Tannoy 🔴 Caution

Founded in 1926 by Guy R. Fountain in London (Tannoy = Tantalum Alloy), Tannoy invented the Dual Concentric coaxial loudspeaker in 1947, becoming a worldwide reference. The brand was synonymous with British audio excellence for decades, equipping recording studios and demanding audiophiles.

Guy R. Fountain, Yorkshire-born engineer (1898), founded the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company in 1926 from a garage in Dulwich, south London. He made battery chargers for wireless radio sets. In 1928, renamed Tannoy - syllabic abbreviation of tantalum alloy, the material in his electrolytic rectifiers.

During WWII, Tannoy PA systems equipped the British armed forces. A Tannoy announced the end of hostilities at Buckingham Palace in 1945. Factories across Britain used Tannoy speakers for the BBC's Music While You Work. Post-war, Butlins and Pontins holiday camps woke guests with "Good morning, campers!" on Tannoys. The name became a generic term in British English.

In 1947, Tannoy invented the Dual Concentric: a coaxial driver with the tweeter mounted at the center of the bass cone, creating an ideal point source. The Monitor Gold series became the studio monitoring standard in the 1960s. Abbey Road Studio 2 installed Lancaster cabinets with Monitor Gold drivers. Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon on Tannoy monitors.

Harman International acquired the brand; Fountain retired. Factory moved from London to Coatbridge, Scotland in the 1970s. TC Group bought Tannoy in 2002. Music Tribe (Behringer group) acquired TC Group in 2015. Promised to keep Scottish production. Didn't. Coatbridge closed 2021, 70 jobs lost. Production moved to Zhongshan, China.

Former Tannoy engineers founded Fyne Audio in Scotland, carrying on the real Dual Concentric expertise. The Tannoy name still exists on products, but the soul left with the people who knew how to build them.