Which Tannoys, folks?

[Reffc]

I'd rather have a nice piece of timber grain to look at than a plain painted surface Tom so I guess its a personal thing really. I will be using a slightly golden stained Danish Oil so it will come out a little darker and with a more honeyed look when done.

[Ammonite Audio]

They are not Dave Slagle autoformers - they are solely the work of Brian Sowter, who kindly reverse-engineered the original design for me, from first principles using various inductance and resistance measurements posted around the web. It was not just a matter of winding the autoformer taps using those measurements - he understood what the original Tannoy designer intended and did the calculations from there. Very clever and extremely helpful chap!

I've just picked up a set of Dave Slagle autoformers from Shuggy that replicate, using a high quality transformer core, what the old switchable inductors do - I believe Joe may have a set too?

I'll be sending a package off to Nick G to work his magic on my existing crossovers as soon as some new, better quality binding posts get to me.

I haven't missed the old Tannoy variable settings (when I had my custom ones done I went for fixed inductors, like Marco) but by all accounts Dave's solution should in theory be superior to the fixed ones in terms of sound quality. Am going to explore top of the line caps as well.

[montesquieu]

They are not Dave Slagle autoformers - they are solely the work of Brian Sowter, who kindly reverse-engineered the original design for me, from first principles using various inductance and resistance measurements posted around the web. It was not just a matter of winding the autoformer taps using those measurements - he understood what the original Tannoy designer intended and did the calculations from there. Very clever and extremely helpful chap!

Sorry Hugo, brain not engaged when I was typing. Brian Sowter of course.

[Reffc]

Right...a little more progress. In between jobs and visitors I managed to get the second plinth veneered, trimmed and sanded. Then gave both veneeres a final rub down with fine sandpaper so they're now ready for the final finish which will darken them and bring out the grain:



Lockwood Audio have the drivers and when I spoke to them today were building up new cones/voicecoil assemblies for me, so it shouldn't be too long before I see them back and ready for action.

[walpurgis]

Hmmm not sure of the look here, Paul. I'd have painted the ply black to de-emphasise the plinth element and throw attention to onto cabinets themselves.The veneer rather draws the eye to the plinth section.

Hi Tom,

that's a nice system you have there. Bet the Leben is a match made in heaven with the GRFs. I'd like to hear that.


Geoff.

[julesd68]

When you've finished the speakers Paul, I suggest you start on the carpet

[montesquieu]

Hi Tom,

that's a nice system you have there. Bet the Leben is a match made in heaven with the GRFs. I'd like to hear that.


Geoff.

No probs to drop over sometime you aren't that far away

Yes it is a wonderful match.

In fact the performance of the Leben and the Tube Distinctions KT88 amp I had previously is very similar and both are wonderful matches for 15in MGs.

The Leben has perhaps a touch more romantic creaminess about it (almost single ended in character, though without the bass troubles) which works really well with my diet of chamber music, lieder, piano etc, while the TD majored on a wonderful, large-scale sound (though not without oodles of detail, nuance and musical bounce) that matched the Tannoys really well. But that perhaps makes too much of their differences, both are pretty wonderful with Tannoys.

In the end it was a synergy thing that swung it, the Leben just works fabulously with my Puresound L10.

Interestingly I also acquired at the same time the Leben RS28C preamp (now sold on), which didn't nearly have the same synergy with the Leben 660p as the L10, over-emphasising the timbre aspect at the expense of drive, which resulted in a relative enfeeblement.

However the Leben pre did work spiffingly well with the TD (restraining its exhuberance a little and adding just a shade more delicacy into its abilities with instrumental timbre - again not that that was lacking in the first place.

All very odd. I'm glad I was able to run all four bits of kit together in combination and choose what worked best with the big Tannoys.

[Marco]

Nice one, Tom. Sounds like you've got some real synergy going on there. All you need now is a Copper amp, which will combine the traits of the Leben and the TD AoS amp, giving you the best of both worlds!

You need to haul your ass up to Ian's, mate, and hear the Copper amp (and his system). Rest assured it'll redefine what you already know about big Tannoy DCs and the best amps to drive them...

Paul those babies are starting to look really good!

Marco.

[Tarzan]

When you've finished the speakers Paul, I suggest you start on the carpet

After that the wallpaper seriously Paul the speakers are looking loverly, do keep up the blog, will you be comparing them to the Turnberry's? Mmmmm Turnberry's.

[Reffc]

Some more progress:

Stands rubbed down and stained a teak colour and lacquered. They now blend in better. Internal faces of plinth sealed with primer and 2mm bitumastic sheeting cut to size and fixed to internal faces to damp down any resonance. Seems to have done a good job as when rapped, the plinths no longer ring like a drum!

New Oak faced binding post plates cut and drilled to fit over the gap where the existing cross-overs were bolted.









Have started rubbing the main cabinets down gently with wire wool and Danish Oil just to clean them up and restore the finish to as new. So far have spent a few hours rubbing the cabs down and have two coats of Danish oil applied. First rub down took a lot of muck and excess polish off, second coat went down clear. All historical scratches and blemishes removed and cabinets starting to look factory fresh. I've also cleaned the grilles using car upholstery cleaning foam and a damp sponge, then glued a small woven ribbon to the top left of each grille for ease of removal (as most people end up ripping the Tannoy badges out as they pull on those to remove the grilles!). You can now see the sheen on top of the cabinets: