For your consideration, I have this exceedingly rare and historically important Tannoy GRF Enclosure with a Silver Driver and Silver Crossover. This is not a copy! Not pieced together! Not tinkered with! This fine piece of Audio History has not even been cleaned! Everything is as found; all original! This GRF (Guy R. Fountain) Corner Cabinet or Enclosure was built in the 1950’s in London and was shipped to the East Coast of the USA where it was in a music room in a private summer mansion in the state of New Hampshire. On the back of the Corner Case is still the sticker of the shipping agency, “Pitt & Scott LTD, London,” with the name of the recipient, “Lazell” and the number “063.” Pitt & Scott was responsible for getting this fine and heavy piece of early High Fidelity Equipment across the Atlantic, see picture #28, #32, and #33.
All original legendary TANNOY GRF ENCLOSURE CORNER CABINET with SILVER DRIVER and SILVER CROSS-OVER
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATIONS (From Tannoy sales brochure) : Picture below: Guy R. Fountain in his office. The GRF enclosures provide a compound expanding source, an exclusive feature first introduced in the Tannoy Autograph enclosure. The effect of this is that the wave front area varies with frequency, giving an outstanding illusion of realism to both solo and orchestral music. In addition, the system has all of the well known advantages of horn loading (eg: excellent bass radiation and transient response, but none of the spacial distribution defects associated with conventional horns or multi-speaker systems. The low frequency diaphragm of the 15-inch Dual Concentric Loudspeaker is rear horn loaded down to 30 Hz, while between 350 Hz and 1,000 Hz a new acoustic coupling device gives much improved front radiation. Above this frequency the non-directional horn loaded high frequency unit, which forms an integral part of the Dual Concentric Loudspeaker, takes over, serving to preserve the impression of loaction so necessary to ensure realistic reproduction of vocal and solo instrument music. The result of this entirely new form of horn loading is that, while large orchestral and choral works have a snese of spacious wave front, both chamber music and solo and vocal music possess that intimacy very necessary for full enjoyment. The GRF enclosure is a fitting compliment to the 15-inch Dual Concentric Loudspeaker, when the highest standard of performance is required.
Technical Specification: Frequency Response: 30 Hz to 20,000 +/- 3dB Power Handling: 50 Watts Efficiency: 10% approx Bass Horn Development: Effective loading down to 30Hz Size: Height: 42-1/2 inches (Later models have a higher base and measure 46 inches in height; the actual cabinet without the added on base has the same measurements.) Depth: 26.5 inches Max Width: 40 inches Frontal Width: 23.5 inches Finish: Sapele Mahogany Fabric: Vynair. Information from the website click here,
The visible wood is Mahogany, the intricate labyrinth forming the exponential horn inside the cabinet, the bottom and the top, as well as the side pieces are made of sound damming, flame proof “WEYROC MAN MADE TIMBER,” manufactured by the Airscrew Company & Jicwood LTD. There are several stickers giving testimony to this fact on the wood members inside, see picture #39. I found an add on the internet published in 1950 in the August issue of the “AIRCRAFT NEWS” in which the Airscrew Company & Jicwood LTD offered wooden Propellers for aircraft. The Airscrew Company was established in Weybridge, Surrey, England in 1923. The company changed its name to “The Airscrew Company and Jicwood LTD in 1950. By 1957, the company was bought by Bryant & May and the company changed its name to “Airscrew-Weyroc Canada,” and Airscrew Fans LTD.” This is prove that the enclosure was manufactured before 1957. There is an article on Wikipedia about the Airscrew Company, click here, to read the article.
HISTORY: Tannoy was founded in 1926 by Guy R Fountain. In 1928, the name Tannoy was trademarked. The company originally located in London, moved to Coatbridge, Scotland in 1975 where it is a driving business to this day. Tannoy’s legendary success is based on Ronald Rackham’s invention of the Dual Concentric speaker driver design which houses two separate driver systems in one speaker. According to many audio experts, the Dual concentric speaker design is probably the most brilliant and innovative design ever developed in the history of audio. Rackham’s design was presented to the public in 1948 and was noticed right away by audio experts. The high performance design called the MONITOR BLACK, encompassed an integrated high-frequency compression horn driver unit in the same axis as a fifteen-inch direct radiating low frequency driver in the same chassis.
Ronald Rackham was also the designer of the GRF and Autograph enclosure. GRF stands for Guy R. Fountain. Shortly after the introduction of the Monitor Black, the first GRF corner enclosures were built and equipped with the successor driver, the Monitor Silver. According to the book, “The Tannoy Story," by Julian Alderton, music industries greatest figures like Dr. Dutton of EMI Records and Arthur Haddy of DECCA Records heard the MONITOR SILVER installed in the GRF corner enclosure in 1951 and were so impressed that they ordered SILVER MONITORS for their recording studios. For decades, the SILVER MONITORS were used to monitor the mixing of tapes to be recorded on master records. Tannoy’s became so prolific in the music industry that there’s a very good chance that those beloved recordings you’ve treasured all your life were originally mastered using Tannoy Dual Concentric™ monitor speakers, and they will still be at their most authentic best when played back over Tannoys today.
I found an interesting post on the website, http://jeffsplace.me/wordpress/?p=108which explains how Guy R. Fountain came up with the name Tannoy and how his love for music inspired him to find ways to improve the quality of reproducing sound.
