These monitors sound great, but in my case, where I use them primarily for general music listening, they required some fine-tuning. They are placed in rather challenging conditions, placed on a quite small, pressed wood desk, almost against a wall, surrounded by a large screen, computers, and a tangle of electrical connections.
Compared to my previous monitors, these ones produce significantly less static humming or buzzing sounds during moments of silence. The front-facing ports enable me to position them snugly next to the wall.
The sound quality is exceptionally detailed, with great definition and an expansive stereo image, offering excellent instrument separation.
During initial listening, the highs can be a bit overwhelming and forward. Fortunately, there's an EQ switch on the back that allows to adjust the tweeter's volume (initially set to the HICUT position for reduced volume).
While the soundstage is somewhat lacking, with most of the stereo distribution concentrated in each speaker, and the bass definition is a bit weak.
In my setup they also distort the mid-bass considerably. This proved to be quite bothersome and necessitated some effort to achieve an optimal listening experience.
At first, I experimented with acoustic isolation feet, but this actually worsened the situation. After trying other options and positions, I found that foam pads and a slight upward tilt reduced a little the distortion.
Introducing a DAC into the setup significantly improved the gain and bass definition, though the mid-bass distortion persisted.
Ultimately, adding a subwoofer to the mix brought the setup almost to perfection, compensating for the lack of bass and mitigating the mid-low distortion while expanding the soundstage. With the inclusion of the subwoofer I adjusted the tweeter to the NEUTRAL position, providing a little more volume, to balance out the increased lows. Even with this setup, my equalizer still requires a slight reduction in the 150Hz frequency range to keep the mid-lows safe.
On a somewhat unrelated note to the speaker quality, the product registration process, customer support, and the MusicTribe community that Tannoy directs you to upon registration, have been less than satisfactory. The registration process is cumbersome and convoluted, and the community appears largely unresponsive with unanswered help requests and other inquiries. The support ticket system seems to follow a similar pattern, with no response or feedback. This aspect leaves much to be desired.
In summary, these monitors offer excellent value for money straight out of the box, and with a bit of additional investment and tweaking, they can be further improved. However, it is worth highlighting the poor support and official community.
