Vinyleyes
03-06-2011, 13:45
Here is a tale going back couple of years ago now to shortly before I joined this forum and had just decided to resurrect my vinyl and turntable from underneath the stairs .. it having been there for nearly 15 years.
The beginning system was Radford STA 25, SME 20 Mk1, Kinshaw Perception phono, McCormack Mod Squad preamp, Castle Howard floorstanders with upward firing drivers the only thing new was I went out and bought a Lyra Argo Cartride for the SME V arm ..
The sound in the beginning was very detailed and precise but to my ears a bit cold and hard and definitely lacking in involvement (although I have since learnt that my perception of cold and hard can be another persons delight in detail and crispness)..
So the Castle Howards went away for new tweeters and rewiring at Wilmslow Audio the Kinshaw went back to Peter for his upgrade .. and I continued to burn in the Lyra through borrowed home made valve phono stage from Nick G .. and my JBL L110s. In this period I also went through pairs of NHT VT-2's and Dali floorstanders .. neither of which convinced me ,,, I also tried an Absolute Research SPD10 phono/preamp.. which brought some slight improvement over the Kinshaw/Mod Squad but not enough to pay the reasonable 4 figure asking price.
Things evolved with the arrival of a bespoke Pre Amp .. Little Martha from Nick G .. some of you have heard this and can testify to its ability. The Castle Howards came back and are super speakers well worth the upgrade price and the Wilmslow chappies were quite happy to tell me it would cost me 5G to buy a new pair of speakers their equivalent.
So by now I was fairly convinced I had almost all of the right ingredients in place but something was still missing . That sense of involvement with the music that sense of being there .. and then one evening after work, whilst sitting many miles from UK and browsing through the Ebay boards I spotted a pair of Tannoy Ardens for sale from a chap in London and ............... something stirred in me ....... :mental:
So I contacted him and we seemed to be on the same wavelength they had been bought new by him in79 and had had the surrounds properly done by Wembley speakers just a couple of years ago .. The chap had hardly used them he said as they had been too big for his room and they had been sitting in storage at his place of work for years . well .. I knew nothing about Tannoys .. but had heard and had had PMs with several prominent members here about Tannoys So I took the plunge and put a bid in for just over a grand and then forgot about them. Well I won em .. I won them for the best 965 quid I have spent in a long time I had to get them couriered up from London and then up my stairs .. . And they are quite simply bloody marvellous :cool:
I had to completely rearrange my living room so that they now sit in the corners firing longways down .. and I had to move the TV and everything over from the fireplace to the other end of the room to go between them .. The sofa had to be turned 90 degress .. and now it is a little difficult to traverse the room but WHO CARES haha . The soundstage comes right to the back wall .. I can sit at the back of the room and it is like I have 2 more speakers next to my ears as I get what must be reflections off the back wall. The atmosphere and presence that comes through these speakers is unbelievable the sound is not perfect if you like the tightest bass .. or need that last ounce of total control .. but the sheer presence of the music conveyed is overwhelming .. and to use a word maybe understood by those who like it loud uncivilized!
I have always listened to live music .. from the smallest pub to up front at the biggest festivals and my son who has a band and plays live regularly both of us simply agreed instantly that this was the closest we had ever been to listening live coming from a home system . I dont have to worry about neighbours .. and we can crank this system as loud as we care to
The defining moment though for them was when Nick G. came over for what turned into an allnighter .. and eventually we plugged in his 211 SET .
Well .. The Radford was good .. but just slightly ran out of steam as the volume got higher .. My Nak PA-7 absolutely nailed the bass you could see those 15 drivers moving about an inch backwards and forwards !! ,, but it did lose bit at the top .
Enter the 211 SET . A marriage was consummated in seconds haha ,,,,,,,, Wow super stuff Dark Star came out .. Hendrix .. Zeppelin 200g LPs galore .. Folk Singer and a CD from Edwina Hayes who has the sweetest voice I heard for a long time everything was right there in the room even inspired us to fire up my beloved Strat and Nick jammed his way through several recordings with some pretty decent Hendrix inspired impros .. .. we could not stop listening and long before we had tired the dawn was shining brightly through the windows ..
So all I can say to anyone who has the space and control over their own living environment .. ;) .. THINK about a pair of 15 Tannoys in decent sized cabs .. turn it up to live music levels . And rock on :eek: . They really do bring the music into your room as I had never heard before. Also .. anyone who reckons SETs dont do loud .. and dont do bass and cannot rock .. well you should have been there. :eyebrows:
Base camp has now been reached on my ascent to the summit of my idea of superb sound . The Tannoys are so revealing of any system change and deserving of excellence in all aspects of input .. So now the quest is on to improve the phono replay and I will be listening to more of Nicks offerings there and I am also dreaming of a huge pair of SETs to fully exploit what the Tannoys can deliver . I know now that BIG and HEAVY SETs can bang out a very decent bass with these speakers and I am happy to sacrifice that last ounce of bass definition to retain that SET sparkle
Thanks must go to Nick G of course for his wonderful preamp and general helpful advice Mark Grant who very kindly delivered my BD Oppo 95 and helped integrate it into the system as it was being put together .. and supplied a few cables for testing and Dave Brook who very kindly lent me a bunch of cables to play around with .. and whose silver sounds speaker cables I decided on to run from the Tannoys.
And thanks also to all of you on AOS who contributed your thoughts and advice through PMs and emails to me .. all of it was helpful in getting my system together after so long and one that for the first time really rocks .. and . most importantly ... pleases me ..
