Tannoy or Volti


I have a friend who has the Tannoy Prestige GRF 90 for sale he is moving out of the country for half price, he paid $29000 in around 2020 not made in China. I am upgrading my Forte IVs, I am also considering the Volti audio Lucera…anyone that has heard the Tannoy and any other suggestions which will be better would be appreciated….I have a few first watt amps and several tube amps…plus Jeff Rowland and Pass Labs amps..

charles007100

Some great recommendations here.  The Tannoys are pretty much obsolete.  There are way better choices, particularly Fyne Audio if you’re looking for a superior point source option.  I believe the Songer S1x is the best point source made.  
 

The Volti’s are a terrific option and a perfect step up from Klipsch.  Greg is a great guy and a true master craftsman.  I highly recommend visiting him, he’s only 2 hours from Nashville and you can listen to some incredible live music when you’re in town.  
 

Also mentioned are PureAudioProject speakers, the Quintet Horns would be a great choice for you as well.  
 

Lots of great speakers out there!  

@buddyshagmore 

I was really blown away when listening to the Razz a few days ago, have you listened to both Razz and Lucera, is there a big difference…the midrange horn in the Razz still has me thinking about it when playing the Forte IV…it’s like there is a sock in the Forte horn..

My friend who has the Razz was using the First Watt Sit-4, it really blew away my Alan Eaton monos…the cabinets are really beautiful, his was in cherry 🍒 

 

@charles007100 As a Forte-4 owner, let me tell you my experience. Shortly after purchase, I decided to open the binding post assembly to check for tightness, etc..

I found some connection "extenders’, i.e. small strips of stainless steel. These are used in between crossover wires and binding post wires. They have no obvious purpose other than giving some extra length, if needed (probably makes it easier during final assembly).

While open, I noticed the wiring was reversed. A red wire was on a black binding post, and black to red. I made the correction.

Your Fortes may have a similar condition. It could be worth checking out.

Mine sound quite respectable and in no way sound "muffled".

BTW, I replaced the SS strips with solid copper "just in case". After lots of effort (fabricating copper strips) I realized I could have just extended the crossover leads directly to the binding posts (duh!).

@dweller 

Hello, Thanks for the tip. I did have one speaker with a loose binding post when they were new, tightened them didn’t notice the wires were on the wrong post..I will investigate…

@charles007100 As a Forte-4 owner, let me tell you my experience. Shortly after purchase, I decided to open the binding post assembly to check for tightness, etc..

@dweller I think you describe a far more common problem than people realize, across brands and components: either mis-wiring, bad connections, a wrong part used in a critical slot, or outright bad design leading to bad or sub-optimal results. Usually the knee-jerk prescription is: "it needs more burn-in in time" or "fix your room acoustics" or "synergy!" lol. When those inevitably fail, the owner either just learns to live with it, or moves it along. 

As I mentioned before, I bought a set of Tannoy Glenair 10’s from TMR that I later discovered were VERY badly mis-wired at the binding posts. They sounded AWFUL. The note from the prior owner, posted by TMR was to the effect "these speakers require very careful room positioning and amp matching to sound their best!" LOL what a joke. When I discovered the problem and fixed it, I was very happy to have them, as they’ve sounded truly wonderful ever since!

In another case, longer ago, I got hit by a double screw-up: an OTL tube headphone amp had been shipped by the builder with output coupling caps that were rated far too low (voltage) for the application - this is a VERY dangerous situation (for your ears, and the headphones). I had one local tech "fix" the issue; well he did that by putting a very small capacity, very high voltage cap in SERIES with the existing output cap - which fixed the danger but resulted in midrange and bass roll-off below 1000 Hz (one-thousand Hz, not one-hundred). Of course it sounded awful and the prescription then was "those new caps need 400 hours burn-in". This hobby is a joke at times, with not the brightest minds doing the tech work. I had it properly fixed with output caps of the right capacitance AND voltage ratrings - it sounded great AND didn't blow headphones after that. 

I’ve had components, from large makers, reversed at the L/R outputs. Lots of other stories too if I search my memory banks.

When my Kensington GR (UK) were sounding bad in original form, I tried every possible combination of tweeter and woofer wiring just "to see", and the one where tweeters were wired out of phase relative to woofer actually wasn’t too awful - it could easily have shipped like that and many owners would be none the wiser.

One component with ample horror stories that I’ve NOT personally experienced yet: MC phono cartridges. I must have owned 40+ of these by now, and I have my favorites but they’ve all been pretty darn good! Maybe that’s were I have above average luck.

Anyways in short - if you’re gonna be playing with a lot of gear in this hobby, you should learn to not trust nor assume anything, and to do basic diagnostics on your own. OR get a good local tech you can trust.

Sorry to derail, OP @charles007100 
Glad you liked the Volti, and that looks like a very nice choice!