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Tannoy Gold 8 REW Measurements

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Greetings, everyone. this is my first post here at ASR.

These Tannoy Gold 8 studio monitors have been sitting on my study room desk for 2 weeks now. I bought them for one reason: the look. I mean just look at them…

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These golden outlines are splendid. Perhaps too splendid for critical listening in a studio, but for Hi-Fi use at home, these evoke so much visual elation, making me believe that these speakers must sound magnificent. For an untrained listener like me, their gorgeous look really gets me going.

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The only third-party measurement I can find is here.
The website is in Chinese, and I do not know their method, but I guess that frequency response looks alright for its price.


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Here are my nearfield measurements using REW and UMIK-1 mic. I am pretty new to the speaker scene so critiques are welcomed.

Mic is at 0 degree. Speakers are set to Bass -4 High -2.

Close up: Single speaker measureemtns. Mic is 5cm, 15cm & 30cm away from the cone. Raw & 1/3 smoothing—I read a comment from Sean Olive saying 1/3 smoothing has enough details.
0deg L 5-15-30.jpg

0deg L 5-15-30 1over3.jpg


Left&Right individual measurements at my seat. Mic points at each speaker, 67cm away from the cone. Psychoacoustic smoothing to resemble what each of my ears hears.
0deg center 67cm.jpg


Edit: Per suggestions in the comment section, Clean it up for readability. Using 1/3 smoothing instead.
0deg 63cm avg.jpg


Left+Right measurements at my seat. 45-degree toe-in. Mic points at the front, 75cm away from each speaker. Psychoacoustic smoothing to resemble what I hear.
0deg center 75cm.jpg


Edit: Per suggestions in the comment section, Clean it up for readability. Using 1/3 smoothing instead.
0deg 75cm avg.jpg


Placing two 8” speakers in my untreated 3m*3m room, the result is surprisingly good. The curve in my room is flatter than I expected. I guess the 80Hz dip can only be fixed by a subwoofer. The 125Hz peak does not sound booming at my normal listening volume. When I play really loud, the peak will create an audible resonance, and I just apply a -6dB EQ to get the bass right below the boomy threshold. Other fluctuations in the curve are too far beyond my listening experience to be my problem.

The only other pair of speakers I have is KRK Rokit 5 1st gen. Not even comparable. I am beyond satisfied with the Tannoy Gold 8’s sound and look. Mostly the look. I was going to write my subjective impression, but why bother? They probably do not sound the same to your ears in your room. So how about just look at these beautiful speakers.

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Vladimir Filevski

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Welcome!
Nice, but never use raw - it is unreadable, always use 1/24 or 1/12 octave smoothing.
1/3 octave is good for overall trend analysis.
 

ernestcarl

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Curious why you didn't opt for the 7-inch version as it looks like those speakers are somewhat large for your small desk setup. The monitors do look nice... not sure I want the knobs placed in the front, though.

And I agree about using smoothing to improve readability of your graphs. You could always re-edit your post and update the attached graph images.
 
OP
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Welcome!
Nice, but never use raw - it is unreadable, always use 1/24 or 1/12 octave smoothing.
1/3 octave is good for overall trend analysis.
Thanks for your advice! I uploaded 1/3 smoothing for the measurements.
 
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Curious why you didn't opt for the 7-inch version as it looks like those speakers are somewhat large for your small desk setup. The monitors do look nice... not sure I want the knobs placed in the front, though.

And I agree about using smoothing to improve readability of your graphs. You could always re-edit your post and update the attached graph images.
I was having "show all your work for full credit" mentality. I uploaded 1/3 smoothing for the measurements.

I bought the 8-inch because all the others are sold out. The entire Gold series, 5, 7 & 8, are out of stock in the United States. I stumbled upon a used pair of Gold 8 on eBay and decided to just go with it. I am happy with the 8 because its height and the ISO stand brings the tweeter literally right on the same level with my ear. The 7 would be a little short.
 
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Canuck57

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beautiful speakers, I love your set up!
 

restorer-john

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More for you, in broad daylight.

Nothing like a bit of toe-in! Sorry, they must sound horrible like that. Stereo reproduction on loudspeakers needs around 8ft separation. I guess you could always strap them on your head like this guy:

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;)
 

Canuck57

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8' separation that is one big desk!
 
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Nothing like a bit of toe-in! Sorry, they must sound horrible like that. Stereo reproduction on loudspeakers needs around 8ft separation. I guess you could always strap them on your head like this guy:

View attachment 73765

;)
That picture was taken when I experimented with extreme toe-in, forming a 30-120-30 triangle that put the sound image 30cm in front of me. See the measurement here:
30deg L+R.jpg
 
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Sancus

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Given the very large scale and smoothing, that crossover dip at 1.5khz looks pretty gnarly to me. And ofc, it's hard to tell what's going on off-axis with these even with the(rather poorly presented, I'd say) manufacturer's measurements.

Also I'm skeptical of 2-way coaxials in general at this point due to IMD. I'm not saying these are horrible, but at the $384/ea price on Sweetwater I'm not seeing anything exciting is what I'm saying, I guess.
 
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Given the very large scale and smoothing, that crossover dip at 1.5khz looks pretty gnarly to me. And ofc, it's hard to tell what's going on off-axis with these even with the(rather poorly presented, I'd say) manufacturer's measurements.

Also I'm skeptical of 2-way coaxials in general at this point due to IMD. I'm not saying these are horrible, but at the $384/ea price on Sweetwater I'm not seeing anything exciting is what I'm saying, I guess.
Thanks for your input, I would like to hear more from you. Are you referring to the dip between 1.5-2kHz in the Average L+R All curve? I have a measurement from another day when I set the speakers to High -0 and measured at a higher SPL. Curves are in 2 different scales. Instead of having a dip between 1.5-2kHz, the peak between 1-1.5kHz is more conspicuous.
Jul 8 Avg 1over3.jpg

Jul 8 avg 1over12.jpg
 
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Sancus

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Thanks for your input, I would like to hear more from you. Are you referring to the dip between 1.5-2kHz in the Average L+R All curve? I have a measurement from an another day when I set the speakers to High -0 and measured at a higher SPL. Curves are in 2 different scales. Instead of having a dip between 1.5-2kHz, the peak between 1-1.5kHz is more conspicuous.

Ya that's what I'm referring to. It seems kinda bad. Dunno how it sounds, since I'm not there. :) Your scale(y axis distance) is like 115dB whereas Amir uses 50dB in his reviews, so the whole graph ends up looking fairly compressed.

Don't get me wrong, your measurements are interesting and I'm glad you posted them. And for reference, here's a KH80 measurement I took a while back. It's at 1.5m and not gated, so definitely polluted with some reflections(and ignore below 1khz), but above 1khz there's still no more than 2db variation, even at 1/12 smoothing. (MG1.7i = Magnepan 1.7i)

mZ5UMTS.png
 

Canuck57

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To the OP I wouldn't get too hung up on measurements at the end of the day if YOU are enjoying the sound that's all that matters. I want a pair just because I love their aesthetics!
 
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Ya that's what I'm referring to. It seems kinda bad. Dunno how it sounds, since I'm not there. :) Your scale(y axis distance) is like 115dB whereas Amir uses 50dB in his reviews, so the whole graph ends up looking fairly compressed.

Don't get me wrong, your measurements are interesting and I'm glad you posted them. And for reference, here's a KH80 measurement I took a while back. It's at 1.5m and not gated, so definitely polluted with some reflections(and ignore below 1khz), but above 1khz there's still no more than 2db variation, even at 1/12 smoothing. (MG1.7i = Magnepan 1.7i)

mZ5UMTS.png
Now I know you mean vertical scale. Here are my L+R individual channel measurements taken in 2 different SPLs. There is a large dip in the Right channel curve that shows up in one set of measurements.
Avg L+R 86.3 72.5.jpg
 
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To the OP I wouldn't get too hung up on measurements at the end of the day if YOU are enjoying the sound that's all that matters. I want a pair just because I love their aesthetics!
Oh no worries measurements are fun for me! I am able to enjoy how they sound as they are without EQ. I like these speakers hence I want to understand more about them, so when people pointed out their findings on my graphs I was intrigued.
I see the 5 & 7 restocked on Amazon US if you are interested. 8 is indeed too big for my desk but I make it work. The speaker's rare stick out of the desk quite a bit and I moved my desk away from the window.
 
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Ya that's what I'm referring to. It seems kinda bad. Dunno how it sounds, since I'm not there. :) Your scale(y axis distance) is like 115dB whereas Amir uses 50dB in his reviews, so the whole graph ends up looking fairly compressed.

Don't get me wrong, your measurements are interesting and I'm glad you posted them. And for reference, here's a KH80 measurement I took a while back. It's at 1.5m and not gated, so definitely polluted with some reflections(and ignore below 1khz), but above 1khz there's still no more than 2db variation, even at 1/12 smoothing. (MG1.7i = Magnepan 1.7i)

mZ5UMTS.png
BTW I have always wanted the KH80 DSP. I did not go with them because it's only logical that they will soon introduce the DSP version for KH120 and KH310, and I do want bigger speakers.
 
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ernestcarl

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BTW I have always wanted the KH80 DSP. I did not go with them because it's only logical that they will soon introduce the DSP version for KH120 and KH310, and I do want bigger speakers.

I think the wait may be a while longer...

BTW, if the chinese review you linked to is trustworthy, I don't see any reason why you should be disappointed with these monitors. Having a perfect spinorama and speaker rating score at ASR shouldn't be the final arbiter of one's buying choices. It would be interesting, though, to see how these measured anyhow -- you know, guys and their never ending obsession with how things measure up.
 
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Update: replaced them with the Neumann KH 120 and JBL LSR310.

The Tannoy Gold 8 sounded a little, for lack of a better word, honky. It feels like I can hear resonance from the deep tweeter cone. Perhaps the cone is simply too long and acts as a horn. They might sound better in another room. I couldn't pinpoint the resonance on my measurements though.

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Canuck57

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what did you do with your Tannoy's?

I wish my desk was that tidy!
 
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