Please recommend a cheap amp for Tannoy Mercury M2

[Paul.]

Hi,

I saved a pair of good condition Tannoy Mercury M2 from the skip at a house clearance. I figured I would put together a cheap eBay system for my Father in laws upcoming birthday. I'm slightly confused what to pair them with, everywhere on line says to pair with Marantz but when hooked up to my PM44 SE that I have in the kitchen, the M2s sounded kinda muddled in the mids, a bit disappointing. Both my super cheap and cheerful KEF Cresta 10 and Denon/Mission SC-M50 sound ace with the Marantz. The KEFs were £50 new from richer, the missions couldn’t have been much more.

Are the M2s any good? Was my expectations of the M2s reasonable? What do they sound good with paired with? Im half tempted to take them to a charity shop as I know I can pick up some KEF Cresta 10s for chips on eBay, another PM44 should only be £40-50.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi Paul.

Keep the M2 as they are good speakers. They have got a somewhat heavy presentation so I found them to work well with amplification which was able to exert good grip to keep a check on the low frequencies and which was clean, punchy, gutsy and dynamic without sounding bright or harsh. In this respect within their price range the older Rotel amplifiers such as their RA-931 MK2 and RA-971 MK2 did the job nicely

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[PT_2014]

How about this for a blast from the past on ebay at the moment? A Misison Cyrus One amp for 30 quid!

Them were the days.....

 

[bluedroog]

The Tannoy Mercury M2s now correct me if I’m wrong but do they have a lightish wood effect veneer on the front and black around all the other sides? I remember those speakers fondly, in fact at the time they were raved about in the mags as the budget book shelf speakers to buy around the mid 90’s. I remember a friend bringing them in to our school common room paired with a Marantz amp and they were a lot of fun.

They are rated at 88 db so a fairly easy load, about on the edge of what you may get away with something like this http://www.amptastic.com/ if going second hand a trusty old Rotel or perhaps and Arcam Alpha 8. I’d be tempted to try one the old legacy Japanese amps from the 80’s, some huge old Sony perhaps.

 

[toyota man]

the M20 Golds now there's a blast from the past I ran mine with an Onkyo amp 8057A I think 95W RMS into 8 ohms they were great speakers so as others have said try a big old amp from Japan

 

[Paul.]

Thanks for the suggestions, will put some saved searches on eBay 🙂