If the reader is interested to see the inside of the cabinet, here are some drawings, click here, or click here, or click here, or click here. These drawings show again different feet attached to the GRF Enclosure. Links point to drawings provided by Alain Kobsch, France on the website http://www.44bx.com/tannoy/grf.htmlUsed as monitors in recording studios through England and the rest of the world. Jeff says: April 1, 2010 at 7:58 am Hi Lars, That’s a great comment about Tannoy history – thanks for posting it. You got me to thinking about Tannoy history again, so I pulled out Julian Alderton’s book ‘The Tannoy Story’ (a great read by the way) to see if I could find out some more details along the lines of your post. As an aside, the Aldertons were close friends with Guy Fountain and his family (Guy was the ‘Mr. Tannoy’ referred to in your post), and lived by them in West Norwood in South East London in the 1920s. Here’s some interesting tidbits I came across: Alderton cites the Marconi Company as being the leader in development of wireless transmissions in Britian in the late teens and early twenties, and says that in early 1920 they began experimental broadcasts of music (and speech), in particular Dame Nellie Melba, who created a lot of public interest in broadcasting. Then the government banned the transmissions later that year because of complaints that they were interfering with other transmissions important to the government. Amateur wireless enthusiests were outraged by this and 63 wireless societies petitioned the government to change its position, and it did, once again allowing limited transmissions towards the end of 1921, and by 1924 broadcasts of music had become very popular with the general public who listened to them on simple crystal sets, one of which was Guy Fountain. Alderton goes on to say that the “accumulators” for the crystal sets had to be recharged at local wireless shops or garages, and apparently they used innefficient and expensive means to rectify the AC voltage in order to do the recharging. He says that got Guy and his brother-in-law (Walter) thinking about better ways to rectify the AC, and they experimented with electrodes made of tantalum and lead, and also tantalum and aluminum. He says Guy made wireless receivers that people were very impressed with (the first high performance Hi-Fi rigs?), and in an effort to make them more practical he thought about ways to power them directly from the AC mains. At first Guy purchased ‘dry rectifiers’ from Westinghouse, but in 1926 he developed his own tantalum alloy rectifiers, and began to manufacture them in 1927. Using a contraction of tantalum and alloy, Guy trademarked the name ‘TANNOY’ to describe the rectifiers in 1932, and by 1936 brochures gave the name of the company as ‘TANNOY’, so the transition of the company’s name became complete. I summarized greatly the detail that Alderton provides in his book, and if you can find a copy it is well worth buying and reading. Thanks for the stimulating comment and for stopping by! Kind regards, Jeff
CONDITION: This GRF Corner Cabinet or Enclosure sounds as it is intended and you need to experience the sound to fully comprehend why experts get excited about these GRFs. The mahogany frame is in very good condition, the only noticeable ding to the Mahogany frame is shown in picture #19. Dings like this can be removed with steam. The lacquer applied to the Mahogany however will be affected by it and would have to be re-applied after local steam treatment. The Vynair fabric is free of holes or other damage but is dirty from the airflow through it and also has a couple of small stains, see picture #20. According to a period add, the Vynair fabric is washable. I have not attempted to clean it and it is in as found condition. The fabric is the typical distinctive silver beige Tannoy fabric, called Vynair, see picture #17. The resulting color is a light green which blends in with any environment or surrounding. Interestingly, I use the same color of a back drop to photograph almost anything I sell here on ebay for the same reason...
There is something extraordinary about this particular GRF Enclosure; imagine, the seal proving that the fabric protecting the membrane of the driver was never removed and is still intact! After more than half a century! See pictures #42 and #35. The only thing which is not original is the little wooden foot or spacer on the bottom of the Enclosure in the back corner which was split in half during the move from the Mansion to the warehouse, see picture #46. A duplicate spacer has been fabricated to replace the broken piece. The utmost care has been taken to use the same screws and the same holes to attaché the space. I will include the broken piece of wood.
DRIVER AND CROSS-OVER: This GRF Corner Cabinet is equipped with one of the famous 15 inch SILVER DRIVERS. The serial number of the driver is 022630, see picture #36. The driver is mounted to the cabinet from the front with four wing nuts, see picture #4 and #14, and was only unscrewed from the cabinet to take the pictures, probably for the first time! To access the speaker, four little brass screws had to be removed, picture #45 shows just one of the four little brass screws. The front frame covered with fabric is held in place with two pins on top which engage with the top of the cabinet frame, see picture #16. There are also two brass clips which snap into the spring loaded receivers mounted to the front of the cabinet, see pictures #21 (one of the clips) and #8 (one of the receivers.) Picture # 37 shows the label on the driver which reads:
15” DUAL CONCENTRIC L.S. TYPE LSU/HF/15L 15Ω IMPEDANCE MANUFACTURED BY TANNOY PRODUCTS LONDON ENGLAND
Picture #6 shows the crossover unit which is mounted to the cabinet in its upside-down position. Picture #7 shows the label on the Cross-Over unit. For easier viewing, I turned the picture upside-down. The following writing is on the Cross-Over Unit label:
TANNOY CROSS-OVER UNIT FOR DUAL CONCENTRIC L.S. TYPE LSU/HF/15/L 15Ω IMPEDANCE MADE IN ENGLAND
Both labels as well as the paint on the driver and the Cross-Over Unit are perfect or mint and free of any scratches or imperfections.
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