Tannoy cheviot vs Arden what should I expect from each?

On the comments about speaker sizes and frequency coverage. I currently have Salk Songtowers and they have a small tweeter (3/4") that crossed over lower than most 1" domes.  The response from these speakers is surprisingly smooth. Two 5" mid-woofers in a transmission line cabinet in the right room can rattle the walls. I was frankly shocked.
They're in a decent (acoustically speaking) room so that certainly helps.

Well-matched drivers and crossovers will challenge convention. 

There were no Ardens to audition at Upscale Audio as they are out of stock. But they’ve now been eliminated due to size after I made more room dimension measurements. So I auditioned the Cheviot and Turnberry only. I must say the Cheviot is a beautiful looking speaker up close.  I’m an industrial designer and I was really captivated by the quality of finish. The gold ring successfully gives the illusion of a bigger woofer and is a great detail. 
It’s also very evident how the woofer is shaped to facilitate a waveguide for the tweeter. The Turnberry also looks good but the 10” woofer looks less impressive in person.

When requested at critical moments, the Cheviot’s bass is immediate and impressive enough for me to remember weeks later.
The Turnberry had slightly better overall bass presence throughout all the tracks…despite losing out on the bigger bass moments.  Both had great midrange but the Turnberry edged out the Cheviots just slightly. What the Turnberry did do was capture some subtle detail in the upper midrange. It may be the Cheviot was not completely broken-in although I was assured this was the case.

I went with the Turnberry. It is a much better speaker in my room. First set of speakers I got did not some with grilles. That was very odd. Almost as odd as the fact that they were shipped upside down and were missing the ‘cabinet and grille inspection’ signature on the quality certificate.

Upscale replaced these with a new set, with grilles (and a completed certificate). I also think that the first set of speakers were used as there were some cabinet blemishes and they sounded fantastic.

The replacements sound pretty bad by comparison. It is true that these need some break in time. At 10 hours playing time, they still sound congested, closed and a little dead but now are very ‘all over the place’…sometimes polite…other times ‘shouty’. Never had speakers this reliant on break-in before. 
Knowing this I sometimes wish I could have auditioned the Cheviots in room. But overall, very happy with the Turnberry.

How are they now, after the break-in? I’m considering Tannoy, but its pretty hard to navigate their range. You have speakers at the same price in both line: prestige and the other one (ie Turnberry vs. Arden); then you have speakers in the same line just a few $$ apart (I consider Stirling ($6000) - Turnberry ($8000), for example, to be close in price). Did you listen to the Stirling?

Very interested in this thread as I narrowed things down for myself to either Arden, Cheviot, or Turnberry. Curiously, almost all members here and in other forums who were devotees of Tannoy and therefore seem to know what they are saying mentioned that Turnberry is one of least successful Tannoy designs despite being a junior 'Prestige' member, while there is generally universal admiration towards both Cheviots and Ardens.

I did not hear any of these speakers in their current iteration, but listened to the older Cheviots which I really liked, and once heard old Ardens, very briefly and in less than optimal circumstances. Again, I remember its sound well enough for them to make my shortlist many years after! I am less concerned about the size of the room here, in part because it really comes into play at certain (loud) volume...

Curious to hear about Turnberry - how they compare... Thanks.

 

@yt did you end up with any Tannoy speakers?  I've got Ardens I'm THINKING about selling but dang I don't know why.  They're so good (mine are the one's from the 1970's).  Running with a Leben CS300XS.  Really only issue is "too many speakers" and they are large and may be hardest to place when we move in a few years.  My other speakers are KEF 107 and Janszen electrostatics (ZA2.1A).  They all do their own thing quite well.  I would definitely miss the Ardens if I sold them though!  I liked them better than newer Prestige series I heard at AXPONA this year (not sure which model, looked like a smaller 10" or 12" driver though).