The Tannoy Kingdom Royal loudspeakers I will be writing about for Positive Feedback Online arrived from Scotland today, 4 days early!

Update # 1: Over the weekend I was able to get some friends together to help me get them unboxed, and it was quite a show!

Chad and I were getting ready to roll the big Kingdom Royal shipping crates into place and everyone was awaiting the show!

Once the 300 pound shipping container was in place we commenced with the unveiling!

We all felt like we were at an art gallery for the unveiling of Michelangelo's David!

As the top came off and the Kingdom Royal was revealed there was applause all around!

If you want to make life easy you'll need four big strong friends to left the speaker in a dead lift off the interlocking pallet, and a fifth friend to pull the pallet out so you can sit the Kingdom Royal on the ground. Tannoy really did a superb job on the packaging, making unpacking as easy as it could be considering the massiveness of the loudspeakers.

The fit and finish of the Kingdoms was perfect and impressive.

We were all impressed with how good the Kingdom Royals sounded even cold out of the box, without even being set-up and optimized. One thing everyone was commenting on was how well they portrayed timbral characteristics of instrument, which is one of the strong points of Tannoys.

Now the real work starts: I've got to move the Westminster Royal SEs out of the way and get the Kingdom Royals setup to perfection so I can get the most out of them for the review coming up at Positive Feedback Online.

Update # 2: This afternoon I moved the Westminster Royal SEs to the sidewalls and started working on the setup of the Kingdom Royals.

I've been listening to records tonight, having a glass of wine, and trying to get a starting setup roughed into place that I can work from. I'm really liking what I hear so far.

I can hear in the Kingdom Royal speakers what I like about the Westminster Royal SEs, that is to say, a big timbrally correct musical event that really nails things like gorgeous tonal color, melodies, harmonies, beat, and tempo. What is surprising me is how well the big KRs get out of the way, not unlike a small pair of monitor speakers - it's uncanny. It does other thing like a small monitor does too, like terrific imaging, lots of soundstage layering, a big sense of space, and the like. It does things that no monitor ever will be able to do, however, like rattle your ribs in your chest when the bass notes warrant it, or respond with explosive dynamics that are as clean as a clear blue sky.

More to come as the Kingdom Royals go through their break-in process. Oh, and by the way, the ASR electronics from Germany that a number of you have recommended to me - and that I will be using in the review for Positive Feedback Online - should be here this week. These are cool times my friends!