I’ve owned a bunch of British designed and built speakers from Harbeth, Spendor, ProAc, ATC and more. In some cases I’ve owned multiple models. Presently I have Harbeth P3ESR’s and Spendor Classic 3/1’s. Fabulous speakers!
I'm listening to Epos 14's this very moment with the amp they were designed with (Naim 250). And I just moved up from an 82 to a 52 preamp today. Damn it's sounding good! I want to listen all night.
I always took the "British sound", "East Coast sound", "West Coast sound" etc. as the biggest generalizations. The only ones that ever seemed to hold much water at all were the BBC sound, perhaps, and the East Coast sound (all those brands in the Sixties and Seventies like AR, Advent, KLH etc.) These days, with computer modeling and exotic driver materials, my feeling is that differences in speakers sound now has more to do with designers' voicing preferences; we're getting close to a situation technically where speakers could sound pretty much all the same (flat, 'accurate') were computers left to execute the designs. I'm glad we still have the human designers doing their jobs.
My collection (of Brit boxes): Rogers Studio 7 Rogers Studio 1 Rogers LS 7 Rogers LS 6 Rogers LS 2 Rogers Compact Monitor B&W P4 Mission 771 Tannoy M2
Fyne Audio F302’s. Fyne was formed by a group of engineers who found themselves twiddling their thumbs when Tannoy upped sticks and moved to China. The Fyne Audio factory is very near the original Tannoy factory on the outskirts of Glasgow. If you like Tannoy then chances are you will also like Fyne Audio as a lot of their products were designed by the same people. https://www.fyneaudio.com/
That's hard to say. I can't say that I have a favorite but I go back and forth (primarily) between the Rogers Studio 7, Rogers Studio 1 and Rogers LS 7s.
I like British speakers..... I have had several KEF and B&W when they were actually made in GB. Now only the high end of both brands are made there. I heard a pair of those little Falcons a while back and they were good, very good. Cheerio
My main speakers are Wharfedale 225's. My only complaint about them--since I live in an apartment with only so-s0 sound insulation--is that I can't crank them up loud enough to really appreciate them.
Bought the F501 this year for home theater. Man, they are kick @ass speakers. Really impressive, especially with off axis listening. No more HT speaker upgrades in my future.
I suppose it depends on what you think makes it British? Is it that the designer was born in Britain? The problem there is that maybe he likes German or American speakers more than British speakers so his design may be more German than British. Is it that they should be made in Britain - it would seem to me that someone in England or someone in China can be taught to solder so I can't imagine that that would matter a whole lot. It's not like the "made in" label is much of an advertisement - I owned GM and Ford and I've seen Scotty Kilmer pull apart Audi, BMW and Mercedes to illustrate how incompetently these piles of junk are designs so if it says "Made in America" or "Designed in Germany" I usually think "Thanks for the warning." Granted speakers and amps are quite different of course - unlikely to fail but I don't think there is too much of an American/British/German sound anymore. I mean if they all sounded the same then a person would not have a favourite among Harbeth/Spendor/Castle/ProAc/ATC/B&W/Rega/PMC/Ruark/Wharfedale/Tannoy/Celestion/Monitor Audio they would just ask the dealer which is the cheapest and be done. I have heard many models from all of these brands - I don't particularly think any of them sound like each other to be able to say "this is the British sound. My Wharfedale Vanguard (e-70) sounds nothing like any other Wharfedale speaker - if it were not for the label you would never guess they came from the same manufacturer let alone call it "British." And they did sell this line for 2 decades! They sound like a refined Klipsch without the box echo and shout/honk of most Klipsch models.
Spendor, Harbeth, Graham, Stirling, Rega, Fyne, Falcon, ATC, PMC, Linn...and a few others still build their products in the UK. Therefore, these products would qualify for the "Made in the UK" certification.
I still have the original Castle Trent speakers that I bought decades ago, which were made in the UK. I don't buy that much gear but when I do, I've tended to focus on the source. Maybe I should look at upgrading these at some point, though I'm still pretty happy with them.
Spendor sp2/2 in walnut (1989) Quad esl 63 - refurbished (2021) with professional grilles. See through qualities with the Quad and the spendor still has that sweet mid range magic.
I love my B&W 803D3s. They are wonderfully transparent, detailed, and dynamic. They basically disappear so that the musicians are seemingly in the room with me or I am transported to the concert hall.
I remember reading a review in Stereo Review of the IMF big speaker back in the '80s. You had to read in between the lines on most of their speaker reviews but not on this one. Julian Hirsch said that this was one of the best he'd ever heard and the only downside was that it was big. I've always wanted to hear one.
Started my British quest with Spendor S3/5. I enjoyed them enough to take the plunge to Graham Chartwell LS3/5. They work wonderfully for my needs.
I don't have British speakers now. Earlier, I had several couples over the past decades: Wharfedale (Laser 100) KEF (C75) Rogers (LS8a / II modified) B&W (CM10 S2)
