Best Tannoys for mid-field listening?

Hi Bob,

I have a pair of custom-built 12" Tannoy HPD's (ca 1975, but with new hard edge surrounds), in my large 16.5 X 34' room w/cathedral ceilings, and my speakers are about 8 1/2' from my listening position.

Sound stage is deep, nearly to the back wall, and the speakers are 5' out into the room. Imaging and placement of instruments is good, too.

This all sounds good, but my speakers are positioned on the short wall, and fire into the large area.

I arrived at this positioning after reading the speaker positioning tips on the Cardas website. I would advise you to read this, or similar, to get more ideas.

Other than that, IME, your Tannoys will most likely sound best oriented the other way in your room, BYMMV.

Best,
Dan

All of them will work for your distance. I can listen to my Tannoys at 4 feet away, with the speakers 10 feet apart on center, and get great, immediate sound. For 4 feet or closer extra toe in is required.

Something was wrong with your placement, your lateral position (were you anywhere near the centerline of the speakers and were they equal in toe-in from your position?) or your system: they should have worked if you were 5 or more feet from them and equidistant from both speakers.

Confirm Kiddman. They will all work in near and midfield but you can't just drop them, or any other speaker in the room at random and expect them to work their best. You need to know and understand how to set the speakers up properly to optimize their performance. But the first thing you need to consider is your room acoustics and that it will have the most impact on your speakers, you might have picked the worst spot in the room for convenience and aesthetics.

Hi Kiddman-

My Glenairs were about 2-3' out from the back wall, about 8' apart on either side of my fireplace, and my listening position was about 9' away, right in-between the speakers. I can't think of a more correct setup - the tweets and woofer didn't smoothly resolve and the speaker sounded too bright. I've had many other speakers in the same position without any issues.

Your thoughts?

Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob,

I believe that this issue you have of more a speaker placement matter than the speaker's fault. I have a pair of Glenair 15 and they image very well at diverse listening positions (it's not clear to me what you mean with "resolve").
It's worth it to read this review, where the reviewer much enjoyed listening to the 15' Glenairs from a close listening position, as if listening to headphones:
http://dagogo.com/tannoy-glenair-floorstanding-speaker-review

All the best,
Alberto