Tannoy anyone? Cheviot Legacy vs. Stirling GR

I have a couple of Tannoy Kensington and Canterbury, IMHO there isn’t much of opening/breakin.

The day I received the Canterbury, I connected them to an amp and a streamer in a  room I never use, left them for 5 weeks 24x7 the sound had changed but  not as much as others experience.

Same with the Kensington 

Well, I'm told by the dealer in Montreal 250hr and by Upscale 300hr with some significant change at 100. Upscale is working with me to look into it. I'm dubious about taking them apart myself. The Montreal dealer wants a 25% restocking fee. As @mulveling says, I'm not a camper at this point, but the story's not over yet.

That kind of break-in has not been my experience with new Devore Super Nines or Dynaudio1.8mkII back in the day - they started out very good and wound up great. And, these Tannoy don't sound anything like my friend's - I bought these on my listening to his Stirlings with my Leben CS600 and wires. So, the only difference being our sources. His Linn/Adikt/EAR 834P vs my modded TT and same modded pre - Thorens/SME/Soundsmith/EAR. My digital source has always sounded great too....Music Vault Diamond/AMR DP777SE all guccied up with nice tubes, etc.

My suspicion at this point is that these are a faulty pair somehow and hope that it's not indicative of the overall line. If they don't fall into place somehow, I guess I'll have to eat the 25%....

My pair was made 8/20 according to the signed booklet that came with it as part of of the groovy prestige package. Nice touch for sure...corny, but I like it! And, according to what info I can gather, were made in Scotland

Part of the story goes that Tannoy made all the pairs of Prestige, Heritage and Definition lines they could in Coatbridge before those Scotland doors were shut. That's what there is for sale now. In the future, those three lines will be made in Poland at the same factory where the cabinets have been made for several years once the factory there is up and running. The other Tannoy lines are and will continue to be made in China. 

I'm told by someone I trust that they can arrive "tight as a drum" and start to loosen up at 100 hours with full break in around 300. That's a lot of hours on my getting rarer preamp tubes in the old Leben CS600, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Patience is often more of a virgin than a virtue around here, but I'll put in the time and report back. Fingers crossed once more unto the breach.

@budburma

Hoping it turns out well for you! I’d suspected maybe they were still selling though Scotland-made stock for a while after the factory closing. Thanks for that confirmation.

Thought I’d add some pics from when I had my R speaker’s woofer become internally disconnected. This happened only 5 months into ownership. You can see two black wires to the woofer (light brown and blue bands), and 2 in the back to the tweeter (yellow and green bands). The thicker yellow wire is the optional ground connection. And the little gold slide clips instead of soldered connections - when one of these (other than ground) comes off, it’s gonna sound real bad (as pictured, they are properly connected)! Nothing’s come disconnected since then (4 more years in), so maybe it had been barely hanging on from shipment?

The 3rd pic is from me tightening up a binding post on the L speaker. Same little slide clips on this side too. Same deal, if one comes off it’s gonna sound bad.

Thanks for that @mulveling - I'll take it under consideration before tossing out the baby with the bathwater. My friend down the street w/Stirlings just told me he went through a similar experience, but blamed his midfi ss amp (probably not too far off the mark there!). He wandered around the hifi gear desert for long enough that by the time he circled back to Upscale for a PrimaLuna integrated, the speakers had settled into the pocket. 

So, I have some new confidence that time is the antidote. Joni Mitchell Blue sounded pretty good last night - better than previous anyway. Granted, the treble energy is dialed as far down as it can go and they're still wired to the LF and jumped to the HF, but the grit was definitely downd and heading in the right direction.

I have a pair of AZ Hologram II biwire on the way that might also help simmer things down.

It's also good to see the evolution of your loft space - my room is similar old world construction and 14x15x10 -  and dream of some Kensingtons. They look fine! If the house were mine and mine alone (but "it's his, his and hers alone"), the Canterbury could just ride....