Shadowfax
Active member
- Thread Author
- #1
I had been hunting for a new pair of speakers for a while. I sold my Clearfield Continentals, but still have my 20 y/o Dynaudio 82s that I always loved but they lack top end that the CFs had. The CFs lacked in Bass. I was looking for something to handle both top and bottom well.
Budget wise, I started looking at the F502s and finally got a chance to drive 3 hours each way in the rain to hear them. I took a bunch of my own music to demo. They were using a Rogue integrated which was a decent unit. My wife and I listened for about an hour and were both underwhelmed with what we heard. Vocals were in the middle of the room, bass was in the back corner and so on. I had planned to listen to the SP version just to see what I would be missing so we took a break while the guy swapped out the two pairs.
We spun the same music again and it was night and day differences. Everything wrong with the 502s was there in spades with the SPs. After deliberation, I decided to double my budget and go for the SPs in Black. After many delays, bad info on timing, tracking sent that was for someone else, then my pair never showing up in the second delivery, Suncoast had the distributor to send me a pair of SPs in Walnut as they were sitting there in the warehouse. Then UPS screwed up with the delivery day and I took off from work for nothing.
They finally arrived, and they are just gorgeous. The High Gloss Walnut is one of the best finishes on speakers I have ever seen. Packaging was great, and unboxing was easy. I also purchased a set of IsoAcoustic G3 Footers which I mounted before flipping the boxes over. I then used furniture sliders to get them in place.
When I initially wrote this, they were not yet 3 weeks old yet and probably only 50 hours on them so far so impressions are not from a fully broken in pair yet. I now have about 120 hours max and will note differences where noticed.
So here are my initial thoughts....
If you don't like Bass, don't get these speakers. (I have at times had to engage my Tone Controls on my Luxman 505UXII and back off the bass a little)
If you don't like lots of Detail, don't get these speakers.
If you prefer hearing the sound from boxes as opposed to the band being in your room, don't get these speakers.
Out of the box, the Bass was bloated and boomy as to be expected. I used disk after disk of Bass Heavy music and when playing Marcus Miller M Squared, you could hear changes between the start and end of the disk.
Note: The Bass has been tightening up as Mike told me it would. I will give it more time.
Before I go any further, my room and gear placement sucks.
Due to my room and how I have to setup on a 45 degree angle, I have an issue with the bass overloading both front and back corners and have started figuring out some crude bass trap experimenting. I have just learned that the better your speakers are, the more you notice just how bad your room sounds.
Note: Both opposing corners are overloaded. The so-called sweet spot is the corner seat of my sectional, but it puts your head too close to the rear corner. I found if I place a seat directly in front of the corner sofa seat, the overload is mostly un-noticeable.
The Fynes are very close in size to my Dyns which I thought they had bass. The Fynes are an inch taller and wider and an inch shallower in depth. Speakers of this size should not have this much bass but this is one of the selling points for these beauties. Some have called these the best $5K speakers out there now. They may be right.
The top end detail is unbelievable. Many disks I have listened to so far are sounding like different versions than what they really are. Vocals are realistic, big and airy, and right there.
The imaging is killer, with eyes closed nothing can be pinpointed to a specific speaker. The band is in the room with you. It is taller and wider than the placement of the speakers.
That said, at this point in break in, they are still a little punchy, meaning the combo of Bass Note and Kick Drum come at you harder than other notes or instruments and you feel them. I am hoping this mellows a little but being a bass head, I somewhat like it. Is this what they call Mid Bass Slam?
Note: Either I am getting more used to the presentation (yes my ears are breaking in along with the drivers) but hoping the punchiness diminishes a little more. It is not an issue at lower volume. And that is another thing about these speakers, they sound great at low volume.
For reference, the 502SP takes the drivers and much of the Xovers from the 700 series and put them into the 502 box, with a few other changes. At this point in time, it feels like it is too much speaker for the box but again, I got the trickle down so to say.
As far as build quality goes, from the 501sp and 502sp up, they are all made in Scotland. Everything down from the SPs are made in China. The speakers are a matched pair. They have one serial number appended with A and B. The real statement they made making them a true Matched Pair, is that they used consecutive slices of the veneer on each speaker. All sides and top are basically identical as much as 2 slices of veneer can be. Truly amazing craftsmanship goes into these speakers. They look great with and without the grills which use magnets on the back to hold them when not in use. The do suppress the sound a little bit but not much.
Highly recommended but for sure, listen to them before buying as the Point Source Design is much different than what most people are used to. Having the Tweeter in the middle of the Midrange is baffling to the eye and ear, but it works and Tannoy has been doing it for a long time.
