Tannoy Kingdom Royale auditioned

[PHC1]

I had a chance to finally hear a pair of Tannoy Kingdom Royale speakers today. Driven by the excellent Pass Labs XA100.5 class A monoblocks, Pass Labs XP10 pre, XP15 Phono stage a Linn LP12 with Akito/Akiva combo turntable and the tube Ayon CD2S CD player.

While I am more or less familiar with the Tannoy line since I've owned some of their speakers in the past and I am also familiar with Pass although not their latest creations until today, I have to say that this combination and synergy was new to me.

The Kingdom Royale right off the bat had that unmistakable sonic signature of the dual concentric driver coherence and linearity. This speaker of course also has a super tweeter and a rather healthy bass driver. All the drivers integrated nicely together and in my dealer's well treated and great sounding room, the results were very impressive indeed.

As I sat and listened to a few songs off the Linn turntable followed by tube output stage digital, I was falling deeper and deeper into a total trance. These speakers were not only effortless, open, dynamic but utterly expressive, engaging and musical. From the sharp focused and palpable, hauntingly present imaging to the rich and seductive tonal balance, to the effortless dynamics and the way the speakers loaded the room with authoritative bass with excellent definition to the silky smooth yet airy upper end...

In the styling and looks department, the Pass is A OK in my book as are the Kingdom Royales. I guess minor nitpicking would be that they have that composite material to look at which comes across as a bit "plasticky" but of course is very rigid and non resonant. The wood trim is gorgeous but NOT visible from the listening position. I guess one does not necessarily spend money on looks with these.

When I thought about how to summarize what I just heard and my take on this system, I said to myself, "This would be a system to invest in and retire with without changing a damn thing!" I guess that is the biggest compliment in my book since I love to change gear often! Yes, I was impressed. Truly reference grade speakers.

Short iPhone video. Sorry for the lousy quality but at least it gives the reader a "visual".



[ame=http://youtu.be/T4jVS-dJPyE]Tannoy Kingdom Royale - YouTube[/ame]

[BlueChiaro]

So when can I come over and hear them?

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by BlueChiaro

So when can I come over and hear them?

Robert, whenever I retire! In the mean time I will soon have the Wilson Alexia for you to audition. But seriously, if I was setting up another "serious" system, the Kingdom Royale would be a serious consideration. Their 96dB efficiency and 8 ohm nominal impedance opens up all kinds of possibilities. I would love to hear them with a nice SET amp like Shindo. I am afraid that audition would be DEADLY to the wallet!

[jdandy]

Serge.......It may be time to rethink the two channel room.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Serge.......It may be time to rethink the two channel room.

Dan, these Kingdom Royale speakers would never be at home in my 2 channel room size wise. They are capable of some serious performance and load up the room effortlessly with bass. Optimally I would need a room probably 2x the size of mine.

That's a very nice system. Btw, the Ayon CD-2s is good, but the CD-5s (especially with upgraded/matched NOS tubes) is quite a bit better

[trek737]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I had a chance to finally hear a pair of Tannoy Kingdom Royale speakers today. Driven by the excellent Pass Labs XA100.5 class A monoblocks, Pass Labs XP10 pre, XP15 Phono stage a Linn LP12 with Akito/Akiva combo turntable and the tube Ayon CD2S CD player.

While I am more or less familiar with the Tannoy line since I've owned some of their speakers in the past and I am also familiar with Pass although not their latest creations until today, I have to say that this combination and synergy was new to me.

The Kingdom Royale right off the bat had that unmistakable sonic signature of the dual concentric driver coherence and linearity. This speaker of course also has a super tweeter and a rather healthy bass driver. All the drivers integrated nicely together and in my dealer's well treated and great sounding room, the results were very impressive indeed.

As I sat and listened to a few songs off the Linn turntable followed by tube output stage digital, I was falling deeper and deeper into a total trance. These speakers were not only effortless, open, dynamic but utterly expressive, engaging and musical. From the sharp focused and palpable, hauntingly present imaging to the rich and seductive tonal balance, to the effortless dynamics and the way the speakers loaded the room with authoritative bass with excellent definition to the silky smooth yet airy upper end...

In the styling and looks department, the Pass is A OK in my book as are the Kingdom Royales. I guess minor nitpicking would be that they have that composite material to look at which comes across as a bit "plasticky" but of course is very rigid and non resonant. The wood trim is gorgeous but NOT visible from the listening position. I guess one does not necessarily spend money on looks with these.

When I thought about how to summarize what I just heard and my take on this system, I said to myself, "This would be a system to invest in and retire with without changing a damn thing!" I guess that is the biggest compliment in my book since I love to change gear often! Yes, I was impressed. Truly reference grade speakers.

Short iPhone video. Sorry for the lousy quality but at least it gives the reader a "visual".



Tannoy Kingdom Royale - YouTube

Thanks for the great post and video!

[Face]

Originally Posted by Bodhisattva

That's a very nice system. Btw, the Ayon CD-2s is good, but the CD-5s (especially with upgraded/matched NOS tubes) is quite a bit better

I would say "different" would be a better description.

Originally Posted by Face

I would say "different" would be a better description.

The CD-2s is a very nice & musical cd player at it's price point. Fyi there are a number of notable differences between the 2s & 5s; the 5s specs a 3rd Kitamura Kiden r-core power supply, a full blown line stage with Japanese analogue volume control & 2 inputs (1 x xlr, 1 x rca & several digital inputs), full wave tube rectification via 4 x 6C4P tubes which is then filtered via twin chokes and 4 big polypro coupling caps (instead of 2 in the 2s). Also the 5s employs 4 of the higher spec'd 'K' version of the BB1704 chip (whilst the 2s runs 2 x BB1704). Then there are the superior bits the 5s affords; Mundorf Mcap Supreme Gold/Silver/Oil & Silver/Oil coupling caps (instead of Jantzen caps in the 2s). Taken all together, to my ears that equates to greater resolution, bigger dynamics, better sound staging (particularly sound stage depth) and slightly nicer timbres. But admittedly these are not big differences & the CD-2s is a very good player for the coin. As we know in high end, to get that last few percent costs a lot of $$

[Amfibius]

Congratulations on your choice. You know, I have never really been a fan of Tannoys. I have always found them to be too coloured for my liking. This was until I heard a pair of Westministers in Sydney, owned by AA member JCR33. Of all things, he was using a cheap pair of Quad SS amps to drive them. They were really, really good and so lifelike! Prior to listening to them I had heard a few horn systems and it made me realize the difference - other horn systems are certainly exciting, but the dynamics are overblown and the image is larger than life. The Westministers just sounded believable - there was an ease and a naturalness, and an amazing coherence that other speakers can only dream of.

At that point, I realized what was wrong with all the Tannoy systems I had heard thus far - all of them used low powered valve amps. For some reason, these things need a lot of current and even that cheap SS amp was good enough to get rid of most of the colouration.

I would really like to revisit some of the other Tannoy systems I have heard, but this time bring along a SS amp to try.