Big thanks to Dev for his hospitality yesterday and for keeping me fed with some lovely food. Shame that Joseph had car problems and couldn't make it.
I took along a small macbook pro and pocket hard drive which we connected optically to Dev's Meridian DAC. I love computer audio - 1000 lossless albums that can sit in a shirt pocket and travel anywhere.
We had a good listen to the Cheviots which have been effectively rebuilt.
From speaking with Joseph I understand that the speakers have been rewired, crossovers rebuilt and the 12" DC drivers have been re-coned and coiled - so effectively a brand new driver.
I've heard a few Tannoys now, my own Chesters and LGMs, some 15" Golds, some more recent 15" pro DMT monitors and Dev's D700s.
The Cheviot shares a few characteristics with all of them. Music is always clean and unforced with a sense that the speakers is never working hard. Very hard to convey that in words but it remains the preserve of large speakers and drivers IMO. Best way to describe the effect is that the soundstage, tonality and dynamic contrasts do not shift unduly with changes to replay level.
These Cheviots seemed more extended and open at the very top than I recall from other DC drivers using the pepperpot tweeter. They filled the (large) room easily and images were stable as you'd expect from the DC driver. The expected big, open and spacious sound was a very easy listen for many hours and there was the usual lack of stunt effects - no silly bass lift of mid humps to make the speaker impress on selected demo recording. These sounded good on everything we played.
This is still a relatively small Tannoy enclosure and bass, while natural and in good proportion to the rest of the range, didn't get particularly low. The D700 goes considerably lower and with greater authority.
The speaker was sometimes a bit too distant and I suspect more than a little LS3/5 effect in the presence band - I wonder if the crossover build was done precisely to original spec or if it (and therefore the characteristics) has been modified.
There was also some cabinet contribution on clean speech recordings so perhaps some work in that area might reap rewards.
The cabinet is pretty shallow and so the speaker can sit fairly close to a rear wall, which is always useful with a large speaker.
The day's play didn't stop at the Cheviots and I was interested to hear the Crown K2 amp that was sitting unused on the carpet.
Never heard one of these monsters and I'm glad that Dev let me listen in place of the valve Rogue amp. The bottom end was clearly better but I confess to not finding anything objectionable about the rest of the performance, and I'd expected to find it a bit rough and uncouth. It did very well IMO and given the used prices of the K1 & K2 these are something of bargain.