Tannoy Revolution XT 8F

I was told to broaden my musical equipment horizons and try a speaker other than my beloved Martin Logan 60XT’s. As a result of some listening tests in store (not the best place to make a definitive conclusion on the merits of loudspeakers for the home) I decided to take a pair of Tannoy XT 8F’s into Chez Neil and replace my ML 60XT’s with them for a while. I ran them in for around 20 hours before making any conclusions and connected them to a Yamaha RX-A3050 Receiver, Cambridge Audio CD and Streamer. I don’t use movies to make any judgments on speakers as there’s too much going on. I always use music (and generally in 2.0 or 2.1 stereo). Playing my preferred reference CD, Joe Jacksons “Rain”, I found the Tannoy’s to bring out the vocals a little more than the ML’s, not a bad thing, and surprisingly, the bass was almost as good. I say surprisingly as the ML’s are a bigger speaker with two 8” woofers as against one in the smaller Tannoy XT 8F’s. The sound-staging of the Tannoy’s is more focused than the ML’s and require the listener to be more within a sweet spot. This isn’t a problem in most rooms however and would only manifest itself in smaller rooms (in which case get a pair of Tannoy XT 6F’s). The attack from the kick drum was excellent and the overall sound was as if the artist was in the room with the listener, not inside the boxes (as is the case with most loudspeakers these days). I’d be more than happy to live with the Tannoy’s as my main speakers either as a stereo pair or in a Home Theatre configuration (you’d need their matching Centre, the XTC). They are a bright, lively sounding speaker with excellent presence and sound staging as long as you stay in their sweet spot. At 91dB efficiency, any amp with 40 watts or more will be sufficient to get these speakers up and running and with a maximum input of 400 Watts (peak) they certainly have the ability to go LOUD given a high powered Amp/Receiver.  The English magazine, What HiFi, comments on the fact that the XT 8F’s don’t work particularly well in a smaller room although their idea of a small room is one less than 4 X 4 metres, in Australia that would be a toilet (I lived in England for 13 years and their houses and rooms are generally very small compared to ours). The average Australian “small” room is 6 X 4 metres so the XT 8F’s have no problem at all. I’ve said before that there are no absolutes in HiFi (or anything else in life really) as there is only the best you can get within a certain budget. If money wasn’t a real deal breaker, I’d run with my Martin Logan 60XT’s as I believe their better than any sub $10,000 speaker on the Australian market. If one was working to a budget however, the Tannoy’s would be on top of my “must audition” list as they can be had currently for around $3000 on sale (current as from 4/4/2016 - don’t hold your breath much after that) which is an absolute bargain when you see that the UK price is 1300 Pounds which equates to $2900 with exchange rate and GST, add shipping, local warranty and all you miserable bastards who whinge about Australian pricing being too high in comparison to overseas can %$@# off. Highly Recommended

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