In the beginning of the summer mhardy offered a rescued pair of large Sherwood speakers to anyone who wanted them. He felt they were tubby sounding on his SET set up so he was willing to part with them. He didn't know the model, but they were eventually identified as Tanglewoods, which were Sherwood's largest speaker. The model shown at HiFi Lit is a 4 way, with 2 rear facing 10 inch woofers at floor level, an 8 inch lower midrange, a sealed back 8 inch upper midrange, and 2 ring radiator tweeters. The grills are semipermanently attached, so mark didn't remove it. (There are pictures of the outside and the inside of the upper chamber in his posting offering them, if you are curious.)
I like big speakers and thought I had a home for them, but it took one look for the prospective recipient to say "No", even though she agreed they sounded much better in a cavernous room than the Genesis 2s that were there. So they have ended up in my tiny office, not an ideal environment. As soon as I got them, I opened up the upper cabinet, and found that one of the inductor's ferrite core had fallen out and was stuck to the tweeter magnet. This might explain why mark thought they were tubby, because with it replaced, they don't sound particularly tubby. I am using them with solid state gear, and the increased damping factor might also help
I also found out (the hard way) how to get the grill off. There is a lip on the bottom of the grill that fits into a groove in the cabinet, and screws from the inside of the upper cabinet hold the top.
Once the grill was off, I discoverd that these must be a later pair since they have a single dome tweeter rather than the two ring radiators.
Though old, these are carefully made speakers -- the grill has a wad of fibrous padding to damp it, the crossovers are complex and made with high power components, and the design is pretty sophisticated.
So how do they sound? Well, as I've said I haven't been able to listen critically in ideal circumstances, but I have to say they sound quite good. In the large room, listening to FM, they presented a good image with clear positioning and believable dynamics. Cellos appeared to actually occupy the correct size space and location, and strings seemed natural. In a smaller room, mostly listening to jazz, again on FM, the bass line is distinct, and the fundamental and the harmonics seemed to be in correct relation to each other (this is a big issue for me since on most speakers I have a hard time following the bass -- most speakers seem to me to present a big indistinct woodge of low frequency sound to me). The high end was less successful -- good, but not as transparent or smooth as better modern speakers can be.
I haven't replaced capacitors or anything, so its possible it might be easy to improve the sound, but even as they are, I think the Tanglewood is an overlooked classic.
I suspect I prefer them to AR 3as and other small box acoustic suspensions. I don't think I would prefer them to the full size Bozaks, but I haven't heard them in a long time, so my impresssion that the Bozaks are smoother in the high end might actually simply be roll off. Definitiely not the equal of Quad Electrostatics, but much better scaled bass.
There do not seem to be too many Tanglewoods out there, but I think if you come across a pair, don't dismiss them without a listen.
I like big speakers and thought I had a home for them, but it took one look for the prospective recipient to say "No", even though she agreed they sounded much better in a cavernous room than the Genesis 2s that were there. So they have ended up in my tiny office, not an ideal environment. As soon as I got them, I opened up the upper cabinet, and found that one of the inductor's ferrite core had fallen out and was stuck to the tweeter magnet. This might explain why mark thought they were tubby, because with it replaced, they don't sound particularly tubby. I am using them with solid state gear, and the increased damping factor might also help
I also found out (the hard way) how to get the grill off. There is a lip on the bottom of the grill that fits into a groove in the cabinet, and screws from the inside of the upper cabinet hold the top.
Once the grill was off, I discoverd that these must be a later pair since they have a single dome tweeter rather than the two ring radiators.
Though old, these are carefully made speakers -- the grill has a wad of fibrous padding to damp it, the crossovers are complex and made with high power components, and the design is pretty sophisticated.
So how do they sound? Well, as I've said I haven't been able to listen critically in ideal circumstances, but I have to say they sound quite good. In the large room, listening to FM, they presented a good image with clear positioning and believable dynamics. Cellos appeared to actually occupy the correct size space and location, and strings seemed natural. In a smaller room, mostly listening to jazz, again on FM, the bass line is distinct, and the fundamental and the harmonics seemed to be in correct relation to each other (this is a big issue for me since on most speakers I have a hard time following the bass -- most speakers seem to me to present a big indistinct woodge of low frequency sound to me). The high end was less successful -- good, but not as transparent or smooth as better modern speakers can be.
I haven't replaced capacitors or anything, so its possible it might be easy to improve the sound, but even as they are, I think the Tanglewood is an overlooked classic.
I suspect I prefer them to AR 3as and other small box acoustic suspensions. I don't think I would prefer them to the full size Bozaks, but I haven't heard them in a long time, so my impresssion that the Bozaks are smoother in the high end might actually simply be roll off. Definitiely not the equal of Quad Electrostatics, but much better scaled bass.
There do not seem to be too many Tanglewoods out there, but I think if you come across a pair, don't dismiss them without a listen.
