Marco's journey to Tannoy-land

Hehe... If only moi had a digital camera or decent camera phone :eyebrows:

Don't worry, you'll see them soon enough in the flesh! :smoking:

Marco.

:doh:

I suppose I can wait. Maybe I will be bringing some home brew behemoths of my own by then!!

:lol:

LOL. How does a week on Friday sound? :)

Anthony's coming up to hard-wire the drive units to the crossovers, as at the moment they are connected via a multi-pin plug, and some better speaker terminals need fitting too, so I'll get that done before unleashing them to connoisseurs :eyebrows:

Marco.

"connoisseurs"??? I am flattered.. :lolsign:

I won't be able to make next friday though, so it will have to be later on... but i really look forward to it!

:)

Yes, you are a man of impeccable taste and sophistication, so it's only fitting that I expose you to the 'full experience' :)

Incidentally, looks-wise, they are nothing particularly special; simply being very large rectangular-shaped, solidly built cabinets in a well-finished grain effect (Rosewood colour) formica veneer (apparently this was 'all the rage' in recording/broadcasting studios!) with '1960s BBC monitor-style material' fixed grilles - and the whole lot fixed onto castors, facilitating quick and easy positioning.

In short, they look purposeful and 'functional', but relatively unspectacular - until you listen to them, that is... ;)

Marco.

well, I am sure you know me well enough to know I do not judge a book by it's cover. Looks are quite definitely not at the top of my list when choosing hifi. I am sure the latest incarnations that I will be building shortly will be a testament to that!

It seems these Tannoys have had an effect on Ian too? and I know how good the Canterburys sound, so I am guessing that the Lockwoods would be similar, but "better"?

:scratch:

Hi Marco,

In view of your recent acquisition, you might be interested in this link:

http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/olde...yspeakers.html .

Regards
Barry

Hi Barry,

Thanks for that. I've read some of the info on that link before - most interesting, but there are bits which don't, erm, quite tally with my experience... Namely this:

Quote:

---

There is little that separates the Golds and earlier units sonically, but again, myth and legend dictate that the Silvers and Red are somehow superior. In my experience, the Golds need to be driven harder than their ancestors to get them to perform, but this is pretty marginal, and could just reflect the state of the particular drivers I was listening to.

---

"Myth and legend" aside, I know what my ears have told me and the Reds are unquestionably in a different league to Golds in terms of midrange voicing and subtlety. I cannot comment on Blacks or Silvers, as I haven't heard them. I am reliably informed though that the voicing of those really early models is not entirely suitable for 'modern' music (read as Rock, Pop, Dance, etc), however Classical, Jazz, Choral, and solo vocalists would be superb, so much would depend on one's diet of music.

Steve,

Ian loves the Lockwoods but we've yet to determine which (if any) are 'better' between his speakers and mine. I suspect that it's more a case of different than better, as Ian's Cants are pretty stunning in their own right. In terms of musical presentation, I would put their 'signature' as being somewhere in between that of the Reds and Golds.

Big Tannoys of any description though are just a riot with all sorts of music, and right now I can't stop sitting there with a huge 'perma-grin' spread across my chops! I just can't see it getting much better than this :lol:

Marco.

Hi Marco,

First of all let me say I have been following your odyssey with great interest and am enjoying reading your well written findings. Unfortuately, I have virtually no experience of Tannoys, apart from briefly listening to some in the early '70s (Berkleys or Cheviots, can't remember which, but they used the tannoy HPD dual concentric drivers) and also to some Tannoys (no idea what they were) which were so big you could almost climb inside them!

I used to know someone who owned some big Tannoys, before moving on to Altec Lansings (!). He had visited the Tannoy factory and said that what the guys there didn't know about loudspeakers, was not worth knowing.

Tannoy Reds are hugely coverted in Japan - there's many a Japanese audiophile (hate that term) who would give their eye teeth for a set!

Regards
Barry

If you know this already, then apologies, but given a typical 15" Tannoy driver, you can set the sensitivity vs bass extension at the design stage. Higher sensitivity gives more mid output but the bass appears to roll away earlier. Setting for lower sensitivity (as per the HPD's) and therefore higher power handling, one gets more apparent bass extension as the mid is lower in level relative to the bass, in addition to the softer foam suspension on these I think. Adding the "girdercoustic" strips to the HPD cone also makes it heavier to aid bass extension, although I think that this idea was abandoned years ago.

I do appreciate that far more than the above is involved and I reckon that although I enjoyed the seventies HPD models, the box colouration was fairly severe, along with raggedly made pepperpots (all pictured on various Tanny orientated websites) and this would account for the sloppier bass, boxy mid and ragged top end of the HPD's compared to the best of the earlier and latest stuff.

Marco, I'm sure re-wiring the connection internally will make a subtle improvement, but these oldies were at least 10 - 15 Ohm load as I remember, so foo tweakery won't be quite so necessary - same for substantially beefing up the wiring methinks for the same reason as these will need a clean voltage drive rather than oodles of amps like a modern speaker. I also think the level switching in the crossover may be the weak point, as Tannoy discovered in the early eighties - the awful switch thing being replaced by the screw-in adjuster now found on their DC models.

Finally sir, if I may be so bold...:) If you can afford to shell out for these tannoys, then £50 extra could buy you a basic but good enough digital camera..............................OUCH!!!!!!!