20-year-old Tannoy Reveals - should I replace them?

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Ally-007

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Hi folks. For my home mixing and mastering, I'm still using a pair of passive Tannoy Reveals that I bought 20 years ago. Do you think these are still likely to be good, or should I replace them due to their age? Are there better budget monitors of a similar (or smaller) size nowadays? I'm thinking of replacing them with active monitors anyway, and something without bass ports on the back, as my monitors need to be tight up against a wall. I've muffled the rear ports on the Tannoy Reveals (stuffed rags in them) for this reason, and use a sub-woofer to hear the lower frequencies. Many thanks!
 

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No - keep them. I've been mixing on a pair of Celestion DL8 I bought in the 80s, and really love them. I bought a pair of Adams - 8" versions so the same LF driver size, and I've gone back to the Celestions, putting the Adams in the video studio. Just couldn't quite convert. They sounded 'nicer', but Celestion mixes worked on everything, but the Adams seem to require me to make bass decisions I never had to do before, knowing them so well.
 
Yeah man, keep em. If similar to my active blue ones, they are very clear in the mids though lacking in low end. But you have a sub for that.

I moved to the Adam A7X that I use mostly for mixing, but like Rob stated it did take a while to get used to them. I still go to the Tannoys for reference and sometimes when I am editing. The clarity is ideal when spending hours making adjustments with a bit less fatigue. I tend to get too loud when using the Adams. They just seem to want to be louder like my '70 Corvette wants to drive faster. lol I like the old school stuff as well. (y)
 
They are just like my Tannoy Reveal 502 monitors.
For me, the acid test is whether a digital piano sounds like a piano through them, and the Tannoys pass the test.
They have enough high end. I have other monitors which fail the test.
 
the fact so many use NS10 tells me age has no effect as far as being a useful tool.

Technically, Ive read theres some engineering advantages in the active amps and crossovers having some mathematical edge in that perspective. Most active have the amp for the tweeter and a amp for the woofer etc... I can relate to new, and I went with Actives and stream lined a little...maybe just GAS.
I didnt hear some big sound change from my passives + amp.
 
20 years isn't really that old. I have IMF speakers that are 40 years old. My Vandersteens are 20+ yrs old.

As long as the caps in the crossover are ok, and the surrounds are in good shape, I see no reason to change. If you suspect that the capacitors have started to degrade, it's easy enough to replace them. I've had poly woofers where the rubber surround began to separate from the cone, but I got some adhesive from a company that does speaker repairs and they are working perfectly again.
 
TalismanRich said:
20 years isn't really that old. I have IMF speakers that are 40 years old. My Vandersteens are 20+ yrs old.

As long as the caps in the crossover are ok, and the surrounds are in good shape, I see no reason to change. If you suspect that the capacitors have started to degrade, it's easy enough to replace them. I've had poly woofers where the rubber surround began to separate from the cone, but I got some adhesive from a company that does speaker repairs and they are working perfectly again.
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+1 to this.
I replaced surrounds and crossover capacitors on a pair of early 80s hifi speakers a few weeks ago.
As far as I'm concerned they're good for another 40+ years now.

Unless there's corrosion on /debris at the coils (you'll know) or some other obvious damage or wear, I'd assume they're good. (y)
 
Thank you all very much for the replies. It's good to hear that my passive Reveals are within their expected shelf-life. They were stored in a garage for about two years, but they still sound ok to me, even though the coating on the dome of one of the tweeters has degraded and rubbed off, exposing the underlying fabric. They are the only monitors I've ever used, so I can't compare them to others, from experience.

Anyway, there are other reasons why I'm thinking of replacing them. Firstly, they are a bit inconveniently large for my desk at my new location, due to their depth. (It's tight up against a wall, by necessity). Since I now have a 12-inch subwoofer, I'm guessing that a decent pair of smaller (say, 4-inch) nearfield monitors would serve my needs.

I'm using a very cheap stereo amplifier to power the passive Reveals and the subwoofer. Its power is ample for my needs (50W for the monitors, and another 50W for the subwoofer output, with adjustable crossover). I don't know how its quality compares to others, but I see that many active monitors use separate amplification for the woofers and tweeters. Is that a must-have feature for a studio monitor amplifier?
 
