Tannoy Monitor Gold 15 - strange cone

derik736

Member
Hi guys,

I scored a pair of Tannoy Monitor Gold 15" speakers with very strange cones that I´ve never seen before. The gentleman I aquired them from couldn´t tell me anything about it. From behing, the cones are made of paper but fronts seem to be coated somehow. Any idea what might it be? Should I keep it or send them to Lockwood for recone?
They do sound great by the way ;) This is my first tannoy and I immediately felt in love with it. The fun factor is huge, I love the sound both in stereo and home theatre, the dynamics is outstanding, they sound not so "audiophile" and sophisticated like my IMF RSPM MK4 but all in all probably one bests speakers I´ve ever had. The enclosures are about 290 liters big, they are DIY version of german Audiolive Schönbohm which have the same size, shape and back panel like here, but mine doesn´t look as good:

http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy97.htm

I attached pictures of cones, anyone can recognise what I´m dealing with here?
 

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The coating is probably some sort of thinned adhesive-- possibly white glue, possibly something more esoteric-- added to the cones by a DIY type who heard from another DIY type who heard from another DIY type, ad infinitum, that this nifty trick would work wonders with the way these speakers sound. Or maybe the guy just liked shiny cones. In either case, it's a pretty safe bet it wasn't Tannoy recommending this.

The good news is it looks as if the coating has been applied fairly thinly, so it could be that not enough mass was added to muck things up all that much, or maybe even at all-- and from what you're saying it seems as if the latter could very well be the case here. So congrats on that. Sounds like you dodged a bullet.

Good luck.
 
Did you by any chance buy them on Marktplaats in the Netherlands?
I was once told by a Tannoy savant that some DIY types do this to dampen the midrange as the girostuds do for the upper midrange.
This savant, whom I at least respect for his opinion on these matters, said that this is not something that he'd ever do himself.
 
Hello,

thank you very much for the information.

nerpissad - I bought them in Germany and I was told they stood for many years in Berlin. No idea about the previous owner etc

The coating looks actually very professionally applied, I highly doubt someone who doesn´t know what he/she is doing would do this job so precisely, that´s what makes me wonder, who did this and why. The coating is very thin...

Well I guess I´ll give them some time, they sound extremely good. Maybe I´ll check both crossovers and refresh them a bit..
 
My inclination would be to send them to Lockwoods for a recone. This coating, for better or worse, will have changed the sound. If they were mine I would want to know what they sounded like unmolested.
 
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