Advent of Fyne audio and decline of Tannoy?

[Decadent_Spectre]

Folks, AND with all due respects to DS, in the past there have been many discussions where he had quite a difference of opinion to the general audiophile narrative ( and experience) due to a vast difference in his tastes and specific requirements. He is on a very different trip

W.R.T to the Fyne / Tannoy discussion, I had the privilege to meet some of the fine folks at fyne at the Bristol audio show and also to listen to some of their offerings. If you like the coaxial sound originally pioneered by tannoy, you will like either brand although fyne has been making forward strides beyond what tannoy did in the past. Some of the older models by Tannoy are still held in very high esteem and are outstanding.

So you are saying what I said -

Your extremely late to the party. Old Tannoy may be good but in 2002 or so it was bought by TC IIRC and in 2015 by Behringer (Uli). I'd say anything they made after 2002 is automatically rubbish, just my thoughts, not that I'd consider a Tannoy, not the old stuff either. Pro coaxials today are generally far better than the older coaxials from different companies, some people think all things old makes it better, or at least different enough to show off online. As far as I am concerned fyne is the same as Tannoy, more or less, not worth a consideration. Though if I had to choose Tannoy is what I'd choose, at least their designs are more interesting. Fyne is cookie cutter boring.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

So you are saying what I said -

What he is saying is that its pointless trying to knock some sense into a certain ...... anyways doesnt matter. You please continue with your rumblings on all the well regarded designs out there

And Forum etiquette would dictate that we all bear with folks pissing on other peoples parades....and then calling it "Subjective preference"

 

[prem]

Tannoys are definitely colored. But in a nice way. Adds to much emphasis on mid bass. Not as transparent as I would have liked. But I can understand why people love them. Altecs are less colored. JBL even lesser.

A small mistake. I meant to say JBL is less colored. TAD even lesser. Instead I wrote Altec less colored. JBL even lesser.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

What he is saying is that its pointless trying to knock some sense into a certain ...... anyways doesnt matter. You please continue with your rumblings on all the well regarded designs out there

And Forum etiquette would dictate that we all bear with folks pissing on other peoples parades....and then calling it "Subjective preference"

If people don't understand preference they lack common sense. I wouldn't call it rumblings, I post when I have free time, usually I am busy hence I post less here. Also knocking sense is a matter of perspective, it works both ways as they say. Some choose not to.

I don't see piss or parade, but if forum etiquette dictates we bear with it then perhaps you should take note. If one accepts that there is no "superiority" in the universe and everything is just different, apply it to preference then people will not take issue with other people's preferences.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

If people don't understand preference they lack common sense. I wouldn't call it rumblings, I post when I have free time, usually I am busy hence I post less here. Also knocking sense is a matter of perspective, it works both ways as they say. Some choose not to.

I don't see piss or parade, but if forum etiquette dictates we bear with it then perhaps you should take note. If one accepts that there is no "superiority" in the universe and everything is just different, apply it to preference then people will not take issue with other people's preferences.

You are entitled to have your preference....but then you are expected to keep it to yourselves when posting on a forum, especially when you have nothing pleasant to add to the conversation.

If you cannot add anything of value except criticism, there is a particular forum just for folks like you....and Iam sure you know the address

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

You are entitled to have your preference....but then you are expected to keep it to yourselves when posting on a forum, especially when you have nothing pleasant to add to the conversation.

If you cannot add anything of value except criticism, there is a particular forum just for folks like you....and Iam sure you know the address

That might be your thought, it isn't mine. I am not here to please others or socialize. Nor take their fragile egos into account.

I do not. Nor do I want to.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

That might be your thought, it isn't mine. I am not here to please others or socialize. Nor take their fragile egos into account.

I do not. Nor do I want to.

All the very best

I'd rather not waste more time than I already have.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

All the very best

I'd rather not waste more time than I already have.

Same.

 

[Nitin K]

If people don't understand preference they lack common sense.

With due respect to your point of view, in fact most of the times it is quite the opposite. People override common sense with their personal preferences especially when it comes to vfm for a product. After all we are human.
That shows that preferences vary and there is nothing wrong with it. Besides that does not make a product good or bad.
Let us respect other peoples point of view and not be bitter about it. We can agree to disagree, move on and be happy with our decisions.

 

[reignofchaos]

You asked about a pro audio driver, a driver by itself is not usable. If you were to try it you would need an enclosure.

