I went down to Salt Lake City this week for a Basketball game so I of course took a look at what might be available on the used market. Low and behold a pair of Tannoy T225 Mayfair had been posted for a few days and were still available. Wasn't too far from downtown and the game, hotel etc so I met up with the original owner to check them out.
He had not been using them for some time and he felt he really didn't have teh right equipment for them so it was time to move them on. When I told him I was looking for something like these to use my tube gear with, he was comfortable with where they would be going so we made the deal and they came home with me.
Needed a little dusting off and one of teh binding posts was lose so I went in and tightened that up. The posts are on the bottom of the speaker (which I tend not to like, but whatever). The T line models are from 1978 only and had a new 10" version of the dual concentric driver. The upper models in the line, which these 225's are the top of, also incorporated a 10" passive radiator which you really didn't see apparently much of from Tannoy. So these are my first horn loaded speakers. I got the original technical manual for the T line in the deal too and it says these extend from 45 Hz - 20kHz with a crossover frequency at 3,500.
The Walnut cabinets are near perfect and the glass tops are great. There are two adjustment controls under the glass with one being presence and the other tweeter level so that is handy. Grilles are also good, so with the rubber surrounds, these wont be needing any work to enjoy (until someone tells me they need a recap).
I hooked them up in my main system but with my fully restored Dynaco ST-70 instead of the WOPL amp.
And.....WOW....really really nice to say the least. I am looking forward to spending more time with them. I had not really found a speaker that moved me the way these have so far with the tube gear that I have, but I think I am heading down into a rabbit hole now.
Also found this outstanding chronological breakdown for Tannoys that helped me pinpoint where these are among many outstanding models and lines from Tannoy over the years. http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy52.htm
He had not been using them for some time and he felt he really didn't have teh right equipment for them so it was time to move them on. When I told him I was looking for something like these to use my tube gear with, he was comfortable with where they would be going so we made the deal and they came home with me.
Needed a little dusting off and one of teh binding posts was lose so I went in and tightened that up. The posts are on the bottom of the speaker (which I tend not to like, but whatever). The T line models are from 1978 only and had a new 10" version of the dual concentric driver. The upper models in the line, which these 225's are the top of, also incorporated a 10" passive radiator which you really didn't see apparently much of from Tannoy. So these are my first horn loaded speakers. I got the original technical manual for the T line in the deal too and it says these extend from 45 Hz - 20kHz with a crossover frequency at 3,500.
The Walnut cabinets are near perfect and the glass tops are great. There are two adjustment controls under the glass with one being presence and the other tweeter level so that is handy. Grilles are also good, so with the rubber surrounds, these wont be needing any work to enjoy (until someone tells me they need a recap).
I hooked them up in my main system but with my fully restored Dynaco ST-70 instead of the WOPL amp.
And.....WOW....really really nice to say the least. I am looking forward to spending more time with them. I had not really found a speaker that moved me the way these have so far with the tube gear that I have, but I think I am heading down into a rabbit hole now.
Also found this outstanding chronological breakdown for Tannoys that helped me pinpoint where these are among many outstanding models and lines from Tannoy over the years. http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy52.htm
