using tannoy R1 speakers as fronts

[timwileman]

Hi, if i did this then what speakers would you recommend as using for the other bits of a 5.1 system??

 

[John Duncan]

Ideally, the RC centre if you can find one, and another pair of R1s at the rear (there's a pair on eBay for £50 b.i.n). Alternatively, you may wish to look at their Mercury F range, which are similar in character so should integrate well. Sub could be anything, imo - if you wanted to avoid the sub you could get R2s (lovely) or R3s for the front and move the R1s to the rear.

 

[timwileman]

cheers, i am tempted to get some new speakers to match so the mercury F range would suit i guess...........are the R2 and R3's floor standers as if so they would have to be pretty small to pass other half test .................or.................i could keep the R1's as a 2 ch set up and get a whole new pacakge for the AV, i was in sevenoaks s and v at the weekend with my wife and she was eying up the monitor audio radius speakers............she liked them.....i pointed out that they are above what i thought the budget was, she didnt care.....she likes the looks and just told me to save more ha ha ....

 

[John Duncan]

the R3 is quite imposing, but the R2s are about the smallest and prettiest (in 'normal' as opposed to 'lifestyle' terms) floorstanders I've seen, short of the Totem Arros. Not too tall, and very slim (19cm wide if I remember - they were the only speakers that would fit in a narrow space I was putting them in). Still didn't meet with full OH approval though (though I think it was more the colour than anything), and in the end I changed them. The Mercury F4 is very nice - if you want to go new, you might consider dumping the R1s and getting a Mercury 5.1 setup - I think the drivers are the same as the old Revolutions and it's the finish which is less salubrious.

The Radiuses (Radii?) are pretty, certainly, but I haven't heard them.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm using R1's as my rears and have the R3's for mains and the Rc also-just my opinion but the R1's, as good as they are, would not be great as your mains-they just don't have the scale the R3's have-and if you use the Rc it may show them up in that respect-the R3's are not that imposing compared to R1's on stands-they are very slim and elegant speakers, and look stunning when polished and looked after-I am using an Onkyo 875 to drive these and they sound fantastic.