DOWNLOAD: TannoyWildcats1984Catalog

Models covered, with detailed specs and photos, include: Tannoy Lynx, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Leopard, and Cougar units.

As i mentioned in a previous post, the word ‘Tannoy’ is used as generic-descriptor for ‘PA speaker’ in the UK.  This would presume that Tannoy speakers were, at some point many years ago, widely used in the UK for public-address applications.  Nowadays Tannoy speakers are generally only sold and used for high-end home use and recording/mixing/production suites.  I’ve never encountered any of the ‘wildcat’ line.  Anyone?

From this very helpful website:

“In 1984 the Research and Development team at Tannoy wanted to prove that the Dual was an excellent solution to very high quality live music performance venues. Clearly, with the sizes of magnet and levels of efficiency available it could not compete with the outdoor rock concert systems from Altec, Meyer and JBL but there was a niche in the cabaret and small club market where the sound quality needed to be considerably higher than that to which people were accustomed. Specially adapted Duals were designed that had more power handling and greater sensitivity than had ever been produced before by Tannoy. These were fitted to a range of very robustly made cabinets with reinforced handles and corners suitable for mobile cabaret or fixed contractor installation work. The line was christened the ‘Wildcats’ and was the start of a very successful venture into high quality voice and music provision for sophisticated venues such as clubs, theatres and churches.”

DOWNLOAD: Tannoy_Studio_Monitors_1985

Units covered here:  SRM 10 B; SRM 12 B / Little Red; SRM 15X, 15X B; The FSM; M1000 Super Red; plus a 1985 pricelist.

The British Tannoy Corp. is truly a classic audio-manufacturer.  So much so that the word ‘Tannoy” is a generic-descriptor for ‘Public-Address Speaker’ in the UK (IE., as how in the USA we use the term ‘Xerox’ to refer to any photocopy machine, regardless of the actual manufacturer of the device).

I bought a pair of Tannoy Reveal monitors for my first permanent studio-setup about 10 years ago.  I replaced those a few years later with an older (but much superior) pair of Tannoy System 8, which were the successor to the NFM-8.  I like the System 8 a lot.  I used  them in conjunction with a pair of Avantone SoundCubes and a pair of old JBL 4311Bs.

Above is a shot of my mixing set-up at BC Studio circa 2008.  All now in storage awaiting the completion of the new studio in BPT.  You can see the 3 sets of speakers at the rear of the photo.  Not sure if the Tannoys will make it into the new studio line-up (the JBLs will definitely not), but they are not bad speakers at all.  I wouldn’t mind having them replace my BOSE 201s at home!