Tannoy Westminster Royal HE

Hello Dazzdax. To quote an age old adage: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Yes,I use a pair of these big "ugly" speakers! While I have heard the big Dunlavy's on a few occasions, any meaningful comparative study would be rather ambiguous anyway as I have never heard them in my room, with my music and my gear. The Westminster is Tannoy's definitive statement speaker and their crowning achievement. To be candid here,I have never really been a big fan of horn loaded speakers per sey as I have spent most of my adult life listening to the recorded arts through mostly electrostatics and planars types. While your typical vintage horns from yesteryear have many positives attributes[efficiency,presence, low distortion and dynamic range] Most commercial horns will offer some sonic liabilties by contrast. Many possess a kind of honky coloration in the mid band/upper midband area,some can be a somewhat shouty at higher volume levels,some have mediocre resolution and weight in the lower octaves.Most will sound a little rolled off or closed in at the top end when compared to most modern high end speaker designs. Most will not create the proverbial imaging tricks akin to the better top shelf monitors or floor standers out there. That said: the Westminster is not your typical loaded horn type speaker.IMHO.... Tannoy's legendary dual concentric driver configuration and complex crossover design is what sets in apart from other full range horns, whereby the drivers act as a true "point source". Almost all of the vintage Tannoy drivers that use Alnico magnets have an amazing coherency to them that is readily apparent upon first listen. The Westminsters were first conceived and designed in the early 80's to address the short comings of their earlier designs, all of which lacked the bottom octave,sounded lumpy and soft in the midbass area when compared to most good modern speakers. Other competing horns like the bigger altecs and jbl's in the day had better perceived bass pitch, speed and drive as well. Most of the vintage Tannoy's can be improved upon in this area [every area for that matter] by re-installing the driver in a heavily braced cabinet constructed from 1 1/2 birch ply, removing the crossover boards from the cabinet,updating the crossovers with better caps,resistors,inductors and wire, hardwire the drivers in a true bi-wire configuration. Soundwise, the huge Westminster is truly majestic and something to behold. It does require a lot of work to move them around in most rooms [they weigh in at around 550 lbs each]and due to their full range dynamics can be very difficult to find the correct tonal balance and that proverbial coherency magic they are so capable of. Once you do find it though, you would be hard pressed to find much fault in their presentation. I am still completely amazed and dumbfounded at how these behemouths literally dissappear in my room. I would hazard to guess that the larger ones room, the easier it will be to find their magic. My room is very large by most standards [34ft x 27ft x 16.5 ft ceiling] I have used the big Soundlab A-1,the proac response 4[still use in another room], the acoustat 2+2 which I still have, tried the Vandersteen 5 as well however none of them can pressurize the room like the Westminster.

Ecclectique, I've seen another big Tannoy speaker, called the Kingdom 18. This particular type is no more in production I suppose, because Tannoy homesite doesn't mention it in their "products" list. It is even more expensive than the Westminster Royal. Do you know this speaker? Is it actually better than the Westminsters?

Chris

Hello Chris. I have heard of it, although never seen one nor heard one. It's probably only available for export,and like the Westminster,most all of them are exported to the Far East. Their doesn,t seem to be many Tannoy enthusiast's here at Audiogon.

I am a Tannoy enthusiast, and corresponded with Ian Gellatly (sp?)at Tannoy regarding the Kingdom line. He explained it is stricily for export to Asia, and also told me that the Churchill is superior to the Westminster, having a smoother And easier impedance. Have you read all that Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenburg said about the Westminster Royals? www.meta-gizmo.com
Regards,
Douger

Used Westminsters are not very easy to get (in fact this is a very uncommon thing). But I've seen there is a pair for sale! Do you think it is worthwhile to replace my Dunlavy SC-V's with them? Thank you.

Chris