I built a pair of 150 liter bass-reflex enclosures for my 12" HPD's. 1 7/8" net of two layers of MDF, which adds up to 192lbs. ea; sans drivers and crossovers. I've seen better looking custom cabinets built, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better sounding pair.
Look for my Virtual System under "Done For Now", named "The Summit" (referring to my own personal summit, not as in ("best in the world").
When I was looking for a design for mine, there seemed to be a real dearth of helpful information. I found the most info on Hank Hilberdink's Tannoy website, if you join, you can post questions to members worldwide, and see what others have done. There is a Yahoo forum where you can post your questions. Also, my build photos and plans are posted there, under "Custom Heavyweights For HPD 315's".
Best of luck, regards,
Dan |
Thanks for the reply. It seems through research that these drivers should be put in quite a large cabinet. I was hoping to get in around 30" tall. Of what I have seen all are 40" plus. Maybe I have made a mistake buying these. |
Bear in mind that the cabinets Tannoy made were smaller, generally speaking, than say, what I made. For example, the Cheviot cabinets they made for my 12" HPD's were 33 1/2" H X 17 1/4" W X 10" D. Also, at less than half the internal volume, at around 65 liters, if I recall correctly. The smaller cabinets won't go as deep in the bass. You also want to remember to keep the tweeter centered at your ear height while sitting, it may involve using stands to get them the correct height.
I urge you to try putting them in an enclosure you can live with, and experiment with different aspects of size, porting, insulation, crossovers, etc. These are wonderful speakers, I'd hate to see you give up on them without at least trying them.
Do as much research as possible, and become familiar with Hans Hilberink's Tannoy website (sorry, I misspelled it before). You've got a great chance of ending up with speakers you can enjoy the rest of your life with.
Best regards,
Dan
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I have a pair of 12 Golds in Altec 614 cabinets...you can google the size but they are not large at all..they were in Allen cabinets twice the size and sounded horrible...for me the smaller cabinets keep the mid range intact.The Tannoy golds sound good especially for the money but certainly not the quality of new speakers,IMO |
The sony is a good ol ol in a great turntable for your vinyl hanks for the encouraging word Dan. I will continue on for a little bit and see what I can come up. Your not on Vancouver Island by chance are you |
PK, not in Vancouver, but not too far away, the north end of Whidbey Island, just west of Oak Harbor.
I don't know if you've ever heard Tannoys, but when I first got my drivers and crossovers from the UK, I laid them down on the floor next to my then speakers ($9000/pair Dynaudio Contour 5.4's) which were pretty good, I thought, but the Tannoys, in that primitive situation, actually blew the Dynas away in every way possible. That's why I say to give them a go. Outstanding results can be had.
Regards,
Dan
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Thanks Dan. Dont know how the sony turntable bit got in the first part of the post. Weird. Anyways, I have Audio Note behind them so I beleive they will sound very good when I get the cabinets sorted out. I am in victoria actually. |
Ah, beautiful city. I have a photo on my wall I took from a hotel room of the city at night, showing the city lights, and the harbor, with the moon at its brightest. Got engaged to my wife that night. Fond memories.
Dan
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Hello PK and forum, Came across this post and wondered how you made out with your tannoy cabinet project. I recently received a pair of Tannoy 12" monitor golds from a friend who had them around unused from the 70's. They are in furniture style cabinets (about 24"x24") with castors and non-removable grilles with a wooden lattice design. I quite like the vintage look but from what I've read online it seems like the sound can be improved with different cabinets. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated - especially if any one has had success in modifying the existing cabinet to retain the original look. Thanks in advance - mm BTW, I am in Vancouver. |
I am still building. What I figured out is that it is very much about the cabinet volume and not what dimensions you use to get there. Unless you are skilled enough to build or want to spend thousands on really complicated cabinets. The 12" golds work best apparently in cabs of 90 to 205 litres. WxHxD x .61 or convert cubic inches to litres on line. Mine ended up an interior size of approx 125 litres after calculating in driver and bracing. 38" T x 16 x 13.75. 1" Baltic Birch. This is apparently a favourable size. I am now going through porting and tunning. I am lucky enough to have professional help with this stage of the build. Correctly tuned, this cabinet should get me down to about 33hz which is very good. I did not mitre I used but joints and re veneered the tops and bottoms to cover the end grain. My finished product will resemble the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan 0/96 https://www.google.com/search?q=arangutan+speakers&oq=arangutan+speakers&aqs=chrome..69i57j0...: This is a fairly simple design to build. I have not built Cabinets before but do have solid basic wood working skills. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about my process or tricks I learned along the way. I have never actually heard Tannoys so am really looking forward to it. I will post my impressions when I get there. Cheers. Paul |
I am not an expert- you may want to check out the site diyaudio to get more info. That's a great resource.
Having played around a bit with my own speakers I can suggest if you go ported use some interior wall lining and minimal stuffing. You want to retain the 'life' but still decrease back reflections through the cone. That's a tough balance to find.
Also if port use two ports for each speaker it seems to work better for a larger driver. Don't be tempted to tune the Fb too low. That driver you may find a tuning of anywhere from 45hz to 52 hz works better in that size cabinet than something lower. ymmv.
Build the cabinet so it's somewhat easy to pull the back off or the driver out to make adjustments.
There are some great modeling programs available. They can work well I think- but in your room it really may boil down to trial and error once you have it fairly close by spec.
Cheers,
RW |
Thanks for the info, I will be interested in hearing how you like your Tannoys once the cabinets are completed. My existing cabinets are approx. 22" x 22" 16" (outside measurements) and look like these: https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649427451-tannoy-monitor-gold-12s-with-stuart-cabinets/image...
Building new cabinets myself is not really feasible for me, but I would be willing to have some modifications done if I thought the improvement would be worth it. Perhaps raising them up and making the grilles removable would be worthwhile.
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They are beautiful. I am not knowledgeable enough to suggest improvements on those. I would sign up for the email list on the the Tannoy blog that hans Runs. https://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy100.htmYou will get exactly the information you need as i am sure it has been done many times before. Maybe just some internal bracing and yes get the center of the speakers to ear level for your listening position. Probably around a 22" quality speaker stand. It will be about a month to finish them as my cabinet shop is backed up at the moment. |
I have 12 inch hpds in new very heavy birch cheviot cabinets. They are not very large. The sound is amazing. I may get a second set of speakers for another system in the future but I’ll never part with these. The vintage tannoy sound is special. Fwiw think Nelson pass uses vintage tannoy in his own system. |
i think Nelson is hooked on the JBL Jubal, but who knows..
stick w the Tannoy and your cabinet project..
Islandman, Whidbey is lovely..stop by for a listen IF ya get down my way to Seattle sometime.....I have room for just about every loudspeaker faith..
and Van Isle is magical....spend my summers chasing fish around at rock....hence my moniker..
have fun
and dont forget really do try to get tweeter at ear height, no matter what the KEF dealer says...ha |