More to come when I get more hours on them.
If they are anything like Jim’s F703s, they may keep changing for a while before the final settling in happens. I sure hope it’s not 1000 hours.
Budget wise, I started looking at the F502s and finally got a chance to drive 3 hours each way in the rain to hear them. I took a bunch of my own music to demo. They were using a Rogue integrated which was a decent unit. My wife and I listened for about an hour and were both underwhelmed with what we heard. Vocals were in the middle of the room, bass was in the back corner and so on. I had planned to listen to the SP version just to see what I would be missing so we took a break while the guy swapped out the two pairs.
We spun the same music again and it was night and day differences. Everything wrong with the 502s was there in spades with the SPs. After deliberation, I decided to double my budget and go for the SPs in Black. After many delays, bad info on timing, tracking sent that was for someone else, then my pair never showing up in the second delivery, Suncoast had the distributor to send me a pair of SPs in Walnut as they were sitting there in the warehouse. Then UPS screwed up with the delivery day and I took off from work for nothing.
They finally arrived, and they are just gorgeous. The High Gloss Walnut is one of the best finishes on speakers I have ever seen. Packaging was great, and unboxing was easy. I also purchased a set of IsoAcoustic G3 Footers which I mounted before flipping the boxes over. I then used furniture sliders to get them in place.
When I initially wrote this, they were not yet 3 weeks old yet and probably only 50 hours on them so far so impressions are not from a fully broken in pair yet. I now have about 120 hours max and will note differences where noticed.
So here are my initial thoughts....
If you don't like Bass, don't get these speakers. (I have at times had to engage my Tone Controls on my Luxman 505UXII and back off the bass a little)
If you don't like lots of Detail, don't get these speakers.
If you prefer hearing the sound from boxes as opposed to the band being in your room, don't get these speakers.
Out of the box, the Bass was bloated and boomy as to be expected. I used disk after disk of Bass Heavy music and when playing Marcus Miller M Squared, you could hear changes between the start and end of the disk.
Note: The Bass has been tightening up as Mike told me it would. I will give it more time.
Before I go any further, my room and gear placement sucks.
Due to my room and how I have to setup on a 45 degree angle, I have an issue with the bass overloading both front and back corners and have started figuring out some crude bass trap experimenting. I have just learned that the better your speakers are, the more you notice just how bad your room sounds.
Note: Both opposing corners are overloaded. The so-called sweet spot is the corner seat of my sectional, but it puts your head too close to the rear corner. I found if I place a seat directly in front of the corner sofa seat, the overload is mostly un-noticeable.
The Fynes are very close in size to my Dyns which I thought they had bass. The Fynes are an inch taller and wider and an inch shallower in depth. Speakers of this size should not have this much bass but this is one of the selling points for these beauties. Some have called these the best $5K speakers out there now. They may be right.
The top end detail is unbelievable. Many disks I have listened to so far are sounding like different versions than what they really are. Vocals are realistic, big and airy, and right there.
The imaging is killer, with eyes closed nothing can be pinpointed to a specific speaker. The band is in the room with you. It is taller and wider than the placement of the speakers.
That said, at this point in break in, they are still a little punchy, meaning the combo of Bass Note and Kick Drum come at you harder than other notes or instruments and you feel them. I am hoping this mellows a little but being a bass head, I somewhat like it. Is this what they call Mid Bass Slam?
Note: Either I am getting more used to the presentation (yes my ears are breaking in along with the drivers) but hoping the punchiness diminishes a little more. It is not an issue at lower volume. And that is another thing about these speakers, they sound great at low volume.
For reference, the 502SP takes the drivers and much of the Xovers from the 700 series and put them into the 502 box, with a few other changes. At this point in time, it feels like it is too much speaker for the box but again, I got the trickle down so to say.
As far as build quality goes, from the 501sp and 502sp up, they are all made in Scotland. Everything down from the SPs are made in China. The speakers are a matched pair. They have one serial number appended with A and B. The real statement they made making them a true Matched Pair, is that they used consecutive slices of the veneer on each speaker. All sides and top are basically identical as much as 2 slices of veneer can be. Truly amazing craftsmanship goes into these speakers. They look great with and without the grills which use magnets on the back to hold them when not in use. The do suppress the sound a little bit but not much.
Highly recommended but for sure, listen to them before buying as the Point Source Design is much different than what most people are used to. Having the Tweeter in the middle of the Midrange is baffling to the eye and ear, but it works and Tannoy has been doing it for a long time.
More to come when I get more hours on them.
If they are anything like Jim’s F703s, they may keep changing for a while before the final settling in happens. I sure hope it’s not 1000 hours.
