Tannoy Speakers

I have been around live music and studios for 25 years. Along with ATC and Harbeth, Tannoys are really a "pro" standard from which many songs have been mixed and edited. I frequently see them in visits to the UK and know many professional musicians who use them. Pete Townsend of the Who uses them in his private studio for demo playback and recently wrote a nice article about them two months ago which you should be able to "google". World class stuff all the way. I myself use ATC and Blue Sky Audio gear for my music rooms and am very happy. Blue Sky is an up-and-coming company and offers the best value for cost. ATC is well known, very expensive for the top gear, and are used by many respected engineers and Pink Floyd. I have two engineer friends who work for the BBC and Abbey Road and they swear by Harbeth 40s as the best neutral speakers. If you have the time, you should check all of them out. It is really a matter of personal preference and money.

I'm incredibly happy with my Tannoy D-700's. Have added the supertweeter and a good subwoofer to complete the range. Running LOTS of power with bi-amping and Bi-wiring for 350 watts to each DRIVER as a result.

Highly recommend them, and they come cheap on the open market. Nice pieces of furniture/wood finished for the wife factor.

Well i'll post the first contrary opinion. I have heard a TD12, and a few Tannoy Prestige speakers, including a Westminster Royal. Each of these speakers was fitted with the Tannoy super tweeter. I did not like any of them.

Just a note - the owner of the Westminster Royal indicated to me that he had the crossover settings wrong on the day that I visited. So I will exclude it from my comments until I get a chance to listen again. My comments are based on the Glenair, Turnberry, and the Kensington.

Tannoy Prestige speakers produce a very pleasant sound - warm, inviting, and comfortable. It is a very easy sound to listen to, a bit like an old wine which has lost its aggression.

However, when you want to really hear what is going on, the speakers fail. They simply fall over when asked to present complex orchestral works. Suppose I want to analyze what the cellists are doing in a Wagner piece. The Tannoys will not allow you to do that.

The romantic coloration of all pieces does not work with most types of music. The speakers have the effect of slowing the music down and giving it a bit more bloom. I wonder if cone breakup is the culprit - being such a large dome, and being asked to handle such a wide frequency response.

wrt the 3 speakers above - the Glenair seems to have the most coloration, and the Kensington the least.

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...

I have a set of M4's and they sound great to my unqualified ears. Everything we have played through them has surprised us with demonstrating how much we missed out with other speakers.

I am very pleased with these.