these speakers let you hear thinks that i never hear before on my cd's. the only down side is the is there is none, but over all you can not beat the sound and the look of the tannoy speakers. I was going to buy focal and for the money focal are very good speakers, but when to look at the price of the tannoy m2, they will stand up to the 900 speakers

Vocals with warmth, instruments sound realistic enough at this price.

Bass ruins some music. Busy tracks can sound messy, lack of control. Not enough to stop these being great speakers at this price.

These speakers are superb all-rounders. They play all kinds of music well especially at this price. Strong points definately lie with instrumentals and vocals, although can be forgiven for sounding slightly wooden. Bass is there biggest downfall and can sound a little muddy although at their price I aint complaining. To be honest these could easily be considered the best speakers your ever likely to buy especially at there second hand price of around £30 and can be picked up on auction sites like ebay. They have been around for around 7yrs now but can still give most music listeners a very satisfying sound indeed. Top marks for value and overall rating..

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy MX1

solid driving bass

seem to lose a little clarity at lower volume

I admit that I know very little about hifi equipment and I have almost no ear for the finer points of music. All I know is that I paid $500 for these speakers and even I can tell the HUGE difference between this system (hooked up to a NAD 306 integrated AMP along with NAD cd player and tuner) and the crap I used to have, listening to cd's ive heard a thousand times I can finally hear all the music, I can hear parts individually which were previously lost in the mix. I now know what the term musical imagery means and the experience has changed my musical listening experience - I've seen the audio light as such. Originally started hoping to get away with a pair of $300 bookshelf speakers but listening to these the quality difference was well and truly worth a little extra.

Similar Products Used:

none see above

Excellent midrange and top end. Very find reproduction of female vocals and string tone. Imaging is above average at this price level and beyond.

Does tend to congest images when things get complex. Bass bloat on thick music mixes.

This speaker delivers as much bang for the buck as any audio product can rightfully be expected to deliver. I bought the Mercury M2 on the strength of early acclaim in the British press. I even managed to negotiate a bottom line purchase price of less than $350 complete with whatever obscene sales tax applied in California at the time. Everything previous reviewers observed about lengthy break in time is correct. It took a good month before this speaker came to full life. But once that stage was reached, it has found a solid place in my audio system for close to five years now. The speaker is strongest from the midrange to upper registers. It definitely exhibits just enough bass to make you feel you're listening to a larger speaker. But bass definitely becomes a liability in dense, complex music mixes. Observations about congestion of images during thick music are right on.It ultimately convinces you that you are listening to a budget speaker, as opposed to something akin to the Quad 10L or 11L. But this speaker excels on female vocals and does a fairly convincing job of reproducing violin and orchestral string tone. I have never actually used this speaker in anything approaching an optimal position. Because of real world budgetary concens, I never actually purchased a pair of speaker stands that might do this loudspeaker justice. I have actually positioned the speakers upside down atop the early DCM Time Windows (purchased in 1982 at the legendary and now defunct Accurate Audio in Santa Monica, California). Its remarkable how close the little M2 rivals the larger DCM Time Window. I would venture also to say that it presents a more realistic overall soundstage than the time window, which tends to present a larger than life sonic image because of its dispersion pattern similar to the Allison Acoustics designs of the 1970s. The entire system benefits from amplification from the classic Sumo Nine power amplifier (see reviews of the Sumo Nine Plus on this website and you'll understand). The Sumo Nine is as close a rival to the obscenely expensive Krell and others in this price bracket as anyone could ever want. Class A amplification of roughly 62 watts per channel truly reveals all of the strengths and weaknesses of the Mercury M2. To quote the British magazine HI FI WORLD (which continues to list the Mercury M2 in its monthly favorites listi

Similar Products Used:

DCM TIME WINDOWS.

Music: Modern jazz, bluesBrothers: Yamaha AX-590, CD-Philips 151, Tara-Klara,Kimber-PBJ.
Replaced Philips FB-696


I have got the same feelings as Chris from Ireland.
Pretty sound and design too. The new Tannoy are the price and sound bomb on
the market. For my small room and my favorite music is this little
box-best. BUY THEM. Milan

Amount of bass, Price

Quality of bass, Cabinet construction(not bad with price considered)

