Tannoy question

[montesquieu]

Well I don't want to spoil the fun but I've seen three pairs of HPDs and MG Tannoys come and go and all have been shown a very clean pair of heels by my AN-Es. Yes Tannoy 12 and especially 15" do scale, have heft, and altogether better (but not deeper) bass. But to me there are insurmountable integration issues between the two different types of driver, and the low crossover frequency puts the problem right in the middle of the music. I really wanted to like them, paid a lot and tried hard it's only my tuppence worth, but I'd say enjoy your experience and in a couple of months or more switch back to your AN-Es to see how you feel. For me, each time it's like coming home.

I guess it's all about what you like James, and possibly to some extent the room. When I was re-evaluating my speaker choices, I had three pairs in my house of AN-E's and HE's off PQ (ever more expensive with more and more silver in them, ending up around ten grand retail, though probably half that 'ex-demo').

I tried them with a variety of amps, since 'E's and Tannoys need very different amps (Tannoys really need push-pull, E's get away with single ended though also work with chip amps)..

None came close in providing a satisfying sound to properly rival Tannoys, in fact the last pair, so expensive, were comprehensively done in by a pair of Tannoy 12in Golds in some pretty untidy maple cabs, about a grand's worth. So much so I burst out laughing when I put the Tannoys in. The wife's response was 'thank goodness'.

As for bass, I don't get the bass from E's at all ... singalong cabinets that go deep (i guess) but give a bass sound that's blurry and ill-defined compared to Tannoys, being radiated by the cabinet and heavily dependent on the port's relationship to the back wall - I guess this is why they work in some rooms, and not at all in others.

I also evaluated a set of hORNS FP12s, which while not in Tannoy class were far better than the E's in my book. Immediately the E's left I placed my order for my current RFC Canterburys.

[farflungstar]

I think it's about system, room, values. What I can say is that I feel as though I've been listening to music behind a curtain for the last few years. The Ane's, silver wired, will be staying in their boxes. The word that for me sums up what I'm now hearing is Lucidity. It can be as delicate as falling snow or bigger than a steam train but it's something the Ane's just do not have. Part of this is also the bass - which is just as deep as the Ane's but which is defined, articulate without overhang or bloom. I don't detect an integration issue at all - coherence is superb, but with layering and nuance.

I like them.

[walpurgis]

This is what it's about. It's a genius design. Simple really but meets my idea of engineering elegance. The bass cone driven at the front of the single magnet and the tweeter driven at the back of the magnet and (obviously) through the centre of it.

The is the ceramic magnet version, but nearly all the compression driver 'pepperpot' monitors are built similarly. The magnet on the Alnico models is deeper, as is the tweeter horn.

[Oddball]

I have some lowly 635's and love them to bits , but honestly ,would not ask my other half of her opinion of them

[Jazid]

In my opinion it has precious little to do with room or amplification, it is what you can either not do without, or not deal with. I suspect that at heart I am a single driver man, though to date I have not had a pair to play with. I cannot deal with the honky horn thing that you guys don't suffer from. It's not simple crossover issues, it's a total disjunction. People talk about AvantGarde bass unit integration, I don't have a major problem with that (I wish that was my problem in life), that is something I hear and don't care about, but that is what others hear. With Tannoys what I hear is a paper cone bass and a shouty tweeter coming in around an octave and a bit above middle C. No offense intended, I have loved Tom's setups and know AN-E are not everyone's cuppa, and I do understand. Horses for courses and all that... Still I wouldn't swap :-)

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[farflungstar]

I was very worried about the shouty tweeter as I'm very sensitive to it and hate it. I chose the pepperpot kensingtons over the tulip wave guide models for that reason. I haven't read of a problem wth the pepperpot, although a lot of people like to cut the treble to -1.5. I haven't done this as in my very well damped room, with very few reflective surfaces, excessive or phasey treble energy isn't an issue.

I'm also lucky in that the allaerts have a beautifully smooth, liquid and extended treble response with no peaks.

As with everything it's about synergy just as much as technology. Perhaps if I'd paired the Ane's with bright electronics or a super revealing cart with a treble lift they might have sounded as revealing as the Tannoys.

Listening to piano last night the performance was exemplary, as is piano with the Ane's, but there were so many other spatial clues and nuances that just aren't there with the Ane's.

I experienced the same startling difference when switching from a TVC to the Truth - and it had me scratching my head for a long time why it could be so drastically different and yet correct - until I just forgot about it and enjoyed the music.

[walpurgis]

That is the thing. If you have any coarseness in the amplification or an unruly source, the Tannoys will show this up without mercy.

I think that may largely be the issue when people say they don't like Tannoys. They have only heard them used with unsuitable partnering equipment.

[anthonyTD]

Tannoy's can be ruthlessly revealing, and as you say Geoff' can and often will show up issues further down the chain.
As for this Quakiness people complain about with Tannoys, I dont get that either, again, it could be down to what they are being partnered with, many people have listend to my own system over the years I have had Tannoys, and never has anyone ever complained about it sounding Quaky!
A...

That is the thing. If you have any coarseness in the amplification or an unruly source, the Tannoys will show this up without mercy.

I think that may largely be the issue when people say they don't like Tannoys. They have only heard them used with unsuitable partnering equipment.

[petrat]

In my opinion it has precious little to do with room or amplification, it is what you can either not do without, or not deal with. I suspect that at heart I am a single driver man, though to date I have not had a pair to play with. I cannot deal with the honky horn thing that you guys don't suffer from. It's not simple crossover issues, it's a total disjunction. People talk about AvantGarde bass unit integration, I don't have a major problem with that (I wish that was my problem in life), that is something I hear and don't care about, but that is what others hear. With Tannoys what I hear is a paper cone bass and a shouty tweeter coming in around an octave and a bit above middle C. No offense intended ...

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Strange. I tried to love my AN Es, but couldn't get past the 'plastic-ey' tweeter, and bass that sat on a one note resonance. I tried in both small and large rooms, in corners, against walls, in free space ... and concluded that they sounded better the further away I was from them

IME the Prestige Tannoys are in another league entirely. Properly textured bass, for one thing. The 'shouty' tweeter criticism keeps getting made on forums, but surely Tannoy wouldn't have sold so many, for so long, to so many discerning listeners, if that were the case? There are a myriad of frequency response plots for most of the DC drivers/cabinets on the internet ... some better than others, and admittedly, I do see some of the worse having, typically, a 3dB rise at around 15KHz, but nothing too serious, surely? Anyway, I am not sure that even a ruler-flat sine-wave sweep necessarilly translates into realistic instrumental timbre and tone ... which is a particular strength imo.

As you say, everyone's different ... thank goodness! I sometimes wonder if people judge with their eyes, and expect certain characteristics to be there, even before listening? I know I do. My particular speaker prejudice is that whenever I see electrostatic speakers, they will be tonally 'thin', uninvolving, lack dynamics, with ridiculous hyper-real soundstaging effects. Hate them

[julesd68]

Interesting - this Tannoy 'shouty tweeter' thing is news to me - I've had my 12" HPD's for around five years now and haven't come across this issue once I'm happy to say ...