[Tannoy]

I have a set of Tannoy 385 HPD 15" dual concentic ----- they are i ported cabinets ,buth i will try them in open baffle system,is there eny that have tried that kind of element i open baffle?
They plays great,buth may be even better in open system.
Regads from Finn.

[Russell Dawkins]

I used to have a pair of HPD 385s in Arden cabinets - nice drivers, sometimes I think I should have kept them. The box, though, as was often the case with Tannoy on their cheaper models, was marginal - lightweight and resonant.

I have been told that they do sound great in a large open baffle but haven't heard it.

There was an apparently successful experiment written up in a British Hi-Fi mag 30 years ago about putting a pair in the walls of the listening room to make an infinite baffle arrangement. Apparently the results were well liked.

I have also been told that one of the best sounding set ups a friend had ever heard was one HPD 385 in a very large floor to ceiling baffle board across the front two corners of the listening room - one on each corner - perhaps 36" wide and forming a triangular cross section space between the baffle and the walls. This was a sealed box big enough to be considered a true infinite baffle, especially since the baffle edges led straight to the wall and so there was none of the usual notch filtering caused by cancellations associated with the bounce off the wall behind the speakers.

If I were doing an open baffle right down to bass frequencies, I would presume I would need two more 15s or an 18 in addition to the Tannoy in order to keep the baffle down to a reasonable size - width, especially.

[face]

I haven't tried open baffles, but can tell you that better cabinets and new crossover capacitors can make a huge difference. 

[Tannoy]

I haven't tried open baffles, but can tell you that better cabinets and new crossover capacitors can make a huge difference. 

Thanks for info. Yes new caps and new cabinets (i like plywood for older types of element,not MDF)
I have to power amps --- for the moment i use Conrad Johnson MF-2500 ---- buth i also have a pair of Heart dobble beat mono bloks 300B paralellsingelended 18W the CJ is wey good from top to bottom,buth the Heart 300B is better in top and midrange at the lower freq.the 300B fall a little thru,buth i can live with it.
The Heart blocs have fantasic midrange.
I like older stuff so my pre amp is an old CJ premier 14 with RCA clear top tubes and may vinyl rig is an Garrard 301 with new bearing and Shindo plint.

[rvkfour]

Hi Tannoy, Guys!

I'm new here and this will my first post.

I've had my 3828 15" Tannoy drivers from the original Berkeley cabinets mounted on a JE Labs OB baffles and just sounded really GREAT! As they were, I felt that they sounded much better than the "hi-end" speakers available today. I sold my Swiss-made Reference 3As for them! But put them on the said baffles and they just sing!! I've since sold them for a pair of Altec 605As though but I wish that I still had them.

I'm using a JE Labs Deluxe pre amp/2A3DX amp and these were voiced with vintage Altec drivers, hence the reason I sold the Tannoys. They just have this synergy that sounds so musical that it makes listening to them so involving! Having said that, I still feel that the Tannoys sounded their best in the OBs, IMHO. And considering that the HPDs are supposedly better that the 3828s, I could just imagine how great they would sound in OBs.

Anyway, these are just my own subjective experience and YMMV.

Good luck!


Regards,

rvkfour