Tannoy M2 was my first ticket into the audio world. While they do sound markedly better than speakers sold at Circuit City, these are not the best speakers available on the market. Many reviewers have noted on its ability to produce low bass, and I agree that they play lower than other bookshelf speakers. However, I have noticed that bass coming out from M2's has only one note(okay, a little exaggeration here, but you know what I'm talking about). This maybe be suitable for HT applications, but not so when listening to music. Also, M2 tends to break up when playing deep bass at relatively high volume(lack of control). So I opted for an upgrade and auditioned the speakers listed above and some others not worth mentioning. I compared most of them side by side with Tannoy M1 since the dealer didn't have M2 in stock. Basic sound characteristics of M1 and M2 are very similar, M1 benefits from smaller/sturdier cabinet and a better balance between the tweeter and woofer compared to M2. M2's larger woofer seems to overpower its tweeter, IMO. To make a long story short, most bookshelf speakers I auditioned had the same problem playing bass notes. It seems like most speaker manufacturers sacrifice tight/fast bass for amount of bass when designing bookshelf speakers. I was disappointed until I heard the Royd speakers. Their bass reproduction was obviously superior to the others. They were the only ones that impressed me enough to shell out extra cash for a upgrade. I can't find Royd Topaz or New Sintra on their website(www.royd.com), but some other models are listed. Also, some of their speakers are reviewed here at audioreview. When you can here the bass "notes", not just bass "thump", you can't help yourself from tapping your feet with music. It's a matter of your taste in music so you may prefer Tannoy M2 over Royd's, though. It's well worth a listen if you're looking for a different sounding speaker.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM1SE, Dynaudio Audience 50, PMC TB1SM, Royd Topaz, Royd New Sintra, Sonus Faber Concertino, Vienna Acoustics Haydn

muddy

I was disappointed after reading all the praise about the Mercury 2's 'warmth' and 'even-handedness'. When I auditioned these speakers I couldn't help feeling that 'warmth' was really just a polite indication how murky these speakers sound. The treble was getting swallowed by the midrange and the bass was no less wanton.

Excellent imaging and soundstage for its price, very musical and 'sweet' sounding, gives a lot more bass than normal for its size.

Toughness (I don't abuse my stuff), my tweeters kinda lost some high frequencies over time, and also for some reason the right speaker deteriorates more than the left. Weird.

I've had these since I was a sophomore in college and I'm still using it after 3+ years. Have provided me with countless hours of listening pleasure without breaking my bank account. I have it powered with a Rotel 970BXMkII Power Amp, and it produces a very sweet and balanced sound. If you're into all sorts of music like me, this baby does it all. With house/club tracks the M2s can rock a (very small) party, but it's also capable of delivering power with metal bands (I listen to all kinds of underground metal) and is very smooth with jazz and classical music too. Basically if you set it up right, and listen to the music in front of it, the speakers pretty much 'disappear', you can't really tell or feel that there are actually 2 boxes sitting there pumping out sound, you just hear the music enveloping you.

The bass is very good for a speaker this size but it does get boomy at times. And I don't know if I've just used it too often but it's starting to show signs of wear as described above. But heck, for $350 these are a great bargain and I'm very pleased with it the past 3 years. Highly recommended for music lovers on a budget.

Similar Products Used:

Some JBLs and Infinitys that my dad has, can't remember the model

Amazing quality sound in lows, mids, and highs for the price and size

none from my perspective

I am a college student that just happened to walk into a small high-end audio store while visiting San Francisco. It was mainly a B&O store and I asked to see the loudspeakers just so I didn't look like an aimless wanderer. The salesman told me he had the most amazing, super-efficient, extremely compatible loudspeaker for the price. A short demo and $350 later, I was the proud owner of my Mercury m2's. For people my age looking to take the step up from the Aiwa mini-systems to something that delivers beautfiul, enveloping sound with little regard to what it is hooked up to or hooked up with, save up $1000, buy these speakers, a multi-disc DVD player, and a decent low-end Yamaha receiver along with some Monster inter-connectors and speaker wires and you'll have the base for a respectable audio system that will last years and can easily be turned into a formiddable 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound system. The mx2's are supposed to be even better. Personally, I have never been more satisfied with ANY other $350 dollars spent or piece of electronic equipment, period. Nitpicky audiophiles may complain about flat bass response or whatever else, but the bottom line is that rather than throwing money away on mediocre, mass-produced mini-systems, shell out a TINY bit more cash and get a taste of what listening to music should really be like.

For the mere cost of £120 these speakers cannot be beaten. I have had these speakers for just over a year and the sound still manages to impress. They sound even better on sand filled stands.
If you are looking for a small speaker at low cost, look no further than the Tannoy M2.
You will not be dissapointed.