Mark Coles has developed a Panatela Tannoy Concentric Special Edition speaker cable set optimized for Tannoy loudspeakers using dual-concentric drivers that sounds very impressive indeed.

If you look closely at the photos you'll notice there's 5 binding posts per Tannoy loudspeaker: two binding posts for the low-frequency section, two binding posts for the high-frequency section, and a fifth binding post that is intended to ground the chassis of the dual-concentric driver to the amplifier's chassis ground.

I've come to recognize a couple of important truths with the Tannoy dual-concentric drivers: there's 5 binding posts per loudspeaker for a reason, and you'll realize big performance gains if you use them in optimum fashion.

First of all, as Jim Smith pointed out to me, it's important to use the dedicated ground. Tannoy put the ground connection there for a reason, and when the world's oldest loudspeaker manufacturer goes to the trouble of including the ground connection and mentioning it in their owners manuals as being important it's worth taking note - because it matters.

The dedicated ground is intended to connect the chassis ground of the dual-concentric driver to a chassis ground on the amplifier. When I hooked up the ground to my Sophia Electric 91-01 300B mono amplifiers, I immediately noticed that there was a decrease in the amount of noise, an increase in the transparency and the perceived level of detail, an increase in natural tonality, and a more expansive sense of space.

I found while experimenting with my Westminster Royal SEs that a simple ground wire works fine, but a dedicated speaker cable worked much better, and with the same sorts of gains that you would expect when going from a simple wire to a quality speaker cable between the amplifier and loudspeaker.

The best way to implement the ground connection is to ground the driver to a central chassis ground point on your amplifier, and the next best place to connect the ground is on an amplifiers black (-) speaker binding post.

I discussed this topic with Don Garber, the legendary Fi designer, who was intrigued with Tannoy's approach, and here's what he told me:

"Sometimes there's a 60/120Hz hum in a system when the ground between elements of the system are not the same - zero volts. Whenever there's a voltage difference, there's noise. This is why phono preamps always include a chassis ground post. Since the signal at this point is so tiny, the slightest variation will be amplified up through the system ... if you want to make a common connection the best place would be the chassis ground. I don't know that I've ever seen it at the other end of the chain. It's sort of like the extra buttons at the bottom of the shirt."

Much like with the phono preamps Don mentions above, with the high-sensitivity of the Tannoy dual-concentric drivers, I can see why minimizing noise is a good thing, so you can realize all of the performance your exotic Tannoy loudspeakers are capable of.

For the Fi 300B mono amplifiers, here's how Don suggested attaching the Tannoy ground cable:

"If you want to make a common connection the best place would be the chassis ground. To get at this you'll have to take off the bottom plate of each amp (you'll need a 3/32" Allen key or wrench) and locate the inner mounting screw of the IEC (power plug) socket. It's where the third (separate) lug of the plug connects with a short black wire to the screw that holds the plug to the chassis. Loosen the nut and connect a wire here that runs to the post on the speaker."

Just to be on the safe side, for your specific amplifier I suggest contacting the manufacturer to ask how best to implement the Tannoy ground wire.

The second thing I've learned about the Tannoy dual-concentric drivers is that the high-frequency section and the low-frequency section are different enough technologies to warrant an optimized cable for each one. For example, I'd been listening to Mark Coles' Sablon Audio Panatela speaker cables for a while now on my personal Tannoy Westminster Royal Special Edition loudspeakers in preparation for writing about them at Positive Feedback Online.

When the Panatela speaker cables were used as a single-cable run to the low frequency binding posts, with Tannoy's jumpers to the high-frequency binding posts, the sound quality and musicality were excellent, just as you would expect from one of Mark's designs. At Mark's suggestion we tried using a second run of Panatelas from the amplifiers to the high-frequency binding posts, but the result was not nearly as good as anticipated, and Tannoy's own jumpers were preferable. (Kingdom Royals with Tannoy jumpers pictured below)

We were both puzzled by this unexpected outcome, so Mark consulted designer Dr. Paul Mills at Tannoy for some guidance. Mark ended up taking the normal full-range Panatela speaker cable and stripping it down so that the conductor area is tailored to match the Tannoy crossover frequency. So the result is that I now have in for review a complete Panatela cable set (ground connection cable, low-frequency cable set, and high-frequency cable set) that is optimized for use with Tannoy dual-concentric loudspeakers like the Westminster Royal SEs or Kingdom Royals that use the five binding post cabling arrangement.

My Westminster Royal SEs have been temporarily replaced in my system with the new statement Tannoy Kingdom Royal loudspeakers that I am reviewing for Positive Feedback Online. I've been using an Auditorium 23 bi-wire loudspeaker cable set on the Kingdom Royals that has been my reference for my Westminster Royal SEs, and I like them a lot. I've now connected the Kingdom Royals using the Panatela Tannoy Dual-Concentric Special Edition cable set (optimized ground connection cable, low-frequency cable set, and high-frequency cable set) and the result is spectacular! Mark pointed out to me, " As serendipity would have it, the Kingdom Royals feature some very similar wiring (Ohno cast copper and high purity silver) as my Panatela speaker cables." (Interesting tidbit: Ohno continuous casting was invented by and named after Professor Ohno at The Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan, and the process yields very pure copper conductors.)

Suffice it to say that if you have Tannoy dual-concentric loudspeakers like the Westminster Royal SEs or Kingdom Royals that use the five binding post cable loom arrangement, you should seriously be thinking about auditioning this new Panatela cable set, the difference between them and my Auditorium 23 reference cable set on the Kingdom Royals was dramatic.  I'll report back when I get to play them in my Westminster Royal SEs.

Mark told me the rather dramatic performance increase that going to an optimized modular loudspeaker cable approach offers has caused him to rethink how he will offer cables in the future: