Tannoy Impulse-15 (c. 1986)
The Tannoy Impulse-15 is a large bookshelf-type speaker system from the mid-1980s, originally priced at ¥250,000 per unit. It came in two finishes, Walnut and Oak Black. Each had a matching grille cloth: dark brown with gold stripe, or black with silver stripe, respectively.
The driver is a 38cm coaxial, model 3809, using Tannoy's own two-way arrangement. A direct-radiator cone woofer and a horn-type tweeter share a single powerful magnet. Both radiate from the same point, so imaging and localization were said to be excellent. The woofer cone was a "Guard Acoustic" type - a hard cone specially ordered from Kurt Müller GmbH of West Germany, made from thin paper coated with special chemicals. The voice coil was wound by hand and treated to withstand 240°C. The tweeter used an aluminum alloy inverted dome diaphragm, formed by a six-stage pressing process with heating between stages to remove internal strain. The horn neck had 19 throats for phase correction.
The crossover network was hard-wired, with no printed circuit board, and used silver-plated wire. It had phase compensation circuits for both drivers and an L-PAD to keep operating impedance constant. A continuously variable level control adjusted the tweeter from -6dB to +3dB above 1.5kHz. The enclosure was bass-reflex type with an internal volume of 110 liters, built from MDF with density roughly 1.8 times that of particle board.
Documentation on this model is thin — no production run dates, review coverage, or broader historical context has surfaced. What the record shows is a well-specified speaker: 300W continuous / 500W peak power handling, 94dB/W/m sensitivity, 8Ω nominal impedance (6Ω minimum), frequency response of 45Hz–20kHz, and third harmonic distortion of 1% or less at 90dB SPL. It weighs 35kg and measures 500 x 760 x 392mm. A single Japanese seller offering a modified pair (network upgrade, copper wire specification) noted that "Tannoy is said to sound better the older it gets," and that they were releasing two of the three sets they had built — a remark that speaks to the regard the Impulse-15 commands among enthusiasts. That seller listed the pair at ¥308,000 including tax.
- Driver: 38cm coaxial (model 3809)
- Power handling: 300W continuous / 500W peak
- Sensitivity: 94dB/W/m
- Impedance: 8Ω (minimum 6Ω)
- Frequency response: 45Hz–20kHz
- Crossover: 1kHz
- Internal volume: 110 liters
- Dimensions: 500W x 760H x 392D mm
- Weight: 35kg
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