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As some of you know I’m playing last couple days with Red 10” Tannoys from 60s. My selection of 10” was not accidental -I would like to get as less as possible of that “Tannoy bass” but I did run very far  the “Reds” turned out to have 27Hz open air resonance – juts 1Hz above the 15”…. not good...

My first reaction when I got them was my absolute thrill about the enclosure. It is 21x21x28m sealed and it made SO SMARTLY (for a sensible mind that I undoubtedly possess ;-) that I feel it find myself more to valuable the cabinet then the drivers. Yes it “responses” like a freaking shoebox or like a shattered guitar deck.  Anyhow, the subject of the Tannoys enclosure I would like to live alone.  It is another whole universe…

What I would like to share would be my negative observations about my Tannoy. Sure, there are great numbers of positive moments in the Red’s Sound. They are known for whoever is able to get Sound out of the Tannoys and I WILL NOT repeat those positive things. So, after the two days of working, trying to get the best out of my Reds, finding a very cool place for them in my room (this is absolutely critical!) I sat to listen some music. The Reds were driven by a fill-range Melquiades with plate loaded at 850Ohm. Here are some of my negative observations that I scratch in my log (my common practice) during my listening..

1) A 15W SET is not enough. Sure, it produced enough volume for my room but this SET does sound better with more sensitive load, not to mention that volume is not important.

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With my Milq’s 15W I have no problems with the Tannoy’s dynamic or compression, in fact it is exceptionally good for 93dB-sensitive speaker. However, the HF do have that “yellowness”. I call it the “fried tone of Autumn Sound” and to me - it is undeniable evidence that a SET drive inefficient load. Perhaps I need to load my output stage more and go for 500-600 Ohm on plate. I would get some power  this way and it look like the driver harmonically might handle more plate loading , however I did not try it so far. Stull, I have a feeling that a few watts more might not do the justness and to drive the older Tannoy Red with a SET and to “get the sound in the way how it should be” it might require to use an amp of 30W-40W. Here is where the transmission tube most likely should be used…

2) For whatever reason the Reds are super sensitive to the Melquiades plate. It is actually so sensitive that it was even laughable. Changing the plate current for 5mA affects sound very tangibly. I was listing it and kept wondering. Usually it happens when plate loading is way out the correct dumping and it might be the case. Well, since Milq allow to gradually loading of plate from 34:1 to 4.25:1 (thanks to LL1627) I will figure out. With 34:1 ratio I might drive that 2.5Ohn voice coil directly without any Tannoy’s transformer…. Will see….

3) The infamous Tannoy bass is freaking irritating! I never linked it and now I actually go annoyed by it. Yes, the Tannoy’s bass (actually it is not the Tannoy-only bass but the very smartly-resonating cabinets bass; some other have it as well – Vitavox for instance) is a phenomenal audio-hoax. It is superbly difficult to accomplish and it is amazingly pleasant to experience but… to see at a freak-show a woman with 4 ears or a man with 3 legs perhaps is an “amazing” experience as well, so what? With all beauty of that Tannoy’s bass and the Tannoy’s lower midrange (in original enclosure only) I felt that after a few CDs that this honey tasted bass begin to annoy me. The problem is that in some music and some recordings it “works” and in some music/recordings that bass actually sound ridicules. In fact when  this bass dose not work I instead of listening music get constant turning my listening attention of that artificial bass glorification… Unfortunately it is imposable to shut down that “honey bass exaltation” and it is unfortunately ever-present in ANY music, any instrument, any singer, any orchestra, any performing hall…. It is what I call for years as “the Dean Reed tone”. The Americans might not know this performer but he is actually an American singer…

4) In the end I did surmised for myself that from what I heard the Tannoy can not handle complex music. Perhaps, it relates to the fact that I have no power to driver  the “Reds” with my amp but so far, with complex and demanding marital (and I do not mean just volume), the Tannoys get crashed and “go shallow”. I kind of accustomed that Macondo swallows absolutely everything and the Tannoy’s frightening of “complexity” is not what I like. Tannoy acts very interesting: it is it very detailed and very precise but when a complexity grows it begins to paint the Sound with larger and larger brushes, building up more anti-detailed Sound. It is not necessary a bad thing but I am not tuned to this type of presentation. So far I feel that Reds are a good solution for quartets or quintets but even Cecilia Bartoli with a small group of barokko instruments was able to stress the Reds up to the point where speakers were slightly “loosing”…

This is all for now….

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