Kaitai Shinsho, vol.17, DENON TANNOY Autograph, Chapter: Shinkohsha's Enclosure Description by Kenji Kondo, Otomeijin and Hiroyuki Satake, Photography by Hiroyuki Satake Composition: Two-way/One-speaker Enclosure: Back loading horn with front short horn, Floor type (Corner type) Unit used: TANNOY HPD385A Impedance: 8Ω Maximum input: 85W Dimension: (W x H x D: 107.0 x 152.5 x 67.0(cm)) Remarks: Enclosure is made in Japan(formally approved by TANNOY), Make-to-order product |
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This is the back side. The condition of the box is excellent. There are cutouts on the upper side to put your fingers in. (Satake) This is a corner type speaker with a back corner of 90 degrees so that you can put it in the corner of a room. European houses are high-ceilinged with stone or plaster walls. The walls are ahead of an opening of the horn and the horn effect can be noticed even in low-pitched sound. They take advantage of the house. How smart! The accuracy of the horn is not much required for low-pitched sound unlike for mid- or high-pitched sound since low-pitched sound is long in wavelength. That's why it doesn't seem to create awful sound even if you fold it. (Otomeijin) |
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It is around the speaker terminal. (Satake) |
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These are engraved mark and a sticker at the upper part. "MADE IN JAPAN" is written so obviously though, the Japanese box is the original one for Autograph. (Satake) This is so nicely maintained as far as I see the comments by Mr. Satake and the pictures. Besides it is a genuine enclosure using Japanese teak. Probably this speaker has been maintained beautifully this much because it can fit in with the Japanese climate without any doubt since it is made in Japan. If possible, I would like to compare with the original one. (Kondo) |
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You can move this around by yourself with three casters on the bottom surface. (Satake) |
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First of all, remove the front net. You need to lay down the enclosure to work on it since the net is screwed at the bottom side. (Satake) |
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The net can be removed easily if the screws are off since the upper part is only hooked by dowel. (Satake) |
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The net has been removed. There is something like felt put on the rim of the horn etc. (Satake) |
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The horn shaped baffle panel can be removed by unscrewing at the part of the felt. (Satake) |
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The horn is fastened together with the unit, so it can be removed when you remove 4 small hexagon head screws seen in the picture. But you need to be careful since the unit might be disassembled after you unscrew these screws. (Satake) |
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This is the horn removed. (Satake) I'm not sure about the front horn though, they are expecting the horn effect of approximately 300Hz to 1KHz. (Otomeijin) |
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The back side is like this. The faces of the horn are not curved but consist of a combination of the flat faces. (Satake) |
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The horn has been removed. (Satake) |
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I found HPD385 for the unit. When you unscrew 4 screws on the left, right, top and bottom of the unit, you will see the hole of the back loading horn. (Satake) |
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The unit has been removed. You can see the cable. And the Tannoy's original terminal has been attached to the unit. You need to pull it out gently since this terminal is very fragile. (Satake) |
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This is a vertical hole of the back loading horn. It is situated right at the spine. The bottom face is slanted and has a structure to reflect the sound frontward. In here it brings the sound to the front once and separate into left and right to make sounds from the both sides. (Satake) The great forefather having this mechanism is the phonograph "Credenza" well-known for the symbol of the phonograph. The acoustic canals are artistically organized in the large-scale and luxurious box of phonograph. It vibrates the diaphragm right away from the vibration of grooves. It reaches to the ear by shaking in the air. The mechanism was so easy and it didn't use any electricity. There are some drawbacks since the sound is very direct from the grooves to the ear though, you can feel the "Good nature of the material". This is not that complicated as much as mid-and-high-pitched-sound-considered "Credenza", but it has the same idea for Autograph. (Otomeijin) |
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To remove the net on the sides, you need to unscrew the screws outside and the screws hidden under the felt. (Satake) |
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You can see the network after you remove the net on the right side. (Satake) |
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There is nothing in the left side. (Satake) |
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When you remove the horn, you see the sticker. It is written "HPD/385/8". (Satake) |
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This is a saran net on the front. The saran net is in good condition. The way to put the net is well-done. (Satake) |
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This is a dowel on the upper part of the front net. (Satake) |
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This is a plate attached on the net. It seems it used to be gold colored though, now it is rusty. (Satake) |
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It is a net on the side. It's been carefully done. (Satake) |
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The autograph this time was a pure enclosure made in Japan. The condition was excellent, maybe because it has fit in with the Japanese climate since it is made in Japan. And also I could feel the efforts of the manufacturer through the detailed work as in the treatment on the back side of the saran net etc. I could imagine that they worked so hard. This is exactly what they should feature in project X (Japanese poular TV program). It was too bad that we couldn't make sounds since it had some trouble in the unit of which we took pictures this time. If possible I want to compare this Japanese-made box with the box that TANNOY used to make. (Satake) After disassembling like this, it feels somewhat handmade and warm in the process of making for this speaker. Audio equipments of old times were made in such an atmosphere. For that reason alone, this speaker reproduces warm and magnificent sounds and produces the solid bass since it is pretty heavy. (Otomeijin) When I was engaged in the audio equipments, what I became to like was classical music. I still remember that my first LP record was a monaural record of "Swan Lake" conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Since then I collected so many records like complete works of Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky etc., conducted by Furtwängler or Bruno Walter. I prefer jazz right now though. Somewhat I got so deep into classical music at that time. What I heard from my audiophile friends was that "TANNOY is good for classical music and JBL or ALTEC is good for jazz when it comes to the audio speaker." I first saw the TANNOY Autograph when I visited this shopkeeper's house, who had a private audio shop. The giant autograph was hogging a not-so-big room. (It looked extra large and overwhelmed me because of that.) I fell in love at first sight thinking "What a gigantic yet beautiful speaker!" The shopkeeper replayed with the TEAC 10-inch open tape-deck and (two track Sanpachi 38) tube-type separate amp. I was incessantly impressed by the sound thinking "I didn't know there was a speaker that can reproduce sounds so beautifully like this." This is a must-listen item that I want to recommend to the fans of classical music like opera and symphony. (Kondo) |