There isn't a commerical speaker on earth that I have heard or read about that would suit my preference without DSP. For my use DSP is necessary, I think all systems would benefit from DSP for all people by shaping the sound to preference. As I said before things are about preference, it is highly unlikely that a commercial product in it's raw form will be the "perfect fit" for a given individuals taste. I will note I do not endorse using DSP to "fix" issues that is the common use of DSP except in some cases.

For me DSP ruins the sound - having tried everything south of 10k USD, I do not like DSP one bit. It adds its own coloration and takes away the soul of the music. When we spend tonnes of money on digital and still end up going to analog, why on earth will we massage the sound with DSP.

As for cabinets - other than one or two folks I am aware of like Sadik, most carpenters in India are useless for building enclosures. No matter what you try, your box will be noisy since the carpentry work will be poor. Forget that, even cutting tools where CNC machining is required with proper plans isn't done by 99% of these carpenters.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

With due respect to your point of view, in fact most of the times it is quite the opposite. People override common sense with their personal preferences especially when it comes to vfm for a product. After all we are human.
That shows that preferences vary and there is nothing wrong with it. Besides that does not make a product good or bad.
Let us respect other peoples point of view and not be bitter about it. We can agree to disagree, move on and be happy with our decisions.

If you thought I was bitter, something was lost in translation on the internet through the written word. Thank you for your opinion. I do agree preferences vary and there is nothing wrong with that.

For me DSP ruins the sound - having tried everything south of 10k, I do not like DSP one bit. It adds its own coloration and takes away the soul of the music.

As for cabinets - other than one or two folks I am aware of like Sadik, most carpenters in India are useless for building enclosures. No matter what you try, your box will be noisy since the carpentry work will be poor.

If it doesn't work for you then it doesn't, though tuning a DSP (to preference not correcting to a standard) is also an "art" as some in audio circles like to say. Price point is irrelevant in audio when preferences matter and a cheap speaker with DSP can sound subjectively better than an expensive speaker with DSP if one knows how to adjust it for preference of the listener, perhaps the listener themselves can do so with the knowledge. Some DSPs just sound good and some don't to me, my understanding is that the miniDSP (popular, though I haven't heard it) doesn't sound good, at least on speakers. Many people use something like the mini but mostly to correct issues (particularly on the bass and ignoring it's potential use on speakers) and this, as I said before, is something I don't endorse as it usually makes the sound subjectively worse in my experience. As always YMMV and all.

I disagree. While their finishing work is usually not the same aesthetic as a commercial product, the enclosure does not necessarily ring. Though you may need to sit down and get it built in front of you, also such a carpenter might not be cheap as the process to properly build a box to make it not ring will require longer working hours. It is notable most will not possess CNC machines and the like so choose carefully since some 10k odd will not get you any decent box. It's also more likely the ringing you hear is from the sub and/or room unless box construction is extremely poor to a whole different degree.

 

[reignofchaos]

If you thought I was bitter, something was lost in translation on the internet through the written word. Thank you for your opinion. I do agree preferences vary and there is nothing wrong with that.


If it doesn't work for you then it doesn't, though tuning a DSP (to preference not correcting to a standard) is also an "art" as some in audio circles like to say. Price point is irrelevant in audio when preferences matter and a cheap speaker with DSP can sound subjectively better than an expensive speaker with DSP if one knows how to adjust it for preference of the listener, perhaps the listener themselves can do so with the knowledge. Some DSPs just sound good and some don't to me, my understanding is that the miniDSP (popular, though I haven't heard it) doesn't sound good, at least on speakers. Many people use something like the mini but mostly to correct issues (particularly on the bass and ignoring it's potential use on speakers) and this, as I said before, is something I don't endorse as it usually makes the sound subjectively worse in my experience. As always YMMV and all.

I disagree. While their finishing work is usually not the same aesthetic as a commercial product, the enclosure does not necessarily ring. Though you may need to sit down and get it built in front of you, also such a carpenter might not be cheap as the process to properly build a box to make it not ring will require longer working hours. It is notable most will not possess CNC machines and the like so choose carefully since some 10k odd will not get you any decent box. It's also more likely the ringing you hear is from the sub and/or room unless box construction is extremely poor to a whole different degree.

