Tannoy still in business? #confused

There has been some drama around the Tannoy & Fyne distribution, and a certain YouTuber has been stirring it up to the benefit of his click count. Yes, Upscale no longer distributes Tannoy and now does Fyne. 

Current status? Only insiders may know. There was an "Autograph 12" model in the works, with a new high end driver designed & made by Volt Audio UK, that looks like it’s fallen off the map. That’s NOT a good sign. It’s not looking good.

As a longtime fan of Tannoy the transparency from Tannoy has ALWAYS been terrible. It’s even wors now - truly unsustainable. And it’s definitely been more awful since Behringer / MusicTribe took over ~2017. My dealer retired last year but he didn’t bother much with Tannoy for the last several years. Too difficult.

As for manufacturing provenance: I do have the China-made Kensington GR drivers (circa 2019) and frankly it’s at least as good sounding as the UK-made stuff (better in my case - I eagerly replaced the UK drivers), with same apparent build quality in hand. Time will tell about durability, but everything in here "should" be very durable assuming the glue bonds hold up.

Cabinets? They’ve presumably been made for a while in Poland by Diora (Fyne too) and frankly I think they’re MUCH better quality for it. GREAT cabinets. I do in fact see Polish-sounding names signing off on the boards inside my ~2016 Kensington GR. Gorgeous cabinets but the UK-made drivers and crossovers sucked (why I replaced them both). See here:
https://www.audioshark.org/threads/battle-over-at-what-hi-fi.22445/page-3#post-368060

Internal wiring? Anybody can do that; who cares where it’s done.

@mulveling Wow. Great info. Thank you.

I’ve been seriously thinking about a pair of Fynes. Thoughts?

Thanks again 

@mulveling Dang. You weren’t kidding about the drama! Good read. Thanks again for sharing. I had no clue all THAT was going on.

Gotta say, super disappointed to find out Fyne doesn’t make their own cabinets. 

I’ve been seriously thinking about a pair of Fynes. Thoughts?

I’ve flirted with a buy & try on Fyne, but haven’t yet. Got way too many Tannoys here already lol. They look nice, though I prefer styling on Tannoy Legacy & Prestige series versus Fyne’s Classic & Vintage. 

Fyne has their own new version / evolution of the DC driver: "isoflare". Of note they don’t do the classic retro Tannoy "pepperpot" / alnico / textile-surround drivers (only seen in the Kensington, GRF90, Canterbury, and Westminster of Tannoy’s Prestige line). Their focus seems to be newer tech & materials, even for lines with the throwback styling. Tannoy’s "pepperpot" drivers generally rendered a more vivid & vibrant sound compared to their cheaper "tulip" DC drivers (which dates back to the 1990s).

For what it’s worth Jim Smith (RIP) replaced his Tannoy Canterbury SE with Fyne 703 and loved them! That seems to be a broadly well-liked model, and IIRC they have an upgraded "SP" version. 

If you look online for comparisons you'll generally find people saying Fynes sounds more detailed & dynamic than Tannoys, with the latter being a bit warmer. Though that should vary by model - e.g. Tannoy DC10A and Yorkminster SE were definitely NOT warm.