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My preference is full range speakers, mainly because matching subs that are different brands with random crossover frequencies is rarely good for a monitor system. Cuttoff frequency, slope and level are all things tweakable by experimentation, but using them to mix can be a bit unpredictable.
 
Ally-007 said:
Since I now have a 12-inch subwoofer, I'm guessing that a decent pair of smaller (say, 4-inch) nearfield monitors would serve my needs.
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My 5" Tannoys were for secondary use. I listened to several 4" and 5" monitors in the store's monitor demo room.
The 4" monitors did not cut the mustard, and 5" is the magic zone for cheap monitors.
 
I have the same model that I kept when I moved and built a new setup using all JBL powered speakers. I will say that any new speaker setup will require relearning your references. No speaker setup sounds the same as another, not a good/bad thing-just an adapt to difference thing.

I have mine setup to switch any speakers in or out which some find helpful. Others don't
 
I tend to go with the crowd here and say "If it ain't broke....." That said you want smaller and so if at all possible go for the best you can. The Neumann KH-80 gets a fantastic rep and its bass response is said to be way better than its size suggests. Front ported as well.
There is a Quested model that is even smaller and of superb quality but would really need the assistance of a sub woofer and as has been pointed out, you don't have a proper one?

A note about crossover capacitors. If they need replacing in such oldish speakers they are almost certain to be 'reversible electrolytic' caps. Do not be tempted to spend big on some high end foil capacitors. Their improved efficiency will screw up the response. Foil caps have their place of course but only as part of the overall design process.

Dave.
 
Again, thanks for the replies. I'm trying to determine if the old yr2002 Tannoy Reveals I'm using are still ok, so I tested them today with a measuremnt mic. Do these curves look good (to anyone here who can tell)? I set the mic about 26" from each speaker, in turn, pointing to a spot between the bottom of the tweeters and the top of the woofers. I am particularly curious, because the thin rubber coating on the fabric dome tweeters has perished and partially disappeared (more so on the left unit).
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Looking at the trace, to be honest, things are not looking very good. If you are certain your test conditions for each one were the same, and you've run the test multiple times with similar results, then both the HF and LF units look quite different. The deep notches in the left, that are not replicated in the right seem concerning. What I would now do is see if you can check the important ones by ear. The very low ones could be the position in the room, rather than the LF unit, so may not be what they appear to be. the 800 and 3.5ish dips might be worth checking on a tone tuned to the notch to see if there are any obvious problems when they try to reproduce specific tones. They're different enough to do some more tests - perhaps with each speaker in exactly the same physical position to rule out room effects?
 
rob aylestone said:
Looking at the trace, to be honest, things are not looking very good. If you are certain your test conditions for each one were the same, and you've run the test multiple times with similar results, then both the HF and LF units look quite different. The deep notches in the left, that are not replicated in the right seem concerning. What I would now do is see if you can check the important ones by ear. The very low ones could be the position in the room, rather than the LF unit, so may not be what they appear to be. the 800 and 3.5ish dips might be worth checking on a tone tuned to the notch to see if there are any obvious problems when they try to reproduce specific tones. They're different enough to do some more tests - perhaps with each speaker in exactly the same physical position to rule out room effects?
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Thanks, Rob. I think I'll try your suggestions.
 
I'm unable to look at the graph as the site is acting strange and I keep getting server errors. I will however make some presumptions. Take it with a grain of salt as Rob will be by shortly to let me know either the science or perhaps it is just me that is wrong.

If you are testing the speakers in a room, you are measuring the room as much as you are the speaker. Problem is that most rooms are not truly symmetrical and it is unlikely that both will measure the same. Window on one side, door on another. SBIR Speaker Boundary Interference Response even LBIR Listener Boundary Interference Response.

If you want to see if they have even response, you can measure in a room, each in the exact same position and compare. Frequency response however isn't going to turn out like you expect. Better, outdoor on a quiet calm day in the open with no boundaries close by. Or a pretty good frequency sweep at moderate volume will tell you if there are issues with response (if your hearing is good) but depending on the room, you are likely to get more than a few things in the room resonating.
 
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