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Tannoy Cadet 10" Reds: if you appreciate

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Posted on April 17, 2020 at 14:03:07
tinear
Audiophile

Posts: 65782
Location: Kansas City, KS
Joined: April 9, 2006
 beauty in small packages, these may be your Holy Grail. Bookshelf-sized, yes, but they will play with enough authority in an average room to do justice to symphonic/operatic selections. (However, if 100db "justice" is your desire, perhaps not).

They will resolve, convincingly, complex musical passages, though their great strength is, simply put, the reproduction of that most difficult to get-right instrument, the human voice.

From Dylan's death-rattle-like "Modern Times," to the effortless rendering of arias by the inimitable Renata Tebaldi, back around to the heart-breaking ballads of Iris DeMent, onto the island laments of Cesaria Evora, and overboard to the screaming of Ozzy--- more than once while listening have I been startled by the feeling that one of them had suddenly appeared in the room.
(originally placed in "Speakers" forum).


(At one point, I also owned a pair of Chartwell LS3/5a monitors; I kept the Cadets...).

 

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Clarification: I owned the LS3/5a pair at , posted on April 19, 2020 at 07:31:53
tinear
Audiophile

Posts: 65782
Location: Kansas City, KS
Joined: April 9, 2006
 the same time; I compared them over a year. The Cadets had all the benefits of the Chartwells, plus they had more extension in the low-end. Per my stated criteria, they were better. In one respect the Chartwells did outperform: the soundstage was immense.

 

RE: Tannoy Cadet 10" Reds: if you appreciate, posted on April 17, 2020 at 15:17:59
Bamboo Pentagon
Audiophile

Posts: 21
Location: Central Iowa
Joined: April 19, 2015
 I've always wanted to compare a set of Tannoys to my Altec Duplexes. Has anyone had enough experience with both to offer a comparison?

 

RE: Tannoy Cadet 10" Reds: if you appreciate, posted on May 5, 2020 at 18:20:02
bouncy ball
Audiophile

Posts: 1221
Location: British Columbia
Joined: July 26, 2003
 A good friend of mine had a pair of Altec 604E in original 620 cabinet, also a pair of Tannoy GRF at the same time for two years.
I were quite familiar with both. After two years of extensive comparison, he decided to keep the GRF as his final speaker.





 

RE: Tannoy Cadet 10" Reds: if you appreciate, posted on April 24, 2020 at 18:19:05
uncle mag
Audiophile

Posts: 852
Location: sf bay area
Joined: June 29, 2004
 I have some Altec 605b's and Tannoy 15" dc's. They each have a very different sound as you can imagine, both are equally musical and enjoyable. The Tannoys have noticeably better resolution, transients crack like a whip, they can shock you sometimes. Soundstage is wide and deep and fills the room with most recordings. They're vibrant and smooth at the same time.

The Altecs are in big JE labs open baffles. They have a huge soundstage, almost spooky. Imaging isn't very precise. They both sound great with high, medium and low power ss amps, 180 watt tube monoblocks, and some SET amps. I use a sub with either pair of speakers.

My favorite is the Tannoys with Psvane WE 845 tubes.



 

The Tannoy "sound" , posted on April 27, 2020 at 13:14:45
tinear
Audiophile

Posts: 65782
Location: Kansas City, KS
Joined: April 9, 2006
 indeed isn't for everyone, is it? I find the musicality, the astonishing ability to make one almost feel a singers' breath, is the singular and unique trait.

My first exposure to "hi-fi" were Altec corner horns... sooooo different, if memory serves.

 

RE: Tannoy Cadet 10" Reds: if you appreciate, posted on April 17, 2020 at 14:48:29
Wojciech
Audiophile

Posts: 4129
Joined: June 23, 2009
 Hate to say it but 10"red's where my biggest disappointment.Shame on you Romy the Kot for your shameless brags which elevated the price of those semi useless things They only played barely OK with Leak TL-50 + monoblocks in a rare instance of synergy. On the other amps they were sort of average and rather thin sounding. Definitely for collectors only and of course "music lovers in their late 70's " One can't compare them to LS3/5a since a shoe box monkey coffin only makes sense in a closet sized room. Still I enjoyed Rogers 15 Ohms LS3/5a way more than Tannoy 10 Reds. Both sold now and while I will never spend big on any Tannoy, I will have a version of LS3/5a in my closet one day.

 

Each to his own.. :-) , posted on June 17, 2020 at 20:09:00
bare
Audiophile

Posts: 1879
Joined: April 14, 2009
 Tannoy 10' DC's Were the Tannoy stepchild Not near the equal of the larger 12' or 15's Hard to believe they were related TBH.
No news there tho. The LS things Do raise an eyebrow though I remember distinctly when the sales types came an tried to sell the CBC on them (early 70's) Overwhelming response from All us staffers then was : Ewww! CBC consequently bought 3,000 pairs of 12" Tannoy golds drivers rather than face a mutiny. CBC's captive audio engineers subsequently designed suitable enclosures for them. Result was A VERY much better performing speaker. Always divergent views on most things :-)

 

RE: Each to his own.. :-) , posted on June 20, 2020 at 07:57:55
Wojciech
Audiophile

Posts: 4129
Joined: June 23, 2009
 I heard well sorted Tannoy 12" HPD based speakers which sounded very decent. If I would have to live with Tannoy speakers I would probably try to find those drivers , that is 12" HPD model and build suitable enclosures. As to mine 10" Red's I couldn't find the crossover diagram and was not willing to trash the original crossovers trying to decipher what topology Tannoy used in those sealed tar filled boxes. Using a front horn for 10" with suitable bass section could also be the way to utilize the smallest Tannoy in a modern setup. I did make a preliminary experiments and it sounded promising. Usually I like what other people like but maybe lack a little bit in enthusiasm department.

 

I see you're not a full range driver fan, posted on April 18, 2020 at 07:23:42
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
 In my speaker DIY days (back in the 90's when they were still affordable) I had a number of full range high efficiency drivers. All made claims of range, output, etc.... All of them had a"thin" sound like they were too delicate to be used. Also all of them never had the range, high or low, they originally claimed.

 

RE: I see you're not a full range driver fan, posted on April 26, 2020 at 00:40:12
KanedaK
Audiophile

Posts: 2519
Location: Brussels
Joined: April 27, 2010
 I'm not sure what you consider to be a "full range driver" in a Tannoy; it is a coaxial and thus, a two way: here a 10" mid woofer and a compression driver. I don't see why they would share the characteristics of real full-range drivers.

 

RE: I see you're not a full range driver fan, posted on April 26, 2020 at 08:34:24
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
 Coaxial, whizzer cone, dual concentric, what ever, they're a great idea but apparently extremely hard to come through with the goods.

Of the bunch the dual concentric's were the better sounding.

 

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