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The eye's have it
The Eyris is more than an eyeful
By Michael Jones
July 2002
For
Tannoy watchers, the most unusual aspect about the Eyris range are that
they don’t contain dual concentric drivers. Tannoy's upmarket speakers
have inevitably used dual concentric drivers, so the Eyris range is unusual.
The other amazing thing about the Eyris 3 is it's sound. I believe that the Eyris 3 will quickly become known as a modern day classic.
Eyes Up
Tannoy make a big song and dance about their new tweeter used in the Eyris
range. At first glance it looks like any other 25mm metal dome tweeter,
but this this titanium dome is said to extend out beyond 44kHz. Most tweeters
generally die a little above 20kHz, so the Tannoy tweeter (they call it
a “Wideband High Frequency Module”) will reproduce a further
octave.
To put this into perspective, the first famous metal dome tweeter (found in the Celestion SL6 of the early 1980s) could barely struggle above 20kHz, and that was only achieved at the expense of sensitivity (the number of watts needed to reach a certain volume level).
Given that CD is bandwidth limited to 20kHz, is there any point in a tweeter going higher? Some argue that increasing the bandwidth helps keep the phase relationship between the musical fundementals and overtones together, but readers should note that there is much argument over this.
Eyes down
It’s been nearly four decades since plastics began being used to
produce loudspeaker cones. But today’s hot material appears to be
paper!
The Eyris 3 includes two 175mm (7 inch) paper woofers, run in a two-and-a-half way configuration (that’s where the lower woofer rolls off in the upper bass, providing more bass push without muddling up the midrange).
Eying up the Eyris
This is simply a superb speaker. The unforced, easy listening nature combines
with high resolution to produce a speaker that I can listen to continuously,
without any strain.
Musically, it is stunning. A broad neutral performer, the Eyris 3 does not favour any form of music over another. I could (and did) play a wide range of music in the time I had them.
Dynamically the Eyris 3’s opened up the music, allowing a wealth of detail to emerge from the speakers. The Eyris was quick to start notes (what many people perceive as dynamic) and – arguably more important – was quick to stop without smear.
Brass was particularly well served by the Eyris 3. Often brass instruments will become shrill, but with the Eyris they had the lovely combination of both body and presence. Whether it was the massed brass in Mahler’s 5th (the recent Zander on Telarc) or Nicholas Payntor on Fingerpaintings (a tribute to Herbie Handcock by three of the young jazz lions) this came through.
Bass performance was also amazing. Some may complain that there wasn’t enough sheer oomph down below, but the Eyris combined warmth and body with incredible bass detail that makes most other speakers sound thick and sluggish.
An example: listing to The Police’s Greatest Hits, I could hear how Sting’s bass changed its sound between tracks, something that most speakers obscure. Or another example: the acoustic bass playing by the talented Christian McBride on a previously mentioned Fingerpaintings album showed that the Eyris could pitch bass notes with skill.
Eyes front
This is a tremendous loudspeaker, offering incredible value. It's one
of the few hi-fi products that, having been packed up for return to the
distributor, I wish were still here. I suspect that the Eyris 3 will go
down as a modern hi-fi classic.
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