In 1960 or 1961, when I was in the ninth or tenth grade, my overindulgent father bought me my first serious stereo system - University 6303 15" coaxes; Dynaco Stereo 70; PAM pre-amps with stereo adapter; Weathers 'table with Shure Studio Dynetic arm and cartridge; and a Fisher 202R tuner.
Flushed with gratitude, I swapped the Universities and some cash for a single 15" Tannoy Silver in a 15-cubic foot Ablewood enclosure - a move that taxed my father's benevolence, but one that I never regretted.
Impressionable youth that I was, I had come under the thrall of a Tannoy cult led by Michael Humphries, a salesman in the audio department of Sam Goody's in Paramus, New Jersey. He would fervidly recommend Tannoy to every Sam Goody customer. Since the store didn't carry the line, this made Mr. Goody quite unhappy.
Some time later, I bought a mate for my single Tannoy. For the next fifty years to the present, my house has always been home to a pair or two of Tannoys - Silvers, Golds, Reds, HPDs, and currently, a pair of GRF Memories with 3839M drivers. The GRF Memory is from the Prestige line.
I confess to having dalliances with other speakers - Quads with JBL subs and Decca ribbons; Beveridge Model 2SWs - I could go on and on. But in the end, these belonged in a category I call Audio Ephemera. With this class of equipment, you never know when disaster is about to strike.
So instead of being soothed or stimulated by the music, you find yourself in a constant state of adrenal depletion, as in "What was that? Did you hear it too? Was something buzzing? Or is it on the record?"
As your audio nervosa worsens, you start picking out music that you think your speakers will like, and won't expose their Achilles' Heel. Tannoys are anything but fussy or delicate. They don't have to go into the shop because you had a couple of drinks, and goosed up the gain. This should not be surprising, since under their evening clothes, they are rock-ribbed studio monitors.
My wife will soon be retiring, and we'll be moving to a much smaller home. She would like to replace the Tannoys with something much smaller.
There is nothing I wouldn't do to make my wife happy - no spouse has ever put up with more. That doesn't mean that I can't lobby on behalf of my Tannoys. One of the Dual Concentric's many virtues is that even when listening to a big Tannoy in a small living room, they still sound great. In fact, even though my present living room is quite large, I love listening to my Tannoys in the near field. They are the least placement-dependent speakers I know, sounding great in rooms of all sizes, in and out of their unusually wide sweet spot.
Because of its dual concentric design, there is none of the discontinuity between drivers that plagues many speakers, especially the large and complicated kind. The Tannoy's point-source presentation, combined with its high efficiency and low distortion, makes it possible to lose momentary awareness that you listening to speakers at all.
My wife and I listen to quite a bit of live music. Last week, we were sitting in the fifth row at a dress rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic. From this perspective, the power of the Phil at full cry is indescribable. Such rare moments remind me of what a vainglorious path we audiophiles walk.
But sometimes, when everything is right, Tannoys can get you pretty damn close to a balcony seat in a real concert hall. And that's not too shabby for a pair of speakers.
If anybody is interested in discussing my wife's happiness, my email address is askchefhenry@optimum.net.
