Marco's journey to Tannoy-land

[leo]

Didn't know it was your Birthday Marco, anyway Many Happy Returns

[anthonyTD]

happy birthday from me too mate!!!
A...

[Marco]

Had a great time yesterday, chaps. I'll post the full Tannoy Red vs. Gold report as soon as poss

Marco.

[swampy]

Hi Barry,

I see what you mean now... No, the original circuit used in the crossovers Chris supplied remains the same

Marco.

Marco...Not quite the same. An extra choke was fitted to sort out the mid range problem if you remember.

swamp

[Marco]

Hi Dave,

Yep - very true. I forgot about that...

Btw, thanks again for all your effort and expert soldering skills. It was much appreciated. I've never seen such a neat and meticulous worker!

How is Dave senior keeping? He looked quite unwell at the end the other day. I guess it could've been the music we were playing!

Marco.

[frogspit]

Interesting thread-and coincidental timing to my recent purchase of a pair of 12" Monitor Golds. Mine were housed in the smallest cabinets I've seen containing 12" Tannoys-about 2 cu. ft., w/a single port, and named 'Allegro'. Listened to those for a few weeks to get a handle on the sound, and then built a pair of prototype enclosures of about 130 cu. litres, with two down-firing ports (3" x 6 3/4"). About to order parts for new x-overs, I've decided to build all new in order to preserve the originals, though the original coils have a good reputation. Seems foolish to worry about resale for speakers I may have for years and years, but there ya' go.

I'm still in the very early stages of tuning these-I plan on trying the ports both on the front and the rear, try shortening the port tubes to where the bass starts to become muddy (it's very tight right now, but want to maximize bass output), and perhaps shortening the speakers a few inches to help the aesthetics, even at the risk of lessening bass response.

Last will be rebuilding the cabs with baltic birch ply, and veneering.

The sound? Very nice. Musical, yet with plenty of differentiation between notes. Attack and decay not up with my Magnepans, but the midrange of the Tannoys is close, and of course the 'weight' of the notes is far superior (w/ the Tannoys). Plus, no longer need the subwoofer.

BTW, I had a huge jump in sonics by reducing the toe-in away from the aimed-directly-at-the-ears triangulation. With very little toe, I still get a great soundstage, and much less of a musical jumble at the frequency extremes.

[Spectral Morn]

Interesting thread-and coincidental timing to my recent purchase of a pair of 12" Monitor Golds. Mine were housed in the smallest cabinets I've seen containing 12" Tannoys-about 2 cu. ft., w/a single port, and named 'Allegro'. Listened to those for a few weeks to get a handle on the sound, and then built a pair of prototype enclosures of about 130 cu. litres, with two down-firing ports (3" x 6 3/4"). About to order parts for new x-overs, I've decided to build all new in order to preserve the originals, though the original coils have a good reputation. Seems foolish to worry about resale for speakers I may have for years and years, but there ya' go.

I'm still in the very early stages of tuning these-I plan on trying the ports both on the front and the rear, try shortening the port tubes to where the bass starts to become muddy (it's very tight right now, but want to maximize bass output), and perhaps shortening the speakers a few inches to help the aesthetics, even at the risk of lessening bass response.

Last will be rebuilding the cabs with baltic birch ply, and veneering.

The sound? Very nice. Musical, yet with plenty of differentiation between notes. Attack and decay not up with my Magnepans, but the midrange of the Tannoys is close, and of course the 'weight' of the notes is far superior (w/ the Tannoys). Plus, no longer need the subwoofer.

BTW, I had a huge jump in sonics by reducing the toe-in away from the aimed-directly-at-the-ears triangulation. With very little toe, I still get a great soundstage, and much less of a musical jumble at the frequency extremes.

I love the pictures of your system, room and furniture and reel to reel machines...........wow. How about putting some nice photos of your set up in the gallery, lots of close ups etc...........please.


Regards D S D L

[aquapiranha]

Nice frogspit, looks like you have the speakers well sorted. Nice Pass amp too! the pic of your fireplace reminds me of my lounge...

[Beechwoods]

and reel to reel machines...........wow.

Cor! I've got to agree - nearly missed this, but a tantalising view there of your RT707 (or 701, can't see if it's got autoreverse!) and the Techie RS-1500

Please post up some pics and a bit of a writeup Frogspit. It'd be good to have a proper name... Frogspit is such a mouthful

[Steve Toy]

I had the pleasure of going to Marco's and hearing his system yesterday. The Chinese food I ate was also better than any restaurant I've been too - bursting with natural flavours and texture without being propped up by sugar, salt or MSG.

First off, Tannoy speakers seem to divide opinion. We have the Tannoyistas and anti-Tannoy camps forming which is understandable because Tannoy does have a kind of house sound that I've never been particularly fond of myself. However, where Marco's Lockwoods are concerned with their modded crossovers the slightly safe and cuddly Tannoy sound is completely absent.

They sound bugger-all like Tannoys - I hope you are watching Jerry!

Instead they are lively, dynamic, incredibly rhythmic, tuneful and engaging without being in any way relentless. They remain graceful, authoritative, sweet but articulate with one hell of a punch when required. Texture and harmonic info is also clearly abundant across the frequency range. Since childhood my attention span has been rather short but these beasts strike the perfect balance between boring on the one hand and fatiguing on the other; they are neither. I can quite happily sit and listen actively to music through them for hours, the music itself being given the complete freedom to express itself, to move me, make me dewy-eyed, excite me, put a big grin across my face or make the hairs on my arms and back of my neck stand up.

On both vinyl and CD this system is indeed a class act with vinyl having the edge. Avids, Keel-hauled LP12s, SMEs etc may struggle against this Technics for sure although I do believe the relative weaknesses of the digital replay regarding resolution, solidity, depth of field and physical presence of instruments within do not actually lie with the Sony transport or DAC.

I believe that the system as a whole with its incredible resolving power is now showing up the limitations of the Croft preamp when used for line-level duties. As a phono preamp it is truly superb but it lets the digital replay down very very slightly with a resulting loss of solidity and 3D depth/space to instrumentation of which the Sony Transport/DAC combo is extremely capable.

A new pre from the Tube Distinctions stable could prove very intereresting...