Minidsp is utter crap. The trouble with DSP is you are doing A->D, processing and again D->A inside the same device or on a computer. The one I heard was as extremely well rated Spatial Audio speaker using eminence pro drivers and a whole prism sound stack for this and a laptop for the processing. Didn't sound good to me and everything was artificial! This is inspite of the fact that when the prism sound was simply used as a DAC without the DSP running, everything sounded alright. The immediacy one is used to in high quality digital or analog systems was missing.

The second elephant in the room is calibration - this is extremely difficult as everything depends on mic positioning and accurate measurements. You do a minor change and the sound changes massively. Calibration is extremely room and positioning dependent and ,can easily be botched up. And once it is botched up, no matter what you do, the system will sound bad!

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

Minidsp is utter crap. The trouble with DSP is you are doing A->D, processing and again D->A inside the same device or on a computer. The one I heard was as extremely well rated Spatial Audio speaker using eminence pro drivers and a whole prism sound stack for this and a laptop for the processing. Didn't sound good to me and everything was artificial! This is inspite of the fact that when the prism sound was simply used as a DAC without the DSP running, everything sounded alright. The immediacy one is used to in high quality digital or analog systems was missing.

The second elephant in the room is calibration - this is extremely difficult as everything depends on mic positioning and accurate measurements. You do a minor change and the sound changes massively. Calibration is extremely room and positioning dependent and ,can easily be botched up. And once it is botched up, no matter what you do, the system will sound bad!

Extra AD/DA can have an effect (I won't say it's bad) but depending upon equipment/setup you might be able to mitigate this unless one is obsessed with technical digital purity (I am not) instead of subjective sound. One can get around this by simply using digital input to the DSP. Could you say what was doing the DSP processing in the setup you mention, also what processing was being done, and who set it up? If I understand correctly this was being done by the laptop? I do agree that digital can sound artificial and lack warmth.

If by calibration you mean correcting to a standard then I am afraid I don't subscribe to this. I *only* advocate the use of DSP to tailor sound to preference except in some cases. Any settings made by a DSP can be redefined as needed after a change to the room/system, in my view to preference and in the opinion of those seeking an objective standard through measuring the room again. It goes without saying the calibration is room/position dependent, often moving one's head a little can also change the sound, depending upon the room this change can be significant or not as much so it depends on the specific setup.

 

[Analogous]

I would not call it a statement, an opinion. I don't believe in "absolute" superiority in anything. Most people believe in superiority based on price and/or technical capabilities. I believe in subjective perception and personal preference, this applies to everything, not just audio or tannoy and fyne. In reality most things are about preference.

But this thread is specifically about Tannoy and Fyne…, but since you have not heard a Fyne audio speaker (like me) I guess it’s fair not to even offer an opinion on comparing the two brands?
I do find insights and opinions of those who have heard both brands good learning.
I do agree it’s often difficult to declare any thing absolutely “superior” to something similar.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

But this thread is specifically about Tannoy and Fyne…, but since you have not heard a Fyne audio speaker (like me) I guess it’s fair not to even offer an opinion on comparing the two brands?
I do find insights and opinions of those who have heard both brands good learning.
I do agree it’s often difficult to declare any thing absolutely “superior” to something similar.

People form opinions on most things (and people) without direct experience, it is the nature of humanity. It is automatic. A common example for audio would be when someone wishes to purchase something and a demo is not possible for options. People choose something and buy it based on their opinion based on their perceptions/knowledge. It might not be practical to think humans may not form thoughts on things without experience.

These thoughts might be fun but since tastes differ the practical use for someone purchasing might not help as much.

I do not think it is about just something similar, all things are different. Intensity/scale and difference exists in the universe, not "superiority", which is a human construct.

 

[arj]

Coming back to the topic. Tannoys have a great heritage but that does not mean they are continuing the same.. from the fantastic Red/Silver and gold drivers to the HPDs they were still great..but post 2000s they "Mordernized" and over time are mostly regular stuff now. More like Cheaper wine in great cabinets.

Fyne have gone back to basics for design using tannoy knowledge and doing it far better the modern way. While a old tannoy is still worth its weight , literally in gold

Jim Smith , a pretty big Tannoy fan, also moved on from Tannoys to Fyne so there must be something there.

Personally, I do love my Tannoys and the way they reproduce tone and lower mids and bass compared to any other speaker I have heard , except the JBL 4343 which is a different level, and would not trade unless I am certain what I change to will be better.

I guess Id rather experiment with amplification and cartridges till then !!