Tannoy history and production update

Actual details about where & how the components of Tannoys are assembled, is sparse. Aggregating what's been put out there, plus my own experience owning several Tannoys:

The actual cabinets (Prestige series) have been made in Poland for a long time, by a company called Diora. High-end speaker cabinets is their main business. Prestige cabinets are presumably still made there today - alongside Fyne cabinets, and some other high-end brands! They were NOT made in Scotland. I was fooled on this point. Often, the Prestige cabinets have stickers inside them showing assembly / sign-off by Polish-sounding names. IMO, the cabinets are VERY good quality - Diora does a great job! Hats off to them.

Prestige series DC drivers were presumably manufactured in UK, until Behringer / MusicTribe moved this to China. I actually bought (off eBay) a set of China-made Kensington GR drivers (since circa 2019), and they are excellent quality. These actually sound much better than a set of UK-made Kensington GR drivers I have from a "Black Ash" limited edition of this loudspeaker (made in UK, before MusicTribe). So in my mind, quality of China-made drivers is NOT an issue here. If anything, I think Tannoy's in-house UK manufacturing was more spotty / questionable. Sometimes a UK-made Tannoy just sounds BAD. Music Tribe's factory in China is almost certainly higher tech.

Tannoy's upcoming Autograph 12 model uses a brand new design of their top-range "pepperpot" driver. It uses alnico for LF and a neodymium motor for the HF. Prior to this, the pepperpot used a single large alnico (Alcomax) magnet for both HF and LF (yes I know pepperpots in the 1980's used ceramic magnets). Anyways, the new driver is being built by Volt Loudspeakers in UK! Build quality looks to be exceptionally high (you can see driver pictures on Volt's Facebook page). But it'll likely be a limited run, with very high price tag. 

The final assembly of crossovers and stuffing drivers into cabinets could be done anywhere, for all I care. The magic is in the quality of cabinets and drivers, IMO. It's quite possible Tannoy recently opened a new UK warehouse "factory" for stuffing in these parts and stamping "made in UK".

I used to value the "made in UK" stamp on my Tannoys, but it appears the lines are quite blurred, and it's been more of a global effort (e.g. cabinets) for a while now. Anyways, I still appreciate the sound quality, history and cumulative engineering that Tannoys represent - wherever they're built!

From what I know the Chinese own Tannoy now, along with Quad, Musical Fidelity and others. Their whole staff left to form Fyne Audio which is apparently now considered a better product and made in the UK, Scotland? Except for their budget line which is made in China.

Tannoy played cat and mouse for several years never confirming where their speakers were made. As you rightly mentioned cabinets were being made in Poland, except for the cheaper models. I don't have a problem with Poland they are an Audiophile nation but they are not Scotland, with decades of experience building Tannoy speakers.

There are massive markdowns on Tannoys at Upscale Audio, probably the Chinese made ones.

I was highly considering buying a pair of Fynes but ultimately went with ATC SCM 100 passive. Although they were more expensive the power handling was far superior and the cabinetry is mirror finished high end veneer, which means one speaker looks like a mirror of the other. Absolutely beautiful. With real heritage too.