Tannoy Kensington SE

[mulveling]

how are the smaller Tannoy speakers? you have piqued my interest for an office rig (once i move to my new office suite in August, anyway) as Thiel doesn't sell anything small that i'm interested in, as i'd probably want to use a fairly low powered amp.

I really really loved the Tannoy Eyris DC3, which are small, fairly light & skinny floor-standers. They go for $1000-1300 on agon. Gives a good bit of the magic of the upper series, for a lot less money. Tube-friendly 89db @ 8 ohms load.

I preferred the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference monitors (w/ Revelator tweet) over the DC3 when I moved to a different apartment, but the acoustics in that place were terrible. The DC3 sounded better in a decent room. The Tyler Linbrook Signature monitors just sounded completely whack and were ugly as hell (due to size & proportions). The DC3s in a good room were the most enjoyable speaker setup I'd had, until I got the TD10s into a good room. BTW, I was driving the DC3 with a PS Audio HCA-2 and there was nothing to complain about there. The preamp was a Sugden Headmaster, which absolutely could have been improved upon for not much money.

I've also briefly heard the little Sensys DC monitors, and they sounded very nice for the money & size. The larger Eyris DC1 monitors should be VERY nice and they only sacrifice 1db sensitivity and a few Hz on the low-end, to the towers. I think ~$700-800 used is a good price on those...

[mulveling]

i like that rug, btw.

Thanks

Yep, I'm not sure what the deal was with the Linbrooks. I know the room sucked, but there was just NOTHING about them I liked - sounded like mud. I ran right back to the Taylo monitors, which I still think were very very nice.

I can heartily recommend the DC3 (or short of that, the DC1) for your application.

[luvdunhill]

Thiel doesn't sell anything small that i'm interested in

oh, didn't you check the new Audio Advisor? They're next to the Monster Cables... check em out.

[Dusty Chalk]

Needs a sub, but...Quad 9L USB active:

[jinp6301]

Wow, that looks real good. I like the fact that it has a 1/8th input on the front as well.

[Dusty Chalk]

No idea, haven't heard one. But if they're as hard to track down as the 12L actives were, it won't matter.

[Dusty Chalk]

One would think, yes.

[Voltron]

talking about the SCS4? too expensive and too hard to drive.

how good is the D/A in those, Peter? their ad company should higher an editor, though, as it should be "fewer boxes."

"fewer" is definitely proper but less parallel than "less"

[Voltron]

I correct people on that one all the time too.

[luvdunhill]

talking about the SCS4? too expensive and too hard to drive

yes, and no. I was referring to the SCS4, but making a jab at the fact that Audio Advisor, Crutchfield, etc. is now selling Thiel, which is a little sickening in my book. I don't think 87dB/4ohm is all that hard to drive, the limited 48Hz cutoff makes it a bit easier. I'd love to hear them personally, a rather cool design. I don't think the price is all that out of line, consider the driver and the rather complicated enclosure.

[luvdunhill]

if you ever get a chance to hear them, I'd love to live vicariously through that experience and read your impressions!

[luvdunhill]

i can just go ahead and tell you that they're really good, which i'm sure is the case, if you'd like

When I first saw a coaxial from Thiel I immediately didn't read any reviews for this reason.

[spritzer]

I can say that I've always liked the cheap Tannoy's and still have a set of Revolution 2's here. Not a great speaker by any means but punches far above it's weight.

[mulveling]

I can say that I've always liked the cheap Tannoy's and still have a set of Revolution 2's here. Not a great speaker by any means but punches far above it's weight.

You should get your ears on one of the nicer/larger Dual-Concentric units - 10" and up. That's been their bread & butter since the late 1940's

[spritzer]

I've heard a few of them but I still vastly prefer electrostatics. That shouldn't be too surprising though...

[Iron_Dreamer]

All I can say is that you sure can drum up a good deal of Tannoy envy, mulveling! Very nice speakers indeed.

[Zappadaddy]

I have jumped on Canterbury instead of Kensington,glenair 15 or Westminster.I brought it on thursday from Austria.They were sitting almost on the top of ALPS in 1500m height.It was real fun to be there and looking at the lakes and villages bellow and snowy mountains across the lakes.1400km in one day with old pickup was pretty hectic but it was worthy.Canterbury are playing right now and it is just out of this world and the look as well.On first picture 2 owners of Cantarbury one 74 and the other 47.

[Dusty Chalk]

I really like that room treatment there between the two speakers on the floor.

Oh, and nice view!

[mulveling]

I have jumped on Canterbury instead of Kensington,glenair 15 or Westminster.I brought it on thursday from Austria.They were sitting almost on the top of ALPS in 1500m height.It was real fun to be there and looking at the lakes and villages bellow and snowy mountains across the lakes.1400km in one day with old pickup was pretty hectic but it was worthy.Canterbury are playing right now and it is just out of this world and the look as well.On first picture 2 owners of Cantarbury one 74 and the other 47.

WOW dude, stunning!! Congrats, and NICE choice - if I had the funds I'd definitely go to the 15" Tannoys. Thanks for posting those pics. I need to post update pics of my setup, though now they'll be hopelessly outclassed by what lies above

All I can say is that you sure can drum up a good deal of Tannoy envy, mulveling! Very nice speakers indeed.

Thanks Peter, though as you can see I've just been severely 1-upped in this thread

Got some new tubes in the Eico HF-87 (NOS Sylvania tall bottle green label 6sn7gtb in place of the short bottle orange labels, Electro-Harmonix el34 in place of the Teslovaks), with more on the way (Siemens el34). Sounds like it really needed that...

I might like to preserve the Heathkit W5 tubes for special stuff, music only - those pink base GE 7581 outputs don't seem particularly cheap or plentiful ($125 per tube unmatched on one site?). Would use the Eico for more daily movies/music stuff. So I guess I'll swap cables as long as it doesn't seem to put too much wear/tear on the binding posts.

[Hopstretch]

Speaking of 15" Tannoy drivers, what do you think of these custom horns?

[Zappadaddy]

Now I need to fing the proper iron to feed these beasts.Any suggestions?One adept is ASR Emitter.Anyone heard this german company?

[Dusty Chalk]

Jesus christ that's gorgeous -- corner loading and what looks like at least partially to be transmission line.

[faust3d]

This is even cooler Carfrae

[Voltron]

Hopefully, -=she=- did not do the stuffing of batting in there.

[Dusty Chalk]

faust3d -- I don't really go for those Lowther-based designs, I don't know why.