£5 grand faves?

There is a second hand pair of TAD speakers up for sale in South London somewhere.

I will investigate out of the kindness of my heart.

 

You're right. They seem to be skimping big time on the external enclosure appearence of their expensive studio lines- drab synthetic vinyl veneer on their 11K K2 S4800. I bought a pair of new 4312's in '97 for 1K with solid walnut cabs- much better value!

 

ooooh, luvely!

 

They are indeed luvverly, and the odd DIY fornication aside, a pair of these will probably be my next speakers. They are about 3.5k UKP s/h in Japan to which you'd have to add freight/import duties etc. Worth every penny, and there is vanishingly little audio you can say that about.

 

about ten tears ago i enquired about the grf corner horns. i'd seen an original pair in a shed and that set me going.

somebody known to the emporium in Diss was building good, modern copies, but i never got round to listening to them.
to be honest, i was moving around too much to want to attach my speakers permanantly to any particular building, nor did i really live anywhere they would have been able to sit in the corners as intended.

that is about to change, however. so this is a timely reminder!

is there anybody currently building grf corner horns?

are they the "best" of the type?
(now i've done it)
i'm aware that klipsch used to also build corner horns..it seems the cheapest option for living comfortably with full range horns.?

although for me the holy grail is the rumours i hear of people building full range horns into the structure of their homes....is there any enlightenment to be had on this topic??

(trembling with anticipation. i've searched on this and got nowt!)

this would be a different path; i've been down the one marked "high current solid state amps driving inefficient speakers" for a while now.....as it's deemed pointless to drive horns with, say, a krell ksa 100mk 2, do you still get that deep, dark, scary terrifying bass that big solid state amps bring to the party?
i kinda like that bit

but don't the reggae sound systems use horns? now they produce bass alright.
excellent for parties, but
i just can't imagine living with that bloated sound

my ignorance just cries out to be corrected

the only true dem i've had with domestic horns was a pair of klipsch la scalas. very disappointing, really. "cuppy" sound and no extended bass- i struggled to see past such fundamental faults, especially since the dealer had seduced me with talk of amazing bass performance. one positive i did notice was what appeared to be a very large soundstage, and rythmically there were also very good.

i look forward to your comments!

gav

 

ok peeps, here goes with another blast of ignorance, but judging by the given frequency responses i don't think this type (4388, 2251 etc) produces the type of extended bass i crave?

i graduated with transmission lines, and for all of their faults (slowness, delay in the bass timing) i had to spend a lot of money to keep the weight and extension i lived for, while improving control and timing.

i really, really like the sub 22 hz region, and as i'm about to move to a place with no neighbours in the valley, i hope to indulge that immature urge.
i want to be terrified!

i had resigned myself to subs, but then became aware of Revel and Von Schewert, who on paper at least appear to offer 2 box solutions. i get the impression that the revels will be too forward for me, but the the VSA's may be more agreeable.
if they can image and soundstage like my Alons, sound a bit sweeter and improve the lumpy bass, then they're the kiddies for me
i really do need to do some listening, but i'm reluctant to approach the dealer cos i'll probaly buy online- feel guilty wasting his time..?

my cat lives on my amp. think she'd rather i stick with big solid state room heaters cos she can't sit on a valve amp

gav

 

gav, slightly 'up' on a GRF is the 'autograph' which is even bigger, and then there is the one shown above, but I don't know anyone doing repro cabs of that.

Emporium can do you a grf or autograph cab. They actually have a used grf repro cab in stock now.

No Tannoy dual concentric (that I know of) will go down to 22hz.

15" drive units IME have an easy going, generous full bass, that sounds infinately more 'bassy' than for example a 6.5" bass unit that has been tuned to go down lower. It's a false statistic in many ways, because I find when people say they want deeper bass - often they are after more full and generous bass.

NB
I use the Revel B15a sub, and can reccomend it for plumbing the sub 50hz frequencies. They're not even slightly forward sounding to my ears - just clean, crisp, and eq'd to be flat.

 

Meadow lark Blur heron II's will more than fill the job your after imo.
Just to counter balance all this horn mar larky

 

I think the bloke who runs Big Ears Audio makes new replica Tannoy corner cabinets- not sure which models. He also buys stock cabs/drivers, renovates and resells them. IIRC, Side show bob (Ian?) is a happy recent customer.

Reggae sound systems often used many, many tubes (prob KT88)- Nick, who runs Glasshouse used to work with them * in west London, so will know a thing or two about them.




Edit: *I think Jah Shaka.

 

You won't find many speakers at all which go BELOW 22Hz. There are a number which go down to around 25Hz. But, how many of those can compete with the clarity and airiness of an open baffle mid and tweeter as on the Nola/Alon? Again, not many, especially for £5k.

Maybe what you want is some electrostatics or large ribbon based speaker with a very, very capable subwoofer.

Kingsound and a Velodyne maybe in budget? Final 400i and a sub?

 

Not sure about 22hz but don't the larger current models, such as Westminsters and Yorkminsters, go very low, as long as the room is large enough?

 

The Westminter Royal HE goes doen to 18Hz -6db (allegedly). The Kingdoms I believe went even lower (16Hz -3db), but it had a supplementary 18" bass driver as well as the 15" DC.

 

-6db!! - exactly!


to return to my original point though, you have to ignore these statistics and bask in the rich full glow of a 15" bass... forget the extension, feel the width!!!!

 

Do you have any idea how many ways this comment could be interpreted?

Neither do I.

 

A noteworthy strength of the larger Tannoys is their added height- the subjective elongation of the space between the bass and the mid/treble- like in a club, which is probably impossible to replicate with smaller speakers. I experienced this recently with a pair of large Tannoy Ardens (which incidentally are for sale at a bargain price- reconed by lockwood last year-excuse the plug). It feels like you have a reggae sound system in your bedroom- real height!

 

I always drool from your system components Baudrillard, impressive!

 

With the right design it is possible to have both though. My system uses 12" woofers and goes to somewhere below 20Hz (haven't measured below that but it goes there no problem). Of course efficiency suffers somewhat, but that is not necessarily what gives you a nice full bass sound.

 

right to the heart of the matter, bud

could a dipole (VR4 SR) ever compete with open baffles for that open mid/top and huge soundstage?

perhaps panels and sub are the way to go for cake possession and ingestion..

should i just be saving the £10k for s/h Alon Phalanx/ Poseidons?

searched under "Kingsound" but didn't find anything

 

The link to Kingsound is for some reason Kings audio

http://www.kingsaudio.com.hk/



£1695. and can be driven by 20W

 

Thanks for your kind words It seems to keep me happy. But the social life's gone down the tube.