TANNOY SGM10 Speakers Review

I have always loved the studio monitor look in a speaker and find myself looking over some of my older posts on social media of the classics that have graced our listening rooms and studios over the years, with names like JBL, ALTEC Lansing, Ocean Way Audio and Klipsch to name a few and then there's Tannoy whose name is synonymous amongst audiophiles around the world. Tannoy speakers have been used in studios for many years now and some of the best artists still use Tannoy monitors to master their tracks today. Abbey Road, Air and Decca have all used Tannoy speakers to master music in their studios, this in itself speaks volumes of how good their speakers are, and how revered the Tannoy name is.

With almost a century of history behind Tannoy, it must be one of the oldest names in the industry dating back to 1926 when Guy R Fountain initially started the company and then in 1946 when the name Tannoy was first introduced into the English dictionary. Their speakers were used in government buildings and public address systems which led to it being a household name and then finally the next piece in Tannoy's history was cemented when in 1947 the Dual Concentric Driver was first created for their speakers. It proved to be revolutionary in speaker design and is still used in their products today but refined and brought bang up to date for today's standards, creating a true single-point source speaker for optimal sound and quality.

I recently reviewed the stunning Tannoy Stirling III LZ Special Edition speakers and they picked up an Editor's Choice award as they proved to be such a beautiful design. They allowed music to be heard through the Dual Concentric Driver with incredible musicality and brought the music to life in my room. This was a classic design that was reimagined by Tannoy from the original 1960's speaker the III LZ Monitor. Fast forward and once again I have another classic which has been brought up to date and modelled on the classic Monitor Gold series,  which has been used in countless studios over the years and with this new line still being used today by top recording artists. I even had the legend Midge Ure of Ultravox and Live Aid fame post a picture of his home studio on The Speaker Shack's Facebook page with his new Super Gold Monitor 12s taking prime position at his mixing desk. This really did make my day to have someone so famous and talented as he is to be even looking at my page let alone comment and then post a picture of his stunning studio setup, so I feel very honoured.

Midge Ure’s Studio

           

To think that the Super Gold series of speakers were used to mix some of the greatest recordings of my era growing up is just incredible and that studios still use them today with this new generation of this classic studio speaker. Available in 3 sizes the SGM10 being the smallest and the ones that I am reviewing, then you have the SGM12 and finally the largest the SGM15 which I listened to extensively at Munich and absolutely loved their sound, they really are part of music history, and this will continue with the new Super Gold Monitor.

Build Quality and Features

The Tannoy SGM10 speakers are such good-looking monitors, and I have said it before but Tannoy makes some of the most beautiful speakers available today. The build quality is exceptional finished in a walnut veneer and as soon as you open the boxes you get that gorgeous wood smell just like the Stirling's and you know that they will look good in any room and location because of their beauty. The high-density cabinet is fashioned out of 19mm particle board and MDF with plywood for the internal bracing, the cabinets are heavily damped using their DMT (Differential Materials Technology) which ensures that the driver is coupled to the cabinet. The front baffle houses the stunning 245mm dual concentric driver made from a paper pulp for the bass/midrange cone and with a twin roll impregnated fabric surround, the aluminium/magnesium dome tweeter is housed deep inside the dual concentric design with metal waveguides which allows for the beautiful single point source sound negating any phase and time alignment issues that normal speakers suffer from. The front panel is made from precision machined gold anodised aluminium, it houses a 2-band energy control which allows you to compensate for varying acoustics characteristics in your environment so that you can tailor the speaker to your room. At the top of the cabinet, it features dual 60mm front-firing bass ports which allows for easy speaker placement, meaning they will happily sit against a back wall with no issues. Tannoy supplied some beautiful custom-made stands for my review of the SGM10 and they sit firmly on them and look gorgeous. The rear of the cabinet sports 5 x 24 carat gold heavy-duty binding posts for bi-wiring or bi-amping with a fifth post which can be used to ground the speakers which Tannoy says improves the midrange response of the speakers. Cabinet dimensions are 350.5 x 309 x 523.2mm and a healthy 18.5 kg in weight and can easily be manoeuvred by one person as I found out when positioning the speakers on the stands. Frequency response is from 40Hz to 30kHz with a recommended power amplifier of 20-200 watts to power them, sensitivity is rated at 89db and an impedance of 8 ohms so relatively easy to drive.

Just like the Stirling III speakers, the SGM10s comes with a beautiful accessory pack which has the Bi-wire jumpers if using a single-ended amplifier, a special wood wax for keeping the SGM10s looking pristine and rubber feet to attach to the bottom of the speakers should you need them.

