Tannoy Mercury Series m4 Loudspeakers
About 4 years ago I was in the market for a pair of speakers. At the time I was listening to a pair of ribbons which were very nice, but not very "gutsy". I decided that I would give myself a budget of $1,000 and go find a pair of speakers that would play loud, have powerful bass and would sound good on Rock and Roll.
They didn’t have to be the most transparent or detailed speaker around, but they had to have a punchy sound and avoid large sonic errors. In other words, they didn’t have to be perfect transducers, but they had to avoid major sonic transgressions. I couldn’t find such a pair. Everything I found suffered some kind of fatal flaw that would make enjoyable ownership impossible. Terribly bright or brittle upper-midrange/treble, loose and flabby bass (or worse: no bass!) or a midrange that became congested when things got raucous. I wish I had been able to find a pair of Tannoy m4s back then.
The Tannoy m4 is exactly what I was looking for and it would have brought me in way under budget. At $700 for the pair, it is by no means a "flawless" speaker. Nothing at three times the price is. The flaws are for the most part subtractive, which is to say that the Tannoys err by not doing something rather than by actively doing something wrong. In this price class, all speakers are colored and the Tannoy is by no means an exception. But what is different about the Tannoy is that I was thoroughly able to enjoy its coloration! More on this later, though.
General Description
My review pair came in black with the grey bird’s eye fascia. With the Grills on or off, I think they are a smart looking pair of speakers. Crisp lines, fairly tall and a very small footprint making them a generally acceptable addition to just about any décor. They also come with spikes, as do many speakers in the m4’s class. But other speakers don’t come with the cool brass discs for insertion between the spikes and your hard wood floor - it’s a real class touch, if you ask me! Overall fit and finish was very nice for such a budget-priced speaker.
Let’s pick some nits!
I like to pick my nits and get them out of the way. Fortunately, my list is short. The first flaw, if you want to call it a flaw, is that these speakers are very warm. Very warm. Notice my choice of words here. I didn’t say "boomy"- they are not. I didn’t say "bass heavy"- they are not. What we have is a speaker that is very warm from the lower-mids up through the midrange while avoiding both bloat and boom. While I can’t say it’s neutral or perfectly accurate, it is extraordinarily pleasant- particularly given its asking price.
The second "flaw" was one of omission, so to speak. I refer to the m4’s ability to articulate bass. While the speakers did a profoundly good job supporting their upper registers with good weight and punch, they did not possess the ability to articulate it as sharply as better and usually more expensive speakers. They just didn’t have the detail in the bass that I could have hoped for.
On The Up Side!
While I list the warm balance as a flaw, based on the fact that tonality did deviate from neutrality and given the price class, I have to list it as one of the speaker’s strengths too. Sorry if that confuses you, but the fact is that so many of the Tannoy’s competitors just sound cold and shrill by comparison. I found the tonal balance to make the m4s thoroughly comfortable and enjoyable speakers to listen to. I would go on to say that they lacked the cold sterile nature of many so-called "accurate" speakers. It was at once engaging, musical and fun.
The midrange, as I’ve already pointed out, was surpassingly good for a speaker in this class. Also possessing pretty good dynamics, the m4 needed to be turned up pretty darn loud before the sound started to deteriorate. Even then the speaker politely "compressed" rather than getting out of hand with acts of barbarism. As I stated earlier, the treble was exceptionally neutral and well behaved for a speaker in this price class.
Definitely one of the speaker’s greatest strengths was its ability to image and throw a sound stage. Imaging freak that I am, I particularly enjoyed this facet of the m4’s performance. The sound stage was always wide and expansive with fairly good specificity. What was completely unexpected was the depth of the m4’s sound stage. Hands down, the m4 throws the deepest sound stage I’ve ever heard from a speaker in and around its price class, and one of the deepest I’ve ever heard period.
Listening
In the mood for some hard driving heavy metal good ol’ "All American" Rock and Roll (even if much of it was originally performed by British artists!) I reached for Dream Theater’s "A Change Of Seasons" (EastWest 61842-2). Track #2, their cover of Elton John’s "Funeral For A Friend" greeted me with wall-to-wall audience applause extending well behind and beyond the lateral placement of the m4s. The lone opening cymbal was both clean and clear with no hint of unwanted splash-again: outstanding performance in this class.
Opening guitars were articulate without being shrill and bass lines were strong and powerful if a bit "muddled" and lacking the n’th degree of articulation. All in all, the Tannoys were rhythmic and driving. Track #3 "Perfect Strangers" will give you somewhat of a cardiac massage! The guitars on the opening and title cut "A Change Of Seasons" sounded excellent. Bass strings never sounded over-ripe and thus allowed the guitar to sound completely cohesive with no mismatching of timbre between low and high "E" strings.
"The Big Medley" demonstrated the excellent sense of sound stage depth and width, if not the greatest specificity I’ve ever experienced. Vocals were completely free of the congestion one may have expected of a speaker this warm. The imaging on Track #6 "Trou Macacq" will have you checking speaker phasing and the Tannoys did an excellent job of providing no center-fill at all.
Summation
Putting things in perspective, the Tannoys are one of the least expensive speakers I’ve reviewed here to date, the last two pairs being 13 and 5 times the price. The very fact that I enjoyed these speakers as much as I did speaks volumes. My minor caveats aside, quite literally: speakers of the m4’s performance capabilities were not to be found for under and around a kilo-buck a few short years ago. Their weaknesses are few and far from fatal and greatly outweighed by their strengths.
With one of the smoothest non-fatiguing trebles in their class, a clean and detailed midrange, surprising bass punch combined with one of the warmest and most inviting tonal presentations I've ever heard in this class, the Tannoy m4 is recommended for audition in a very major way.
Good luck and happy listening!
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