Tannoy

[Non-Smoking Man]

Ive made some progress on the Cheviots (see March 13 above).
Ive purchased a pair of recone 315 kits from Lockwoods and Ive been in touch with Paul at RFC and sourced suppliers of the internal wiring and 4 way Tannoy plug, and chassis sockets and 4 way XLRs on eBay.

Plus Paul has described how he would have wired the 4 pin socket on the external crossovers if my restorer (of this Parish, he knows who he is) elects to use them instead of the originals which seem to be in place.

My techie (Martin) and I will get some wiring together and connect it all up, and take the whole kit and caboodle up to the NW for a 'working condition' resto.

I favour sound quality over finish so the odd mark doesn't bother me and it wont have to bother the new owner if I don't keep them.

They could sound pretty good, especially with the RFC external crossovers which I'm told are quite pricey now.

A little excited, got to admit..
(The 385s are coming up too..)

Jack NSM

 

[rdale]

I’ve just bought a pair of Tannoy Legacy Cheviots from @TSwede in the classifieds and they look just lovely, and I can’t wait to listen to them. I used to own a pair of the original Cheviots that I drove with a pair of Woodside Radford MA50 Renaissance monoblocks, which were a great match.

I am thinking about what amp to drive the new Cheviots with that won’t cost the earth. I have a PrimaLuna Evo 100 in another system that would be perfect, but buying another one would be more money than I’m intending to spend. There are a couple of Puresound P30s on sale in the classifieds which are both within budget. Then there is a STA25 power amp that I expect would be sonically perfect which is a bit too expensive and would need an extra preamp.

There are some cheap valve amps on AliExpress, and I’ve recently been having a lot of fun with a single ended APPJ EL34 based amp that was less than 500 euros even after getting some fancy upgraded valves. However, a push pull design like a Willsenton R8 with four KT88s or similar seems to be nearer 1500 euros which isn’t far off the cost of a PrimaLuna.

But I’ve seen pictures of the new Leak 230 integrated and I have to say it looks just wonderful with the walnut wooden sleeve and retro knob stylings, and would look great with the walnut finished Cheviots. It has a built in DAC and phono preamp, which most valve integrateds don’t usually have, and costs a very reasonable £1250. Does anyone have any opinions about driving Tannoys with modern solid state amps, rather than valves. Is the Leak likely to be a mistake and miss the whole point of the Tannoy sound, as Tannoys seem pretty amp fussy?

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

which is a bit too expensive and would need an extra preamp

I can't help with the price of the Radford but you could front-end it with a Nobsound (oo-er) passive pre. Source select & vol pot £50 from Amazon. You might also need a pair of 10dB Rothwell attenuators on the Radford i/p - but you won't need an active preamp unless you want a phono stage.

 

[montesquieu]

Personally I’d stick to pentode push pull, EL34 or KT88 family. I wouldn’t go less than 25w which I would say rules out EL84. The Radford is ideal, then Prina Luna. I’d be wary of the Ali Express options. No experience of the new Leak.

 

[rdale]

I can't help with the price of the Radford but you could front-end it with a Nobsound (oo-er) passive pre. Source select & vol pot £50 from Amazon. You might also need a pair of 10dB Rothwell attenuators on the Radford i/p - but you won't need an active preamp unless you want a phono stage.

I’ve got a little Tisbury Audio passive pre that worked fine with a Puresound P10 phono amp I’ve got into a Glow small valve amp, and so I could use that combination with the STA25 if it worked in that application. I certainly want to use a record deck with the Cheviots. But I would end up with a lot of boxes and cables, and spend more money than if I went for the Leak 230 amp.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

and spend more money than if I went for the Leak 230 amp

but you'd have less choice over the phono stage. I assume that's important

 

[rdale]

but you'd have less choice over the phono stage. I assume that's important

I could use the P10 with the Leak, but I’ve no idea how good the built in phono stage in the Leak is as there aren’t many reviews of it at all, as it’s only just come out.

If I have a super tidy one box + record deck solution, as with the Leak, then the system can go in the living room, but if I end up with a more complicated ‘HiFi Enthusiast’ system it would need to go in the spare bedroom. The Cheviots were a bit of an impulse buy and so I’m still deciding what exactly to do with them.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

all the best with your decision-taking

 

[hifinutt]

i use joe henry amps to drive my legacy eatons . very good . think there is a great example in classfieds . or he has plenty on eBay . sugden a21se works fantastically well . class d works well too

this would be brilliant
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/threads/aleph-j-pass-labs-design-amplifier.118943/#post-2420070

 

[hifinutt]

this modwright integrated would be good
might get a deal on it as been advertised for a while . superb build

https://www.hifi-forsale.co.uk/more...p=integrated_amplifier&prod_id=113509&offset=

 

[greybeard]

I have used a Unison Research simply 4 with good results with my original Cheviots, I have upgraded the 34's to Black Treasures. I have also used a pair of VRR Ikon monoblocks 5wpc, (Designed by David Wright) with a passive pre, and again the sound was great, provided you did not play only rock music very loud.

 

[rdale]

i use joe henry amps to drive my legacy eatons . very good . think there is a great example in classfieds . or he has plenty on eBay . sugden a21se works fantastically well . class d works well too

this would be brilliant
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/threads/aleph-j-pass-labs-design-amplifier.118943/#post-2420070

That looks a really nice amp. I think I'm going to take a punt on a Leak 230/Technics SL1210 GR combo though. I think it has JFETs and MOSFETs but I don't know if it's up there with a Nelson Pass design. It would be fun to have a bake off in the future so we could compare different amps driving the Cheviots.

 

[hifinutt]

let us know how you get on. I have had about 50-60 amps on my tannoy eaton legacy now . nearly all good . a lavardin was a bit tame . Thrax enyo was stunning but thats valve . MSB amp was brilliant too . but for the most part i have been using the superb bel canto pre amps with various amps . most recently the stonking bel canto eix pre with some joe henry F5 monoblocks which is very live sounding and pretty good , in fact 9.5/10