Quote Originally Posted by f1eng View Post
I have just read this thread. It took a long time. I am not knowledgeable about Tannoy speakers (but have enjoyed them the twice I have listened) so no comments here.

I have a couple of points to make though.

Firstly several posters mentioned the superiority of a single 15" unit over multiple small units "because it hardly moves". Well clearly that depends! 4 8" units will move -less- than a single 15", and have 4 motors. I am not disputing what is heard, I haven't compared a speaker with a 15" bass unit with one with 4 8" units... Just sayin'
Getting it back to the speakers

I think the point is here is that to get some kind of realistic sound level you do need to move a lot of air, or at least be capable of doing it when called for!

The thing with the Tannoys is the coaxial tweeter that effectively makes all the sound radiate from one place, that single driver. Generally most people will think of the 15" unit as optimum simply because it can move the most air.

Personally I'd go for a Tannoy that one of the members on here owns (can't think of his name right now) that uses a smaller 10" coaxial driver & a pair of 12" drivers for filling in the bass. At bass frequencies sound is omnidirectional, so you'd never notice it wasn't eminating from a single driver anyway. I'm also sure that a 10" driver would do a better job in the midrange (less distortion) up to the crossover frequency of the tweeter than a 15" would, simply because it'd act as more of a piston.

Give the bass over to those 12" drivers at less than 150Hz say & I'm sure it'd be something to behold

Tannoy appear to be going back to a similar setup with their modern speakers, a smaller coaxial but paired with a 15 or maybe even an 18" bass unit in there largest speakers.

It makes total sense