinets, here on AoS. The crossovers they came with were original Tannoy HPD315, so whilst they made the speakers sing, you could tell there was more to come from these drivers. I was advised by a few from this parish to contact
Paul Coupe at RFC www.referencefidelitycomponents.co.uk as he was the go to for Tannoy crossover advice.
Paul was very generous with his time both on phone and email and advised me that although the drivers were playing music with the HPD crossovers, they were not right at all and whilst they'd make a noise they were a long way off...
After visiting Tom's (montesquieu) place and hearing for myself what a well thought out and executed crossover design could offer I was hooked!
I contacted Paul again and he took me through the options, not once strong arming me into a purchase, indeed trying I felt, to save me dosh..
I made my selection, external crossovers in birch ply boxes and went for the components one down from the reference level...and formed an orderly queue.
The long and short of it, a few weeks later 2x very well packaged and extremely well made boxes arrived with a cable fitting kit, exactly the same as the photos earlier in this thread
(i will add my photos later) and a simple clear and straight forward instruction email. First visual impressions were good. I was impressed with the external build quality.
i installed the Crossover cable connecting kit and fired up the Amps...
I suppose we all long for those moments of trepidation, expectation and excitement of a new toy in our systems to give us that 'upgrade' lift. Well buying effectively blind, I had all of those feelings.
From the first note I could hear a stratospheric difference in the speakers. Everything seemed to come into focus. The low end bass had definition, timbral beauty and grunt (oomph), the whole presentation had changed for the better. Gone was the rather shouty middle to top on vocals and horns, replaced by a smooth transition which moved seamlessly into the extensions of the higher frequencies.
There was more presence and whilst very impressing it's extremely easy to listen to. 6 Hours later I was still there. I loved it.
I'm pretty bad at articulating this sort of thing but I feel compelled to post about the biggest 'upgrade', change i have heard in my system.
I really like what I hear. I simply can't wait to go home tonight a listen again. And i guess thats the litmus test, right?
Anyone contemplating 'upgrading' their Tannoy crossovers, Paul is your first port of call. if you are worried about buying blind, you are more than welcome to stop on by my gaff and enjoy what this UPGRADE has done to the music presentation. I make good coffee.
Music is very important to me and Paul's product has just helped to give me more joy.
(btw i have NOWT to do with Paul, professionally or socially)