Another wonderful pair of Tannoy speakers arrived this week, the Tannoy Mercury M20 Gold speakers. These are a bit more of a consumer friendly version of the dual concentric line or the Oxford line. Offering a veneer cabinet with a dome tweeter as opposed to the horn tweeter which reveals so much more detail.
Much smaller than the Tannoy Oxford Golds, which are my main reference speaker on the tube amp and larger than the Tannoy Mercury M2, which seem to be a modern (late80's early 90's) version of these.
I personally like the esthetics of these speakers and the driver quality is pretty good for a entry level price point Tannoy speaker.
These are the original made in Scotland units and not the licensed units that API had put out in the "C" series here and here.
So how do they stack up? Great bass response from the ported enclosure with he 8" polypropylene woofer, mid range is nice and smooth and the tweeter does a great job as any dome will do if not even better.
The speakers are not as efficient (90db) as the Oxfords (93db) and not as revealing in the total sense of the music. the sound stage is deeper with the Oxford's and more articulate, hence why the Oxford's are standard to which all other speakers are compared, especially on the tube amp.
These are speakers that other British manufactures had to compete against including numerous Mission, Celestion, B&W, KEF, JPW and numerous others, the budget audiophile competition was tight in Britain and lucky for me these speakers are here and now and they still sound fantastic.
Tannoy recently announced that they were moving their production from Scotland to China, this will make all Tannoy speaker made in Scotland only rise in value as Chinese manufacturing is notorious for cutting corners and speakers will be made to the lowest common denominator, I know, I have had Mainland Chinese refuse to buy audio gear from me regardless of the brand name if it was made in China, they know.
If you are a budding audiophile just getting into stereo or a die hard high end tube amp guy, Tannoy's are one of the best if not the best (15" Tannoy Gold's) speakers to obtain.
Much smaller than the Tannoy Oxford Golds, which are my main reference speaker on the tube amp and larger than the Tannoy Mercury M2, which seem to be a modern (late80's early 90's) version of these.
I personally like the esthetics of these speakers and the driver quality is pretty good for a entry level price point Tannoy speaker.
These are the original made in Scotland units and not the licensed units that API had put out in the "C" series here and here.
So how do they stack up? Great bass response from the ported enclosure with he 8" polypropylene woofer, mid range is nice and smooth and the tweeter does a great job as any dome will do if not even better.
The speakers are not as efficient (90db) as the Oxfords (93db) and not as revealing in the total sense of the music. the sound stage is deeper with the Oxford's and more articulate, hence why the Oxford's are standard to which all other speakers are compared, especially on the tube amp.
These are speakers that other British manufactures had to compete against including numerous Mission, Celestion, B&W, KEF, JPW and numerous others, the budget audiophile competition was tight in Britain and lucky for me these speakers are here and now and they still sound fantastic.
Tannoy recently announced that they were moving their production from Scotland to China, this will make all Tannoy speaker made in Scotland only rise in value as Chinese manufacturing is notorious for cutting corners and speakers will be made to the lowest common denominator, I know, I have had Mainland Chinese refuse to buy audio gear from me regardless of the brand name if it was made in China, they know.
If you are a budding audiophile just getting into stereo or a die hard high end tube amp guy, Tannoy's are one of the best if not the best (15" Tannoy Gold's) speakers to obtain.
Yes, these speakers are such a joy. I came across a mint pair a few years ago in a charity shop and got them for about 10 dollars. I was just getting into tube amps then and had spent all my money on a 30 watt el34 push pull integrated which was paired with another great charity shop bargain B&W DM4's (still going strong!) Later I forked out for Snell Type E's and then got Audio Note AN'J's. I've found all those speakers fantastic with the right amps/ tube amps, and if I was asked how the Audio Notes compared to those little Tannoy M20's I would say the biggest difference was the cost. They are airy, detailed, good soundstage, and good rhythmic bass. I regretfully gave them to a friend, and have sought another pair ever since! They were also my girlfriends favorite pair for aesthetic reasons ;)
ReplyDeleteI have a pair of Tannoy BM-8s bought new in the early 80s and still sounding fabulous. They look nothing like the later PBM-8, but are similar to these with an adjustment pot bottom right. I listened to a few including the concentrics, and preferred the BM-8s. At the time Tannoy had separate pro and consumer divisions. The story was that BM-8s were designed by pro but built by consumer.
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