I have four Tannoy models: Saturn, System 800, Sensys DC1 and two pairs of HPD295 drivers. Air studios in London had Lockwoods which I heard and a good few studios had them. Tannoy Little Red and Gold monitors were also studio favorites. Tannoys fell out of favor in studios when 'better' speakers from the likes of Genelec and Dynaudio arrived. When BBC News-at-11 O'clock studios closed, I purchased a pair of Dover-like speakers at the equipment auction. These seemed to be a custom pair made for the BBC. I have never seen another pair. I was helping a friend develop his sound system and sold them to him. He was ecstatic. I am now kicking myself. The very large 15 inch coaxial + 15 inch bass monitors went for £600.
In actuality, the vintage drivers can hold their against anything modern. Their Achilles heel were the smaller cabinets, or rather internal treatments of the cabinets. The Eatons suffered from internal reflections which made the bass lumpy. With proper stuffing the lumpiness can be cured. I mounted the HPDs in smaller cabinets and designed a new crossover from scratch. They sound great. The Saturn's were terrible and I spent a lot of effort redesigning the crossovers. Now they are good but not as good as the HPDs. The System 800s are just plain terrible. They need a complete xover overhaul, but I never had the time.
The Sensys DC1 is shockingly good. They will give the HPDs a run for their money. Their weakness is a thin walled cabinet but that can be cured with some Dynamat. They are the first Tannoy that I haven't felt the need to completely re-design.
The drivers themselves are variable. Tannoy went through a phase where the 2 inch mid/tweeter was replaced with a smaller one. They did this in an effort to get the response to be flat to 20KHz. I favor the 2 inch ones. Don't get sucked into the Monitor Gold hype. Alnico vs ceramic magnets? The ceramic ones are fine. Current design techniques can produce better xovers than the originals.
In actuality, the vintage drivers can hold their against anything modern. Their Achilles heel were the smaller cabinets, or rather internal treatments of the cabinets. The Eatons suffered from internal reflections which made the bass lumpy. With proper stuffing the lumpiness can be cured. I mounted the HPDs in smaller cabinets and designed a new crossover from scratch. They sound great. The Saturn's were terrible and I spent a lot of effort redesigning the crossovers. Now they are good but not as good as the HPDs. The System 800s are just plain terrible. They need a complete xover overhaul, but I never had the time.
The Sensys DC1 is shockingly good. They will give the HPDs a run for their money. Their weakness is a thin walled cabinet but that can be cured with some Dynamat. They are the first Tannoy that I haven't felt the need to completely re-design.
The drivers themselves are variable. Tannoy went through a phase where the 2 inch mid/tweeter was replaced with a smaller one. They did this in an effort to get the response to be flat to 20KHz. I favor the 2 inch ones. Don't get sucked into the Monitor Gold hype. Alnico vs ceramic magnets? The ceramic ones are fine. Current design techniques can produce better xovers than the originals.
I've owned most of the Reds, Golds and HPDs at some stage or another. The best performance I got out of any of them was to put them in a small sealed* enclosure and add a 15 or 18" driver in a separate (or sub-enclosure) and actively cross them, usually between 250-300Hz. This typically reduces the size of the enclosure overall as Tannoy ported units tend to be huge and it has the further advantage of markedly reducing the excursion of the Tannoy cone. As the cone is also the WG for the HF unit, the less it moves the better (also reduces distortion of the cone driver).
I also found them to perform better when I used an active xover between the MF and HF.
* Measured the T/S and calced enclosure size in that basis. And, no, I don't have the data anymore.
Factory Tannoy enclosures have 2 useful purposes; gunnery practice or setting alight to annoy greens w**kers.
I also found them to perform better when I used an active xover between the MF and HF.
* Measured the T/S and calced enclosure size in that basis. And, no, I don't have the data anymore.
Factory Tannoy enclosures have 2 useful purposes; gunnery practice or setting alight to annoy greens w**kers.
As a grad student in 1964, I used to sit in a large student lounge at Brooklyn College and listen to their big Tannoy boxes. Very impressive. Of course I also had a 1960 Jaguar Mk II somewhat later (like Inspector Morse's, with bias ply tires) that I thought was very impressive*.
I've often wondered if that Jag could actually hold a candle in handling or any other way** to a modest-priced Subaru today, even if you could handicap it by finding and fitting old bias ply tires?
B.
* and a leather back seat with flip down wood veneer picnic shelves... just made for romance
** back seat excepted
I've often wondered if that Jag could actually hold a candle in handling or any other way** to a modest-priced Subaru today, even if you could handicap it by finding and fitting old bias ply tires?
B.
* and a leather back seat with flip down wood veneer picnic shelves... just made for romance
** back seat excepted
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Jon Ver Halen
I have the info for the HPD xover somewhere but will need to dig it out. I relocated to the other side of the pond for work and the HPDs are in London with a friend. I don't have the actual cabinet design. A generic bookshelf size slightly larger than the the Saturn will do. Just scale up for the 10 inch. I have adopted pseudo infinite baffle so it is not like the standard bass reflex. This is simply overfilling the cabinet with damping material, but with a port. This yields a response without internal cabinet reflection ripples, but not the compression that IB can create.
I have the info for the HPD xover somewhere but will need to dig it out. I relocated to the other side of the pond for work and the HPDs are in London with a friend. I don't have the actual cabinet design. A generic bookshelf size slightly larger than the the Saturn will do. Just scale up for the 10 inch. I have adopted pseudo infinite baffle so it is not like the standard bass reflex. This is simply overfilling the cabinet with damping material, but with a port. This yields a response without internal cabinet reflection ripples, but not the compression that IB can create.
