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Ocellia vs Tannoy?

Hi,

After having been in this hobby for a while and having tried and owned different systems with speakers like Dynaudio, Coincident, Brentworth, DIY speakers from Lynn Olson and Troels Gravesen and most recently Vapor Audio Cirrus (an excellent speaker but without the high efficiency I'd like), I had the oportunity to hear a good SET amp in my system and was blown away by the musicality of it, specially the fluidity, platicity, tunefulness of the music. As I'm mainly into opera and classical, this fluidity reminded me of what I love about going to the concert halls. Unluckily, this SET didn't have the power to reproduce big scale symphonic in my 87.5 dB efficient Cirrus.

I haven't been able to erase that experience from my mind, so now I'd like to make myself a system which puts the musical values first and not the usual audiophile values (tone, dynamics, timing and fluidity vs soundstage, extension, ultimate detail, etc.).

So, in the search for a really musical speaker, I've narrowed my search to two options: Ocellia (either the .21 or the .30 Signatures), or Tannoy (either Kensington, Yorkminster or Canterbury), which many people regard as superbly musical speakers. Even of they're not the same technology (wide-bander vs Dual concentric), I think they share many of the same characteristics which I'm after: paper domes with Alnico magnets with point source emittance for vibrant, colorful and solid imaging, excellent micro and macro dynamics, a very fluid sound and good eficiency to be able to use low and mid power amps.

I know it'd be ideal to listen to both of them first, but that's not possible since I live in Mexico and neither of them has distributors here, nor do I know anyone who has either, so I'd appreciate the opinion of those of you who have heard them.

Also, my room is a bit small: 3.3 x 5 m (10' x 15'), so I don't think it could handle big speakers well.

Amplification would be a DHT SET or PP amp.

Hope you can help me
Regards,
jjbraham

Showing 2 responses by phaelon

phaelon
1,053 posts
 
Since you like Vapor, what about the Cirrus White at 91 db? Maybe not ideal, but perhaps enough in your room with you listening preferences.

From what I understand, the Tannoy’s efficiency rating can be misleading. SET amps are not recommended. But then again, maybe in your space. At any rate, the Canterbury will probably be too big.

Regarding speakers using PHY drivers, the reactions to them can be very polar - some love them and some hate them. I would try to hear them before committing.
phaelon
1,053 posts
 
Jjbraham, I haven’t heard any speaker using PHY drivers myself but would like to very much.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have made that comment about PHY speakers without the qualification that the people, who I know, who didn’t like them, don’t like any speakers using wide bandwidth drivers full range. Comments include: They don’t play loud enough, they suffer at the frequency extremes, are too colored, sound congested when confronted with complex music, and are dynamically challenged. These, of course, are opinions and are relative. But because I respect some of the people who feel this way, and have equal respect for those who disagree, I would not make an uninformed purchase unless I was buying them used at a good price - just in case I had to sell them.
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