Tannoy Westminster Royal

[fineMen]

What's the deal with these, are they worth $50,000?
View attachment 99284

How ugly could You get, the plates? I think I wouldn't accept them even if they payed me 50 grands.
Technically, taken the contemporary possibilities, these are just plain departed. The very very few sells need to finance the remaining business. That for the wacky price.

Makes me shiver, sorry.

 

[tochnia]

Cabinet of Westminster is one of most complex for speakers:

Combine this with superb finish, expensive drivers and crossovers and you get into this price range.

Design of Tannoys is much more attractive than other companies top models like JBL Everest DD67000

 

[anmpr1]

That for the wacky price.

A simple box can be stamped out and assembled very quickly in a factory, for very little money. Paying a skilled craftsman to build a complex cabinet, one using first rate wood veneers? Well, in that case the cost is going to be much higher. You may not like the final results, or think it is worth the money given the resulting sound quality, but whether the asking price is out of bounds for what you get, construction-wise, is another question, altogether.

 

[TerryO]

Yes they are.

If you live in a castle, nothing else will match the decor.

That, naturally, was a primary concern as the local peasants are occasionally permitted into the Great Hall to be enchanted by the wonderful music!

 

[Vinyl Rules!]

I think ASR readers are not the target group for this kind of "reviews". Lots of flowery language and no measurements at all are not fancied here.

How does one access http://hifi-tunes.de/index.php?id=16? I keep getting “User Error” when I try and register.

 

[cavedriver]

So do these big Tannoy's have the tweeter behind a tulip-shaped cone like the new Fyne's (a company comprised of ex-Tannoy leadership)? Doesn't that create quite a "beamy" sound? Hence the need for the degree of toe-in? I just listened to some Fyne 502SP's and while I love their dynamics, and the imaging was quite good, they had a very narrow sweet spot where the speaker axis had to be basically pointed right at the listener. By contrast old flat-faced boxes like my Snell E/III's or modern concentric source speakers like the KEF LS/50 that have the tweeter in front of the woofer magnets can be pointed straight ahead and the off-axis sound is part of the imaging.

 

[Severian]

I've heard Tannoy Westminsters twice at listening bars: Kanazawa Music Bar in Japan and Tokyo Music Bar in Mexico City (obviously directly inspired by the former). Neither were anything near ideal acoustically, but the speakers sounded lovely nonetheless. They inspired me to base my own system around a pair of DIY Vortex-15 coaxials from DIY Sound Group, which I think with a pair of subs sound even better at a tiny fraction of the price.

 

[Peace653]

They are not Hi-Fi for sure

BUT...

listen rock on them at full blast and you will never, ever go back to another speaker.

<small_print>Don't listen any other genre of music though...</small_print>

One of the best, if not the best speaker to listen to jazz. It's like the Trio or quartet are performing right in your listening room. Incredible clarity, extreme wide soundstage and man do they go deep. Finding a place to put these monsters is the challenging part. I haven't heard them with a tube amp. I'm using a NAD MASTERS M33 and for me they pair very well together with plenty of power when needed. Just phenomenal is all I can say

 

[TerryO]

You can get a pair of these for $585

View attachment 99293

No Thanks, although they do sound much better if you turn them around 180 degrees!

 

[aklac]

I live in the Palm Springs area and as a Board Member of the Palm Springs Concert Association, we sponsor world class chamber groups for our 400 or so members. Our venue is the Richards Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Springs(partially designed by Disney sound engineers) which is an almost acoustically perfect venue....we eschew the use of any amplification ....and the natural sounds of piano, violin, cello...etc are glorious

 

[Fenda]

How is the driver removed from the Westminster if it needs repair?

 

[GXAlan]

How is the driver removed from the Westminster if it needs repair?

Tannoy westminster se build

www.stereonet.com

 

[Fenda]

Tannoy westminster se build

www.stereonet.com

Ok thanks for that

 

[anmpr1]

How is the driver removed from the Westminster if it needs repair?

It's not... at least it's not recommended to be end user serviceable. But for your fifty thousand pounds, Tannoy sends over something of a loaner, in order to distract you, and keep you occupied while it's in the shop, waiting for repair.

 

[Tube Guy]

No offense intended, but merely asking that question indicates no answer will justify it...and really that’s OK.

When these were still hand-built in Scotland the cabinet work was incredible. Heirloom furniture quality! (They even ship with a can of special wax to care for the veneer.) The cabinets are more complex internally than you would think & the dual concentric drivers are much harder to manufacture in small batches than a typical coax. I’ve heard them several times and with the right amplification (I always heard them with McIntosh tube) in the right room they are amazing. They are either your thing or not. I happen to really really like Tannoy and Klipsch horn loaded cabinets. I also really like their smaller cabinets and commercial install speakers. My desktop / office setup are Tannoy VXP6.

