Marco's journey to Tannoy-land

[Marco]

No worries, mate... Won't be long until you get your Glenairs, either! Instead of The Three Musketeers, it'll be 'Da Trio of Tannoyistas

Who's D'artagnan, I wonder?

Marco.

[Magna Audio]

Now that was a real journey for Tannoy land!

Love the staying up until you dropped cos' they are great and so exciting - you only live once.

[Marco]

Hi Steve,

They're just so musical and addictive to listen to, no matter the type of material played... People who use vintage Tannoys, including you, will know exactly what I mean.

The interesting thing about the Monitor Reds in big cabinets (not just the Lockwoods) is that they don't sound like so many huge speakers do nowadays, where the bass dominates everything, always reminding you that it's 'there'.

These can sound quite bass-light with certain material, and you wonder are there really 15" drivers in there... But when there is genuine bass in the musical programme, it just 'ignites', delivering huge visceral scale and impact, and rattling your ribcage! The crucial thing though is that they just fill the room effortlessly with sound without being played particularly loudly, which in my experience is a 'big speaker thing' that no drivers in small to medium-sized cabinets can emulate.

With the Lockwoods, insight and analysis into music is performed on a grand scale and with surgical precision - every nuance and inflection is laid bare for inspection but rendered in a non-fatiguing, relaxing way, almost completely without artifice or stress. The result being that the resolution on offer is breathtaking. Notes start and stop on a sixpence, so timing is always spot-on, and musical coherence, as a result of optimised driver time-alignment, is in the first rank as the 'point source' of the dual-concentric units give pinpoint imaging and throw a huge soundstage into the room; in totality creating a musical vista which is utterly beguiling.

The Lockwood Majors are big beasts for sure, measuring 44" tall, 28" wide and 18" deep, and weighing over 50kg each, but these big boys are about subtlety and finesse much more than they are about 'brute force', so much so that anyone expecting the 'boom 'n' tizz' offered by many modern large loudspeakers, and in the process being pummelled into submission by huge slabs of barrel-chested bass, would be rather disappointed. Bass simply 'happens' when it's meant to, and you feel the impact, but the Majors (no pun intended) 'major' on much more subtle musical attributes, making them the most engrossing listen you could possibly imagine. Quite simply, they take you on musical journeys where you have never ventured before...

Tomorrow I will discuss the difference between Tannoy 15" Monitor Reds and their later Gold counterparts, and why I ended up going for the Reds - it was an easy choice in the end. However, more on that later!

Right now I'm off to listen to some more tunes - I suspect that tonight's session could last long into the wee small hours

Marco.

[aquapiranha]

Great news Marco, sounds like you are having a great time! The voices on the net confirm the reds to be a joy to behold, and I look forward to hearing them!

[stephenred]

Hi- just came across this thread. I've got a pair of 12" HPDs in 150 litre dual ported cabinets and they are just about the best all round speaker I have owned. The cabinets are late NZ built 60s vintage and came with 15" Monitor Golds originally which sounded OK but not spectacular in them. We pulled out the Golds, sealed the backs, reinforced the sides and put in a new 1" ply front baffle for the HPDs, tuned the ports and WOW. Just pure musical enjoyment.
The next project was to be GRF Pros for the 15" Golds, but I have decided to build ported cabinets instead with 300 litre internal volume styled after the Churchills. Tannoys are very cabinet and room dependant and DIY cabs can be built better than the originals. I have had rectangular GRFs and they don't suit wooden houses like we have in New Zealand as well as bass reflex in my experience. The "vintage" Tannoys (up to and including HPDs) also have alnico magnets- modern ones don't I believe. This may be another part of the difference.
All the dimensions and volumes I am using accord with published Tannoy Thiele and Small data for "ideal" cabinets and the calculations seem to be spot on. Of note, I also own JBL 4344s, Quad ELS 63s, Yamaha NS 1000Ms and Rogers LS3/5As. I have also been a long term user of Sonus Faber Extremas, B&W 801s and DM6s amongst others. Tannoys are different- I didn't like them much once but now I find them both excellent and addictive.
Be warned!

[Magna Audio]

Excellent stuff Marco.
I had to rediscover nearly all my old music.
CD's of stuff from the 70's that sounded rubbish on Towers suddenly had some of the old magic. Nothing like the magic coming off a good TT though...

