Tannoy Speakers & Bi-wiring

Hi Pani,
The Tannoy dual-concentric really is not time aligned. The compression driver diaphragm is about 6 inches behind the woofer's acoustic center. However, Tannoys are phase coherent at the crossover point, thanks to the following slick hack: that 6 inches is equivalent to 180 degrees of phase at the crossover point frequency of 1.1kHz -- hence the tweeter's wiring polarity is simply reversed to yield phase coherence at that point.

A while back Tannoy gave in to market demands and introduced a compensation network to electrically time align the dual-concentric driver. However, apparently the cure was far worse than the disease...it was very short lived and never surfaced again.

I also read somewhere (I forget where; not much value without a citation, unfortunately) there was a study that concluded there was audible improvement for a speaker to be either time aligned or phase coherent, but that having both of them together didn't seem to further the improvement.

Anyways, looking at 6inches divided by 340 meters/sec (the speed of sound) is going to vastly exceed the time mis-alignment effect of any cable discrepancies divided by 200 million meters/sec (about two thirds the speed of light, i.e. signal propagation in cables)...by several orders of magnitude.

That said, I wouldn't turn down a chance to try identical cable top & bottom, but I'm not going to make any purchases to do so. The mixed run sounds better than single run of either, and that's good enough for me.

I have also read the internal wiring on the Canterbury SE is Acrolink. I am using Auditorium 23 speaker cables with my Canterbury SE & like the combination very much with my 300B amps. Auditorium 23 is designed for high efficiency speakers, you can find many good reviews. Can't really comment on the bi-wire question of OP as I have not tried this yet. However I would strongly suggest trying the grounding cable option offered, if not done yet, as this yields noticeable reduction in hash picked up; makes the sound smoother & cleaner.

Just got a new pair of Stirling GR's and am running the Tannoy provided jumpers and am wondering what the consensus is These days on bi-wiring or not?  I can send my JPS Superconductor V single WBT spades pair back to JPS and they'll bi-wire them for 300 or I can get JPS jumpers for 300 or should I just leave well enough alone and use the stock jumpers?  These are fantastic speakers right out of the box, amazing!

I've been bi-wiring my Canterbury for years (first SE, now GR), and yes I feel it's an improvement. Every time I drop the 2nd cable run and plug in those Acrolink jumpers I lose a bit , dynamics, and basic "jump factor". However I'll note that I've only tried biwiring with two separate cable runs versus a single run. I've not compared the same exact single cables, with one terminated for biwire versus another terminated single wire with jumpers - which would be like you having JPS reterminate your existing cables. 

Tannoy recommends biwiring in their manuals, but then their toe-in suggestion is kinda wack so take that with a grain of salt. 

Enjoy your awesome new GR speakers!

Thanks mulveling I Will get around to bi-wiring down the road.  That system of yours is the stuff of dreams wow.  Love to hear a rig like that sometime or then again maybe not:)  The Stirlings are perfect for my room and amp - I'm so grateful to have them.  Happy listening!