It all started with a phone call and I was asked if I would like to visit a friend who had something that he knew I would like to see. My friend told me that I would be able to hear a pair of Tannoy red loudspeakers in Lockwood cabinets.

I was also told that the power-amps and preamp were hand made but I just had to close my eyes and listen. Wow what could I say to that apart from count me in and when do we leave!!

.The meeting

Sometimes when I go to a listening session, I just never know what to expect but this, as it turned out was an audio experience never to forget. I arrived at the agreed building and called my friend, who came to meet me and showed me into the listening room. Here I met three of my other audio friends and the owner of the Tannoy red loudspeakers. I said hello, we shook hands and then sat down and he put on the music and we started to listen.

The system

The music was being fed from a computer and then to a DAC. After which it was fed to a preamp and then to a pair of Mono-block amplifiers. The preamp and the amplifiers were hand built using components that were of the highest quality and no expense had been spared on this project and everything had been done exactly as it was meant to be!

The Amplifier

The Mono-block amplifiers were just a beautiful creation and the owner was so proud of what he had built. He was also very pleased that we had come to visit and listen to his accomplishment.

The thing that really struck me was that everything had been made so simple and was very easy to get to. Also there was exactly the right amount of components necessary to make the system sound the way it did.

Close up

The amplifier was quite amazing to look at and I was very impressed by the quality and the size of the components used. This gave me a clear indication that the owner really loved what he had created and knew what he was doing.

I am thankful for this meeting because it is always so good to meet such a person and see what he can do with components. I am living in Vilnius, Lithuania and I am fortunate to meet such people who have the Russian knowledge and technique to build such a beautiful piece of equipment. This is something to be really proud of and in this case, it really was indeed something special.

The loudspeakers

The loudspeakers were Tannoy 15″ Red monitors fitted into the famous Lockwood audio enclosures and were in great condition. Lockwood audio specializes in the manufacture of loudspeaker enclosures and has many years of valuable experience.

I am a Tannoy red loudspeaker lover and I consider Tannoy to be amongst the best in the manufacture of quality Loudspeakers. I have had many different Tannoy loudspeakers over the years and I do prefer the sound from a 15″ monitor above anything else.

Listening

I have to say at this point that every person hears things differently and people tend to focus of the sound they prefer. One person pays attention to the bass response and the depth of the bass while another person is more interested in the highs and the ultra highs. Also to every person his system is always the best and this is because he is used to the sound of his own system.

I am very lucky because I have good friends who have the same passion for music as I do and they are all professional people, who like me have been involved with audio all their lives.

But for some very strange reason, I am referred to as “The Expert” and why this is I do not really know but, maybe it’s because I am English and they really do value my opinion and whatever I say is always agreed upon in the end!

The sound

As I said earlier every person believes his system sounds the best and many people are unaware of speaker positioning and how critical this actually is. As we listened to the first few bars of music I shuddered.

The sound was very harsh in the middle and lacked focus and was just wandering around the room. I asked the owner if he would be so kind as to allow me to move the loudspeakers because I would make the system sound much better.

The owner told me that it was very hard to get a good sound because the room was very small and also there were lots of reflections but I was more than welcome to try.

For me, this was very easy to fix and so I measured the speaker centers and then measured the back wall space and made the adjustments. Within twenty minutes the system sounded totally different. Everything was in place, focused and the harshness had gone from the music. At this point, one of my friends said that he was surprised that by repositioning the speakers could improve the actual harshness in the sound and what I had done was a new experience for him!

The result

The result was the system sounded very good and showed just how good a pair of mono blocks can actually sound. Everything was there, as you would expect in the way of detail, space, dynamics, bass and sound stage and the Tannoy red loudspeakers really performed bringing everything the system could offer. There were a couple of issues and one was that the bass had a touch of bloom around the bottom end but this could be easily fixed by putting a carpet on the floor. Also, the system was still a touch on the hard side and lacked the musicality that one would expect from tubes but again this could be easily fixed or “fine tuned” by using a different interconnect cable and power cord.

I had been asked by my friend to bring a set of my own cables with me just to try if necessary. I asked the owner if it was OK to do this and he gave me the green light and to cut a long story short I fitted a pair of three meter loudspeaker cables and a pair of 1.3 meter interconnect cables and what a difference they made to the sound and so as I have always thought the Tannoy red loudspeakers sound simply sensational!