Tannoy Mercury M20

Bought a pair of these small speakers today, reputed to be 93dB/W Efficiency to try out with my 8 w valve monoblocks.

Anybody got any experience of using them, are they any good? did not pay a lot so its not that important but i would value your thoughts about them

 

I remember the M20 Golds, they won some awards when they were launched IIRC...

 

They might well be "golds" although they were described as mercury, however i notice that both the woofer and tweeter surround plates appear to be a gold colour?

 

Hi Andi,

I assume you mean these:-



These are not "Gold". "Golds" have dual concentric drivers.

 

Assuming we are talking about the same speakers (early-mid 80's) they are cracking speakers, although there more like 88 ish db.

I had a pair of Saturns, a slightly larger version than the Mercury. The Venus was very highly regarded, I saw a pair with a dead bass driver fetch nearly a ton on ebay a while back.

The Mercury was by far the longest lived and most popular model but was upgraded almost continually to keep it ahead of the pack.

The first models were typical speakers of the era, smooth and sweet with a slightly soft bass...later versions became cleaner and leaner. IIRC the golds had realwood veneer instead of vinyl.


Paul.

 

I had a pair of M20 Golds for a while back in the early 80s when they were current, they were a slightly poshed up version of the Mercurys pictured above. A slightly bigger cab and better tweeter IIRC. I didn’t keep them long as I could never get them not to boom in the bass, but that doesn’t mean much as I knew little about system set-up back then.

Tony.

 

Dev...... that`s them.

Paul...... The spec sheet from Tannoy suggests 93dB is that likely to be optomistic, I thought it was a bit high for such small speakers.

 

Just found a pic of the M20 Golds I was on about earlier on the same site:



Tony.

 

Gosh M20 golds now that does make me nostalgic.

They formed the corner stone of my 1st proper setup back in 1985! They were wonderful speakers, quick and lively with a lovely bloom in the bass.

 

This is the M20 Gold I remember...

 

i worked in a studio where they used the M20 Golds (not the black ones, the teakish colour ones). Sounded ok- pretty punchy from the plastic woofer.

 

The speakers i have bought which i am still awaiting delivery of were not described as "gold" just Mercury M20.

Devs has the correct picture. Tonys look slightly different

Will report back on how they sound when they land

 

Hi,

I had a pair of Tannoy Mercurys in the 80s. These were the 2nd pair I ever bought. The sensitivity was around 87db/w/m, if I remember. They were around £100 to £120 mark. I enjoyed using them but I remember comparing them to a pair of Rogers LS2s which offered better clarity, detail and dynamics. These were around £160. The Mercurys were good enough to show the differences between cartridges and turntables which I used during that period. Nice speakers.

I drove the Tannoys with a QED A230 amp which was rated at 30watts per channel and a Cyrus two amp (60 watts).

SCIDB