Tannoy Speakers

My A/V surround sound system has the following Tannoy's
Front L/R - Mercury F4
Centre - Mercury FC
Rear L/R - Mercury F1

My Bro-in-law has Sensys DC2 - which I auditioned with him.

None of these are "Real Tannoys", since they are all made in China and not the UK, but they are all extremely good value and great performers

The Mercury line is timbre matched and I can say that they do have extremely similar sound attributes - the bigger the speaker the better the bass, but there was also a slight improvement in treble from the F1 to the F4

If space is a limitation the F1 is a great small speaker for music also

Sonically I found these speakers to be very neutral and extremely dynamic and well controlled, compared with similarly priced competition - heck even most speakers at twice the price.

I found them to be better than Rega, which I found were much too harsh.

When driven with a good amp they are excellent value for money.

One complaint is the cheap terminals do not clamp spades very well (stripped the threads) so I had to switch to bananas (not a big deal)

Being front ported they can be placed close to the rear wall

Correct speaker placement from the side wall makes for a much better sound - either 1/5th, 1/7th or 1/9th the width of the room in from the side walls and toe-in to focus the sound just behind the listening position.

On the F4's I made feet to take the spikes outside the footprint of the speaker cabinet in order to make them rock steady - improved the sound a lot too!

The Sensys DC2 - are a completely different story -
- Nicer finish
- Far superior drivers
- absolutely amazing value for Money.

Once again, you have to drive it with a quality amp and cables to bring out the best qualities....

I have heard them with...
- a Cambridge Audio Azur 640 - which could not control the speaker at all well - very boomy bass
- an Exposure 2010s - had excellent control

They are very detailed with
- excellent response from deep-deep low's to the highest highs
- very neutral - little, to no coloration
- not too easy to drive - takes a bit of power
- highs are very smooth and extremely detailed
- very nice imaging
- extremely accurate respoduction
- very "fast" response from bass drivers

I would venture to say that these two lines represents what Tannoy has always stood for - Great Music

What suprised me was the price - excellent value!

Hope this helps

12-03-07: Amfibius
Well i'll post the first contrary opinion.

Good for you! - However, it would be interesting (for me at least)to know what amp was driving them.

I have found that in many instances - when someone reports that a good pair of speakers are not performing to expectation, it is probably the amp & speaker combination that is the culprit and not the speaker alone.

e.g.
Living Voice are dull and lifeless with the Raysonic SP120, but are improved considerably with the Raysonic SE 30

The Tannoy Sensys DC2 are very bassey and uncontrolled with the Cambridge Audio Azur 640 amp, but with the Exposure 2010 they perform extremely well

Also - the speakers you mention have an adjustable crossover, which may not have been adjusted to the optimum setting for the listening envorinment - or simply set to the owners preference!

Also - Speaker Position is crucial to good speaker performance - I've commented several times to my local hi-fi store about this one. Most listening environments are not optimally configured for good sound

Having said that - Tannoy are not to everyone's tastes - that is why there are so many other brands out there

But they are very good speakers - along with many others!

I would still be interested in knowing what amp they were paired with?

Regards...

Amfibius

the Tannoys I heard were all driven with Cary amplification

Hmmm - Cary makes exceptional equipment, but you do need a aweful lot of juice(amps) to drive the speakers you mentioned.

However, it sounds more like the it was the setup and surroundings that added the "color" and not the equipment.

The rooms that most dealers setup for audition purposes are no more than somewhere you can listen to music undisturbed.

The ceilings are too high, the materials on the walls are inadequate, but the biggest offense by far, which is also the easiest to remedy, is Speaker Placement.

Each Sspeaker perform differently, but retailers place them all in a similar position and more often than not, they are only 6 ft apart - WRONG!

I spent a lot of time on placement and now have what I consider a very neutral sound

My quick rules of thumb for "Normal" or "Box" speakers are:
1. For placement from sidewalls
- I use the 1/nth principal
- place the speaker (i.e. the centre of the driver) in from the side wall 1/nth the width of the room - where n is an odd number
- The distance does not have to be the same for each speaker
e.g. 1/5th for left and 1/7th for left works also

2. for placement from the back wall:
- Front ported speakers - Minimum 1 ft from the back wall
- Rear/bottom ported - minimum 3 ft from the back wall

3. For Toe in - I start by adjusting the speaker to focus the sound 3 ft behind the listening position - i.e. when seated I can just see the inside surface of both speakers (assuming they are rectangular and not one of the new shapes)

Once you have an initial setup, play with it until you get the best sound

For Electrostatics - they like to be "free Standing" so you'll need a LARGE room to get the best out of them. The best I've heard to date were a pair of Magnapan's situated in a 20ft x 14ft room along the long wall - 4 ft from the Back to the wall and 5ft in from the sides - they were about 10ft apart and they were completely transparent.

My front ported Tannoy Mercury 4's are about 14 inches from the rear wall (to the back of the speaker) an my rear ported Magnat's are 3ft from the rear wall - any closer than that and the image becomes confused and the bass starts to get muddy and loses all of that nice detail

Also the Magnat's are very sensitive to Toe-in and can also lose detail and image if not set just right.

The Tannoy's are not helped by the TV being located between them, but they perform admirably under the circumstances.

But the worst speaker I have seen for placement recently is the new Ninka from Linn.

According to the Linn Rep:
- They MUST be only 1ft from the Back wall
- No toe-in
- Between 6-7ft apart
- have nothing in between them

Even after the correct setup, I was NOT impressed by the sound. Pitty! - I've always been a huge fan of their product - up until now that is.

Regards...