Tannoy CMS401e Speakers

[keemaklan]

Hi.

I'm currently renovating what used to be a William Hill betting shop.

They have kindly left behind what appears to be a wonderful set of speaker systems from an old company called Tannoy.

They are ceiling mounted CMS401e speakers. I would like to make use of them, but the connector on the back confuses me a little.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to connect these speakers to a normal Hi-Fi?

Thanks in advance,

Keemaklan

[timbo999]

https://geoffthegreygeek.com/understanding-distrib...

[keemaklan]

Hi!

Thanks for the link.

Geez, that looks confusing.

Erm...

Am I better off selling them on the bay and just buying some standard speakers. I wouldn't know where to start with transformers etc!

What are these speakers worth?

Kindest regards,

Keemaklan

[Crackie]

keemaklan said:

Hi!

Thanks for the link.

Geez, that looks confusing.

Erm...

Am I better off selling them on the bay and just buying some standard speakers. I wouldn't know where to start with transformers etc!

What are these speakers worth?

Kindest regards,

Keemaklan

Hi,

The speakers a pretty specialised,; they will play loud but they won't make very much bass so may sound rather lightweight if used without a sub.

They have the transformer built in and the rotary control shown in your photo allows you to switch between the various transformer tappings. This model of Tannoy also has the facility to be used in low impedance mode.........this means the transformer is bypassed completely and the speaker behaves just like the standard speakers that you're familiar with.

I suspect that even if you use them in this low impedance 'standard' mode, they may sound a little thin.

Here's a link to the tech specs which confirms there is a low impedance setting and also shows a couple of graphs confirming how little output there is at lower frequencies.

[VEX]

Yep, agree these are 100v/70v line speakers which is a technique used to get signal long distances through a building.

Very commercial, not usually used for sound quality more PA lift music stuff.

As has been said, could be used by changing the setting, but would sound thin, especially with such a small diameter driver.

V.

[VEX]

Also the connections just look like standard Phoenix connectors - you just need to measure the pitch and you should be able to find ones to fit.

V.

[keemaklan]

Thank you all for your input.

Very much appreciated.

[Crackie]

keemaklan said:

Thank you all for your input.

Very much appreciated.

Just catching up on the thread...….I forgot to attach the link I mentioned

http://www.dv2.fr/fiches_techniques/CMS_401E_EN.pd...

[mgv8]

Good for AMOS?