Altec 604 8G's or Tannoy Berkly's

[bhmav8r]

604 8G vs HPD 385/8

Any experience in comparing these two?

I imagine its California vs England kind of thing.

TIA

[Altec Best]

Well on this board the nod will usually go to Altec

But in all fairness I haven't actually heard a Tannoy Berkly.

[DSauro]

No experience with that precise comparison, sorry. However, a few short years ago I had a neighbor who inherited a pair of 15" dual concentric Tannoy's. I believe they were 1984-1987ish, and part of the Wildcat series, black protective finish, corner protection, with wire mesh see through grills. Very heavy for such a compact cabinet. They sounded very clean & tight. I tried to buy them from him, as he didn't know what he had.
Anyway, we compared them to a pair of 604-8h's/620 cabs. I liked the Altec's, and he said he liked his Tannoy's, which is the way it should be, I suppose. Given that, he spent way more time at my house, than I at his.
No measurements, no graph's, just friendly comparisons by ear. Our electronic gear was quite a bit different, too.
Impressions were that the 604's (not particularly known for big bass) had better bass extension, and the Tannoy's went higher. He used an equalizer to try to extend bass, and to "quell" the highest freq's. I didn't use an outside source for equalization, just a little attenuation from the stock passive crossovers.
I'm sorry, as I'm sure this comparison falls short of expectation.

[vuki]

Comparing GPA 604 II (in 270Lit. BR with custom crossover) to HPD385 in (150Lit BR with slightly modified factory crossover)
I found that Altecs(GPA) were tighter, clearer and gave impression of better dynamics while Tannoys were more mellow, with softer and somewhat deeper bass. I liked Altecs better, but some prefered Tannoys better. For classical music (large orchestras) I would choose Tannoys, for jazz Altecs and for audiophile guitar and woman voice music buy sonus fabers

also: http://www.hostboard.com/forums/f700...vs-tannoy.html