Setting up is straightforward and luckily Tannoy supplied me with a pair of custom stands to sit the SGM10s on as they have a very wide plate compared to my usual Atacama stands which just would not suffice and hold them firmly in place. For the review, I am using the stunning AVID HiFi Integra Integrated amplifier to power them and for my digital sources, I am using the Bluesound Node streamer for streaming Qobuz, Spotify and music stored on my NAS HDD. CD playback is taken care of by my Cyrus Audio CD8SE player and for vinyl playback, I am using my Denon DP400 turntable. The DAC I am currently using is the incredible Chord Electronics Hugo TT2 & M Scaler which possesses some serious number-crunching capabilities. To connect everything up I am using Chord Company Signature XL speaker cables as well as RCA interconnects from the DAC to the amplifier and from the turntable for a complete loom. Also, from the Chord Company I am using one of their Power Aray plugs to stop noise entering into the system and connected between my Bluesound Node and Ethernet switch in the brilliant EE1 noise isolator. I played around trying different configurations of the treble energy and roll-off on the front panel of the SGM10 but like the Stirling III speakers I reviewed previously I prefer them set at level 0 as I felt this gave the best sound in my room, but it is very room dependent so would advise anyone to try the different settings to see what you prefer and what suits the acoustics of your room.

Sound Quality and Performance

For my first album, I am listening to an artist that I love, and it is his latest album 50 by Herb Alpert. This is streamed in high resolution via Qobuz at a 24-bit 96kHz sampling rate. Track 3 Are You Lonesome Tonight is beautiful and through the Tannoy speakers sounds wonderfully relaxed and laid back with such a soothing sound, the dual concentric design sounds perfect and thanks to the single point source of the driver the speakers can resolve music with such precision while allowing for a much wider sweet spot than usual. The piano notes have such a delicate but beautiful sound which seems to hang in the air with every note played then Herb Alpert’s beautiful trumpet playing comes in centre stage showing how well the depth of the image is presented with the percussion and band behind him, chimes are played with every minute detail revealed, the top end of Tannoy speakers are simply joyous and beautiful to hear as they sound so natural with never a hint of hardness to the sound. 

Track 6 Never Too Late is another one of my favourites on this album and at the beginning you have the electric piano which sounds so lush with such a rich and tuneful sound, the midrange on this speaker is to die for and then there is the bass guitar which has real presence and such a beautiful tone to the strings being played with real texture to the notes with an almost tangible feel to the sound, the rhythmic drive and timing is spot on with these speakers as they induce some seriously good foot tapping music, the percussion sounds superb with lightning quick transient shifts while Alpert’s trumpet plays front and centre they sit behind him with real snap and attack, the bass is never overpowering just tuneful, tight and punchy in its sound.

Track 7 Where Do We Go From Here sounds superb with the snare drum sounding fast and the bass guitar again has such a wonderful texture to the sound showing off that lush and rich midrange with the upper bass notes before Herb Alpert’s trumpet comes in with such a smooth and beautiful tone to the trumpet notes that are being played, they never sound harsh like some brass instruments can if the speakers over emphasises the notes especially when the volume is turned up, instead just a stunning clarity to the music, the instrument separation is also excellent allowing for their own space within the sound stage.

Track 10 Jeannine is a fast track that has a stage full of percussion with a firm bass beat to the music with excellent dynamics, the image has wonderful depth with Alpert’s trumpet front and centre and the band behind and I soon find my feet tapping away to the beautiful music being played, the electric and bass guitar has real rhythmic power and drive with each pluck of the strings you can really feel the music, such a wonderful track and the Tannoy SGM10 speakers provide real emotion and feel to this music.

For my next album I am playing a firm favourite at The Speaker Shack which I listen to all the time when trying out new speakers and this album sounds fantastic through the Tannoy SGM10’s,  it is by a legendary artist who continues to make great music every time. Boris Blank and his 2023 album Resonance, this is a copy that I own, and it is in high-resolution 24bit 48kHz stored on one of my NAS HDDs. Track 1 Vertigo Hero’s (Part 1) is an electronic and ambient sounds tour de force of music and sounds amazing on a good system with plenty of ambient sounds generated that move around the soundstage at lightning speeds, the SGM10 lap it up as they manage to portray such a large soundstage with sounds moving from left to right with the pulsating notes of the music. With the volume turned right up it gives an almost surround sound feel with the way the music moves around the soundstage. It is such a great piece and the Tannoy’s love to be played loud and never sound harsh or fatiguing, just beautifully rendered music with superb musicality.

