Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini

Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

I have been working for a year or so on a vintage system for my home office.
From 1960 Vintage ...
I found and restored two components made in the year I was born (1960). The first is a Thorens TD-124 mkII and the other a Fisher 600 receiver.
The only thing the vintage system was missing was a decent vintage, or vintage-looking, set of speakers. Since I am dealing with limited space, Klipsches or Tannoys were out of the question. Until I saw a review of the Tannoy Prestige Mini - A 14" version of a classic Tannoy design - equipped with a bonafide dual-concentric driver.
From 1960 Vintage ...
Luck was on my side and I was able to buy a mint pair on eBay for $1,025 (retail is $1,800).
When they arrived I did an A/B test with my main speakers (Quad 22L) and the difference was quite startling. The Quads, with a soft-dome tweeter, have a great, warm and laid-back sound that I truly love. The Tannoy, with their titanium dome tweeter, were "in-your-face", with high frequency response that would not quit and great (Wilson-like) speed - which is not something I am too terribly fond of. If they were so forward with my all-tube Fisher 600, I could not imagine what they'd sound like with solid-state gear.
The bottom-end of the Tannoy was impressive - considering their size - but it was hard to pay too much attention to it with the upper octaves so forward.
I was ready to admit that I made a mistake. This might have been a great speaker, but not the kind of speaker I wanted for my warm, laid-back, vintage system. But I decided to give it a few more days before putting it back for sale on eBay or craigslist.
I am glad I waited.
Whoever owned the speakers before me mustn't have played them much - if at all. Over the next few days I witnessed a very obvious break-in. The highs mellowed considerably and went from needing a 3-6 db correction (the Fisher has tone controls) to playing very well flat. The speaker went from harsh to warm without losing its "speed".
Finally, with the distracting high-end out of the question, I could focus on the other aspects of the sound.
The Tannoy mini's best feature, IMO, is their imaging. It's rock steady witha palpable presence. I assume that having concentric drivers helps with that.
Curiously, the sound-stage is about a foot higher than where I'd expect it to be. I thought the stands I had for them were too short, but they turned out to be perfect.
These speakers are also great at disappearing - not too surprising given their diminutive size, but still a very welcome trait in my book.
With their speed they are amazing on acoustic music, especially acoustic guitar; lots of detail - even with the old Fisher.
They sound great at low volume (another important criteria for me) but have no problem filling my 11x14 room with the 15-20 or so watts from the Fisher 600 to a level loud enough that I would not want to listen to it.
All and all, a very satisfying speaker that, matched with the right sources/amplification, can deliver an amazingly realistic and palpable sound-stage.
Finally, they look amazing.
For me, the ultimate criteria for rating audio hardware is how hard it is for me to turn the system off. For the past couple of weeks, it's been very hard to end my listening sessions ... I always want to linger for a couple of more tracks.
Now that I've listened to them, I'd probably be inclined to spend $1,800 to buy them new if I had to - fortunately I don't have to.
If you get a chance to audition them - don't miss it.
Hope you enjoyed this mini-review, I put a couple of pics to liven things up.
Alberto
P.S. For sources I used a Rega Apollo CPD and a Thorens TD-124mkI/SME 3009II/Audiotechnica 440mla. I used the phono stage in the Fisher 600. I used relatively thick, but non-brand, speaker cable and non-fancy interconnects.

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Topic - Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini - albertoderoma 21:07:44 11/12/06 (4)

Re: Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini - GaryAR 15:56:59 11/13/06 (0)

Re: Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini - jdwaudio 11:35:24 11/13/06 (0)

Re: Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini - Budrew 10:18:43 11/13/06 (1)

Re: Mini-review of Tannoy Autograph Mini - albertoderoma 13:07:07 11/13/06 (0)

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