I’m not sure how to feel about Tannoy now that Behringer has closed the Scotland operation and moved things to China.

I happened to see this post and need to make a correction. The Gold Reference and Legacy models are made in a factory that remains in Scotland. I've been there. I just sent one of my employees there. To the Asian community, Tannoy is what you may aspire to own. And they want them made in the UK. The cabinets are still made by the same factory in Europe that has made them for many decades, and I met with the factory director myself in April.

I get it that sometimes there's some stone-throwing here because many of you are DIY or even engineers, and some high-end mumbo-jumbo makes you want to vomit. I feel the same way. But I'm a fan and the fact that my company gets to represent them in the USA is a dream. Some pretty smart folks use them like Nelson Pass who states he can't judge one of his amp designs until she hears them on his Tannoys.

For me, it's become apparent after living with them. I have Westminster GR running on a PrimaLuna EVO400 amp and even though the room is a giant cavern, I still love the sound.

I don't post to forums. But I love how you looked inside a certain tube amp. Lots of giggles.

 

[prerich]

Do the red socks make the sound faster?

If I'm not mistaken, Prince as well as Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis mastered recordings on Westlakes.

 

[GXAlan]

I happened to see this post and need to make a correction. The Gold Reference and Legacy models are made in a factory that remains in Scotland. I've been there.

Thanks for sharing.

I think one of the hardest things about the Tannoy experience is finding a place to listen to them. Brick and mortar stores are dying out and it seems like there are very few stores in the US that stock Tannoy speakers. I did have a chance to listen to the Westminster at a local shop years ago and it was stunning in terms of expectations vs. reality.

I know you represent Tannoy, but there is a perception that Fyne Audio's is another successor of that lineage of concentric drivers with British voicing. Any thoughts?

 

[Tube Guy]

Thanks for sharing.

I think one of the hardest things about the Tannoy experience is finding a place to listen to them. Brick and mortar stores are dying out and it seems like there are very few stores in the US that stock Tannoy speakers. I did have a chance to listen to the Westminster at a local shop years ago and it was stunning in terms of expectations vs. reality.

I know you represent Tannoy, but there is a perception that Fyne Audio's is another successor of that lineage of concentric drivers with British voicing. Any thoughts?

My head spins every time a new speaker brand knocks on our door at Upscale Audio. Tannoy copies were always called Clone-oy. I would never say that, but hardcore fans would from Japan did. Tannoy is Tannoy. It's like...remember when JBL came out with white woofers? A white woofer cone does not mean Aquaplas nor does it make it a JBL.

Fyne has a new Vintage and Vintage Classic series, but I think those names should harken back to history. I'm sure they sound great. They should. But they are more expensive than the real thing and they don't have the piece of recipe that means most and COSTS most. Alnico.

There are few brands of speakers being made today whose older models are worth more than their original MSRP, and whose new products are made in the same manner they were back in the day. Meaning birch ply cabinets and Alnico magnets at Tannoy on the Kensington, Canterbury, Westminster, and now a new model...the Stirling III LZ.

Gotta say Klipsch has not lost its heart with Heritage. And they keep it real price-wise. That's why I love those people. Other speakers have in many cases bumped prices up 30-40% in the last 5 years.

Tannoy has not. I have a pair of Westminsters in my home and they are glorious.

 

[GXAlan]

…they don't have the piece of recipe that means most and COSTS most. Alnico.

That’s really interesting. I had not realized that the Fyne Audio was missing Alnico.

Is the Stirling III LZ the cheapest Tannoy speaker with alnico magnets? What about the lack of the pepper pot waveguide?

I think the tough part is that part of the Tannoy sound is the coloration, the same way the LS3/5A’s aren’t flat but still sound great.

 

[Keith_W]

I think the tough part is that part of the Tannoy sound is the coloration, the same way the LS3/5A’s aren’t flat but still sound great.

I have never seen measurements of these speakers, but I have heard them in 3 systems. Up to the third system, I thought that they had this fat lower midrange coloration which as my friend puts it, "makes me feel as if i'm listening to a 1950's speaker". The owner of the third system showed me that the Westies have an adjustable crossover, and he can make them sound anything from bass bloated to zingy and sibilant - i.e. he was able to adjust adjusting the frequency response tilt. He had them at a more neutral setting. I am not sure whether it was my residual expectation bias still working against me, but I recall that they still sounded coloured but less objectionably so. Regardless, I have never regarded coloration as an enemy - a bit of coloration can sometimes be enjoyable.