Spendor A1 vs Tannoy Autograph Mini's

First, I take your point on the Decware, and Steve Deckert agreed with you!  That insight extended to the Luxman even at 10 watts.

Following up. I was able to audition the Luxman SQ-N150 with the Tannoy Autograph Mini's and decided not to got forward with the Luxman. In the Tannoy specs they advocate 20 watts as a minimum. Now, in most cases the Luxman worked very well. Yet, with some recordings they sounded bright. In the case of The Clash's,"Rock the Casbah," the high treble, guitar distortion at the start of the song literally makes one take pause. Another track, from Crash Test Dummies,"God shuffled his feet," also begins with a high distortion treble effect that's normally in the background, yet in this case sounded like the worst reel to real accident you could hear. 

So, okay, what's causing this ? I believe the 10 watts is not sufficient to drive the 'tulip' tweeter, in many cases. This is also causing the 'brightness' in other songs. Well, the Lumyn SQ-N150 is $3,300 and the match with the Tannoy's is simply not there. Again, Holly Cole's voice sounded amazingly great, but if I went with the Luxman's the Tannoy's would have to be replaced. 


Lastly, I met Steve Deckert of Decware , whom I met at Decfest; he agreed with you. He suggested the Zen TorII at 25 watts. I live nearby his shop and may see if I can get one to audition. Though I admit I really loved the design aesthetic of the Luxman. 

That Luxman amplifier was the one I heard with the Mini's. Not sure that 2wpc will serve the Mini's. I believe they run about 88dB sensitive.  

I ultimately bought the Tannoy's. added a Blue Node streamer and I'm considering the the Luxman SQ-N150 at 10 watts. I'm about to just go with the Luxman, yet I'm waiting to hear from Decware on whether their Zen Triode 25th Anniversary unit would be a good match to consider. Yet that only a couple of watts per channel. We'll see. The Luxman did very well, regardless. I used Nordost Blue Heaven cables 

I heard the Autograph Mini driven by a 10 wpc Luxman tube integrated. Great sound and looks. 

Audition the Tannoy Autograph Mini. On my prime system, larger room, I have Harbeth Super HL5+.
yet, go to  the smaller  room, the Tannoy’s provided an excellent, yet unique sound that I love as well. 

Owned  and sold the Spendor A1 because they were not good in a low volume level setting.

Much prefer the Omega speaker line for that, specifically the Super 7 MK II.

https://omegaloudspeakers.com/collections/monitor-speakers/products/super-7-monitor-speaker?variant=...

No experience with the Tannoys.  


Rich 

I did hear the Autograph mini contuzzi in Manhattan at a dealer. It was placed atop the pair of Kensingtons that I was there to audition.It probably wasn’t the best setup, but they certainly sounded nice, and the OP would likely be pleased with either. They certainly win the contest for good looks

The Spendor is a nice speaker for those that don’t know that the Autograph Mini exists.

I had the previous generation of the Tannoys, or was it a lower end version?  Tannoy’s lines were somewhat muddled to me a few years back.  
Anyway, it was the Revolution 4.  A great little speaker with a lot going for it.   Beautiful midrange and imaging, but not much in the way of a bottom end below 70 Hz or so.  It was rated for 50 watts RMS.

i liked them so much I upgraded to the Revolution 4T, the tower version.  The thing with a 4“ pressed paper driver is it’s so fast.  It became my favourite size for vocals.  
I haven’t heard the other speaker.

Well They are #1 on my list just no way to hear them, that's why I'm asking for opinions.

lol The mini's are so damn cool aren't they. 

Make that three.............

Oh look, two people who haven’t heard the autograph mini.   

Agree with Yogiboy. They are very sweet little speakers.