Any fans of Tannoy speakers here?

[GranteedEV]

So I was at London Drugs today to quickly grab something and snuck into the A/V section for a few minutes. They had some Tannoy speakers up for audition.

I really liked what little I heard. Not sure what the model I was hearing was but it was a 3-driver, 6.5" dual concentric + 6.5" woofer 2.5 or 3-way tower. For $500/pr it was a bargain (might have been $500/each though... i was only there for a few minutes)

Here is Tannoy's Flagship speaker:

Uggglyy

Anyways what I heard looked very similar to the Revolution DC6T on their website:

Though my gut tells me the name started with an "S". (...Saturn???)

If you've got a London Drugs or Tannoy dealer near you, check 'em out.

 

[avnetguy]

I've listened to some of their professional line bookshelves and thought they sounded good. They seemed a bit on the pricey side though.

Steve

 

[cpp]

I've heard of them, but finding a dealer that carries them is a bit tough...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Well, since they are not in the top 10 speakers, I refuse to even look at them.

And the flagship does look ugly.

 

[PENG]

I also did not pay attention to the model number but the one I auditioned a few years ago looked like a piece of nice furniture and an Android. All I remember is that it was one of the best sounding speakers I have ever heard and the list price was in the 20K range.

 

[ratso]

i always liked the way the westminsters looked, big huge old school beasts

tannoy

 

[DS-21]

Though my gut tells me the name started with an "S". (...Saturn???)

Sensys, maybe?

Unless they were 15 years old. Tannoy hasn't had a Saturn line for quite some time. And I never understood why their Saturn line seemed to sell so poorly. Today's KEF Q-series is a lot like them: elite-level drivers and outstanding engineering...along with low-rent cabinets to keep the price down. Though the Saturn cabinets weren't quite as dodgy as the current Q's cabs.

I planned to I'd buy a set of Saturn S10's (10" Dual, 10" woofer, pretty cheap at around 2k USD) when I moved back to the States in 2004 or so. But then they weren't available any more. Tannoy, like KEF at the time, was in the wilderness with this stupid supertweeter that did nothing except muck up the clean pattern thrown by the Dual Concentric driver. Like KEF, they've gone back to focusing on their bread-and-butter (the Dual Concentric), and their speakers have gotten markedly better.

But yeah, as you probably know I'm a Tannoy fan. My reference LCR mains are from their studio line, System 12 DMT II's in low-diffraction closed-box cabinets I designed and commissioned from Nathan Funk. Had I heard the JBL LSR32 first, that may have been my pick instead. They're almost exactly the same size, and except for the wider pattern basically similar-sounding. But the Tannoys are so good that even an excellent loudspeaker like the JBL LSR32/LSR6332 doesn't make me want to sell them.

 

[DS-21]

Couldn't edit my old post, but here's a pic of some of the old Saturns.

IIRC there was an 8" Dual Concentic bookshelf (S8LR), an 8" DC + 8" woofer tower (S8, which was about the same size and price as today's KEF Q900; that would be an interesting A/B comparison!), and the one I wanted, a 10" DC + 10" woofer tower (S10).

There was also 8" Dual Concentric in wall (S8iw) in the line. Maybe a 6" model bookshelf too, though I've never seen it if it existed.

The 8" Dual used was quite similar (perhaps identical except for basket paint color) to the Dual in their System 8 NFM II studio monitor.

The 10" Dual was identical to the unit in the step-up D700 (much nicer cabinet), and (basket paint color aside) identical to the unit in the System 10 DMT II studio monitor.

 

[DS-21]

Ever since I narrowly missed out on snagging the 5-pack of System 10 DMT II's from the late J. Gordon Holt's reference multichannel system on Audiogon, I've had a running saved search on eBay for Tannoys. Even though I've no need for more speakers, I never bothered to turn off the search.

In today's e-mail, a "Saturn DC6 LCR" popped up.

(No connection whatsoever to seller)

Are those like the ones you heard?

The Saturn line does not appear on Tannoy's website, but this speaker is clearly not of old Saturn line: different Dual Concentric, different cabinet.

I wonder if it's a new line, and their website is simply out of date. Their North American distributor seems to run the domestic audio side of things more like a hobby than a business sometimes.