Hello.
I've recently bought some Tannoy Gold 12" drivers with new crossovers.
Thing is, one of the drivers sounds nice and the other is missing the 'tisk' or the higher freqencies.
I've taken a look at the tweeter and the dome and the surround of the dome looks distorted and creased.
Could this be the reason why I'm not getting the same sound as the other speaker?
Thanks
I've recently bought some Tannoy Gold 12" drivers with new crossovers.
Thing is, one of the drivers sounds nice and the other is missing the 'tisk' or the higher freqencies.
I've taken a look at the tweeter and the dome and the surround of the dome looks distorted and creased.
Could this be the reason why I'm not getting the same sound as the other speaker?
Thanks
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Repairable.
A few companies specialise in replacing treble domes.
If you are very competent, you can replace the treble dome yourself. Google to see the procedure.
A few companies specialise in replacing treble domes.
If you are very competent, you can replace the treble dome yourself. Google to see the procedure.
I see... Ok, so I take it that this would seem to be the problem, or could it be something else?
The bass driver seems to be working fine.
The bass driver seems to be working fine.
Agreed, totally repairable, and absolutely worth doing!
Lockwood Audio sell genuine replacement parts. Also take a look at Hans Hilberink's Tannoy site - all the information you need.
TANNOY Monitor Gold dual concentric speakers
Lockwood Audio sell genuine replacement parts. Also take a look at Hans Hilberink's Tannoy site - all the information you need.
TANNOY Monitor Gold dual concentric speakers
ooh.. I hope it's not been demagnetised... Just been reading up on this. But surely this wouldn't kill off the sonics of HF coil when the bass driver is working ok?
btw.. I'm a newby to these.
btw.. I'm a newby to these.
Monitor Golds use one magnet for both bass an treble so it cannot be demagnetized if the woofer part is still working fine.
Just do not drop them! While AlNiCo is pretty much immune to demagnetization from overheating, more so than any other magnet material, they are very susceptible to being knocked.
As gyro said Lockwood Audio is THE place to go to. Roger can even fix them while you wait. Ring him and have chat with him and he'll sort you out, they've been involved with Tannoys for 50 years and know more about vintage drivers than Tannoy themselves IME.
Lockwood Audio
Just do not drop them! While AlNiCo is pretty much immune to demagnetization from overheating, more so than any other magnet material, they are very susceptible to being knocked.
As gyro said Lockwood Audio is THE place to go to. Roger can even fix them while you wait. Ring him and have chat with him and he'll sort you out, they've been involved with Tannoys for 50 years and know more about vintage drivers than Tannoy themselves IME.
Lockwood Audio
As for being a newby, you should hopefully be the start of a very long and satisfying relationship, and fixing a few initial problems is as good a way as any to get acquainted with them. I can't think of anything I'd want to swap mine for.
thanks guys...
I think I've found part of the problem.. The tweeter is working but there are more gaskets on the good sounding speaker than the bad one. Apparently this can alter the sound to quite some degree.
I also checked the good speakers tweeter and it's mint... I think the damaged tweeter isn't doing it's job properly. The outer suspension of which any speaker needs is distorted hence not producing the volume of the HF.
Would this make sense to you guys?
I think I've found part of the problem.. The tweeter is working but there are more gaskets on the good sounding speaker than the bad one. Apparently this can alter the sound to quite some degree.
I also checked the good speakers tweeter and it's mint... I think the damaged tweeter isn't doing it's job properly. The outer suspension of which any speaker needs is distorted hence not producing the volume of the HF.
Would this make sense to you guys?
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When building golds, we often put an extra "gasket" to balance them up; it's not a guaranteed reason for the speaker not to be working well.
While I agree a distorted surround is not a good idea at all, I'd have sort of expected (from experience) it to 'zing', and give the impression of more high frequencies, and distortion, than to sound dull. Unless the voice coil is actually stuck somewhere (bit of ferromagnetic muck, or the coil overheated and the glue melted). In which case the magnet's going to need s serious clean.
Did you try swapping drivers and crossovers? The gold crossover is an excessively complex piece of passive, with autotransformer/tapped chokes, and putting that in a cabinet and shaking it can give problems.
Are they the stuck-on foam surrounds, or the corrugated PIBed continuations of the cone itself?
While I agree a distorted surround is not a good idea at all, I'd have sort of expected (from experience) it to 'zing', and give the impression of more high frequencies, and distortion, than to sound dull. Unless the voice coil is actually stuck somewhere (bit of ferromagnetic muck, or the coil overheated and the glue melted). In which case the magnet's going to need s serious clean.
Did you try swapping drivers and crossovers? The gold crossover is an excessively complex piece of passive, with autotransformer/tapped chokes, and putting that in a cabinet and shaking it can give problems.
Are they the stuck-on foam surrounds, or the corrugated PIBed continuations of the cone itself?
From your description it does make sense to me but as Zen said a picture would be good.
If you need to replace the diaphragm it might be a good idea to replace both to ensure they sound the same.
If you are anywhere near London I'd take the drivers to Lockwood. From what I hear those gaskets can be seriously fiddly and there is no reason to assume that if a certain number works on one that you can just stick the same amount on the other.
If you need to replace the diaphragm it might be a good idea to replace both to ensure they sound the same.
If you are anywhere near London I'd take the drivers to Lockwood. From what I hear those gaskets can be seriously fiddly and there is no reason to assume that if a certain number works on one that you can just stick the same amount on the other.
If they are Golds they should have accordion termination although there were a few late ones with rubber.
If they have foam surrounds the drivers are HPDs. There were also a few HPDs with rubber though.
