Got into good sound growing up with my dad's late 1960s Yamaha receiver and JBL L-100 speakers. Since that time I owned several Yamaha amps, Paradigm speakers, and finally started edging towards higher ends about five years ago with the purchase of Tekton Lore S speakers and a Red Wine Signature 15. That system sounded very natural.
I started shopping for an upgrade of some sort, and stumbled upon an opportunity to purchase vintage Tannoy 12 inch HPD gold drivers with a custom made birtch Cheviot cabinet. I am not a vintage guy, but I'm also not after bling or the latest and greatest -- just good sound. While travelling and with friends I sampled several iterations of vintage Tannoy speakers and was always impressed with thier sound. I wasn't sure the little battery powered Red Wine could drive these well, given they are probably just under 90 efficient. In fact, the amp performs extremely well with the Tannoys, with rich, deep bass, incredible mid range and a seamless transition to highs. I love the sound. It is 3D, with the sound stage in my room behind the spakers. I couldnt be happier with the sound, and I appreciate that even poor quality files sound decent.
The music I listen to is very wide ranging -- from electronica, to blues, rock, alternative, classical, lots of jazz and some world music such as Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Gypsie artists. My room is about 50x22, with lots of glass, shiny walls and stone floors -- not ideal, but the Tannoys do very well despite the limitations of the room. I do have a few carpets, wood furniture and some leather and upholstered chairs/sofas.
I have become more interested in higher quality sources -- that doesnt necessarily mean higher resolution. The HD Tracks I have purchased have mostly disappointed. I tried Qobuz and liked it, and get decent results streaming on Itunes internet radio to some jazz stations and BBC3 for classical. I love having good DJs rather than just drawing on my own library.
I have recently tried high resolution files of LPs and have found the sound to be stunning -- very much like a record, often better given that they use high quality records that would be hard to purchase and maintain. To me, this is the future of digital audio -- a strange hybrid of analogue to digital to analogue. All i can say is try it -- it sounds great.
Never thought I'd be halfway into a vintage system but all I can say is it sounds great. Hard to say what my next upgrade might be, but I'll never part with these speakers.
Just received it, will update. 15 watts, tube pre, battery powered
Wireworld Equinox 6 interconnects RCA
Just added these. Seems more clear
PNF Symphony with banana plugs
Purchased these used. They are pretty large and heavy. Can't honestly tell the difference from the Home Depot electric cable I used at this point.
Rega DAC
Purchased a used Rega DAC, has a very natural, balanced sound in my system, a good match to the red wine amp i have. I enjoy the small changes between the filters, particularly #4.
Tannoy Cheviot HPD 12 inch
Picked up a pair of 1967 HPD 12 inch drivers in a custom made Cheviot cabinet made of birch ply. The crossover is slightly modified to bring out the mid range. The speakers are simply stunning -- great sound stage, holographic imaging and a sweet tubey sound. Makes even poor music files sound decent, and his res or analogue sound amazing. Certainly not accurate.
Many thanks for your kind words. Tannoys (and tubes), have allowed me to enjoy music as I always wanted to, but didn't really know what it was until I found it, finally, with Tannoy, the second time around.
Islandman, you have a very impressive system. I am completely sold on tannoys now. I did not expect this. I agree it connects the listener to the music. I have tried them on a 300 b and indeed they sound excellent. But for now my red wine is doing fantastic at letting the music shine. I would market this combo as the ultimate budget system.
Skoczylas, even after nearly thirty years of having Tannoys, mine still surprize me with their ability to connect me, in a meaningful way, to music.
I also use HPD 315's in custom enclosures, you may wish to check them out.
A recent conversion to SET amps (300B), has been a revelation in how good Tannoys can sound. The fact you can drive them with 15 Wpc on battery power is, to me, very telling about the versatility of Tannoy Dual Concentric loudspeakers.
I had an audio buddy years ago in Boulder by the name of Jon Skoczylas - a very unusual surname. The last I heard he was in California sending vintage American gear to Asia. Any relation?
System edited: Have the hardware i need in place, now working on improving the source side. Trying different media players and qobuzz unlimited streaming.
possibly due to compression in the recording process of the CD you burned to iTunes ... some iTunes radio stations are pretty good and if they are playing a well recorded piece COULD sound better than certain things you burned
I get the same sometimes, radio sounding better than lossless recordings. And also agree that the HiFi experience is somehow bipolar. Depending on recording it can be almost sublime and sometimes incredibly lame. Your post is reasuring that maybe i am not the bibolar. lol.
Im using the m-lores in my 2nd room with an emotiva x100 amp, Spotify premium streaming to an AE -> CA DAC Magic and bluejean audio interconnect and emotiva speaker cables.
when i stream lossless stuff over AE it almost always sounds better than Spotify, but my lossless collection is limited and i really like spotify radio and playlists.
