He offered them to me rather than putting them in a skip. I had a look inside the cabinets and after posting a few images was informed these were Tannoy Dual-Concentrics reds and quite valuable. So, back to my friend they went! Fast forward a few years, he has found some better cabinets
In the original absolutely awful boxes I suspect it wouldn’t make a lot of difference what amp he uses! I don’t know if that is the new cabinets you are showing, but not enough info to give any clue as to their capability though the size at least looks a lot more respectable. And what size are the drivers? (IIRC correctly they made 10", 12" and 15")
Based on the little info available my own inclination would be C, researching carefully expected value and best place/way to sell, as they are collectors’ items now giving a good price, but weren’t the greatest ever of Tannoy’s drivers.
Thanks for the reply. I believe these are the 15 inch versions. I briefly connected them to my 250/32.5/hicap and they sounded really good, even in the original cabinets.
I think it is a measure of their age that there is not too much information about these.
Thanks again for the reply, cheers
When I was first looking at speaker building the monitor reds had been succeeded by gold, then the HPD series, so I only have limited memory of the reds. I have no idea of the types of capacitor used in the crossover - if they were electrolytic they’ll probably need replacing, though how easy it is to get into the sealed box to see, and change yourself if necessary, I don’t know, however apparently Reference Fidelity Components can build new crossovers for them to order.
That original cabinet had such small volume and was so flimsy, with no panel deadening, that it would certainly not get the best out of the 15" MR. I suspect it may have been made for PA/sound reinforcement purposes rather than hifi. Although the unit will now be best part of 60 years old, or more, there is no reason why it shouldn’t give excellent performance in a decent cabinet. It may be worth looking here: Tannoy Speakers . Maybe the replacement cabinet is like one of those?
Thanks so much for the reply and information, it was really useful. Looking at the link I believe he may have got a pair of original Lancaster enclosures which is a good starting point. Will forward on the info, many thank again
I have 10" Tannoy Chesters driven by an Nac72 and an Nap140 and it it’s the best system I have owned by far. (my previous gear was not hard to beat to be fair)
It does everything i need from it and I’ve had loans of an Nap 250/ Hi-cap to try but they didn’t improve things significantly.
Your Tannoys should work well with most amps but your ears will let you know!
It could well be that those originals were intended as installation speakers for commercial use in halls, bars etc. either for background music or public address, as opposed to hi-fi use.
There are a number of hi-fi speaker manufacturers that do this sort of thing. One version for domestic hi-fi use and a similar one for commercial installation use. Wharfedale did it with the original Diamond. These could be seen in various pubs/bars mounted on wall brackets. Although they appeared virtually identical to the hi-fi version, apart from the side brackets attached to them (which were never available for the domestic version) they were a very different animal. Different drivers and crossover. Difficult to say how they sounded in that situation.
To the best of my awareness, while the original cabinet suggested such use, the driver (Monitor Red) was not different or would have been identified in some way, e.g. if it was for 100v line amp powering (a common standard at the time for sound reinforcement /PA use).
P.S why do you now have an anon + number forum id, usually applied only to past members. Instead of your PJL moniker?
As far as I know it’s not just the sensitivity but also the impedance of a speaker at a given frequency that may make a speaker a better match for tubes or solid state amps.
Not saying a Naim amp might not sound great wih these speakers. Just suggesting that a tube amp might bring other results that might or might not be preferable.
At a Swedish HIFI-show this weekend the Naim reseller demoed 222+250 with Avantgarde Acoustic Colibri (98dB) horn design. Pretty cool speakers by the way. I think there’s a misconception that some speakers need tube amps. Many have realised they get better performance out of Devore, Tannoy, Klipsch etc with good transistors compared to tube amps. The Tannoy speakers are not much different today but plays great with higher current transistor amps. What all speakers need is good electronics be it tubes or transistors.
When I auditionedTannoy Ardens, with IIRC the later HPD 15" dual concentric driver, it was with a transistor amp, Quad 303 IIRC, though might have been a pair of Quad 50s.
