New Family members...

....have arrived. Well it was bound to happen. After my complete musical satisfaction with my recent new MC I went to sort the other transducer end out. Not that I was unhappy with the Peak Consults Princess Signature. They are to my mind the finest standmounts you can buy. I was just starting to miss some low notes now and then once the wick went up, even though I had two subs plumbed in, something kept telling me that it could be better. Or maybe not better, just needed to take another step on my chosen road. Over the last year I have sort of turned my back on hifi and concentrated on assembling a purely musical system (if that makes sense as one shouldn't be exclusive of the other, but so often is). So yesterday the new members arrived. It took two of us to unpack and slide them into position. Out went the subs and the Manley Snappers to make room for the return of the king i.e my Unison Research Performance. The Unison didn't have enough clout for the Peaks, hence my getting the Manleys, but gels perfectley with the new kids on the block. The boxes they came in were huge and the whole speaker was really well protected. As it should be for the price and since the finish is outstanding and time consuming.
Well I only did a short listen as I am short on time at the moment, but what I have heard fixed a stupid perma-grin on my ugly face. I shall report in a couple of weeks once we got to know each other. Just thought for those who are interested you would like to know.
So here are the beasties::23:

Tannoy Glenair. From their prestige Range in American Cherry wood and with a 15inch dual concentric driver. The HF unit sits behind the cone in the centre and is a compression driver. So the cone acts as a horn and the whole sound comes from a single source.

Hope everyone is well.

Peace

:4:

And fully clothed.

As always brother, good to know you're around. I'd blow you some heat over your recent absences but I probably haven't been too prolific either of late.

You never fail to surprise, although I suppose some hints were there---you've always had a soft spot for that Unison. I know Tannoy enjoys a solid reputation on your side of the pond but I know little else. I'll remain hopeful for some descriptions and insights, though I'll go out on a limb and guess that you're enjoying better coherency from those big woofers rather than the sub/sat combo. And, cheers to the return of the king.

Peace,
M

PS Not alot of speakers look as good with the grilles on as off but they did a nice job. The second picture begins to highlight the wood as well but I suspect that we as spectators can't truly appreciate them bad boys from pics alone.

holy mother of jesus!! :D

now this, I didn't see coming :)

CONGRATS Bernd, and I hope you'll enjoy them for a long time!!

they are really nice looking (and I bet really nice sounding) speakers btw, and they're big :)

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Thanks Bert. And no worries. I didn't see it coming also and I do surprise myself sometimes. How is the studying going?

Bobs. I hold my hands up and plead guilty as charged. But I just had hardly any spare time those last few weeks. Just enough to audition some speakers.:hand: I will have to catch up and see what has been going on. And thanks for the kind words.

Peace

:4:

Indeed, you never cease to surprise:) Congratulations on this new purchase, I sure bet they sound incredible!
It's funny because Tannoy doesn't seem to be all that popular if we take out its high end and low end products. Or perhaps I'm wrong.
May I ask which other speakers you were considering? Did you know someone who had these?
I never realised you were based in the UK, my geography is terrible (I obviously didn't know where Cheshire was until Bob mentioned that you were the other side of the pond).
Anyway, I hope you end out enjoying these as much or more that the Consults. Speaking of which, did you have those high passed?
Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bernd

....

Tannoy Glenair. From their prestige Range in American Cherry wood and with a 15inch dual concentric driver. The HF unit sits behind the cone in the centre and is a compression driver. So the cone acts as a horn and the whole sound comes from a single source.

Hope everyone is well.