You summed up the situation very well - some material sounds as light & delicate as needed and when there is bass you get without over weighted or over doing it.
A lot of speakers seem to have to try to hard and end up with a very narrow band of material or type of sound that does sound good. The Tannoy's are lile a really good TT - they handle all and make it pleasing. After all it's about the music not how dynamic or attention grabbing a particular sound event is - many audiophiles seem to get drawn off down that road.

[Marco]

The Tannoy's are lile a really good TT - they handle all and make it pleasing. After all it's about the music not how dynamic or attention grabbing a particular sound event is - many audiophiles seem to get drawn off down that road.

Yep, Steve - I completely agree. What I love most about the Monitor Reds is their ability to throw a massive spotlight onto recordings, yet present musical detail in such an 'unforced' manner with no edge or 'glare' - their balance is just so well judged.

Regarding Reds vs. Golds, both were demonstrated to us in the same Lockwood cabinets and the difference was very marked indeed.

First of all, the older vintage Tannoys have a 'musicality' all of their own (here I'm talking about Monitor Blacks, Silvers, Reds and Golds) that is quite different to the speakers Tannoy produce today, which are much more 'hi-fi' in their presentation. Don't get me wrong, modern large Tannoys, such as Glenairs and models in the current Prestige range, are still superb but they lack the magical way with music of the vintage designs, although you wouldn't know it until you've heard the difference first-hand.

What I've learned about the older vintage Tannoys is that the musical presentation of the range evolved as music itself changed through the 40s, 50s and 60s, in that the drive units were voiced to optimise the particular demands of the 'music of the day', such that the earliest examples (Blacks) prioritised the accurate and realistic rendition of vocals and instrumental detail, and consequently they were a little lacking in (absolute) deep bass.

The Silvers continued that trend but as popular music began to emerge in the 50s with Rock and Roll, the voicing changed slightly and concessions were made to allow for greater demand in the lower frequencies, and this trend continued with the Reds into the late 50s and 60s where they were used in the production of music from the Beatles in studios such as Abbey Road and also later with music from the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Who. The Reds retained most of the magical midrange of the Blacks and Silvers but could cope better with the demands of Rock and Pop music.

The Golds were introduced later to offer superior power handling, but although still excellent in many ways, lacked the refinement and finesse of the earlier Blacks, Silvers and Reds, and gave an altogether different, 'heavier' and 'up front' kind of presentation with a more extended bass, but one could argue more coloured with it, too - quality is after all more important than quantity. There is 'falseness' to the sound of Golds that only becomes obvious in direct comparison to the Reds.

This is indeed what I heard when comparing the Reds to the Golds in the Lockwood cabinets. The Golds in comparison sound like someone has hit a 'loudness' button, the result being that bass frequencies overhang and cloud the midrange, robbing music of the expressiveness, clarity, and the beautifully addictive voicing of the Reds with vocals and instrumental detail. Consequently, a significant proportion of the vintage Tannoy magic is diluted in the process.

Don't get me wrong, if you haven't heard Reds, Golds will sound fabulous and still completely outperform most modern speakers in key areas, especially when installed in high quality cabinets. However, Monitor Reds in cabinets of equal quality portray music in such a spine-tingling beguilingly musical way that once you've heard their particular brand of magic nothing else will do. The 'real deal' is with the Reds as they have the midrange prowess of the Blacks and Silvers but with more authority in the lower frequencies, giving all types of music an uncanny realism.

So to all budding 'Tannoyistas' out there I would say do what ever you can to get hold of some 15" Reds, put them in solidly built, inert, modern cabinets, horn-loaded or otherwise, and quite simply you will unlikely ever buy another pair of loudspeakers!

Marco.

[pure sound]

Did you get to hear any hornloaded speakers at Bigears? Did he have any GRF's there to play?

[Marco]

Hi Guy,

Chris had some lovely modern replica GRF cabinets but they had no drivers or crossovers in them, so unfortunately we couldn't hear them. But to be honest, the Lockwoods just sounded so stunning that I wanted them there and then without listening to much else!

He had some smaller speakers, such as Chatworths, Yorks and Lancasters, but they were not in the same league.

I reckon Reds in corner GRFs would be quite something, though!

Marco.

[aquapiranha]