Speaker suggestions

I'm thinking of downsizing my speakers, as of late I'm beginning to think that they dominate my room too much (being whoppers) and would probably suit a larger room. I'm looking at dropping down to standmount speakers, and would welcome suggestions. I've had large-ish Tannoys for several years and like their big open sound, but am happy to take on board any suggestions for a new approach.

They'll be running off a Copland integrated valve amp (el34 approx 25wpc) with an Arcam Alpha 8SE cdp and LP12.

Budget will be whatever I get for my Tannoys, probably in the region of £450-500, and I'll probably go 2nd hand as usual.

Bring it on ........

 

Hmm, what Tannoys do you have?

 

What about one of the IPL kit speakers? I hear that the new magnesium S3tlm's sound very good. They are in your budget if you don't mind a little DIY.

 

Hiya.

John at MAX has some decent stand mounts in his ex-dem kit at the moment

http://www.midlandaudiox-change.co.uk/

I'd reccomend making a trip. Spendor, ATC, Penn, Sonus Faber, Audio Physic - that's an unusually large amount of standmounts to have in sec/hand / exdem IMO.

I think I know where you can get some Revel M20's second hand too. Send me a PM if that's a model you take interest in.


Personally (as someone who has behemoths in a 17ft lounge) I would keep what you have

 

Depending on what Tannoys you have, you may be able to slip the same drivers into smaller cabinets.

 

What is your musical taste, what do you crave in your sound?

 

penance: My Tannoys are 12" Golds in my DIY cabinets.

Nuuk/Baudrillard: I'm not completely sure whether I want more DIY quite so soon after making the cabinets I'm using at the moment; a lot of fun but enough for a while I think so I'll not look into kits or new cabs. Thanks for the suggestion though.

bottleneck: I gotta say I don't frequent hifi shops really but perhaps this is a good time to start. I really ought to listen to some smaller speakers before I commit myself to selling my Tannoys, and I'm not in a desperate hurry so maybe a couple of trips may be in order. It's a long time since I seriously tried small speakers; I had a pair of 70's Kef Chorales for about 10 minutes , and a pair of small Celestions in a spare room setup a handful of years ago that were fine in that capacity, but I wasn't taken with them in my main setup.

Garmt: I listen mainly to guitar based music from the 60's to the present, with a bit of funk and soul thrown in for good measure. The one thing I don't listen to is dance music though. I like a lively dynamic sound, exciting rather than 'safe', if you know what I mean.

Do you think I'm better off sticking with newer models rather than going for established classics?

 

Classics are classics for a reason... How about the Epos ES14 or ES11?

 

Keep an eye open for Monitor Audio Gold Reference/Signature 10's.

Also look for PMC DB1's.

Or... Get a pair of Accuton C89-T6 mid/bass drivers and a pair of B&G NEO3 tweeters and pop them in a 28liter ported standmount (vent 5cm wide and 15cm long) case with an Xover around 2.3KHz and a pad of 3-4dB on the tweeter.

 

I'm not sure that a Tannoy Gold lover would like a PMC or MAs TBH.

LT, I'd suggest keeping the Tannoys, but if you really are serious about replacing them then try home auditioning the standmounts recommended by others over a few days. Don't rush into a decision. My favourite standmounts are Dynaudio Contours.

 

Lets look at the match with the Copland: it symply rules out some designs in my opinion, like ATC and Dynaudio. Both crave much more power. PMC and MA are great, but I think not for TS (and not for me ).

I also would like to add Chario. Some great standmounts, like Hiper 1000.

 

Agreed, low sensitivity and impedence means that Dynaudios need an amp with oodles of punch. That is why I wouldn't recommend them, but they are still my favourites.

 

O.k. Point taken...

 

Amphion ION's

I quite liked them at the show. I've got a couple of pairs comming in. I can tell you what they are like when I get to try them at home.

If they don't go low enough you can alway get a sub

 

I second this piece of advice! Swapping a superb driver like a Tannoy 12" Gold for a cheaper driver is going backwards big time!

Are you sure there aren't any smaller, possibly older, Tannoy cabs (ie fully assembled and not needing any DIY) that would house your 12s? What are the dimensions of your current DIY cabs?


Edit: And definitely try before you buy as a speaker has the biggest overall effect on a system's sound, although I'm sure you'll know this already!

 

My current cabs are just over a metre tall by about 36cm wide at the front and 30cm ish front to back. The drivers would fit into any 12" HPD or older cabs so a pair of Devon cabinets would work (the only cabs for older 12" drivers that could really be regarded as suitable for stands that I can think of), but I'm not sure where I'd find a pair.

I think I'm going to do as suggested and to do some serious auditioning before I get to the stage of selling the Tannoys, as it seems that at least some of you clearly believe I'm better of keeping what I have, and I certainly don't want to make any rash and regrettable decisions. There's a couple of hifi shops in Yeovil so I'll pop in over the next few days to see what I can get to listen to!

 

Very wise move!

How about a 10" Gold? It has been said that the mid-range of the Tannoy 10" is actually superior to that of to the 12 and 15.

But Tannoys do tend to work at their very best in larger cabinets (the larger the better) so if you want to go really small it might be best to change make of speakers. But I wouldn't consider cheap ones that cost, say, under a grand new (minimum) or you may end up with a downgrade of sorts- IMO of course. Just pick up a 12" Gold and compare it to a cheapish modern driver.

 

question, does anybody here like pro-acs or the new castle range? i still have in my storage room two pairs of tannoy cheviot's, i grew up with tannoy, also have a original pair of buckinghams, just a question as to why nobody mentions proac! "celef" as they were, regards nando.

 

I thought the DB1 might suit well as they sound like much larger speakers due to the deep bass.

If you want the 'Large Tannoy' sound in a standmount though, I doubt you will find it. The Autograph doesn't sound very good IMO either.

I still think the best route is to build some Accuton based standmounts, it is not much DIY to make some small boxes like that and solder a few Xover components together. Definitely the biggest bang for the buck.

 

The DB1s are a good recommendation of small speaker.

However, when I saw this thread I couldnt help but chime in as it reminded me of a similar situation to my own.

A few years ago, I sold a great pair of speakers and bought a smaller pair of PMCs. The speakers sold were JBL 4312s- a well designed 3-way large standmount with 12" drivers and heavy alNIco magnets (not that different from a Gold 12") and were a limited late 90s edition that were distributed in the UK for a few short years by Harman but now only in Japan.

My reason for selling them was not that they were too big (I personally do not mind using large speakers in small spaces, as long as they are reasonably rolled off) but that I hadn't got on too well with their midrange, although had never tried valves at that point.

I bought a pair of PMC TB2s and immediately regretted the whole swap over (there was no contest) because re-obtaining the JBLs was and still is very hard. Not to say that the TB2s weren't decent speakers (they are) but really special drivers, such as those JBLs and Tannoys, don't exactly grow on trees.