Peace

:4:

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But it's only new speakers. They look swell, though. You'll have to give us your impressions soon. Compression driver? Humm ... high efficiency, no doubt. Maybe next you'll be "upgrading" your amp to a 3 wpc OTL or the like??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by audio amateur

Indeed, you never cease to surprise:) Congratulations on this new purchase, I sure bet they sound incredible!
It's funny because Tannoy doesn't seem to be all that popular if we take out its high end and low end products. Or perhaps I'm wrong.
May I ask which other speakers you were considering? Did you know someone who had these?
I never realised you were based in the UK, my geography is terrible (I obviously didn't know where Cheshire was until Bob mentioned that you were the other side of the pond).
Anyway, I hope you end out enjoying these as much or more that the Consults. Speaking of which, did you have those high passed?
Cheers

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Thanks for the kind words. No I didn't have the Peaks high passed. The RELs connect to the speaker terminals at the amp.i.e. get the full signal. You just adjust the cut off point. I think you're right about the middle ground Tannoys. Not that popular. I do know that the Prestige range is very well thought off all over the world. A client of mine has the Turnberrys and I always liked what they did, just far too big for my room. Even though big speakers can work in a small room, just needs a little dedication and patience to find the right speaker and position. I went to my dealer and he had the Glenair set up. I did not compare to any others, I just really liked what they gave me, especially the 15 inch one, much better then the 10'. I was looking for the sound I hear at a small scale gig. Just want something to enjoy my music with. We shall see. For now these are really nice sounding and I am enjoying them, and my amp likes them.:22:

Peace

:21:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feanor

But it's only new speakers. They look swell, though. You'll have to give us your impressions soon. Compression driver? Humm ... high efficiency, no doubt. Maybe next you'll be "upgrading" your amp to a 3 wpc OTL or the like??

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Speakers first then puppies. How are you Bill? I hope well. Susan has taken the expectant mum to be scanned as we speak. So we shall know in a little while how many are due to pop out on June 22nd.
The Tannoys are sort of high efficient. 95db 8 ohm. The sound is just vast and so lifelike. Anyway these are my first impressions only.

Peace

:23:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bernd

Speakers first then puppies. How are you Bill? I hope well. Susan has taken the expectant mum to be scanned as we speak. So we shall know in a little while how many are due to pop out on June 22nd.
The Tannoys are sort of high efficient. 95db 8 ohm. The sound is just vast and so lifelike. Anyway these are my first impressions only.

Peace

:23:

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95dB, eh? According to RGA you should only need 7-8 wpc; right there in SET OTL territory.

Good luck to b!tch and whelps. I'm fine BTW: thanks.

What? No puppy pics?! What a gip!

Hi Bernd, I'm very new here.

Wow, they are more beautiful than her majesty! Your photos of the Glenair's had me grinning like a Cheshire cat. I especially like the photo of them in the nude. What a stunning driver. I saw some of the big Tannoy's at several shops when I was in Japan visiting my wife's family. They are all great examples of the classic speaker designs. The trapezoidal cabinet on the Glenair combines the old with the new in a modern classy mix. It's great to see a Cestrian buy a British speaker made with American Cherry veneer. Most lovely indeed!

Hope you don't mind if I be so bold as to put a Tannoy link here so other's can read and see the company info I just enjoyed. Looking forward to your further comments.

http://www.tannoy-speakers.com/s.php...e=Glenair&s=27

RR6 :thumbsup:

PS: Say hello to Paul if you run into him. (Heather is so phony)

I don't know if I have talked to you much if at all Bernd.

I had the chance to hear a number of Tannoy Prestige speakers and they were ALL a true class act all the way - highly musical all day listenable. To me that is what hi-fi ought to be but somewhere got lost. It's a real shame that dealers in the west carry tiny ass looks first slim line loudspeakers when vastly better loudspeakers form Tannoy are out there. What I found interesting is that several places sold these huge Tannoys and large horns in Korea where apartments are small - even rich people's apartments - while in the west people have massive homes and for some reason try to conserve space for Totems and Paradigms etc which sound completely and utterly aneamic and all of their like minded competitors.

