Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?

Tannoy dual-concentrics blew me away when I first heard them, and basically converted me to a Tannoy owner for life. I presently own 5 pairs! As a young man I actually transitioned over to speakers from high-end headphones; the Tannoy DC’s coherence and musicality, versus multi-driver speakers, is what instantly won me over.

I’ve listened to other high-end conventional speakers as the opportunities arise, and they have certainly gotten a LOT better in the past 10 years IMO. I do quite like Magico S series, and all 3 of the Acora Acoustics models. The Von Schweikert VR-55 Aktive and Focal Sopra 3’s are also quite enjoyable, but by the same token the bigger (and very expensive!) models from both of these makers haven’t really impressed me yet.

It’s been almost 20 years, and Tannoys have become firmly seated as my audiophile "home base", so I’m not sure there’s much room for that to change anymore. But I also recognize Tannoys are not for everyone - you either "get them" or you don’t. Also Tannoy had a couple of models that really sucked, IMO. Also individual units could be miswired (like a set of used Glenair 10 I bought - good god did they sound like sh!t until I rewired them correctly), or may have had a driver wire knocked loose (they use very cheap clips) - early on, the woofer of one of my Canterbury GR’s became disconnected during loud playback (easy fix with a set of pliers)! So if it sounds bad, it may have been caused by one of these issues rather than the design itself!

Hi @mulveling Thank you so much for contributing.  I'm surious, have you heard any other coaxials that you felt did some of the same things right?

In your opinion, are they great because they are Tannoy or because they are coaxial?

Coax speakers were very popular in the 50s and 60s but times moved on. Nothing wrong with a modern coax design but I'm not sure they have any sonic improvement over a conventional 2 or 3 way.

In your opinion, are they great because they are Tannoy or because they are coaxial?

@erik_squires That’s a good question! Thinking on it, I’ve somehow managed to avoid hearing KEFs and most other coaxials. I have heard Thiel CS7.2, which features a coaxial, but there’s a lot more going on there too besides just the coaxial - unlike most Tannoys, which focus primarily on the coaxial driver.

I certainly liked the CS7.2, but it didn’t do all the Tannoy things I love :)

Coax speakers were very popular in the 50s and 60s but times moved on. Nothing wrong with a modern coax design but I’m not sure they have any sonic improvement over a conventional 2 or 3 way.

@russ69  So much of the audio tech we enjoy today is positively ancient in origin. The moving coil dynamic driver itself is ancient. Maybe you enjoy class D amplification with digital streaming and, I dunno, air blades? Plasma tweeters? Is there any other speaker tech that isn’t ancient? I myself enjoy vacuum tubes, so the fact that something came from the 50s or 60s (or 40s, etc) is of little concern to me. 

Tannoys use concentric drivers not coaxial. In a concentric driver, the tweeter Is part of the woofer structure, the center. They have been doing this since 1947....that's a long long time. The Original and the best.