Hi Jesper, one of the best rock, blues and jazz I heard was on tannoy 15' golds in Lockwood cabinets with modded crossovers and Luxman integrated. We listened for 8 hours with zero fatigue.
A couple of friends had the Radford STA 25 on their tannoys (one Gold 12 and the other HPD 315a) in modded York cabs. The Radford 25 was better than the Radford 100. However it was easily outclassed by the Silvercore 833c at 20w that replaced it, and also the KR.
That said, tannoy gold 15 is a speaker I am keenly looking at, and also looking at Altecs now.
I don't like the modern tannoys, though do have sufficient exposure to the Westminster models.
Ive listened to mine for 5 years without any fatigue ;-) but I also tend to stay away from synthetic music.
The radford is a classic. Original mullard valves give punch and an octal valve pre sweetens the sound.
For driving tannoys you'll have to search wide and dig deep in your pocket for something better.
Is this your friend ?
https://theartofsound.net/forum/sho...lvercore-833C-monoblocks-not-your-typical-SET
Btw, some people say that push-pull 300b's (or other triodes) work well with tannoys.
But I have not heard it myself...
Jesper
Hi, I'm the chap Kedar referred to earlier.
I've tried literally dozens of amps (around 40 at last count) with Tannoys, having owned quite a few different set of tannoys in many different cabinets, including 12in and 15in Golds and 12in and 15in HPDs. I've heard many modern Tannoys as well, though prefer the vintage ones, properly executed.
300b push-pull can work ok for Golds but you have to be careful of high output impedance which is often an issue with 300b designs. At one point I had four Audion 300b monoblocks running 15in Golds, used both active and passive with a split crossover. Generally speaking I found pentode amps worked best (has a few of those as well, the better ones were the Radfords above and some Jadis monoblocks). I wouldn't use them with HPDs which need more grunt to work properly compared to Golds. With all these vintage Tannoys you are balancing the need to have a decent of damping factor to keep the big cones under control, without going overboard and sucking the life out of them.
Different people have their view on Tannoys, having owned them for almost a decade I totally get the romantic appeal of 15in Golds and they do most things beautifully, but I concluded having owned both Golds and HPDs simultaneously that ultimately more of just about everything can be got from 12in HPDs. (15 HPDs have the down sides of 15in Golds - all mainly the consequence of a fairly high crossover point for such a large cone - but without that sweetness which is the Golds' big plus point). I consider the essential choice to be between 15in Golds and 12in HPDs - HPDs need more power but in the right cab go just as deep as 15in Golds, and being 12in rather than 15in suffer fewer woes around the crossover point. But I don't really argue the point - its mainly a personal preference. HPDs were the final point in the evolution of the Monitor series going back to Black and Silver iterations - in my view Tannoy never again made a driver that was quite so successful in a musical sense.
The Silvercores have shaken a lot of what I thought I knew but I've taken a decision not to ask too many questions and just enjoy them. There must be something in their design that provides the neccessary control as the bass control, depth and overall quality on them is exceptional for single ended amps.
Your extensive experiences noted and appreciated.
When I compare my 10" vs 15" golds, the 10" actually have a clearer midrange and let through more detail. More hifi.
But the 15" have a certain authority that just makes you "forget-about-it". It's like comparing a 4 cylinder engine to a V8.
This authority has more to do with transient response than bass extension -- I think.
Jesper
Tom always advised 15 inch Golds or 12 inch HPDs. The 15 inch HPD apparently does not have a good crossover point to mod.
15 inch golds seem to be better for rock and blues. I would love to hear them with silvercores as currently Tom's Silvercore HPD 12 plays classical better.
Hi,Thanks, Don. Those look great.
One thing that confuses me: I see a lot of reports of Tannoy drivers being mounted in custom cabinets. Does this then mean that tonality and bass response (among other sonic attributes) vary widely among these custom jobs? How can you know if the right principles are being followed? If I go this route, I'd have a semi-established maker (like RFC or Lockwood) make them for me. But I'm still curious how you'd know if one cabinet design is better than another (besides being well braced, etc).
Or is it just that these Tannoy drivers are more cabinet agnostic?
Not to necro this thread, but I recently auditioned a bunch of speakers in London (on a visit) and, to my surprise, ended up liking a vintage (80s?) pair of Ardens. Among other things, I also heard Magico A5 and the newest Harbeth 40 monitors. The Magico really impressed with their bass extension and weight. They made drum sets, in particular, sound weighty in a way I'd not previously experienced. The Harbeths, despite having a sweet top end and a good mid-range, I didn't connect with for some reason. They sounded too restrained, too polite. Maybe they weren't broken in....
Anyway, I quite liked the Tannoy Ardens. What they really got right--as they're meant to according to this and various other forums--is the coherency. One of my test albums is Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue. It's a toe-tapper, but a speaker needs to be able to follow the nuance and phrasing of Kenny's lines, and the Ardens did this very well. They also made decent bass, but it wasn't in the realm of the Magico (no surprise). The guy at the hi-fi shop (Audio Gold in north London, nice people) felt that I'd find the Ardens too soft for more rhythm-driven stuff (I'm a jazz guy, mostly, with some rock and electronic in my playlists). But what I didn't experience is the Ardens being too dark.
I've previously auditioned the Tannoy Legacy stuff (I believe it was the Canterbury or Westminster), but found them too muffled for my tastes. Probably I need to go and give them another go. But this thread and @montesquieu comments have also got me interested in the RFC Tannoy restorations. Since I'm likely moving from Chicago to London in the autumn, the RFC is a semi-realistic proposition. Maybe the RFC Cheviot (in what I'm anticipating will be a small to medium-size flat). My Magnepans won't be coming, sadly.
@montesquieu Are you still using your RFC Canterburys?
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