Is there Tannoy Magic / Should I buy a pair of Tannoys as "accessory" speaker?


I have a decent system, and am running JBL 4367, with either Parasound A21+  (300w solid state) or Canary M600 (50w tubes) and am Tannoy-curious. 

I'm familiar with the current state of the brand, I understand that the "new" speakers aren't made at the old factory, and that much of the "shine" has worn off the brand over the last several years.  I'm also aware of the newer company with much of the former Tannoy brain trust.

I have never heard a Tannoy speaker.

My room is just barely, small, at 16' wide 13' deep and 9' ceilings.  It opens at the rear, almost but not perfectly symmetrically, behind the listening position, via a set of pocket doors that remain open, to a much larger room.  The JBLs, with their 15" driver (thanks to a bunch of acoustic treatments) are not "too much" for the room, so I don't know that the Ardens (for example) would be, either.

I'm not saying I wouldn't get rid of the JBLs, but the plan is to buy a set of Tannoys, hopefully like them enough to keep them, and slip them in the system as desire dictates.

The JBLs do everything that I know of, that I want a speaker to do, I'm just looking to be inspired.

I think I need realistic bass, and so perhaps a 12" or 15" (I don't know, just guessing) model might suit me better.  

Other than figure out how to demo some Tannoy speakers in a store like a normal person would, what do you think I should do?

 

gthirteen

@deep_333  Good suggestion the 888's ! Seems like they are being very well received. 

I did have a listen with "my kinda music" of the sourcepoint 10's at the FLA expo and they were pretty awesome. 

I saw an advertisement for the Tannoy Sterlings, and even though I just bought a pair of Revels and am now out of the market I still cannot help myself from wondering about speakers "that I should have bought," so I read a review on the Sterlings and got the impression that they might be finicky about setting up as far as placement goes?  

My Basement system is where I interchange various components including Vintage Original Tannoy Berkeley's from 1970 with 15" HPD385A drivers, new surrounds in 1997 and upgraded crossover in 2018. I think they shine particularly with classical and jazz as they are very accurate and revealing. If I want to rock, I need a little more bass than the Tannoys can deliver so I switch to my Altec- Lansing  604-8G's or JBL-L7's and L-100a speakers. The old 15" dual concentric drivers like he HPD385, Golds, Silvers are the ones sought after for $$$. I have not been impressed with the newer ones that I've heard.

 

@immatthewj , @pehare is a long time owner of Tannoy Sterlings and may want to weigh in on as to whether or not Sterlings are finicky with regards to placement.

In my living room, I have a pair of JBL Everest DD67000 and a pair of JBL 4350. They are on adjacent walls and driven independently by McIntosh and Luxman equipment. I listen to Bach organ concerti, other very dynamic orchestral music, and a little bit of rock (maybe Pink Floyd “The Wall”…) on the 4350s, Puccini, less dynamic orchestral, and mix of pop, Americana, jazz, folk on the Everests. And I added a pair of 12” Tannoys a couple of years ago. They’re Stuarts, and they sit maybe 18” in front of the 4350s but far enough to the side to not block the mid and tweeters. They are wonderful for Ella Fitzgerald/Tony Bennett/Julie London style vocals, acoustic ensembles (jazz, pop, classical), jazz club live recordings. The Tannoys are driven by Luxman, Marantz, Concept, Onkyo integrated or receivers (heresy here, right?). They don’t handle the big dynamics, but imaging/soundstage is great, and so is (what I would call) presence or immediacy. They are getting the majority of the play time since they’ve been in place. I bought them in a package and didn’t intend to keep them, but I haven’t been able to get motivated to pass them on.  So they are being used as an accessory speaker, but they’ve sorta turned that on its head by commanding the most play time.  They’re the only Tannoys that I have spent any significant amount of time with.