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Ocellia vs Tannoy?

Hi,

After having been in this hobby for a while and having tried and owned different systems with speakers like Dynaudio, Coincident, Brentworth, DIY speakers from Lynn Olson and Troels Gravesen and most recently Vapor Audio Cirrus (an excellent speaker but without the high efficiency I'd like), I had the oportunity to hear a good SET amp in my system and was blown away by the musicality of it, specially the fluidity, platicity, tunefulness of the music. As I'm mainly into opera and classical, this fluidity reminded me of what I love about going to the concert halls. Unluckily, this SET didn't have the power to reproduce big scale symphonic in my 87.5 dB efficient Cirrus.

I haven't been able to erase that experience from my mind, so now I'd like to make myself a system which puts the musical values first and not the usual audiophile values (tone, dynamics, timing and fluidity vs soundstage, extension, ultimate detail, etc.).

So, in the search for a really musical speaker, I've narrowed my search to two options: Ocellia (either the .21 or the .30 Signatures), or Tannoy (either Kensington, Yorkminster or Canterbury), which many people regard as superbly musical speakers. Even of they're not the same technology (wide-bander vs Dual concentric), I think they share many of the same characteristics which I'm after: paper domes with Alnico magnets with point source emittance for vibrant, colorful and solid imaging, excellent micro and macro dynamics, a very fluid sound and good eficiency to be able to use low and mid power amps.

I know it'd be ideal to listen to both of them first, but that's not possible since I live in Mexico and neither of them has distributors here, nor do I know anyone who has either, so I'd appreciate the opinion of those of you who have heard them.

Also, my room is a bit small: 3.3 x 5 m (10' x 15'), so I don't think it could handle big speakers well.

Amplification would be a DHT SET or PP amp.

Hope you can help me
Regards,
jjbraham
nd4speed
16 posts
 
To be honest, for your size room I don't think either one is optimal.

The Tannoy is obviously too big for your room.

Everything I've read about the Ocellia suggests they need adequete "room to breathe". If you look at some of the pictures of people that have deployed them (especially Ocellia's own listening room), it seems to support this. They are semi open baffle, which means that room interactions are probably going to play a more critical role in the sound than usual, so you'll need the space to be able to move them around until they are "tuned" properly to your room.

Rear ported speakers like AN-E would probably be perfect because they require corner loading and these happen to be small also. Back loaded folding horns would be a good choice also for the same reason; although they'll be bigger than AN-Es. Other horn designs like the labrinth loaded Rethm (shameless plug I know as I'm selling a pair) would also work better than your choices in terms of size occupied, positioning, and ultimately sound quality all IMHO.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
The Ocellia has an adjustable door/port on the rear lower cabinet to allow placement in rooms of different dimensions.That 'may' be of some benefit in a room this size.
Regards,
bayreuth
25 posts
 
The Tannoy Kensington could work very well in your room size with DHT SET amps of 8 watts or greater. These should excel at vocals and classical music, unless you play your music at extreme volumes. The dual concentric design offers exceptional imaging and coherence. The higher sensitivity rating of the Canterbury may be misleading, and higher power may be required to adequately control that large driver.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
Tannoys work well in smaller rooms near field or close to it as well. They are very versatile with placement. One of their best markets is the Far East where there are plenty of small rooms.
arj
68 posts
 
I use Tannoy K'tons in a 11x14 room. it works well, but feel they would breathe a little easier in a larger room since I do prefer them away from the rear walls in order to get better depth . Despite that they sound very good as you really connect with the music well.
I am not sure of the SET though. My guess is a good PP will do far better in terms of getting the best out of the Prestige series.
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