I have started my hifi journey since 2005 when i was posted to Hong Kong and I have enjoyed different vintage gears from 2005 till around 2012. In fact, in 2012, I have already started to streamlined my vintage hifi gears as many of the old hifi techicians that have helped to service my vintage hifi gears have started to retire.
Moreover, with many UK gears and the US 110v gears, I almost made the mistakes of turning on the US equipment with the Hong Kong 220 voltage. As such, I have started to sell away my gears and I was lucky as I was able to sell away my vintage Leak amplifiers, Pye, Marantza amplifiers etc at very good prioces then and refusing my funds to keeping vintage watches instead as storage is easier.
Since then, I have not been serious in hifi. I used to have these Tannoy Autograph Mini speakers in 2011. The earlier set was sold before my posting to Thailand for work with Levi’s Thailand in 2014 and second set was sold when I went back Singapore. With the need to moive countries due to wok posting plus owing to the need to move apartments owing to rental in HKG, it is very difficult to keep a permanent set of hifi then.
Now that my apartment situation has been stabilised and finalised, I can start to rebuild my hifi system again. I have tried to get a few small speakers to get by but the sound is not what I have expected. Finally, i have decided to go back to the familiar sound and get the Tannoy Autograph Mini first generation as the speakers are the first choice in terms of the source of music output for any hifi system.
Since 1954, the Tannoy Autograph was produced till the mid 1970s. The Tannoy Mini was inspired by the original Tannoy Autograph and has been selling since 2005, at Yen 300,000. I used to have the Tannoy Chatebury and I have also love the Tannoy relax sound. In 2016 September, TANNOY announced the discontinuation of the Tannoy Autograph Mini production due to Autograph mini spare parts being unable to achieve its stability testing. As such, Tannoy had to discontinued production of these Tannoy Autograph mini speakers. The Tannoy Autograph was revived again with the Tannoy Autograph Mini GR OW in the year 2020. With the revival of the Tannoy Autograph Mini, it has renewed my interest in setting a new set of system in Hong Kong.
The latest Tannoy Autograph Mini Gr Ow is beautiful but I have decided to find back the first version as some said that the later version may not be produced from UK Coatbridge. From the forum, I was told that there is a new factory in Hamilton, Scotland, where all the Prestige models are manufactured and the drivers are made in China and cabinets in Poland and assembled in Hamilton.
In addition, the price of the first generation is much cheaper than the new making it value for money. Thirdly, from the Tannoy‘s old manual : The Autograph Mini is a truly special loudspeaker. The high performance driver is the smallest Tannoy Dual Concentric™ ever, and includes a multi-fibre paper pulp cone for natural midrange and well defined bass. The high frequency section incorporates Tannoy WideBand™ technology, giving a more true to life performance. The driver is installed in a damped birch-ply cabinet with hardwood veneers and solid wooden mouldings. Silver-plated van den Hul wiring is used in the low frequency section and 99.99% high purity silver for the high frequencies. The carefully optimized crossover includes low loss inductors and specially damped audio grade capacitors.
Comparison : The First edition Tannoy Autograph Mini vs the new Tannoy GR OW
1. Sensitivity : First generation Tannoy Autograph Mini (88db) vs 85db for new
2. Weight : 4kg vs 4.4 kg
3. Maximum SPL : 105db - 111db vs 102db - 108db
4. Dimensions : 210X345X130mm vs 209X356X156mm
5. Birch vs Walnut veneer
The higher the sensitivity rating of a speaker, the louder it will play with a certain amount of wattage. For example, some speakers have a sensitivity of around 81 dB or so. This means with one watt of power, they'll deliver just a moderate listening level. Want 84 dB? You'll need two watts — this is due to the fact that every additional 3 dB of volume requires double the power. The Sensitivity measurements for the First generation Autograph Mini is 88 dB are about average and will be easier to drive. Anything below 84 dB is considered rather poor sensitivity. The new versions sensivity is 85db is close to poor sensivity.
Anyway, I am happy with the first generation as below:
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