I've had these speakers since they came out in my old studio as nearfields as well as the 600-a's. Awesome and i won't go into detail as others have done plenty. I no longer have my studio but have kept them as my home stereo connected to my Rotel system and sound is fabulous. Don't need to adjust eq. awesome as is straight out.
MIne are the shielded versions.
Everytime i see a review and how long I've had them, I say why the F change them.

I have been a studio mixing engineer since the late 90's. In 2001, I started rebuilding my business from the ground up. When it came to studio nearfield monitors, I decided I was going to really take my time and get the absolute best for my ears - and accurate.

I made a trip to Sweetwater, just north of Indianapolis. The staff there was quite helpful - they set me up in a room with about 6 pairs of monitors of my own choosing (they carried just about everything except Dynaudios at the time). I had decided I was going to purchase the best nearfield speakers available, no matter the price.

After listening for a couple hours, going through brand names such as KRK, Event, Roland, JBL, and so on, I finally whittled it down to 3 contenders: Genelec 1032a, Tannoy System 800a, and believe it or not, ... the Mackie HR824! All had their merits and sounded the best of the 8" woofer series monitors at the time.

I took about a half-hour break and returned after lunch for the final shoot-out. I had been listening to everything from jazz, to metal, to orchestral... but the real kicker was a CD I bought of a guy named Al DiMeola (album name is "Orange and Blue"). The album is very percussive and has a great number of very subtle sounds and timbres. As it turns out 2 of the monitors revealed some things in the music I had never heard before. Those two were the Genelecs and the Tannoys. The Mackies had a similar E.Q., round and full, but the low end was muddy, and much of the subtle nuances of the music were incoherent even at some of the upper frequencies. So the Mackies dropped out.

But the kicker was this... although the Genelecs had the highest price tag, and the greatest reviews, and the upper frequencies were stunningly clear, they were actually shrill and hurt my ears after several minutes of listening - and I usually listen at lower volumes. The Tannoys, on the other hand, were every bit as crystal clear, yet smoother, all the way up to the highest frequencies. I bought the Tannoys, which were 3/4 the price of the Genelecs.

Since then I have used them for sprectal and impulse room testing, so I tested them outdoors, using a pair of Earthworks QTC30's, and Earthworks 1024 Preamp, and an RME ADI8 A/D converter. Analysis revealed the the frequency response is quite smooth and round, and capable of very high freqs weel outside my range of hearing (about 20KHz). The low end begins to drop smoothly below 45 Hz, which is actually quite good for a pair of 8" woofers. Impulse response proved very fast, albeit, not exactly lightening fast, but definitely impressive. Damping is also pretty quick, very low at about 40ms, and practically unobservable by 60ms.

In summary, I fell in love with these monitor from the very beginning. They have been my primary recording and mixing monitors in my studio, and I have never been sorry I bought them. They are still working strong, and I would never mix on anything else.

By the way, for those comparing these "speakers" to hi-fi systems, this is typical of audio enthusiasts, and is really an unfair comparison. These "studio monitors" were actually made for picking apart problems in a mix. The theory is, if you can tweak a mix until it sounds good in these monitors, which can find every little problem that exists, it will sound incredible on a high sounding (albeit somewhat mushier) hi-fi system. The proper use for these monitors is "studio surgery", and by that definition, these things are quite amazing. It saddens me that they are no longer in production, replaced by the snazzier sharper and crunchier "new blood", the Tannoy "Reveal" family. I personally still prefer my System 800's and pray they never quit!

I don't know why we're in the floorstanding hifi speakers forum room, because the Tannoy System800 monitors are octagonal-shaped dual-concentric nearfields. Mine are on tall stands, on their sides.
Nobody mentions the fact they are quite BIG; 10kg per cabinet. I have the passive ones.
I do find that my mixes sound so much sweeter on a Hifi speaker, after I have mixed on the system800s. Make of that what you will.
I have wondered how I would feel about them, when compared to a really good studio nearfield. When I first got them home, I proclaimed I had never heard an old Korg MS700 analogue synth sound so great; it was buzzy and bassy like I coukldn't get before, yet you never felt like the speaker couldn't cope. So now, I feel like these make amazing tracking monitors. The psychologicfal effect of the thick polypropylene cone gives you a nice feeling of safety.
I'm probably underpowering them with a 50W OMNIPHONICS RESEARCH S-50 amplifier.
I look forward to adding a more refined pair of monitors in the future; there seems to be something so bland about thair overall sound, which brings you back to the initial point about mixing strategy.

Let me know your thoughts
Syntholabo

Accurate, Wide equitemporial plane (all Frequencies in phase) which give a much bigger sweet spot, solid cabinet construction with lower power loss. Multiple set-up orientations

Power handling could be more robust

The point in the System 800's after all, is to create an honest reproduction of the work you are doing. If you do not have an accurate room you will NEVER appreciate the quality and accuracy of this small monitor. I have had them in many proper control rooms over the past 6 years and found that when properly placed and powered, they performed very well. If the room is designed well and will accomodate these speakers per the design, you will find your mixes should sound even better than in the control room itself (which is the idea). So I mix as hard and full as I want and print it with great results. I now use these in my personal control room with a KRK sub, and am quite pleased with the accuract of the mixes. Don't be too quick to judge a speaker when you are listening to it in a acoustical mess of a room. Always do something to address the acoustics. There are a lot of reasources online you can turn to for great help. Trust me on this one...Fix the room first
Steve,
A.I.A., A.S.A., A.E.S., E.E., M.E.
"Excellence Through Knowledge and Experience"

Customer Service

Always great or just call the headquarters in Kitchner Ontario, and they are Great

Similar Products Used:

Genelecs, Tannoy AMS's, KRK's. JBL's (sorry)

Staggering Imaging. Beautifully voiced. Snappy Bass. Wonderful Clarity. Virually no coloration.

