Tannoy Stirlings on the way!

@trentmemphis I have the Kensingtons and and Canterbury, if you plan to upgrade to the Kensingtons, and you have the space and $ got with the Canterbury, they are all that much better. I like both of them a lot.

But at that price, you should look at Avantgrade, they are horn speakers but sound "+/- like" the Tannoy but much more open and dynamic without losing the coherency and sweetness of the Tannoy.

@mulveling I listen to the Definition when auditioning the Canterbury, and the truth to be told, I did not like them at all, tight, not the tight that goes away with time, very narrow soundstage. I was offered an incredible deal, but I would have not had them at any price. They just got my ears tired with their undertone ringing. 

English is not my language, sorry for bad grammar and use of words.

@astolfor

Agree, the Kensington and Canterbury models are both wonderful, yet I’m very happy with my upgrade to Canterbury :) And yeah, the Definition 10A was a real head-scratcher, sadly.

@jond

Sorry - I just remembered there was some discussion (audiokarma?) out there concerning Tannoy’s change over from alnico to ceramic/ferrite magnets, and I believe there actually were some Tannoy driver versions which married ferrite magnets to a pepperpot, which contradicts my prior response. I’ll try to look up what model that might have been (it was after the HPD). Looking again at the pepperpot cross section, it would probably be OK to use a short ferrite magnet with a long pole piece to make up for that...going the other way though - the tulip waveguide might not have enough room to work with the weaker & larger alnico magnets needed? Either way, the ferrite + pepperpot configuration is not made today. I'd also love to know whether that's due more to market demands (people in the market for classic Tannoy sound more often demand alnico) or due to Tannoy's opinion on the sound quality. 

@astolfor The Canterburys are too large for my space, and too heavy to be practical for a man with a bad back.  I'm not even actually considering upgrading to the Kensingtons right now.  I was only having a bit of fun about them.  I just dropped significant cash on upgrading other parts of my system.

@mulveling Thanks for that but I was more thinking about it in the reverse the Alnico with the tulip waveguide as I've read at least it's superior to the pepperpot. I had a speaker once with an Alnico midrange driver, the Alon Lotus Elite and it sounded fantastic.

@trentmemphis , please don't tilt the speakers back for elevating the soundstage. The timing and phase goes for a toss. Buy a pair of Sound Anchor speakers platform. They make studio grade stands which goes very well with Tannoys.

I am a Tannoy Turnberry SE owner for the last 11 years :-). There is nothing I haven't tried around them. Every component in my system has changed 3-4 times in the last 11 years. But Tannoy stays 😀

@pani How would tilt cause time or phase issues on a coaxial driver?

Technically I may not be able to explain but I can say whats going on by ears. The dispersion pattern changes. To an extent it is like toeing in-out in the vertical direction. It is meant to fire straight-direct for the most coherent presentation. That thing is lost to when you tilt it. The correct presentation is achieved when speakers are standing straight and toed-in to your ears or a little in front of the ears. I have always found that to be most right sounding after trying all sorts of placements in various rooms.

Interesting.  Always go with what your ears are telling you.  They're the only measuring device that counts. 

Mine didn't start out tilted.  They started flat and pointed straight ahead.  I arrived at the tilt and toe-in over some weeks of listening and making small, gradual adjustments.  I can't say I've noticed any loss in coherence with them tilted, and I really don't have a space that makes bulky or heavy stands very convenient.  I have to temporarily move my Stirlings out of the way semi-frequently. 

Toe-in is a necessity because these are horn guided  tweeters, they quickly lose intensity as you go off axis in the horizontal direction

So, I picked up a pair of scratch-and-dent Klipsch Heresy's.  I've got them next to the Tannoys.  They've been running a few days, now, and three things are already apparent:

1. Klipsch rates the Heresy's at 99 dB efficient, and Tannoy rates the Stirlings at, I think, 92. There is not 7 dB of difference in these speakers.
2. The Tannoys eat the diminutive Klipsches in bass depth and quality.  They should beat them at depth, being a much larger cabinet.  But the Klipsches are also just much, much boomier and uncontrolled.
3. The Klipsch soundstage is not as good, but it does do a wonderful job of throwing the singer or lead instrument right out in front of the speakers.

I have a friend who owns the Heresy's. I agree with your assessment. Their impedance curve is benign however. That is why many(myself included) prefer them driven with tubes.

I also have heard other Klipsch speakers and found that their sensitivity ratings were truly overstated. That said they can be driven to play loud. Too much so for me.

@trentmemphis

The Stirlings are rated 91dB, so it’s an 8dB discrepancy on paper! I do appreciate that the Tannoy sensitivity specs indeed seem legit. I've noticed and enjoyed the greater efficiency when moving up in the line (91 to 93 to 96).

I tilt my Canterbury up a bit, and use a good amount of toe-in. It works for me, and sounds great. The image height is perfect. Stands tall enough to do the same job would mess with the aesthetic, and possibly introduce more resonance issues if they’re not extremely well made (heavy!).

I use HRS Nimbus spacers - basically solid aluminum hockey pucks with a small lip on top & bottom to accept the couplers - of differing height to create the tilt. The stock Canterbury GR spike feet & cups fit right in there.

I don’t see how a coaxial driver with symmetric dispersion and phase coherence (at the crossover point) is going to care at all whether tilted up or down or straight ahead. The bass response may be affected with tilt vs. stands, as it changes the bass driver’s coupling and proximity to the floor, but I don’t see why stands would necessarily be an improvement here either. I love the bass I get now.

Random thought: maybe those who love the stands have inadequate isolation for their components, and benefit from the decoupling effect of pedestal stands?

I'll have to look into those HRS Nimbus spacers.  At the moment I still just have a book stuck under the fronts.