Track 2 Resonance is a haunting track with a tempo that builds up gradually before the hypnotic melody plays and the beautiful piano notes play with stunning clarity and continues to build and again playing this at such high levels the SGM10s always sound composed when the bass note drops it does it with a real slam that you can feel, it may not be as thunderous as some speakers like the Stirling's that I reviewed but the bass is rock solid and you can feel it with plenty of attack, you really do get what Blank was intending with this music, he is a master at playing with sounds and he manages to create some incredible sound landscapes and the SGM10’s replicate it perfectly. Track 3 Ninivine demonstrates this with the echoing ambient sounds which sound like they are being played inside a massive cavern such as the echo from inside the soundstage giving you a real sense of depth and feel to the image and of the music.

Track 4 Time Bridges sounds simply sublime with the beginning which starts off with a huge thunderclap and lightning which moves across the front soundstage and then the rain which is falling everywhere, the bass has real energy from the speakers and you can feel it before the ambient sounds and music starts, closing your eyes you really do get immersed into the music and the Tannoy's just completely disappear as you cannot locate them, with sounds firing off to the far left of the soundstage before the voices emerge with such power centre stage if frightened me such was the immediacy of the sound, Blank really is a genius with how he plays with the sounds that he creates and makes them into his music.

Track 5 Defying Gravity is another brilliant track and a masterpiece from him with some incredible sounds generated in front of me, the tannoys really do not disappoint with how well they produce this track, sounds seem to emerge with incredible dynamics and power and it's another haunting melody that Blank creates with a multitude of ambient sounds and vocals generated mixed into this track, the SGM10s produce some lovely punchy bass with plenty of slam which I love from this kind of studio speaker.

On to my final pieces of music for this review and it’s by a new artist which I really love: the sound of Odyssay and 2 tracks which I found through all the social media channels that I follow and the melodic techno/electronic music that I love to listen to. Track 1 Castles In The Sky is a fast-paced thumping melodic techno piece with some beautiful vocals by Odyssay and the SGM10 speakers perform flawlessly with some hard-hitting punchy bass,  the vocals take centre stage and are powerfully projected, the single point source sound that the Dual Concentric Driver delivers is just perfect as it allows for such wonderful imaging and a seamless sound which covers a much wider sweet spot and area than the usual type of speaker, I am totally smitten by this design and no wonder so many audiophiles around the world love Tannoy as it produces one of the best sounds, the top end is so sweet and the midrange is so rich with a beautiful texture to the sound that you hear from upper mid-bass frequencies, with this studio style speaker you get bass which may not be thunderous but has plenty of slam that I love and makes it so enjoyable and pleasure to hear.

The last track Religion is another brilliant Melodic Techno track with some stunning vocals from Odyssay which seem to echo across the soundstage to great effect, all I need is some flashing lights as with the volume dial turned right up the Tannoy’s produce some great dance music, there are 2 versions of this same track on Odyssay’s release and with the second version coming in at 6 min 33sec being my favourite mix of the 2, it provides some stunning sounds with some wonderful imaging across the wide soundstage projected into my room from the SGM10 monitors. Everything about this speaker and how it produces music sounds so right and you can’t help but love the sheer quality of the music presented in front of you, having listened to quite a few monitors in my time this is easily one of the best I have listened to and is currently my favourite as Odyssay’s music sounds simply stunning through the Tannoy SGM10 speakers.

My time with the Tannoy SGM10 speakers has once again been a blast with some incredible music and sounds from this stunning classic design and brings the studio sound into your living room with rock solid bass and plenty of slam which I love from these types of studio speakers, they play everything with absolute ease and allow you to enjoy what the artist intended with great resolution and musicality.

Conclusions and Final Thoughts

Tannoy have reimagined a classic studio speaker and they really have delivered the goods with the Super Gold Monitor series, the SGM10 may be the smallest out of the trio on offer but in no way are they lacking any of the glorious sounds that the Dual Concentric Driver delivers, with a midrange to die for you really do get to hear the music how it was intended direct from the studio and into your home, an incredible speaker which no doubt will become another classic in Tannoy's long and established history. I cannot believe the price of the SGM10 speakers as you get a hell of a lot of bang for your hard-earned bucks.

The Speaker Shack awards the Tannoy SGM10 with a Reference product award as it really is such a beautiful speaker and stunning design.

Price at time of review: £5,995

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