The review on Tannoy's flagship Kingdom Royal is now live at Positive Feedback Online here. I really enjoyed my time with the magnificent Kingdom Royal loudspeakers during the review period. Here's a few snippets from the review:
"Tannoy's goal for the Kingdom Royal project was to develop a new high-resolution statement loudspeaker that would be as comfortable with 24-bit/192kHz digital recordings as it was Golden Age analogue recordings, and one that would be able to "…communicate the full emotion of the music with articulation, accuracy and coherence irrespective of the genre of music... with power and passion of delivery that encapsulates the magic of live music with breathtaking precision." I don't know about you, but when I read what Tannoy's goal was for the Kingdom Royal project only one word came to my mind: Amen!"
A few more snippets:
"The Kingdom Royal project resulted in a statement loudspeaker that—as I'll describe to you in a moment—has reached its lofty goals of both flagship sonic performance and superb musicality in two 265-pound impeccably appointed packages. Would you expect anything less from Dr. Paul Mills and Tannoy? The Kingdom Royal has -6dB points at 24Hz and 54kHz, and impressively has prodigious sub-bass output down to a ribcage rattling 15Hz, with high frequencies ranging up to a dizzying 61kHz."
Another snippet:
"With a sensitivity of 96dB (2.83V @ 1m) the Kingdom Royals have been as comfortable being driven by my 9-watt 300B mono amplifiers from Sophia Electric & Fi as the 280-watt ASR Emitter II Exclusive Blue solid-state amplifier used for the majority of this review. With power handling up to 1200 watts peak you can use almost any amplifiers that catch your fancy."
Snippet:
"The Kingdom Royals are big loudspeakers, much more so than the promotional photos you've seen suggest. The dimensions of the Kingdom Royal are 50.2 x 23.0 x 23.6 inches, with a weight of 265lbs each. In the photo below you can see them next to my Westminster Royal SE, and while they're not as huge as the mighty Westminster, they're not that far off—they're big!"
Snippets:
"Who will be most impressed with the Kingdom Royal? Those who really understand, live and breathe music, they will be the most impressed. Those who have experienced many great live performances will recognize in the Kingdom Royals a kindred experience, a musical greatness that transcends mere Hi-Fi and takes on a musical life of its own. I can't tell you how many times that I listened to an LP and just sat there shaking my head at how utterly captivating the Kingdom Royals were when playing music. The Kingdom Royals get inside you, inside your head, inside your heart, and bring recorded music alive with a tangible excitement you rarely experience in audio.
As a final note, let me say that if I could afford them, I would buy the Tannoy Kingdom Royals in an instant. I'd love to have them as my long-term reference for a dynamic loudspeaker. The Kingdom Royals combined with the ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplification, ASR Basis Exclusive phono preamplifier, and the Sablon Audio Panatela interconnects & component speaker cables have a synergy together that you only come across once in a very great while in high-performance audio, to create what is truly a super-system in playing back musical performances."
I'd like to congratulate the Kingdom Royal Project Team for doing such a magnificent job on the Kingdom Royals - they truly are something special! (Above is a photo of the Kingdom Royal Project Team: In the back row are Harry Bakke, Tim Lount, and John Grimason. In the middle row are James Harkness, Meryl Saunders, and John Smith. In the front row are Paul Mills, Matthew Phelan, and Andzej Sosna.)
I'd like to say thank you to everyone at Tannoy for letting me give their new statement Kingdom Royals a listen—they are magnificent!
The Tannoy Kingdom Royals are $55,000 USD per pair.