A little pricey perhaps.

The Tannoy System 800 caught my eye on the Tannoy Professional Website. I forgot how good this design can sound. It has been 30 years since I fell in love with the old Tannoy Lancaster with a 12" Monitor Gold driver, driven by a Quad 33 pre-amp and 303 Power Amp. I have never heard Buddy Rich and his Orchestra sound so good, and I am a part-time drummer. This system has the same speed and attack, with staggering imaging. I found there was no compression, and no detectable coloration. Bass is amazingly deep and tight, mids are superb, clear, and crisp, and the highs are tranparent, with just the right amount of bite. I found there is inner detail on many CD's that is just not audible on most other speakers. There are continous phasing cues, and subtle sounds in the studio present, that were not heard before. Cosmetics may seem rather "Industrial" looking for some, but in real life they are better looking and very well assembled and finished. A bit pricey at $1000.00CAN, but one gets that Dual Concentric driver at a cheaper price than the Home Audio products. I am surprised Tannoy hasn't advertised the Pro line more. In all, superb sound that everyone loves, including Engineers.

Soundstaging is perfect, frequency response is accurate, very compact for the sound, and a nice price!

No rubber feet! Possible hearing damage risk.

After listening to Tannoy's Dual-concentric speaker system, used in this pair of System 800s, you will never be able to go back to a conventional 2 or 3-way speaker system. The soundstage really is extraordinary! It was one of those speaker auditions where I picked up things in the music I had never realised before. This effect is most pronounced in the upper band between 5k and 20k, guitar pick noise and lip-smacking etc. It could be seen as a bad sign that it shows up many mistakes in audio that you thought was flawless. The transient response of the tweeters is fantastic, and lends itself to all types of music and voice work. It does make sense to pay heed to the warnings that come with these speakers though.. they sound so smooth, and are so easy to listen too that you really don't know how loud you are listening to them, until someone comes in to the room and trys to talk to you and you can't hear each other! A dB meter may come in handy when using these speakers for a long session. The lack of bass that many reviews have talked about may me due to the mounting surface. I found that they had much more bass in their upright position than on their side, which must be due to the surface area in contact with the surface they are sitting on. It says in the manual to rest the monitors on a rubber mat or attach rubber feet (which maybe should have been supplied) to counteract the effect. Ideally they should be as isolated as possible. They are supplied with foam bungs for the reflex ports to alter the bass response curve. Anyway, in summary these are fantastic speakers for the price (NZ$1536), and perfect if you want crisp accurate soundstaging and true-to-life response.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy Mx3, K-Rok monitors, Jbls.

Fatigue factor is very low. Soundstaging.

Coloration in the mid band area. Treble region not very detailed.

These speakers were used in a "traditional" 2 channnel audio system. High end components were used. (Not Sony or Technics) I have to admit that I was seduced by these monitors, due to the fact that they threw out a soundstage so amazing compared to the other box speakers I was used to hearing at the time. I liked the tonal balance of the Reveal better though. Then a couple of years later I had $300 burning a hole in my pocket and purchased a pair of Axiom M3ti bookshelf speakers. Even fresh out of the box, I was amazed at the mid range purity and treble detial of the Axioms! As time when by, with more break in, it was evident that the Axioms were just getting better. I ended up selling the Tannoys.

Similar Products Used:

Axiom M3ti SE, Tannoy Reveal, Signet SL-260

They are so bad that if you manage a good mix on these it''s going to be a VERY good mix, (which defeats the object of monitors)

Not worth the money, gives wrong impression of the music.

This speakers aren''t exactly awe inspiring, they are very flat sounding. The bass is too round, nowhere near punchy enough and the top end goes missing in the mix.

Similar Products Used:

Absolute 2''s

Soudstage, detail, they really do sound good no matter where in the room you sit

bass

Note I'm writing this from the perspective of a home listener, not a studio.
Awesome speakers, as above detail and soundstage are absolutely unsurpassed in this price range, strings/female voices/percussion really come alive. I found them easy to place, and whether it's because they're "point sources" or not, the imaging is good where ever you sit/stand in front of them.
Because distortion is so low you do tend to crank them up way too high without noticing what you're doing so be careful!
Only downside bass doesn't go too low (47 hz?). If you need low bass and you don't want to deal with the issues a sub causes, take a look at the Saturn 8's, same driver augmented with an extra bass driver in a bigger cabinet.
Still gets a 5 because what it does, it does beautifully.

Similar Products Used:

Polk (old 4 ways, model#?), auditioned everything including KEF b&W Mission PSB etc

Best speakers I've have owned! (So far) Sold my KEF Q-50's and bought these! Tannoy # 1!!!