Tannoy System 600 Speaker Review

[tuga]

@MZKM is the exclusion of this speaker from your preference table deliberate or accidental?

 

[MZKM]

@MZKM is the exclusion of this speaker from your preference table deliberate or accidental?

It’s old and no official price could be found.

 

[jhaider]

Mr. jhaider, may I ask, does the coaxial driver in my Definition DC10A’s use ferrofluid? If so, when and how should I expect to replace it?

I think so but I don’t know. I haven’t paid much attention to the retro models.

 

[raindance]

My company, a Pro-AV dealer, has been selling Tannoy for years. The System 600, System 800 and others in that series were never highly regarded, but the general consensus was that they gave a certain flavor to recordings due to their inaccuracies. They seemed to get used by a fair number of studios. My recollection of the sound was one that emphasized the punch of snare drums and percussion, such as toms, but was quite polite in the treble. The System 600 was designed for nearfield use and I was always told that you couldn't use them in a conventional stereo system that placed them in the midfield. Around the time these were popular, Tannoy was also selling a line of PA speakers (the i- series) that required a "special" EQ - one wonders if these were trickled down from those horrors (they were truly bad without EQ).

 

[infinitesymphony]

Even though the measured speaker's frequency response is pretty bad, it looks like there are still directivity benefits of having a point source design. I spent some time with a group of people crowded into a critical listening room that had two pairs of speakers: Tannoy 800A and B&W 802D. The Tannoys were an easy pick because they sounded better to more people across the room.

 

[raindance]

Even though the measured speaker's frequency response is pretty bad, it looks like there are still directivity benefits of having a point source design. I spent some time with a group of people crowded into a critical listening room that had two pairs of speakers: Tannoy 800A and B&W 802D. The Tannoys were an easy pick because they sounded better to more people across the room.

The 800A was active - it would be interesting to measure that one. There was a 600 active also.

 

[KSTR]

I have those SYS600A actives, and when I measured them (10yrs back, last time) the frequency response was spot on the published graph in the manual -- with significant smoothing, at least 1/6th octave IIRC.
Btw, it is very unfair to measure coaxials exactly 100% on-axis because of the strict symmetry which accumulates all the same minute error (diffraction, mostly) whereas in a non-axisymmetric speaker much of the fine-grain averages out as diffraction contribution varies vs rotational angle.

 

[raindance]

I have those SYS600A actives, and when I measured them (10yrs back, last time) the frequency response was spot on the published graph in the manual -- with significant smoothing, at least 1/6th octave IIRC.
Btw, it is very unfair to measure coaxials exactly 100% on-axis because of the strict symmetry which accumulates all the same minute error (diffraction, mostly) whereas in a non-axisymmetric speaker much of the fine-grain averages out as diffraction contribution varies vs rotational angle.

Would you agree that they provide a really punchy snare sound? I liked them on female vocals also. I'd guess the actives are better than the passives.

 

[davidperrenoud]

This speaker was measured in March 2021 by Indy Acoustic Research in an article by Steve Temme from Listen, Inc. who wrote the "Simulated Free Field Measurements" paper with Christopher J. Struck (both AES members). They used the SoundCheck software from Listen, Inc. and an SCM measurement microphone.

Anechoic and simulated free-field measurements of a Tannoy System 600 speaker.

Tannoy published frequency compared to spliced measurement.

 

[davidperrenoud]

I aligned the two graphs on the X and Y axis and generated an animated GIF. There is some correlation above 3 kHz but not much else:

Outside of the crossover problem, has anybody an idea why the bass is dropping earlier on Amir's measurement?

@amirm Would you like to measure or recap the crossover as mentioned by @QMuse and @Vuki... for science?