Tannoy Turnberry vs Fyne 502SP?


I was planning on picking up a pair of Tannoy Turnberry speakers in the near future, but remembered about Fyne audio. While I'd love to get some of the 700 series speakers, they are just a bit beyond my budget. However, I am curious how the 502SP would stack up vs the Turnberry. Does anyone have any insight? 

They are roughly the same price, with the Turnberry's being slightly more. 

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You may find this fact interesting. Jim Smith of Get Better Sound fame sold his Tannoy Canterbury speakers with $10,000 upgraded Duelund crossovers for the Fyne 703s. He enjoys the Fyne’s as much and mentioned perhaps even more than his $30,000 Canterbury speakers.

I own the Fyne F704s and they are remarkable. I have heard great things about the 502SP from owners. Do try and listen for yourself.

Dr. Paul Mills is Fyne Audio’s lead designer/engineer and came over from Tannoy. He was Tannoy’s design and engineering lead for 3 decades! The Fyne speakers have some great new design features and I think deliver the goods sonically. Great value.

Are the Turnberry's priced per pair or per single speaker? 

Depends on the dealer, but most that I've seen price per speaker but require them to be sold in pairs (which always confused me a bit). 

I have had Turnberry speakers for 5 years and recently auditioned the Fyne 703 which retails for $15k or so. The Fyne sound very similar. No surprise because the Fyne people came from Tannoy. I didn’t purchase  the F703s. Not worth it at all to me. 
 

Turnberrys retail for around $9k.  Much better deal than the Fynes IMO. 

Compared to the 703's price point, the Turnberrys are quite a bit cheaper. Apparently when the 703s first came out they were priced pretty much at parity, but it seems they've shot up in price the past few years unfortunately. That is why I was considering the 502SP. Supposedly, they have the same internals as the 12.5k 702 series speakers, but are in the 502 cabinet. A bit of an odd middle ground between the 500 series and the 700 series, but the price is pretty compelling at ~$6500/pr. 

You may find this fact interesting. Jim Smith of Get Better Sound fame sold his Tannoy Canterbury speakers with $10,000 upgraded Duelund crossovers for the Fyne 703s. He enjoys the Fyne’s as much and mentioned perhaps even more than his $30,000 Canterbury speakers.

I own the Fyne F704s and they are remarkable. I have heard great things about the 502SP from owners. Do try and listen for yourself.

Dr. Paul Mills is Fyne Audio’s lead designer/engineer and came over from Tannoy. He was Tannoy’s design and engineering lead for 3 decades! The Fyne speakers have some great new design features and I think deliver the goods sonically. Great value.

Yeah, I've heard plenty of stories about long time Tannoy owners swapping into Fyne speakers. Clearly, the team at Fyne took what they learned at Tannoy and modernized it a bit. The 700 series is just too far outside of my comfort zone for pricing unfortunately, or else I would seriously be considering them. The 704 especially would suit my needs. They are higher efficiency so I'm guessing they will sound incredible paired up with some great tube amps. I already love the Tannoy + tube combo, so I can only imagine...

But, this is why the 502SP was pretty compelling since it incorporates a lot of the innards from the 702 into the 502 cabinet to make a sort of Frankenstein hybrid. 

I do wish there was a dealer near me that carried them to audition, but alas, that's the problem with imported hifi. Very few places carry them. Even Tannoy is tough in the US. The only way I heard the Turnberrys (and kensingtons) were through people I know that own them locally. 

I purchased a pair of F- 702s before the last price increase, and I am very pleased with them, driving them with a Rogue Audio Stereo 100 Dark.  Superb imaging, sound stage, and tonal qualities.  Depending on the recording, the performers appear to be in the room with us.  The innards of the 502SPs are reportedly the same, the cabinet being made of high quality MDF rather than numerous layers of veneer.  I am not sure how this might alter the sound, but it should not differ greatly from the 702s.  

I purchased a pair of F- 702s before the last price increase, and I am very pleased with them, driving them with a Rogue Audio Stereo 100 Dark.  Superb imaging, sound stage, and tonal qualities.  Depending on the recording, the performers appear to be in the room with us.  The innards of the 502SPs are reportedly the same, the cabinet being made of high quality MDF rather than numerous layers of veneer.  I am not sure how this might alter the sound, but it should not differ greatly from the 702s.  

It's just odd to me that just the different cabinet for the 702s is commanding an almost 2x price tag over the 502sp. There has to be a reason. It just seems bizarre to me that a $6k price difference could be chalked up to *just* the cabinets, but who knows. 

Probably my biggest hesitation with these is that the sensitivity on them is fairly low. I usually prefer to run tube amps and they tend to be fairly low WPC, so I'd be concerned about these getting enough power from tubes to shine properly. 

But, maybe like Tannoys, they just *work* even when the numbers suggest they shouldn't. 

Late comment for this posting.  I’m running the 702 with 30 wpc class a solid state, and there is plenty of power, and bass control.  Tried the higher powered model of my amp rated at 100 wpc and less expensive.   Went with the lower powered amp.   Very easy to drive.