I once said that if I could run an audio shop where I got to choose what I wanted to carry - the Tannoy Prestige line would be one of the lines I would sell. I was roundly impressed with the the smaller Kensington, Stirling, and the big giant humongous Westminister. I did not hear the Glenair but I got the sense of a liek sound through the 3 I heard. Terrific speakers - long past. It proves once again that the older designs mated with quality parts sound superior to stuff coming out with lots of technobabble in the press but weakass sound.

The Tannoy also has the added bonus of taking advantage of lower powered SET amplifiers allowing the superior transient tone timbre decay and overall organic sound to come through the loudspeakers.

In fact the next time I'm at my dealer I may try and talk them into try bringing a pair in and see if they can sell. Currently Tannoy Prestige speakers is the only speaker line along with Audio Note, Reference 3a, and the Quad 989 that I would want to own. 20 years over a 100 loudspeakers.

I will be joining an audio publication soon as a reviewer and I will be putting a request in for some Tannoy speakers - they are SERIOUSLY under represented in North America.

Congrats on what is sure to be a glorious long term musical treat.

Bernd those are incredibly beautiful speakers. I have always enjoyed point source loudspeakers. I have heard some good concentric drivers but I would love to hear those. Enjoy the beautiful music they will make.

6moons.com likes them:

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/tannoy3/glenair.html

Road Runner

Sometimes I feel like I'm a step ahead of the game - I read the review you posted and the reviewer runs a lot of Audio Note with this Tannoy Glenair - Great minds think alike if I do say so myself (and I'd be the only one saying it so...:yesnod:

A number of people prefer the 2A3 amps which have a tighter sound than the lusher fatter sounding Meishu. Now I really want to try them or some other Tannoy.

I heard the Kensington with a SET and a turntable both of which I don;t recall unfortunately and the sound was very impressive indeed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GMichael

What? No puppy pics?! What a gip!

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Hey Mike how is it going? Great to hear from you. You want puppy pics........well here you go.

....all the kind words guys. Roadrunner, welcome to our little family and thanks for posting the links. I will say hello to Paul (even though I am not their biggest fan).
And RGA, no we have not communicated on here and good luck to you, should you decide to spread the Tannoy word in the forthcomming venture. I think in your informative post you have hit the nail on the head. Thanks. As for SET. My amp (even though it uses KT88s) has been designed to run in SET mode. Three Power valves each side, it displays a real grip with SETs strenghts and the 40 watts are more then sufficient. The other thing I had to do last night, since the Glenairs are pretty sensitive, reduce the MC gain on the Steelhead from 60db to 55db in order to give me more movement of the Volume pot, and consequently less noise. I prefer my amps to amplify rather than to have only a small window to move the Volume pot in. Again only had a very short hour last night, but I have the weekend off (and it's a long one) to really get to know the Glenairs. Years ago I had a great listening experience to a pair of Zingali Home Monitors 115. Again big driver and HF Horn. That stayed with me. I should have bought a pair then. Unfortunatly they stopped making them and the new range just does not do it for me. But back to the Tannoys. They have given me that experience, I had all those years ago, back. I agree that with the Glenair, Tannoy have managed to keep old and proven technology with modern design. The crossover is very simple and uses high quality parts (Hovland). The Driver cone hardly moves when listening yet fills the room with life-like images, even at very low level.
That's it for now.

Peace

:21:

RGA.....Interesting. Audio Note is based in Kawasaki City in Japan (near Tokyo). My wife is Japanese and grew up in the adjacent city, Yokohama. She says Meishu roughly translated means excellent performer. (She says meishu pronounced the same but written with different Japanese Kangi symbols means excellent sake or excellent alcoholic drink) I wonder which meaning Mr. Kondo had in mind. Maybe that explains your describing it as lusher sounding. I don't know about you Canucks but down here in the State of Worshington the word lush also means a drunkard! (Ha!)

