Tannoy anyone? Cheviot Legacy vs. Stirling GR


Good Morning and happy holidays,

Having just spent a day over at my friend's new listening shack/man cave with my Leben driving his Tannoy Stirlings, I fell in love and am thinking I might just need a pair myself. So, I could use a little help deciding between the Stirling GR's and Cheviot Legacy's and am curious if any of you have experience with both and what you hear/feel is the difference between the two.

If it helps, I listen to a pretty wide variety - mostly singer songwriter, alt country, some classic rock and jazz. A little hiphop, no metal and very little classical.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

 

 

budburma

Although I'm using Tannoy Berkeley's I'd agree with the previous advice about getting them at the correct height, ie the tweeter at or near ear height.

I've seen photographs of when Tannoys were used at the Abbey Road studios. They had them placed upon what looked like wheeled tea trolleys that must have been 18-20 inches off the ground.

That would certainly make placement a lot easier, and I guess exact height wouldn't matter so much if you're listening from a distance over 10 feet away.

Correct height then! I haven’t had the chance to bend Kevin’s ear over this one yet, and I definitely agree that his advice is solid.

Have a friend with Tannoys (not sure which models). He has both bookshelf and floor standing models.  He's driving the floor standing ones with a McIntosh 252; nothing but good things to say about the sound he gets.  Very natural full spectrum and great sound stage.

I got him to get them farther away from walls and canted slightly towards the listening position.  Sounds even better!

I listened to the Cheviot and the Turnberry GR 2 months ago at Upscale Audio. It was a close contest as they both have the expansive, somewhat dry Tannoy presentation. There was a little more articulation and  sophistication with the Turnberrys. Cheviots won with the big bass moments hands down. But both seemed to have the same bass presence. 

Had to go with my gut and chose Turnberry GR. So my advice to you is to go with the Cheviot. The Stirling has a 10" driver but with smaller  voice coils and and with smaller HF driver.

Listen, you can't go wrong woth either...but based on my audition, the Cheviot was quite good compared to Turnberry. I imagine that the Stirling, with it's smaller box and driver coils will have less bass output than the Cheviot, which was, as I said earlier, near equal to the Turnberry is bass.

Not sure you will need to raise the Tannoys. They sound expansive and big enough that this may not be necessary. I get plenty of soundstage with them in a low lounge chair and the supplied feet.

They will need a good 40-60 hours to sound their best...so be patient.

 

 

I have Arden's, interesting point regarding lifting units up to ear level.

I have the toe in a lot less with no perceivable issues with imaging or soundstage. Might be because my room is only 10ft wide so they are fairly close to sidewalls and obviously only about 6 to 7ft between the tweeters, albeit they are 2ft off the front wall.