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Tannoy terrific!
Dual concentrics give fantastic performance
By Michael Jones
April 2001
Tannoy Saturn S8 loudspeaker. $2499
Fifteen years in the hi-fi industry and I've never written about any of Tannoy's dual concentric loudspeakers! So it was time to put that to rights with a listen to the Tannoy Saturn S8
The
Tannoy S8 is, by today's standards, a big speaker. Standing some 972mm
high, 245mm wide and 292mm deep, it is a speaker that you notice in a
room.
Like the rest of the Saturn series, the S8 is finished in a Cherry veneer with the front baffle is finished in a champagne gold paint. The grill is black cloth and when on the speaker, covers much of the front baffle.
The S8 sits on a solid MDF plinth which needs to be attached to the speaker with four screws. Being a wimp, I needed to use an electric tool to screw these in.
The S8 is a two-and-a-half way system. The bottom 200mm bass unit is rolled off to prevent problems when two sources produce the midrange. The main driver is a 200mm Tannoy dual concentric unit. This includes a 25mm tweeter right in the centre of a 200mm polypropylene mid/woofer. For more information on dual concentrics see the sidebar.
Bass loading is via a front reflex port. Within the S8 packaging are two foam bungs. If the S8s sound too boomy or bass heavy in your room, then the bungs should reduce the bass.
Sound
Upon hooking up the S8s my first impression was that they had a potent power to the sound. By this, I don't mean that they pumped out lots of bass or that they went loud. Instead, it's like driving a large and powerful car. Even when driving slowly you're aware that any limitations are far off.
As well, I was always aware of the power of musical instruments. Many hi-fi systems give a highly detailed, but small, rendition of the recording. The Tannoys sounded big and powerful.
What's a dual concentric? |
|
It's long been thought that a theoretical "perfect" loudspeaker would act as a small point source. This means that all of the sound would come from one point in space. Contrast this to the norm in speakerdom, where separate tweeters and woofers (and sometimes several more drivers) produce the sound - hardly a point source. The problem with the ideal of a point source is that, while high frequencies require a very small drive unit (tweeter), lower frequencies require much larger drive units to move the required amounts of air.
(The sound from the drive units in conventional speakers arrive milliseconds apart. Is this important? Well, there has always been much argument about this) |
This is a speaker of many parts. There were some aspects of the sound that were stunning.
For instance, The S8s excelled at their ability to reproduce musical dynamics.
Let me give an example from one of my favourite albums, Shirley Horn's You Won't Forget Me. The album opens with two quick piano notes before Ms Horn begins singing. The initial impact of the hammer on string, the rise and fall of the two piano notes are better portrayed than I'm used to hearing.
Instruments and voices throughout the broader midrange seem so fluid, so easy and unconstrained and so emotionally engaging that I constantly found myself falling into the music. Again with Ms Horn's album, the expression of her voice and piano, the articulation of instruments and voices, was stunning
There's a lack of strain and compression about this speaker - something the dual concentric fans enthuse about - that allows music to have a freedom so often lacking in hi-fi reproduction.
The bass, from the two 200mm woofers and front port, was very powerful and deep. While these "large scale" events were fine, the smaller scale bass was more disappointing. Some of the articulation and dynamic shadings found in the broader midrange had been traded off for weight and power.
Theory
suggests that, with the woofer and tweeter both producing sound from the
same point, the stereo imaging should be very good. And it was. There
was a coherence in left-right imaging that suggests point source has many
merits. The soundstage depth reproduction was not as good, possibly aligned
with the bass effects noted above.
The Tannoy S8 is a marvelously enjoyable loudspeaker. The dynamics, midrange articulation and clarity make the S8 a phenomenonal speaker to listen to, and enjoy music.
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