This sounds like a good move but I'm nowhere near London. I'd have to do it myself if anything.
Do you know if the back leatherette domed plate (fixed with the 4 screws) needs to be tightend up fully? The screws on both drivers were not very tight.
Sorted..
Just got a new dome and the speaker is fine. One gasket on each driver seems to be fine.
Many thanks for your help guys, I hope this thread may offer some other help to anyone with these speakers..
Very, very happy with the sound... Just come from some nearly new Harbeth SHL5's and they were very nice indeed I'm well impressed with the Tannoys. I guess these speakers are late 1960's?
Just got a new dome and the speaker is fine. One gasket on each driver seems to be fine.
Many thanks for your help guys, I hope this thread may offer some other help to anyone with these speakers..
Very, very happy with the sound... Just come from some nearly new Harbeth SHL5's and they were very nice indeed I'm well impressed with the Tannoys. I guess these speakers are late 1960's?
Hey that's excellent news, I'm surprised you got them sorted so quickly!
A couple of points to watch out for... the clearance between the inner surface of the dome and the 'pepper pot' is very small in normal operation (that's what the gaskets adjust, mainly for manufacturing tolerances). If you run into any obvious hf distortion at higher listening levels then back off immediately, it may indicate that the spacing is too small and another gasket is needed.
It's also worth noting that minimum distortion point doesn't necessarily correspond with maximum output. There's a link somewhere (probably on the Hilberink site) that describes the procedure, basically feeding the tweeter with around 1kHz while fine adjusting the diaphram screws for purest tone. Probably not something to worry about now you are in a position to enjoy them - as long as you don't get an (very obvious!) distortion of the diaphram coming into contact with anything.
Just one further point - in your original post I think you referred to "new crossovers". Being horn loaded, the tweeters are very efficient and consume very little power. This makes it very difficult to overload them, let alone crease. The only possible explanations I can think for the original problem are 1 - previous handling damage or 2 - accidentally getting LF or DC fed into them. If "new" means hand built or customised crossovers then it may be worth a look to check that there's nothing that could have shorted and caused this (could even have been an error during testing I suppose). As I say, just a thought.
Again, glad you got them working, I'm sure they will reward you for years to come. Yes, they're late 60's / early 70's - from the days when massive Alnico magnets were affordable and speakers were put together with nuts and bolts rather than glue. Tannoys were used in a lot of studio monitors eg. Abbey Road. In fact I think (and stand to be corrected) that's was Lockwood's main business at the time.
A couple of points to watch out for... the clearance between the inner surface of the dome and the 'pepper pot' is very small in normal operation (that's what the gaskets adjust, mainly for manufacturing tolerances). If you run into any obvious hf distortion at higher listening levels then back off immediately, it may indicate that the spacing is too small and another gasket is needed.
It's also worth noting that minimum distortion point doesn't necessarily correspond with maximum output. There's a link somewhere (probably on the Hilberink site) that describes the procedure, basically feeding the tweeter with around 1kHz while fine adjusting the diaphram screws for purest tone. Probably not something to worry about now you are in a position to enjoy them - as long as you don't get an (very obvious!) distortion of the diaphram coming into contact with anything.
Just one further point - in your original post I think you referred to "new crossovers". Being horn loaded, the tweeters are very efficient and consume very little power. This makes it very difficult to overload them, let alone crease. The only possible explanations I can think for the original problem are 1 - previous handling damage or 2 - accidentally getting LF or DC fed into them. If "new" means hand built or customised crossovers then it may be worth a look to check that there's nothing that could have shorted and caused this (could even have been an error during testing I suppose). As I say, just a thought.
Again, glad you got them working, I'm sure they will reward you for years to come. Yes, they're late 60's / early 70's - from the days when massive Alnico magnets were affordable and speakers were put together with nuts and bolts rather than glue. Tannoys were used in a lot of studio monitors eg. Abbey Road. In fact I think (and stand to be corrected) that's was Lockwood's main business at the time.
Yes, Lockwoods built studio monitors, and were among our best clients for repairs (voice coils cooked into the magnet gaps, the imprint of the pepperpot on the HF diaphagm, cones physically fractured; studio engineers tended to listen loud, back then.
We were playing with the foam surrounds on golds when I left, in seventy two, though my pair had rubber (and were biamped; built entirely by me.) I thought they had gone into production, but I didn't really get back into speakers until the late seventies, by which time they had changed.
We were playing with the foam surrounds on golds when I left, in seventy two, though my pair had rubber (and were biamped; built entirely by me.) I thought they had gone into production, but I didn't really get back into speakers until the late seventies, by which time they had changed.
From what I hear there were a few late Monitor Golds with rubber surrounds released on the market. These had normal Gold cones but I think a bit lower Fs.
The HPDs got foam surrounds and 'Girdacoustic' struts glued to the underneath of the cones, these stiffened them and increased the weight resulting in a even lower Fs and a few dBs off the 1w/1m figure.
Later there were some rubber surround HPDs, may be Tannoy clocked on that that foam rots.
Ringo: Might be worth joining the Tannoy Yahoo group. Lots of knowledgeable people there and searching the posts alone might be worth it for your problem. I think I remember someone posting the procedure there.
The HPDs got foam surrounds and 'Girdacoustic' struts glued to the underneath of the cones, these stiffened them and increased the weight resulting in a even lower Fs and a few dBs off the 1w/1m figure.
Later there were some rubber surround HPDs, may be Tannoy clocked on that that foam rots.
Ringo: Might be worth joining the Tannoy Yahoo group. Lots of knowledgeable people there and searching the posts alone might be worth it for your problem. I think I remember someone posting the procedure there.
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