@trentmemphis I am new here but looking at the Stirlings at upscale audio. I also have the McIntosh MC152 amp paired with a C50 pee amp. After your apparent two years with these are you still happy? 

I tend to listen to Jazz old (Miles, Thelonius, Mingus) and new (Jon Batiste and Amy Winehouse) along with 70's and 80's rock; do you think these will work for me?

Hello, there, and welcome!

I'm very happy with that combination, yes.  Being a restless audiophile, I want to try it with tubes, but the Stirlings sing wonderfully with the Mac gear we own.

I listen to 70s/80s rock only rarely, but lots of golden era jazz.  The Stirlings are a very good match for that, and I think they'll do just fine with the rock material, too, depending on how big your room is and how much bass you like to have.  If you want tons of thump and your room is medium-large or bigger, you probably want to step up to the Turnberry, or supplement with a sub, which is what I did (although I already had the subs).  The Stirlings produce plentiful bass, and it's good bass, but they aren't going to stove your chest in when John Bonham stomps the kick.

As for the electronics, they're the only ones I've heard the Stirlings with.  Maybe they're capable of much, much more with other gear; I wouldn't know.  But I have been listening to speakers and electronics for a long, long time, so I do have some idea what things should sound like, and I like what I'm getting.

Best wishes with the purchase!

@trentmemphis thank you for taking the time to write back and the thoughtful answer.

So, that whole thing about finding some stands to get these speakers up to more of an on-axis position, I never found anything that would work.  So I'm having Sound Anchor build a set for me.

They'll be 4-posters, 9.5" high.  The platform will be 14.5 x 13.25, which is the dimensions of the built-in base of the Stirlings, plus a half-inch in both dimensions.  They're going to weld a half-inch thick bar across the back to create a 1" high lip.  This will keep them from sliding off if/when I experiment with adding some rake angle in addition to the lift.

The base of the stands will be 18.5" deep, and 16.5" wide.  That adds a bit to the footprint of the speakers, which I was hoping to avoid, but it's not too terribly much.  I have more space in the depth dimension, so it should be manageable.

Build will take about 8 weeks.

Congrats Trent SA makes fantastic products looking forward to seeing those when you have them setup.

Thanks!  It seems a bit weird to look forward to . . . speaker stands?  But I think they're going to make a considerable difference.

Has any one tried IsoAcoustic Gaia III speaker feet on their Tannoy Stirling and felt it was worth it?  The room I have them in right now isn't the best and the bass is quite boomy and so I'm hoping that maybe some Gaias would help to tighten things up a bit. 

@bobelton

IME, when I tried GAIA’s footers with carpet spikes on my Canterbury’s they further soften the bass. I had much better outcome with edenSound Bearpaw Sr (M8 thread size). Tighter base and improved soundstage. Reach out to Dan at edenSound, he is very knowledgeable and helpful!

PS: I have carpeted floors. 

That’s great input, thanks!  I have laminate floors in my listening room. 

We have had very good luck putting Stirling GR's on butcher blocks.  Worth a try!  They're really finicky speakers to get right, but once you do (and add some good subs), they can be really sublime.

Okay, finally got the Stirlings up on their new, custom Sound Anchors. They arrived a few weeks ago, but the packing was more complicated than I expected (bolted to sheets of 3/4 plywood). I just haven't had any time to do anything with them till now.

They're a perfect fit. Heavy as all heck, though. The estimate before they were built said 45 lbs., each. I call shennanigans. These things are much heavier than the speakers themselves.

Anyway, I've still got some dialing in to do, but they have perfectly accomplished what I wanted from them: I no longer feel like I'm looking over the balcony DOWN into the soundstage. It's up at eye/ear level, and it's wonderful.

I'll post pics when I can. Right now, the listening area is a bit of a wreck, as I'm moving a lot of stuff around in the process of replacing my equipment rack, etc.

@trentmemphis Would love to see those pics if you get around to them soon!

Hi, Bob. Unfortunately, I've had rather a busy time of it since I posted that. On Christmas Eve, a burst pipe in the apartment above mine flooded my place. Mine was one of about 50. When I was able to get back into my place after the holidays and get a look at things, the bottom sections of the Sound Anchors had rusted. Since I got into my new place, I've tried a couple of things to clean them up, but it seems there's nothing for it but to take a sander to them and then hope some black paint will more or less match the powdercoat.

The good news is that by keeping them up off the wet carpet, they saved the Stirlings. I guess I got them just in time. That's about the whole of the good news, though. It was a god-awful mess.

@trentmemphis  So sorry to hear this.  Great you had the stands for the Sterlings. Hope things are working out at the new place. 

@trentmemphis 

I hope flooding didn’t cause much emotional and financial damage. Good luck with settling in your place! 

Thanks, guys. So far, so good in the new place. Still figuring out my listening room. I'm in a house, though, so it's certainly quieter.

I'm a pretty even-keeled guy, so not much emotional damage, other than being pissed off at the property manager. The financial damage, though . . . oof.

I really thought I had posted this update already, but scrolling back through the thread I don't see it. Back in late autumn 2022 I ordered a Schiit Audio Freya S+ (the balanced circuit). Feeding that to the McIntosh SS amp, I began to understand what people mean by "holographic" when it comes to tubes and Tannoys. It's only just a glimpse, I think, but I know what they're talking about. I dig it.

I am currently running my Tannoy Sterlings with an Aric Audio Trandsend  PP amplifier with EL34s in triode mode. Running a DAC straight into the amo as it has a volume control. 

Has anyone on this thread had experience with the Yamamoto Sound Craft DK Series Speaker Stand built specifically for the Tannoy Stirlings?