What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
20 MAY 2008
Tannoy Revolution Signature DC4
Add another to the current list of excellent Tannoy speakers – the DC4s are appealing across the board
Write your own review
Even before this test got under way, we had high hopes for these Tannoy Revolution Signature DC4s.
The DC6T floorstanders scored a vigorous five stars in a past test and later than that a 5.1 package featuring both the DC6Ts and these standmounters achieved top marks in similarly exuberant fashion.
Plucked from the rear of a home cinema system, then, and positioned in the unforgiving stereo spotlight, the DC4s have a lot to live up to.
There’s certainly nothing off-putting about the way these Tannoys present themselves.
The cabinets are interestingly shaped, smoothly finished and handily compact, and the dual-concentric driver arrangement (where the tweeter is positioned in the throat of the mid/bass driver) adds a little dash of visual pizzazz. The front-facing reflex port looks purposeful, and around the back there’s an earthing post accompanying the four speaker cable binding posts.
Tannoy is a slow boiler but then impressive
After a decent ‘warming-up’ period (and the Tannoys were the slowest of these four speakers to come to the boil), the DC4s offer a fleet, communicative sound that’s seemingly pitched midway between the Leemas’ strict coherence and the B&Ws’ languid musicality.
Playing Roy Harper’s Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith, the Tannoys immediately impress with the sheer scale and consistency of the soundstage they present.
They’re an expansive listen, able to position instruments securely on the stage while allowing vocals an almost spectral ability to be simultaneously integrated into the whole and distinct from it.
They’re cable of impressive scale for such tiddlers, too, the jackbooted rampage of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman granted epic sweep and dynamic vim.
Like the majority of smaller speakers (those in this test included), the Tannoys do their best work when positioned close to a rear wall – they’re far, far happier there than isolated out in too much free space.
An admirable achievement from Tannoy
Even then, while there’s no lack of drive or determination from the low frequencies, bass information can sound a little impoverished in the DC4s’ hands – they’re far from the most substantial sounding speakers in their class, and committed bass-heads will decry their lack of air-shifting prowess. The rest of us will simply admire the speed and fidelity of the low-end stuff the Tannoys serve up.
There are allowances to be made for the DC4s, of course – they’re position-sensitive, and they won’t ever get your teacups or fillings rattling – but taken in context they’re an admirable achievement.
They don’t quite have the luxurious langour of the B&Ws, and they lack some of the Leemas’ scalpel-sharp precision, but as a compromise between the two they’re nigh-on ideal.
Back to top
