Questions regarding Tannoy Fusion F3 (aka Mercury F3)... Is it a bad speaker ?

 

New member
Username: Prtv

Post Number: 1
Registered: Jul-07
Hi

Now I'm using a pair of Fusion F3, bought it for one week form an audio/visual fair. In the fair I auditioned its younger brother (F2) and it was very good (for its price), so I intended to choose it over Wharfedale 9.1. But I realized that I didn't have any speaker stand left, so I picked the floor-standing version (F3) instead, since it has almost the same spec, except being tower (which I thought it "could" produce more/deeper bass).

I carried it home and mated it with NAD C372 + Kimber 4VS, which I have just bought.

After listening to them, I can say that I was really disappointed, especially with the speaker (I know there is nothing wrong with C372).

The problem was bass that this speaker produced was unacceptable for me; I didn't expect an earth-shattering bass or anything. My kind of music is Jazz (85%), New Age, and sometimes pop. I want to hear a tight and decent bass, but Fusion3 is only able to give me a bloomy and thin bass. It's almost impossible to feel any impact of low frequency from this speaker --sound of grand piano, double bass and orchestra feel so thin and lack of power.

I know that everything (cable, amp, and speaker) is still new and may need some time to break-in before they can (hopefully) perform at their best.

This is the estimated operation time of my equipment.
Speaker and speaker cables..... 45-50 Hrs
Amp......... almost 20 Hrs

I know it might not sufficient to burn those stuffs in, but I'm curious about the quality of the speaker, so I want to hear your input.

If you have it, or know about it, what do you think about it? Is it any good in your view?

For me, even if it's still in the burn-in process, I'm disappointed with it, and hope I'd better picked Wharfedale 9.1, or 9.2 instead.


Looking forward to hearing from you guys.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 7857
Registered: Dec-04
Prt, after you are convinced that everything is burned-in stable, stick some cheap rip cord in place of the Kimber speaker runs.
 

Silver Member
Username: Stefanom

Vienna, VA United States

Post Number: 765
Registered: Apr-06
I would suggest fiddling a bit with placement, as that will have a huge impact on bass performance. You might well have unknowingly placed it in a null spot.
 

New member
Username: Prtv

Post Number: 2
Registered: Jul-07
Thanks for your inputs.

-----------------------------------------------
"Prt, after you are convinced that everything is burned-in stable, stick some cheap rip cord in place of the Kimber speaker runs."
-----------------------------------------------
Is Kimber that bad ?

At first, I condisered between Gold Water and this Kimber, and my friend told me Gold Water was not as good as Kimber, for it tends to be dull and blur, so I picked Kimber instead. Maybe I shouldn't believe myfriend.

----------------------------------------------
"I would suggest fiddling a bit with placement, as that will have a huge impact on bass performance. You might well have unknowingly placed it in a null spot."
----------------------------------------------

I'd like to, but my room is only 3.80x3.80 ( I know it's bad for the bass, especially from floor stand speaker). Now my speakers are placed 84 cm from side wall and 49 cm from rear. Actually I want to pull it closer (>80CM from rear) but I don't have enough space (now my back is almost at the opposite wall); I'm now sit 2.1 M away from speaker (from front of the speaker to my seat).


Actually, when I listen to some bass intense songs, I do feel there are low frequencies generated, but I can't touch it; it is not corporeal and I can't hear it. It's in the same manner as listening to low frequencies generated from subwoofer, you can't hear it but can feel it.

The question is how can I shape-up those low frequencies? Burn-in my speakers and amp or change position of my speaker like you suggest (in the latter, I find it difficult given my room space).

Thanks guys.
 

Silver Member
Username: Stefanom

Vienna, VA United States

Post Number: 766
Registered: Apr-06
Even a few cm can make a difference as far as bass goes. Read up a little on room effects and bass. The best part of course is that this optimization is free.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 10780
Registered: May-04
.

Nuck - Wha'jew got against Kimber? This is the second time you've knocked it in the past few days. In my experience, Kimber is one of the safest bets in speaker cables.






"Now I'm using a pair of Fusion F3, bought it for one week form an audio/visual fair."


If you can't contact the dealer for advice and have no return privileges, this is an organized white van sale. Why would you buy something you couldn't audition in your own system? You paid more for a floorstanding speaker because you didn't have any speaker stands left?!




What am I missing here?



Place "Speaker Set Up" in a search engine.


.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 7863
Registered: Dec-04
JV, I ain't knocking Kimber at all.
Agreed that they have a good selection of cables, and a lot of happy customers.
In this case, I will fall back on an experience from a few years ago.

