Tannoy Westminster Royal

[Pearljam5000]

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

 

[JustJones]

I guess they are to someone. Not me they look like bedroom furniture. Must be someplace you can store socks in there.

 

[LTig]

Don't think so. Can't imagine that the spinorama is any good with such a coax. I'd expect quite beaming highs. Maybe good for a large room with bad acoustic.

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

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

No, they are not. I have heard them some 30 years ago in a showroom - not bad sound, but too much expensive. Although they were the old Westminster Royal version, not the current Westminster Royal GR-OW version, I doubt there is much difference.

 

[JustJones]

You can get a pair of these for $585

 

[sergeauckland]

It depends on what criterion one judges these. Sonically, they probably aren't worth anything like that price. However, the cabinets are superb furniture, and internally immensely complicated, so expensive to make. They will be produced in very small quantities due to their sheer size, so far less opportunity for mass production.

In other words, if somebody likes and can afford both the cost and space for that particular loudspeaker, then price won't be an obstacle.

Similarly, few 50,000-500,000 loudspeakers are sold on their spinorama.

S

 

[sarumbear]

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>

 

[typericey]

I was fortunate(?) to audition these 30 years ago in the system of my dad's friend. I was like WTH?! To my perfect frequency response pre-teen ears it sounded like speakers without tweeters.

 

[sarumbear]

I was fortunate(?) to audition these 30 years ago in the system of my dad's friend. I was like WTH?! To my perfect frequency response pre-teen ears it sounded like speakers without tweeters.

These are (once) standard Tannoy Dual Concentric drive units in a (very) large folded horn enclosure. If you were in the audio recording and/or broadcast sector during the 70s you would have heard and even mixed with them. They were everywhere enclosed in various size enclosures.

However, they certainly should have never sounded like "speakers without tweeters". They have a brash sound but they have a decent frequency response for a speaker design which is 50+ years old. Unless the tweeter fuses were blown.

https://www.tannoy.com/our-story.html

 

[Dennis Murphy]

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

I heard these maybe 10+ years ago, and had my measurement gear with me. I just checked my original notes, which described them as warm, slightly hollow in the lower midrange, and decent highs. And very loud.

 

[Feelas]

I heard these maybe 10+ years ago, and had my measurement gear with me. I just checked my original notes, which described them as warm, slightly hollow in the lower midrange, and decent highs. And very loud.
View attachment 104458

Loudness speaks authority, ain't right?

 

[tuga]

I heard these once, not in the best conditions. "Bassy-warm" sounding with a somewhat "polite" top is what I remember.
They're American-fridge huge.

 

[Feelas]

I heard these once, not in the best conditions. "Bassy-warm" sounding with a somewhat "polite" top is what I remember.
They're American-fridge huge.

The real question is: can these play with lots of momma's jam jars inside?

 

[typericey]

Yes, I knew then that they were coaxials, which is why my dad and I left his friend's home scratching our heads. There was definitely something wrong with his setup, maybe the speakers, the electronics or the room even. His room was large enough for the speakers btw.

"Speakers without tweeters" may have been an exaggeration, but the treble was significantly rolled off. To the best of my memory, they sounded like woofers with whizzers.

 

[sergeauckland]

These are (once) standard Tannoy Dual Concentric drive units in a (very) large folded horn enclosure. If you were in the audio recording and/or broadcast sector during the 70s you would have heard and even mixed with them. They were everywhere enclosed in various size enclosures.

However, they certainly should have never sounded like "speakers without tweeters". They have a brash sound but they have a decent frequency response for a speaker design which is 50+ years old. Unless the tweeter fuses were blown.

https://www.tannoy.com/our-story.html

In my first job, (now 50 years ago!) the company had three dubbing studios with 15" Tannoys in Lockwood Major or LE1 cabinets, so got quite used to the sound of these drivers. I've heard them since a few times, and don't find them anything near as bad as their measurements would suggest. Treble is a bit ragged, and before I converted my B&W 801s to active, I had considered doing the same to a pair of large Tannoy / Lockwoods, and equalising the drivers using DSP. I still wonder how much better they would be properly equalised, although I still think a 1kHz crossover for a 15" bass unit is at least one octave too far!

S.

 

[anmpr1]

What is odd is that the sides and bottom veneers (of the horn) are grain matched, but not the top flute of the horn, where it meets the baffle. For the price you'd think the top throat of the horn would grain match the front of the speaker. Personally, I would like a little better woodwork for my fifty thousand dollars.

 

[andreasmaaan]

What is odd is that the sides and bottom veneers (of the horn) are grain matched, but not the top flute of the horn, where it meets the baffle. For the price you'd think the top throat of the horn would grain match the front of the speaker. Personally, I would like a little better woodwork for my fifty thousand dollars.

View attachment 104788

Ha, hadn't noticed that. I'm actually not sure the others are matched either, to me it looks more as though they are coincidentally quite similar.

 

[Feelas]

What is odd is that the sides and bottom veneers (of the horn) are grain matched, but not the top flute of the horn, where it meets the baffle. For the price you'd think the top throat of the horn would grain match the front of the speaker. Personally, I would like a little better woodwork for my fifty thousand dollars.

View attachment 104788

This is absolutely puzzling, given the photos on the Internet I thought we're talking about something modelled into the Sims - just imagine my face when I've seen the same mismatched grain (and in general an overtly-badly litten game texture look) on real photos!

Given all the cheesy looks, I wonder whether that's kitsch or camp.

 

[sergeauckland]

This is absolutely puzzling, given the photos on the Internet I thought we're talking about something modelled into the Sims - just imagine my face when I've seen the same mismatched grain (and in general an overtly-badly litten game texture look) on real photos!

Given all the cheesy looks, I wonder whether that's kitsch or camp.

Issues of veneer matching aside, I don't think either kitsch or camp. I think the looks are totally a consequence of the system being a rear-loaded horn, with the front horn just for treble. They could, I suppose, have made the front horn circular rather than square section, but then forming such a horn would be an ever more difficult task especially to make it look good. Originally, large Tannoys always had grilles to hide the driver. I think these would also look a lot better with full-height grilles, but the modern aesthetic is for showing the drivers.

Regardless, 'speakers that big will always make a statement, whether hideous (to me) things like Wilsons, functional like PMC, or furniture like these.

S.

 

[DSJR]

I've only heard them once and to me they sound as they look. The hollow mids as described above dominating and the Tannoy-usual rough highs being well suppressed as mid-bass and lower mids dominated in that room.

On the other hand, I've always been interested to hear what the now elderly grey-nextel DMT models sounded like. Tulip waveguide, possibly plastic cones but a bit more up to date looking. Tannoy were as bad as JBL at promoting themselves in the UK, so the 'proper' ones were rarely sold domestically I recall.