Big Tannoys

Sorry, but those speakers are as ugly as a badger's backside!

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Paul

 

They certainly don`t look ugly to my eyes.

 

I'm sure your wife says the same when she looks at you - but she's just being polite!

-----------
Paul

 

Red Cardigan. Slacks. Suede Brogues. Thick rimmed spectacles. Triumph TR4a.

 

not hijacking here, but FINALLY finished these. Chuffed to bits with them. They weren't in Lancasters, but in little CUBES! (They looked funky... in the 70s apparantly). 15" Monitor Golds BTW

The hold up was due to things revolving around the old Merc...

 

How do they sound and what are the cabinet dimensions / construction details?

 

very VERY pleased with the sound. Even in the stupid cubes they were pretty good (compared to the Tannoy R3s and B&W DM601S2s). I didn't have anything to compare them to though...

But now, they are leagues ahead. I'm pretty inept at describing what I hear but they seem very very revealing. With poor MP3s they can be pretty harsh, but this is not the norm. They are very detailed and there is huge depth to good recordings. The physical distance between instruments seems very well defined.

The bass is delicious. I tuned the ports to 27Hz and with a Reggae CD this is felt (literally). On rock music it's hard hitting and very well defined. Right now I can't fault these. I'm not sure if these will run in (is it a cabinet thing or driver thing) but I'm pretty sure they've improved since I finished them.

The two drivers are not a pair, one's a few years later. I do have the pair for each one but they're packed away awaiting recones (depressingly). These cabinets measure 1.06x0.69x0.43m (250L)which I think quite an old style of dimension. But they couldn't be deep and narrow due to the width of the driver, and they're very very heavily braced so no panel flapping. I love the look of them, although the dominate the room, you certainly can't ignore or disguise them. But why would you want to?

Out of interest, what are you driving them with? I've been searching recently

 

They look nice, reassuringly big, your diy's. Wish I had the room for bigger cabs myself.

I remember Hans mentioning on the Tannoy group that he treated his Gold cones with some sort of paper treatment that not only gave improvement to the sound quality but also restored the finish of the cone to something approaching an 'as new' look. Only mention this as yours look to have faded a bit - apparently the paper cones do dry out a bit, and fade etc.

 

sorry kind of skimped on the construction details. Nothing complex, just a lot of bracing. I recessed the driver into the front panel, and beefed up the thickness (from 25mm to 36mm) because of it. All other panels are 25mm (ply apart from back panel, 25mm MDF due to what I had already). Cut four horizontal panels (with two large cutouts for airflow) and a vertical division. I joined them using 25x25mm battons and 2 boxes of screws. They weigh over 70kg with drivers
padding is synthectic duvet stuffing stapled to the panels and braces. I didn't stuff empty spaces, just lined it.

 

mm I wish they could be bigger too, apparently 300L is optimum. But there are always limitations.
Do you know the name of the paper treatment? Han's site was my main guideline, I followed one of the posters cabs wuite closely (and used winISD). One of my cones is in pretty bad shape, a few scuffs and small dents. But it'd be good to preserve them and improve the current 'new' look

 

Can't remember off-hand, it was a Dutch word, I'll have a look through some of the old posts later to see if I can find it. I did have a search for the stuff but wasn't sure if what I found was the right stuff. I didn't want to press Hans on it as he seemed understandably a little reluctant to start recommending people paint stuff on their precious and valuable drivers! I recall that when you first apply it, it looks obvious, but after about 6 months your cone recovers to a good finish.

 

Oh woe

Been away for a week so I finally got down to some proper listening last night, only to dscover that one of my expensive new purchases is producing far less HF than the other. Swapped em round, swapped speaker terminals, finally ran an isolated mono track of unaccompanied female voice (panning left and right from a DAW) and I'm not imagining it. At least this explains why Bryter Later sounded so awful. Took the backs off to check there were no dodgy connections or corrosion of that 4 pin plug, only to discover that the internals don't match the photos on the sellers website - they are Lancaster Gold 15s alright, but not the ones in the picture. Suffice to say, I am mightily cheesed off. I guess it may just be dried out caps in the crossover, but these were sold as having been checked and known to be in perfect working order. I am now very skint for the next three months. Contacted the seller last night. Hopefully he'll be reasonable.

 

Bad news. Did you buy them from a dealer? If you did, I'd just send them straight back to him. Hope you get it sorted.

-- Ian

 

Got them from bigears - who seemed reputable enough. He's been in touch but reckons it's more likely to be voice coil problem. However, he claimed he didn't idnentify any problems when he tested them. Hopefully this isn't going to turn into a 'theres an problem / oh no there isn't / oh yes there is type of exchange. If it's an easy fix, then I'm happy to have it repaired and it would be a lot less hassle than boxing up and couriering something that size. Plus I just want some Tannoys!

The one that works right sounded fab on my mono test. I used a recording I'd made last week of a singer I know and have recorded abot twenty times - very strange experience being able to identify someone from their sniff between lines.

 

Damn, I haven't heard bad things about him before, and mine certainly arrived exactly as described. Sorry for recommending him now. Keep us posted as to how he responds.

-- Ian

 

John

sorry to hear the problem with your Tannoy. Just an idea: You may only ship the speaker unit for repair, not the whole cabinet. Chris Birchley of Bigears is a good chap from my buying experience.

Best wishes and good luck.

Hon

 

He's suggested just sending the tweeter coil back which should be even more straightforward hopefully. Glad the guy seems to have a good rep cos I can't afford to spend any more money on gear in the forseeable future.

 

John

Will you let us know how you get on with the repair? I will be very interested to find out how the repair is done on the voice coil of vintage Tannoys.

Good luck.

Hon

 

The instructions I've been gven are:
lay the problem cabinet on the floor face down, remove the back and 4 pin lead, remove the rear plastic 'gold' magnet cover, de-solder the 2 wires carefully, ease and wiggle the round black tweeter coil, be careful not to force it but you can gently lever it all around and then lift it off cleanly!!

I'm not sure what happens next but I'm pretty sure there is a complete disassembly diagram on one of the vintage Tannoy sites.

 

Strangely enough I just bid on a hf unit on ebay for vintage DC's:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....MEBI:IT&viewitem=&item=110150249572&rd=1&rd=1

I only bid £7.50 which won't win, so feel free to outbid me! I thought it might make a handy spare but seeing the latest posts on this thread I thought I'd mention it as it might be more useful to you.....

I'm sure bigears will sort it out for you anyway.

P.S. I took out and replaced this item on one of my Little Red Monitors I used to have, it's very simple as described above.