My new (vintage) Tannoy Cheviots!

[walpurgis]

Done!

The refurbished second driver is now installed back in it's cabinet.



I've got the pair up and running right now and they sound sensational, very sweet and smooth, much better than many of the 'pepperpot' types I've had in the past. Not a hint of the stringyness at the top end that seems to afflict some Tannoys, my Devons were awful! These have that beautifully clear, proper 'Big Tannoy' sound, if you know what I mean and not a hint of boom either in my small listening room.

Its nice to own one of the rarest Tannoy models ever made, this 3128 variant of the Cheviot was apparently only in production a few months and very few were sold, the bulk of the 3128 drivers being fitted into the Balmoral, which itself is rare as I believe most were exported.

I've still got some cabinet refinishing to do and the internal wiring does not look too clever, so I'll need to sort that. It will have to wait, I want to enjoy these for a couple of days before I do more work on them.

[chelsea]

Good work.
The ones i had worked very well in a small room.

[walpurgis]

I've been listening to the 3128 Cheviots for a couple of hours on and off now. My god they sound good, very clean, really tight punchy bass, tremendous detail and amazing midrange clarity, you can really hear deep into the music. I've had a few pairs of bigger Tannoys, but these are definitely the best so far! Even my beautiful old Monitor Gold Chatsworths would not have matched these. They also seem more efficient, I'm hardly putting any power through them and they're shaking the whole house.

[southall-1998]

Post up a pic of them with your system.

[walpurgis]

Hi Shane,

I'll post a system picture including the speakers when I've had a sort out (I'll have to dig out a camera with a wide angle lens for that). All the work on the speakers is being done in my small listening room and its like a bomb site at the moment and I'm short of space as you know. I still have a bit more cosmetic & wiring work to do on them anyway before I finally position them properly. I'll also have to do some comparisons and figure out which set of amplification suits them best, probably the EL34 monoblocks I reckon. I'm using them with the SM-70 Pro at the moment, which works very well, bags of punch.

Geoff.

[DSJR]

I wonder what it was/is, but the mid 70's Tannoys (all of them up to the Berkley at least) all had this "sting" in the high treble (measured at 9kHz in the controversial 1976 'Choice speaker book). I really am glad you've got it sorted though.

I still have a soft spot for Devons though and it may just be the driver tolerances used at the time that caused the issues you had with them. Cheviots always sounded coloued (a boxy "mehhh" kind of sound) in the shop, yet a couple of separate pairs I heard in clients homes, both with Quad amps IIRC, sounded really really good - and since these particular ones were bought and probably designed for domestic use....... The pro version was the SRM12X, wasn't it?

[walpurgis]

Hi Dave,

I've long suspected the treble bite that some Tannoys have (HPD 315 & IIILZ in particular) may be due to a resonance across the narrow part of the tweeter horn throat, immediately in front of the 'pepperpot' drillings. The horn throat is longer on the alnico magnet drivers and the sides of the horn throat at that point are almost parallel and could possibly be encouraging resonance across the width.

Yes it is a close relative of the SRM12X, but I believe the quoted power handling for the SRM may have been higher. The Balmoral was the Prestige equivalent of the 3128 Cheviot and acoustically and electrically is more or less identical.

This is by the way, the first pair of ceramic magnet 'pepperpot' Tannoys I've owned, I've had nine pairs of the alnico types though (still got my Eatons, very sweet speakers).

Geoff.

[lewis]

Very nice work Geoff. They look, and i'm sure they sound, superb. The Tannoy 'sting' seems to affect most of the Tannoy dc drivers, from what i have read, even the pepperpot models. My Turnberry's are the only Tannoy dc's i have heard, and i also heard the Tannoy 'sting' on mine, but you can tune out the 'sting' by pointing the speakers down the room, instead of pointing them inwards facing the listening position.

[DSJR]

After all the faff with me about the Turnberry's (I hope "we've" made it up now ), may I say that I didn't find the Turnberry SE treble an issue at all and the whole balance of the Turnberry SE's as I heard them was actually quite mellow as I remember. NONE of the uncouth quacky and stingy sound of dave's bog standard IIILZ's for example, the rear panels of which vibrated alarmingly on bassy notes at modelst levels.

Tannoy worked extremely hard on the crossovers of the larger DC drivers back in the early 80's and I really think it's worth Googling up a few sites to find out what they've done, as they were aware of things needing to be done and it seems, dealt with it rather well from what I've read and heard.

[walpurgis]

Your Turnburys have tulip waveguide type drivers Andrew and although you may find them possibly a bit forward, they do not have the bite that the pepperpot types are known for, which I'm sure is due to a resonance in the horn itself.

I recently sold a pair of Tannoy System 1000 speakers which have the same tweeter as the Turnbury and found them pretty well controlled at the top end.

Dave's comments on the IIILZ parallel my views, I owned three pairs back when they were cheap (£66 a pair new in 1971). A cheap intro into the Tannoy experience, but they were pretty unrefined. Beats me why they go for such silly money these days.

And thanks for the positive comment. I still have a way to go yet.