Auditioning The Fyne 703 Soon

Fair, I shouldn’t be commenting anymore on Fyne before I hear them. But this experience with Tannoys most likely carries over: when you buy these, get a pair of spare tweeters for your Fyne and stash them away safely for peace of mind.

I hadn’t read complains of Tannoys failing either, but I’ve definitely witnessed degraded tweeter performance: once on my Kensington SE, and once on a friend’s Dimension TD10. Upon discussing it more with my dealer "oh yeah, that can happen". It was a rather subtle distortion in nature, and only one tweeter was affected each time. Didn’t wait around to see if it would get worse; just replaced them and they were at peak performance afterwards. Didn’t happen again. The cost of the replacement tweeters should be reasonable. I'm guessing the Fynes will be more akin to the Tannoy tulip tweeters, which include the waveguide and magnet in their assembly (alnico Tannoys tweeters are just the 2" metal diaphragm, voice coil, and plastic end cap).

@mijostyn, not to be argumentative, I'm really curious about this.  You ask about "from 10 Hz to 20 kHz at your listening position".  How many speakers produce anything audible in that range?  And if they could, what instruments have fundamentals there?  Just as important, what music is scored with any notes within that span?

Regarding vinylvalet's suggested method for speaker break-in, what specifically is "silly" about that?  I've read that procedure recommended multiple times over the years as a quicker, less-obtrusive method than simply playing them when listening.  What do you suggest?

I'm not a designer, only an audio hobbyist for some decades. 

@pryso , I think you'd better stay that way. 

"How many speakers produce anything audible in that range?"

Every single one I know of and I don't have to listen to them to know that. 

Vinylvalet thinks his speakers to down to 26 Hz because the specs say that. What he does not realize is that spec by convention is taken at one meter from the face of the speaker in an anechoic chamber or out doors. That is a far different proposition from 12 feet away in a residential environment. 

Talking about having to listen to a speaker to know anything about it is a cop out by people who do not know anything about speaker design because they are unread or just not very bright. Given the above technique of breaking in speakers I am inclined to believe the later.  Speaker engineering is very simple physics open to anyone who can read and do a little math. A lot of what people think is cool design is just marketing BS. 

Another issue. Why should I believe any lay person's assessment of "how something sounds" when painfully few of them have any idea what they are listening too? Some people think computer speakers sound great!  How many of you know exactly how your system performs in your rooms? Anyone here ever listen to a system that they know for a fact is reasonably flat? How many of you can remember what a system sounded like 5 minutes after you listened to it? Quick answer, none of you including me. You can remember what you listened to but not what it sounded like.

mijostyn, sorry, I misread your earlier comment as "10 to 20 Hz", not 20 K Hz. So my comment made no sense at all. Then I compounded the problem by copying your description, while again missing the K. Us old folks need to read twice before replying. ;^)

However I do fail to see why vinylvalet’s suggested procedure for break-in with new speakers is "silly", unless it was just his loudness level? In that case I agree it was unnecessary.

All three models had the fast, lively and engaging sound you expect from Tannoy-based designs, but, to me, they sound substantially better than Tannoys because they did not have the slightly hard and sibilant edge in the upper midrange that I hear with the high end Tannoys.

@larryi Yeah, I believe the Tannoy alnico/pepperpot drivers featured in the upper half of the Prestige line could be perceived this way. Careful gear matching can mitigate it. I think the Tannoy tulip waveguides w/ ferrous magnet drivers (which is a much newer design; the pepperpots date back go the 1940s!) tend to be a bit more easy going here. The Fyne drivers appear more akin to the tulip drivers and probably implement further refinements - it was about time!

However I do fail to see why vinylvalet’s suggested procedure for break-in with new speakers is "silly", unless it was just his loudness level? In that case I agree it was unnecessary.

@pryso In my experience with Tannoys - running them "close to distortion" over time is tempting fate. They sound better after burn-in, but not THAT much better, unless something is wrong with them. Not worth the risk, IMO.

@mijostyn chill a bit dude, it’s just a hobby. Did waiting so long for the SOTA put you out of sorts? 😕