RR6

Yeah but can they produce any bass????? ......... :)
All kidding aside those are some nice speakers, Congratulations!!!
Overall set up looks very good as well!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoadRunner6

RGA.....Interesting. Audio Note is based in Kawasaki City in Japan (near Tokyo). My wife is Japanese and grew up in the adjacent city, Yokohama. She says Meishu roughly translated means excellent performer. (She says meishu pronounced the same but written with different Japanese Kangi symbols means excellent sake or excellent alcoholic drink) I wonder which meaning Mr. Kondo had in mind. Maybe that explains your describing it as lusher sounding. I don't know about you Canucks but down here in the State of Worshington the word lush also means a drunkard! (Ha!)

RR6

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Canada is basically a bit of America with a big dose of Britain and a 40% helping of French depending where you live.

Audio Note was formed by Kondo in the 1970s but it only became a known product in the west when Peter Qvortrup began a partnership in the late 1980s - he owned Audio Innovations or something - sold it and formed Audio Note UK. The UK was responsible for the affordable lines and created all the digital products, speakers, turntables etc. Kondo made the ultra expensive products Ongaku and Gaku-On and M10 preamp etc.

Interestingly, Peter Qvortrup (Denmark) was the one who named all of the products. Kondo and Peter after a 20 year partnership ended and two companies formed - AN UK and Kondo. Kondo died a few years back but the company is still going and making good stuff apparently.

AN UK has some interesting names from Japan and Korea - they have an amp called the Jinro coming. Jinro is a company making Soju - Given Peter's love for wine - I would bet the names lean to that. Though the Meishu has a double meaning would be certainly a good choice. The fact that Meishue sounds like "me too" might be a triple meaning.

I just got back from teaching in Korea for 2 years and I did have a trip to Fukuoka and was very impressed - what a beautiful city. I might teach in Japan - but Nova - a big foreign language school went bankrupt so the job market is likely flooded there right now. I have a full teaching degree and an English degree which would put me in a better position but it's a back up plan right now.

My amp is called the OTO and I don't know what it stands for. It is their entry level integrated and maybe their best seller - it's been selling now for nearly 20 years.

Other amps are SORO, Kageki, Kegon, Neiro. Ongaku is their top integrated at a whopping 27 watts per channel and a ridiculous $50,000.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bernd

Hey Mike how is it going? Great to hear from you. You want puppy pics........well here you go.

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Oh! A sonic image? Very fitting. I look forward to more pics when they are available.
Congrats on the speakers too. They look impressive.

Hi RGA,

Good to see you back.

I was going thru some boring thread titles then..... KABAM!!!

Congrats Bernzy. They look lovely and just makes more sense to you. I never really understood why you got Snappers, except for synegy. It's great seeing Performance back in your rotation with a pair of masterpiece.

Thanks for sharing your new experience.

JRA

PS, that some fancy area rug you got there, B.
I think it really ties the room together. What is that made of? Organic Polyester?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrhymeammo

I was going thru some boring thread titles then..... KABAM!!!

Congrats Bernzy. They look lovely and just makes more sense to you. I never really understood why you got Snappers, except for synegy. It's great seeing Performance back in your rotation with a pair of masterpiece.

Thanks for sharing your new experience.

JRA

PS, that some fancy area rug you got there, B.
I think it really ties the room together. What is that made of? Organic Polyester?

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Hey Hiro, how is it going, and thanks for the comment. Ah the Snappers. After I got the KR Audio and found out that a) KR stopped making tubes and b) it didn't have the power I would like, I went and swapped it for the Snappers. For the increase in power and Synergy with the Steelhead. The Snappers are fine amps, just not as refined as the URs Performance.
And the rug I hear you ask? Well it's all naturel. It's a Mountain goat skin. I have got another in front of the sofa.

Hang loose friend.

Peace

:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GMichael

Oh! A sonic image? Very fitting. I look forward to more pics when they are available.
Congrats on the speakers too. They look impressive.

Hi RGA,

Good to see you back.

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Thanks Mike. We are going to have at least three puppies. Pics will be posted.:thumbsup: