Tannoy Stirlings on the way!

Thanks, @mulveling !

I thought about ordering a pair of mono SETs, which gives you 6wpc instead of 2.3, but in the end decided I’d prefer something with a bit more juice. I knew some of you guys said you ran into problems with lower wattage amps, and also I wanted to reasonably be able to try tubes with some of my other, less sensitive speakers. I watch the meters on my Mac amp sometimes, and it rarely bounces up to 15 watts, much less beyond that, so I think I’ll be covered with 20 when driving the Tannoys, at least.

As for the tubes themselves, that’s something I’ll be starting from zero knowledge on. I had a BAT preamp 25 or so years ago, but never futzed with the tubes before selling it. Then I picked up a 2nd-hand Jolida phono stage a few years after that, but it stopped working before I really had time to try tube rolling.

I did a little poking around on the internet last night, just trying to get a feel for what tubes are available of the types used in the Torii. Found some in the 4 output tube families you mentioned. Only one 7027 and no 807s, though. On the input side, I found some 6922s, but almost nothing from the 6DJ8 or 7DJ8 families. Seems like the AX7s and AU7s are used a lot more commonly. Could be I’m just not looking at the right sites.

How’s the bookshelf evaluation going, @chorus ?

TM- After 3 weeks of covid I finally finished my evaluation.

The bookshelves were excellent on the top end with a 

beryllium tweeter. the 7" mid woofers produced an accurate

fast bass.

But in the end the Midrange of the Tannoys was missing.

I returned them today. Sadly someone bought my Tannoys

two days on the market.

I am back to shopping again!

Ick.  Sorry to hear about the COVID.  Glad you're back on your feet.

That's a shame they sold your Tannoys already.  I guess I missed that you had traded them in.  I thought you were doing a side-by-side comparison with the monitors and were going to return them if they didn't work out.  What do you figure you're shopping for?  Another set of Tannoys, or something else?  They do make those little monitors.  I don't know much about them, other than that they do have the same design as the rest of the Prestige line.  No idea what kind of bass they produce.  Them and a compact sub might be more agreeable to the missus, though.

It's a certain sound right? I've been curious about how the wave guide could take over at like 1000 hz in some models? I like mids with PUNCH but I've also heard pure horns sound so beautiful that I would sacrifice that punch. Is that kind of the case with Tannoy?  

It’s a certain sound right? I’ve been curious about how the wave guide could take over at like 1000 hz in some models? I like mids with PUNCH but I’ve also heard pure horns sound so beautiful that I would sacrifice that punch. Is that kind of the case with Tannoy?

@bjesien

The Tannoys which crossover at 1100 Hz use the older "pepper-pot" waveguide an alnico magnets rather than the newer "tulip" waveguides (which cross over higher) with ceramic magnets. The pepper-pot’s tweeter diaphragm is a replaceable part strapped onto the back of a compression chamber. The actual horn/waveguide is steel and somewhat substantial. The tulip’s replaceable tweeter includes the waveguide, which is much shorter and lighter (a few inches). Pepper pots come only in Kensington, Canterbury, Westminster, the Definition 10A, and I believe (maybe) a special very limited run of Turnberry (normal Turnberrys are tulip). The old vintage Tannoy drivers - Black, Silver, Gold, HPD - are pepperpots w/ alnico magnets. Tannoy switched to ceramic magnets (like everyone) around the 70s/80s when there was strife in the Congo and Cobalt supply went out. I guess the more compact ceramic magnets opened up more design possibilities which eventually led to the tulip design? Also, ever since the 80s, alnico is EXPENSIVE.

For comparison, a full replacement Glenair 10" tulip driver (woofer and tweeter) cost about $380 whereas a full Kensington 10" pepper-pot driver cost a few thousand. Why the expense? They have a huge alnico magnet basket on the back: the pepperpot and compression driver chamber operate inside this magnetic flux, which they share with the woofer coil (I think the pepperpot itself serves as a pole piece to focus the magnetic flux? magnets are still a mystery to me lol). The tulips use regular (and I believe separate) ceramic magnets (cheap), with these waveguides and magnets being much shorter. I believe the large alnico magnet ALSO dictates the low crossover frequency of these models - the long length from the alnico magnet and pepper-pot horn should match the half wavelength of that 1100 Hz crossover frequency (about 6 inches), so that by simply reversing polarity of the tweeter wires it can be in perfect phase with the woofer at that frequency! This gives these Tannoy drivers "phase coherence" at crossover without ANY added crossover complexity. Very cool.

As for the pepper vs. tulip’s impact on sound? Hard to say for sure across multiple models, as each cabinet design and driver size (not to mention crossover) has quite an impact on a Tannoy’s overall sound. What I’ve noticed is that the pepper designs have a more vibrant, rich, lively sound, especially in the midrange. The tulips are perhaps more technically neutral and even-handed. Certainly some might prefer tulips - but I find the pepper’s sound more exciting, warts and all: they can bite your ears with a couple treble peaks if you’re not careful - or even if your are careful, haha. The Canterbury SE is an example of a pepper driver with a darker overall voicing (the Canterbury GR, Kensington SE and Yorkminster SE are not dark like this), but the vibrance of the pepper pot still shines fully through in any case, so long as you don’t suffocate it with bad gear pairings. The older pepper pots before GR series had trouble extending to 20kHz, so you see these frequently paired with supertweeters - make no mistake, the Tannoy supertweeters have a very noticeable effect on the audible range (one which you may or may not like)!