I have had some assorted Tannoy loudspeakers over the years but not for extended time periods. I have had 12" Silver 12" gold 12" HPD and access to a set of 15" HPD. I have a friend who has a pro set of some sort they are a gray cabinet with the corners loped off single 12" DC unit with twin front ports and plastic cone with rubber suspension (they sound pretty good) and got me wanting some Tannoy again.
My time with Tannoy was a long time ago and as I said was limited. I wonder if vintage Tannoy owners could comment on how they compare to modern offerings from the company? I was considering a set of K3808 in a twelve inch size but my concern with Tannoy has always been efficiency, a true 95 - 96 would make me happy enough. I have have virtually no exposure to Tannoy post the K3808 up until the last few years now that my local dealer has taken on the line up. Your comments and thoughts would be most welcome. Thanks.
My time with Tannoy was a long time ago and as I said was limited. I wonder if vintage Tannoy owners could comment on how they compare to modern offerings from the company? I was considering a set of K3808 in a twelve inch size but my concern with Tannoy has always been efficiency, a true 95 - 96 would make me happy enough. I have have virtually no exposure to Tannoy post the K3808 up until the last few years now that my local dealer has taken on the line up. Your comments and thoughts would be most welcome. Thanks.
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Those are System 12 DMTs.
Unlike with older Tannoys the cabs are excellent!
PS: 15DMTs have paper cones.
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thank you that is good to know. I do have to say that while not the most attractive loudspeaker these are very nice and have good bass response for their size. They are not a lot to look at but that was never a big concern for me. They do need a good four post stand to get them up so you can have your ear on axis with the tweeter. I think I could be happy with this level of performance. Wondering how they compare then to older DC drivers a good jump up in performance? Are the crossover parts better than say what was in my HPD? Thanks for this it is most helpful.
I have just done some searching what my friend has is a pair of System 1200 monitors. anyone familiar with these? The cones look to be plastic with rubber surrounds.
I have just done some searching what my friend has is a pair of System 1200 monitors. anyone familiar with these? The cones look to be plastic with rubber surrounds.
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You can find the schematics for both here:
TANNOY Monitor Gold dual concentric speakers
They are quite different and the 12DMT ones quite a bit simpler which is a good thing IMO.
Not familiar with the System 1200, sorry!
TANNOY Monitor Gold dual concentric speakers
They are quite different and the 12DMT ones quite a bit simpler which is a good thing IMO.
Not familiar with the System 1200, sorry!
of the more available DMT series what would you think is the better sonic option a larger driver ie 10" 12" or 15" or to go with a smaller driver such as a 6" or an 8" version and then mate those with a pair of subs? This being for home playback high levels are not a requirement but I would like to keep the efficiency at or above 95 db.
Those are System 12 DMTs.
Unlike with older Tannoys the cabs are excellent!
PS: 15DMTs have paper cones.
.... and both 12DMT and System 1200 are - good drivers in awful cabs with so-so xovers (better in DMT , wakoo in 1200)
same drivers in proper MLTL with clean DMT xover are happy campers , same as my ears
I had the mk1 system 10 DMT - They were the best speakers i've had for low volume listening (and high spl for that matter). With a good recording, vocals were like the person was stood in front of you. The bass appeared flat but had a sharp roll-off and treble wasn't the most detailed. I've never enjoyed electric guitars through any plastic coned speaker and these were no different.
I feel like i'm being hard on them because they really are excellent speakers and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.
What? The cabinets are state-of-the-art. Can't imagine how they could be improved.
I feel like i'm being hard on them because they really are excellent speakers and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.
What? The cabinets are state-of-the-art. Can't imagine how they could be improved.
they can hardly be improved best to pull drivers from them and sell rest to first sucker willing to enjoy Tannoy Mythology ....... 
frankly - that Mythology isn't produced by Tannoy itself , but from zillion of ignorant aficionados all around the world
Tannoy is - unbelievably good sounding Dual Concentrics ( yes - even plastic cone ones , which was surprise to me , frankly) , put in numerous cabinets with all corners cut .......
you can say that , historically , 2 or 3 original Tannoy cabs are on par with drivers itself ( and none of them is Westminster) , rest is garbage
frankly - that Mythology isn't produced by Tannoy itself , but from zillion of ignorant aficionados all around the world
Tannoy is - unbelievably good sounding Dual Concentrics ( yes - even plastic cone ones , which was surprise to me , frankly) , put in numerous cabinets with all corners cut .......
you can say that , historically , 2 or 3 original Tannoy cabs are on par with drivers itself ( and none of them is Westminster) , rest is garbage
while these I have in this very moment in my workshop .... banging my head how to save original cabs and make something useful from them ....... maybe putting them on full base sized pedestal and incorporating the same in proper MLTL (as standalone speaker boxes as result) ....... and changing xover to something closer to DMT12
Attachments
they sound as Tannoy can sound in proper boxes - gorgeous 
as poor man's RCA LC1
these in front are 3134 (paper cone 12", tulip) , bigger ones are HPD , my guy is also having Golds , can't remember which ones are mounted in, right now
some info you can find in my blog
as poor man's RCA LC1
these in front are 3134 (paper cone 12", tulip) , bigger ones are HPD , my guy is also having Golds , can't remember which ones are mounted in, right now
some info you can find in my blog
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