Tannoy Kingdom Royal mkII

The Kingdom Royal is a new flagship loudspeaker representing the sum of Tannoy’s rich heritage, cutting-edge technical innovation and world renowned acoustic engineering. A true no-compromise design, Kingdom Royal brings together a new series of Tannoy reference components, a radical new cabinet and the finest quality materials throughout. From the high gloss wood veneer and Italian leather trim to the all-new 12″ Dual Concentric™ driver with its cryogenically treated 3″ HF dome and compression motor, every component represents the pinnacle of materials, technology and the summit of Tannoy’s technical excellence. The result is a triumphant expression of Tannoy itself. Pushing the boundaries of high-end loudspeaker design to new levels, Kingdom Royal offers unsurpassed acoustic performance, ultra-low colouration, high efficiency and musical integrity unmatched by any other loudspeaker on the market today.

Features
After four years of extensive research and development, Kingdom Royal brings a wealth of new features and new technologies to the loudspeaker market. The Kingdom Royal cabinet delivers stunning visual form derived from its no compromise function. The massive curve-sided cabinet is constructed from machined high-density fibreboard and birch plywood sourced from cooler, slow growing regions of the world for its superior density and acoustic properties. Built with both vertically laminated sections (the inner fibre-loaded board) and horizontally laminated sections (the outer birch-ply hardwood) and braced with Tannoy’s DMT™, the cabinet is incredibly rigid despite the immense panel areas. This engineering technique has afforded a very stiff enclosure with high internal volume that allows the deepest bass notes to expand naturally into the room. The sealed SuperTweeter™ enclosure is precision milled from a laminate of high density fibreboard and acoustically separated from the main cabinet enclosure. Tuned and damped by a long process of measurement and audition, the SuperTweeter’s performance is further enhanced by a soft dispersion panel set in front of the housing. After trialling a number of synthetic and natural materials, soft Italian leather was selected as the acoustic dispersion panel of choice. The Kingdom Royal necessitated the largest crossover Tannoy has ever produced, being a double-decked design built on boards as wide as the cabinet interior. The entire crossover is decoupled from the cabinet base using an innovative free floating mounting system incorporating rubber suspension turrets and brass rods to separate the two layers. Kingdom Royal benefits from Oyaide cable rightthrough from terminal panel to crossover, crossover to drivers and the LF boardwiring itself; not forgetting the bi-wire links. Cables produced by Oyaide usePCOCC 6N copper (99.9999% purity), with no crystal boundaries, to ensure that apowerful yet delicate and natural, fast response is accomplished throughout thesignal path. Tannoy has left no aspect of the Kingdom Royal unchallenged. Adjustments for the Dual Concentric’s Tweeter and SuperTweeter™ energy levels are available using a new low-loss switching panel mounted on the front baffle. For manoeuvring each speaker is supplied on castors but in the final listening position it is coupled to the floor using built in steel cones on the underside of the speaker that couple to substantial gold anodised aluminium feet. On the rear panel the finest WBT™ binding posts are configured in Tannoy’s unique five terminal design that affords Bi-Wiring or Bi-Amping as well as direct grounding (via the fifth terminal) for the chassis of the main drivers. Spare HF energy level control pins, spare SuperTweeter™ grille and six-nines pure copper bridging cables are supplied in a wooden presentation box. This Kingdom Royal’s top class build quality is complimented with a sumptuous finish that mixes textures and colours in a very contemporary evolution of Tannoy’s Prestige loudspeaker range. Traditional wood veneer side panels are finished in contemporary deep gloss lacquer, while the smooth black satin finish baffle complements the gold trim and natural Italian leather. Subtle, sophisticated and classically good looking with the heavyweight weave cloth grille in place, yet bold, imposing and dynamic with the grilles removed, the Kingdom Royal is a speaker that spans stylistic genres with ease. Built in Tannoy’s UK factory to the very best engineering and quality standards, each Kingdom Royal loudspeaker weighs 120 kg.

Drive Units
Kingdom Royal is a true four-way design offering unrivalled extension and linearity from sub-bass (below 20Hz) to ultra-high frequencies (over 50kHz). At its heart is an all-new 12in Dual ConcentricTM drive unit that develops Tannoy’s long established DC technology to the limits of modern materials and current engineering technology. Some two years in development the new Kingdom Royal 12in Dual ConcentricTM driver is the most advanced coaxial HF/LF driver Tannoy has ever developed. With a new chassis and 10-point fixing, the outer bass/mid driver section mates a revolutionary ultra-light multi-fibre cone and copper clad aluminium edge wound voice coil to a massive ferrite motor system for breathtaking transient response. Its hardedge roll surround has extremely low memory effect which further improves articulation in the mid and upper bass. The crossover to the DC’s high frequency unit occurs at an exceptionally low 700Hz to ensure the majority of the vocal region is handled by the new tweeter. This HF drive unit is one of Tannoy’s most radical driver designs to date. It couples a 3in heat tempered aluminium alloy dome and waveguide with a 1.5kg ferrite motor to create a true horn loaded compression driver. Each production dome is individually tested and, along with the mated copper clad aluminium voice coil, undergoes full deep cryogenically treatment. This innovative process, involving freezing to -190degC and slowly thawing over a controlled period, relieves residual stresses in the microstructure of the dome and reduces crystal boundary imperfections in the voice coil for greater naturalness and emotional communication of the music. To produce critical musical harmonics well beyond the accepted range of human hearing, the Kingdom Royal SuperTweeterTM uses a high-tech magnesium alloy dome that offers remarkable coherence and near flat extension out to over 61kHz. Each dome is vapour coated with a thin ceramic layer, producing a high internal damping and low colouration, before being meticulously plasma treated by hand and bonded to the voice coil. Combined with a Neodymium motor and rear damping cavity, the new SuperTweeterTM offers outstanding linearity and accuracy, alongside higher sensitivity and wider bandwidth than Tannoy’s previous generation titanium SuperTweetersTM. To deliver bass and sub-bass performance to match the new DC and Supertweeter drivers, Kingdom Royal uses a 15in multi-fibre bass driver with massive ferrite motor system and underhung voice coil. The result is significantly lower distortion than traditional large surface area driver designs and class leading articulation down to well below 20Hz.