My Belated Review of my 'New' Tannoys....

Some of you may recall that I purchased a new pair of Tannoy Mercury MX4-M's this past October (or was it September?) and I did indeed promise that I would post my 'review' on these new speakers. Well, I did want to give them a little time to burn in before I made a definitive assessment, and then I got caught up in the saga of my dead C555ES (you may be familiar with the other thread) and I couldn't focus on posting this.

I have decided that now is the time, so here we go (see my profile for a complete equipment listing):

First, for those who may not know or may not recall, I already own a pair of Tannoy Mercury MX1-M's that I use as surrounds and a Mercury MXC-M centre channel. The MX4-M's replaced a pari of Tannoy Reveal - which were actually replaced by a pair of Tannoy System 8 dual concentrics in my home studio before they were moved into my 'leisure' system.


The first thing I noticed when moving to the MX4-M's from the Reveal's was the most obvious - the extended frequency range. There was finally more bottom there. The MX4-M's are extremely solid performers. To be honest, just like most Tannoys, right out of the box (even before burn in) they sound sweet. The lows are warm and tight and the mid-range is superb. These speakers sound truly three dimensional. I won't go into a full list of all the titles I listened to on these speakers (in both a stereo and multichannel contect) because it has been a lot since they first arrived, but when I put on Suzanne Vega's Nine Objects of Desire, I was at first taken aback by the amount of low-end information there is in that recording and then when I got to the fifth track, 'Casual Match', the MX4-M's really showed their mettle. The backround vocals on the chorus were so three dimensional, that I at first thought that I must have activated PL II on my DA4ES, because the vocals sounded like they were coming from each side of me and 'surrounding me', and I am not exaggerating. Of course, I thought that maybe the recording employed 'QSound' in there without being noted, but I'd never noticed the effect before so it had to be the speakers.

The MX4-M's are clean at all volume levels, with ample bass (they are 30Hz - 20KHz) and extended, yet relaxed highs. They are so accurate and flat in their frequency response that they really couldn't be anything but Tannoys. Smooth and natural is what always comes to mind when I think of how to describe them. The mid range is almost flawless. That, IMO, is what ultimately makes these speakers (and most if not all Tannoys) as good as they are, after all, 'it's all in the mids' right? Acoustic guitars sound 'round' and 'woody', the snares sound 'punchy' and solid and the kicks sound bold.


I am vey happy with this purchase, and I would not hesitate to recommend these speakers to anyone, even over the Tannoy Saturn, which are directly above these in the current model line and very similar, but offer little - if any - advantage over the Mercury's, IMO.