The regular customer at Target hi-fi bought a Rotel rb985 power amp, but it shut down against his Vandesteen speakers. He brought the thing back to the store, and the dealer drove 4 steens with it with no issue.
Dude takes it home, and same thing happens, it shuts down. Back it goes again, this time I was there. The amp had to go (out of frustration) so I nabbed it real cheap.
Of course, the twisted pairs were the issue, the amp hated them. I ran rip cord to the 3.2ohm Psb's and had a yeehaw for cheap.
T^he amp sits a a 5 channel spare.

That's why I have chirped a bit on the Kimber's.
Just a cheap option as a troubleshooting guide, or tool.

Hope the concert is good today, JV.

Prt, in that space, the lower waves are going to kill each other and flatten the sound.
With what you have available, try lessrequest for bass, and let the registers move up a bit, like 45hz or so.
As you increase the register, you will find a sweet freq that will 'ring'(and drive you nuts). Try to get about 5hz below that.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 10782
Registered: May-04
But Kimbers aren't a twisted pair, they are usually lower capacitance than many twisted pair cables. I've never had Kimber shut down an amplifier, I suspect there was more to it than merely the speaker cable.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 7868
Registered: Dec-04
That's all that changed, A Classe(happened to be, pre-owned) amp ended all that.
Just tossed that out there.

I think it was a twisted pair of 8tc speaker runs.
 

New member
Username: Prtv

Post Number: 3
Registered: Jul-07
------------------------
If you can't contact the dealer for advice and have no return privileges, this is an organized white van sale. Why would you buy something you couldn't audition in your own system? You paid more for a floorstanding speaker because you didn't have any speaker stands left?!

What am I missing here?
------------------------

In my country, it's very difficult to take an equipment like this home and try it with my setup. The only way I can try it is in the store, unless I have some friends owning it (in this case I have none).

The reason why I chose the floor stand version is that at that time, I thought if I picked the bookshelf version, I had to get stands for it, and the price of a pair of decent stand plus speakers itself is as much as a pair of floor stand version. Plus picking floor stand, I could get more and better bass (don't know if I'm wrong).

This is why I chose Fusion 3 instead of Fusion 2 + stands.


It appears that no one has answered my question about quality of this speaker yet. Now, I'm thinking about selling it and getting a new pair. This time I may choose PSB or NHT at the same price range (250-320).

Speaking about this speaker, the main reason I bought this was that it was on sale (retail price was reduced 50% from ~500$ to 250$). Actually at a fair, the prices of the whole Tannoy lines are reduced.

What is in my mind now is that, even if the price was 50% dropped, the speaker should still preform better than 250-300$ ones, I mean, it should be better than it is now. If anyone owns it, I would like to hear your impression of it, for if it's not good, I may decide to sell it in near future (the longer I hold it, the lower its resale value).
 

New member
Username: Prtv

Post Number: 4
Registered: Jul-07
------------------------
If you can't contact the dealer for advice and have no return privileges, this is an organized white van sale. Why would you buy something you couldn't audition in your own system? You paid more for a floorstanding speaker because you didn't have any speaker stands left?!

What am I missing here?
------------------------

In my country, it's very difficult to take an equipment like this home and try it with my setup. The only way I can try it is in the store, unless I have some friends owning it (in this case I have none).

The reason why I chose the floor stand version is that at that time, I thought if I picked the bookshelf version, I had to get stands for it, and the price of a pair of decent stand plus speakers itself is as much as a pair of floor stand version. Plus picking floor stand, I could get more and better bass (don't know if I'm wrong).

This is why I chose Fusion 3 instead of Fusion 2 + stands.


It appears that no one has answered my question about quality of this speaker yet. Now, I'm thinking about selling it and getting a new pair. This time I may choose PSB or NHT at the same price range (250-320).

Speaking about this speaker, the main reason I bought this was that it was on sale (retail price was reduced 50% from ~500$ to 250$). Actually at a fair, the prices of the whole Tannoy lines are reduced.

What is in my mind now is that, even if the price was 50% dropped, the speaker should still preform better than 250-300$ ones, I mean, it should be better than it is now. If anyone owns it, I would like to hear your impression of it, for if it's not good, I may decide to sell it in near future (the longer I hold it, the lower its resale value).
 

Silver Member
Username: Stefanom

Vienna, VA United States

Post Number: 767
Registered: Apr-06
Tannoy makes good speakers. The problems you are having are likely not their fault, but the fault of the room. If the only solution you can come up with is to get new speakers, then all I can say is good luck.
 

Silver Member
Username: Dmitchell

Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Post Number: 184
Registered: Feb-07
I agree with Stephen. Tannoy do indeed make good speakers. I have a pair of Tannoy Mx4's is a relatively large, acoustically lively room (bare drywall and concrete floors) and they sound pretty darned musical.
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