Cheers guys
PS has anyone modded the Ardens .. particularly the x/overs .. and the speaker posts .. (they will only take 2.5mm cables) .. I would love to hear your findings.
The beginning system was Radford STA 25, SME 20 Mk1, Kinshaw Perception phono, McCormack Mod Squad preamp, Castle Howard floorstanders with upward firing drivers the only thing new was I went out and bought a Lyra Argo Cartride for the SME V arm ..
The sound in the beginning was very detailed and precise but to my ears a bit cold and hard and definitely lacking in involvement (although I have since learnt that my perception of cold and hard can be another persons delight in detail and crispness)..
So the Castle Howards went away for new tweeters and rewiring at Wilmslow Audio the Kinshaw went back to Peter for his upgrade .. and I continued to burn in the Lyra through borrowed home made valve phono stage from Nick G .. and my JBL L110s. In this period I also went through pairs of NHT VT-2's and Dali floorstanders .. neither of which convinced me ,,, I also tried an Absolute Research SPD10 phono/preamp.. which brought some slight improvement over the Kinshaw/Mod Squad but not enough to pay the reasonable 4 figure asking price.
Things evolved with the arrival of a bespoke Pre Amp .. Little Martha from Nick G .. some of you have heard this and can testify to its ability. The Castle Howards came back and are super speakers well worth the upgrade price and the Wilmslow chappies were quite happy to tell me it would cost me 5G to buy a new pair of speakers their equivalent.
So by now I was fairly convinced I had almost all of the right ingredients in place but something was still missing . That sense of involvement with the music that sense of being there .. and then one evening after work, whilst sitting many miles from UK and browsing through the Ebay boards I spotted a pair of Tannoy Ardens for sale from a chap in London and ............... something stirred in me ....... :mental:
So I contacted him and we seemed to be on the same wavelength they had been bought new by him in79 and had had the surrounds properly done by Wembley speakers just a couple of years ago .. The chap had hardly used them he said as they had been too big for his room and they had been sitting in storage at his place of work for years . well .. I knew nothing about Tannoys .. but had heard and had had PMs with several prominent members here about Tannoys So I took the plunge and put a bid in for just over a grand and then forgot about them. Well I won em .. I won them for the best 965 quid I have spent in a long time I had to get them couriered up from London and then up my stairs .. . And they are quite simply bloody marvellous :cool:
I had to completely rearrange my living room so that they now sit in the corners firing longways down .. and I had to move the TV and everything over from the fireplace to the other end of the room to go between them .. The sofa had to be turned 90 degress .. and now it is a little difficult to traverse the room but WHO CARES haha . The soundstage comes right to the back wall .. I can sit at the back of the room and it is like I have 2 more speakers next to my ears as I get what must be reflections off the back wall. The atmosphere and presence that comes through these speakers is unbelievable the sound is not perfect if you like the tightest bass .. or need that last ounce of total control .. but the sheer presence of the music conveyed is overwhelming .. and to use a word maybe understood by those who like it loud uncivilized!
I have always listened to live music .. from the smallest pub to up front at the biggest festivals and my son who has a band and plays live regularly both of us simply agreed instantly that this was the closest we had ever been to listening live coming from a home system . I dont have to worry about neighbours .. and we can crank this system as loud as we care to
The defining moment though for them was when Nick G. came over for what turned into an allnighter .. and eventually we plugged in his 211 SET .
Well .. The Radford was good .. but just slightly ran out of steam as the volume got higher .. My Nak PA-7 absolutely nailed the bass you could see those 15 drivers moving about an inch backwards and forwards !! ,, but it did lose bit at the top .
Enter the 211 SET . A marriage was consummated in seconds haha ,,,,,,,, Wow super stuff Dark Star came out .. Hendrix .. Zeppelin 200g LPs galore .. Folk Singer and a CD from Edwina Hayes who has the sweetest voice I heard for a long time everything was right there in the room even inspired us to fire up my beloved Strat and Nick jammed his way through several recordings with some pretty decent Hendrix inspired impros .. .. we could not stop listening and long before we had tired the dawn was shining brightly through the windows ..
So all I can say to anyone who has the space and control over their own living environment .. ;) .. THINK about a pair of 15 Tannoys in decent sized cabs .. turn it up to live music levels . And rock on :eek: . They really do bring the music into your room as I had never heard before. Also .. anyone who reckons SETs dont do loud .. and dont do bass and cannot rock .. well you should have been there. :eyebrows:
Base camp has now been reached on my ascent to the summit of my idea of superb sound . The Tannoys are so revealing of any system change and deserving of excellence in all aspects of input .. So now the quest is on to improve the phono replay and I will be listening to more of Nicks offerings there and I am also dreaming of a huge pair of SETs to fully exploit what the Tannoys can deliver . I know now that BIG and HEAVY SETs can bang out a very decent bass with these speakers and I am happy to sacrifice that last ounce of bass definition to retain that SET sparkle
Thanks must go to Nick G of course for his wonderful preamp and general helpful advice Mark Grant who very kindly delivered my BD Oppo 95 and helped integrate it into the system as it was being put together .. and supplied a few cables for testing and Dave Brook who very kindly lent me a bunch of cables to play around with .. and whose silver sounds speaker cables I decided on to run from the Tannoys.
And thanks also to all of you on AOS who contributed your thoughts and advice through PMs and emails to me .. all of it was helpful in getting my system together after so long and one that for the first time really rocks .. and . most importantly ... pleases me ..
Cheers guys
PS has anyone modded the Ardens .. particularly the x/overs .. and the speaker posts .. (they will only take 2.5mm cables) .. I would love to hear your findings.