Big Tannoys rarely disappoint once the 'adjusting-in' period has lapsed, but any passer-by may quickly reject the sound out of hand due to the colouration of a seemingly cardboard-like balance that one often attributes to the cone profile, whereas in fact it has more to do with the crossover design, - of which I have already made the case from my previous comment further up this page from RFC's Paul Coupe's own 'custom' Tannoy system I'd witnessed at his home. This isn't really the case, but if you work to this end, the results can be most rewarding. Instead, they give of the impression that everything else has to be raising it's bar to suit the loudspeaker's high-standpoint in quality. Anyone telling you otherwise defends them in isolation, as once 'in' it's hard to get out, for they possess some rare qualities that don't yield to all recordings. It is rather a sound you have to adjust into. A pair of BBC-derived 12" reflex Lancasters around the same time ('97) then an '89 pair of Westminster HW's, ('98 - 2013), then a pair of new 2002 Edinburgh HE's and reflex Lancaster 12's the latter two models are here for anyone to listen to and are both for sale. I have owned two sets of 1980 Buckinghams: a pair in '87 via Westminster Audio and a pair ten years later. This man knows his onions, re- Tannoy DC's and cabinet construction. I heard his own custom design that looked like a York enclosure but has these units and it was a sensational sound presented: open, detailed and pretty neutral, and with a very good quality of real bass extension. He rates the HPD as their finest drive unit and I visited him last year to discuss my Edinburghs (now for sale, post IAS revelation). Paul Coupe of RFC claims it's the fault of Tannoy's crossovers and some incorrectly designed aspects. The Uni-Q tweeters have very little heat-sinking and virtually no protection for the voice coil.
I think that the KEF system maybe technically better, but having owned quite a few KEF speakers with Uni-Q drivers I have found reliability to be an issue,perhaps due to the complexity of the design to mass produce a product and dare I say manufacture in china. I have used both types and agree that they do work quite well as a point source, since with a conventional "tall" floor stander you can hear the the music being split vertically across the drivers, especially if you are sitting too close. In later years KEF were able to use better tweeter magnets and put them right in the centre front of the bass unit without the need for the horn.Over the years slight variations have included Tannoy Tulip and KEF tangerine Wave-guides. As you may know the Tannoy uses a tweeter mounted some way back behind the bass driver, and uses a horn to get the sound through the magnet of the bass driver. There are some differences between the Tannoy and KEF method.
However, can someone tell me why Tannoy seem unable to make drive units that equal or better the old Golds ? and ya pays yer money and takes your choice. So we have manufacturers who make great bass and mid units (Volt springs to mind) and others making great tweeters (and other drive units) like SEAS and we have the dual concentrics from KEF and Tannoy. Perhaps the other speaker designers had finally got it all together to make a speaker where all the units actually felt like it was just one unit delivering the goods. Then I got older and worked part time in hifi shop and whilst I loved the Tannoys it was apparent that they were coloured in competition with other speakers (still great fun though). and that sounded bloody fantastic too (to my youthful ears). Also at the same time a guy used to run a disco for underground music as it was called then and he built a speaker rig with bass bins and horns and drove them with quads.
When I was a lad and first heard the Tannoy 15 inch monitor golds in a recording studio in 1971 and they blew my socks off. In addition tweeter design is then down to the company making the dual concentric unit. In theory it all seems like a great idea but in practice the horn loading of the tweeter (in effect) creates its own difficulties. Note, we are speaking here of true point source designs, not simple concentric arrays. KEF with it's Uni-Q range) have successfully followed suit.
Curiously, Tannoy have been promoting the virtues of a true point source design, as offered by the dual concentric drivers, for well over 40 years and yet it is only comparatively recently that other manufacturers (e.g. The Tannoy range, even today, features many designs, but it is the dual concentrics which attract the most interest. I am sure some of you have seen this article but good to revisit it.