Bloody ell... How good are Tannoy MG's

[The Black Adder]

Just been spinning some choonz and.. well I'm again astonished of what my 40+ year old Tannoy Monitor gold speakers can do.

The lower powered croft 7R+ amp really moves them, it's really unbeleivable to what you can hear in some recordings and to hear how the tracks were made, hearing a manual pan for example that is someone is turning on the mixing desk, lol... it's like you can actually almost think your turning it yourself. It's this sort of depth in sound, movement and emotion I simply love to have. Although emotion is more a part of your mood at the time.

I've not been drinking btw...

Since I had the new crossovers made these speakers have been surprising me almost daily. May be the components have now bedded in? Who knows.

Trying to sum up the sound is that everything is happening from one position about 15 yards away bang in front of my mincers. The scale of the sound from the Tannoys is really quite something.

Ahh... going to put the laptop down now and enjoy some Chemical Brothers followed by some Floyd me thinks....!

Carry on chaps.. Don't mind me! :)

[walpurgis]

I know what you mean. There's definitely a perception of extra depth, image positioning and just general coherence with the Tannoys. That's why I keep going back to them despite trying other makes over the years. They are the only moving coil speakers that really do it for me (although I do have a soft spot for Sonus Faber Electas and the JMR Offrande). Geoff.

[jazzpiano]

Gentlemen, what along with the above would you recommend in a modern OR vintage Tannoy that does not cost a packet? You know, something that isn't named after a British landmark. Are they best with tubes or ss? Would an LS3/5a/BC1/SP1, small-scale acoustic listener like them?

Thanks,
Barry

[walpurgis]

Gentlemen, what along with the above would you recommend in a modern OR vintage Tannoy that does not cost a packet? You know, something that isn't named after a British landmark. Are they best with tubes or ss? Would an LS3/5a/BC1/SP1, small-scale acoustic listener like them?

Thanks,
Barry

That's a tough one. There aren't any really cheap good Tannoys. If you're really on a shoestring and don't mind making your own cabinets, find a pair of Tannoy i6 speakers on eBay throw away the awful plastic cabinets and use the drivers and crossovers in a solidly made 25 litre ported cabinet. They are modern drivers, but they will give the signature Tannoy pinpoint imaging and they are very detailed and pretty clean sounding, with a surprising amount of punch. I know because I've tried them. If you can run to about £500 then a pair of Eatons would be very nice. Geoff.

[Reid Malenfant]

That's a tough one. There aren't any really cheap good Tannoys. If you're really on a shoestring and don't mind making your own cabinets, find a pair of Tannoy i6 speakers on eBay throw away the awful plastic cabinets and use the drivers and crossovers in a solidly made 25 litre ported cabinet. They are modern drivers, but they will give the signature Tannoy pinpoint imaging and they are very detailed and pretty clean sounding, with a surprising amount of punch. I know because I've tried them. If you can run to about £500 then a pair of Eatons would be very nice. Geoff.
Sounds similar to the idea I had :) I bought a pair of modern Tannoys that used a 7" dual concentric driver with cast chassis simply to add something to do the bass end.

As long as it's not going to be asked to do deep bass at high volume then a decent modern DC should give that magic. There is an unexpected benefit, unless you happen to have gone into details. As the DC unit won't be doing bass then there is a significant reduction in intermodulation distortion as the DC won't be doing the bass, that'll be down to another bigger driver :cool:

[jazzpiano]

Thank you Geoff. I've got a hankerin' for the smell of saw dust and solder fumes.

Best,
Barry

[walpurgis]

I should have said. The i6 drivers have a sensitivity of around 90db/watt, so basically, they'll work with any amplifier you care to use and they can handle a fair bit of power. If you're feeling adventurous, you even could try the units in a quarter wave column or transmission line cabinet. That would certainly give you some room filling capabilty and extend the bass downwards by possibly a further half octave. There are many acoustic column and transmission line designs on the internet. Have a look. The cabinet sizing is not really critical, anything designed for an 8" or 6 1/2" driver would function. I can't recall the free air resonance for the i6, but would guess at around 45Hz, the port output will significantly extend this downwards and I'd anticipate useful output down to 30 or 35 Hz. A quarter wave transmission line for a drive unit this sort of size needs a folded line length of about 5 feet. Acoustic line cabinets may look complex to build, but I've built them and a bit of patience and common sense will get you there. I may even still have suitable design plans of my own knocking about. If you go for it, expect to pay around £100 for i6 speakers, don't get ripped off. Geoff.