Internal wires and connectors are of decent quality but nothing over the top – computer 4 pin plugs and quite thick copper wires. Flatter magnet dictated shorter horn throat, which meant that high frequency diaphragm was not aligned in phase with bass driver, hence the time delay circuit. As far as I am aware, this was done as a result of Little Red Monitors using flatter ferrite magnet as opposed to taller AlNiCo magnet used in older Monitor Red drivers. Interestingly, there is an additional board attached to the crossover via wiring loom (visible in the cabinet photo below) and is responsible for delaying the HF signal. The crossovers feature fairly standard components. This is probably the weakest part of this design. These are known for oxidising and overtime causing issues with treble reproduction. The treble level controls are done via small rotary switches. The 2in tweeter diaphragms are made from aluminium and are positioned behind the ferrite magnets.
The drivers are very neatly finished with the baskets made from gold anodised die cast alloy and a lot of ‘breathing’ space. The 12in bass diaphragms are made from rigid paper suspended on fabric surrounds which are not going to deteriorate with age. The treble horn throats are bare aluminium and gently glare through the centre of the coaxial drivers.
They do not feature any internal bracings but there is a black rubber damping material (Dynamat-like) attached to the walls – most likely to help with deadening enclosure resonances or tuning them to a desired frequency. The front baffle is slightly reassessed and finished in the same oiled walnut veneer, giving the speakers classic vintage look. The enclosures are made of 18mm chipboard and finished in oiled walnut veneer. In my opinion, similarly to Little Gold Monitors, Tannoy LRMs are among the best looking vintage speakers ever. Look & Feel of Tannoy Little Red Monitor Speakers
Type 3149R 300mm (12″) Dual Concentric with 51mm (2″) Aluminium Dome Compression Driver and 300mm (12″) Paper Diaphragm Tannoy Little Red Monitor Specs Frequency Response:
I was approached by couple of UK based recording studios asking if I had any LGMs or LRMs for sale, so there is clearly still a demand for these among professional sound engineers. I came across a photo of The Magic Numbers band, where one of the group members is casually sitting on the Tannoy LRM – see the image on the right.
Tannoy Little Red Monitor speakers were developed with nearfield studio monitoring in mind, and recording/broadcasting studios are where most of these speakers were used (see the image on the left, that was found somewhere on the Internet). Please don’t confuse these with much older Monitor Red or Monitor Gold drivers. To my knowledge the Red Monitor range was produced throughout the 80s, whereas the Gold Monitor range was a much shorter run and was produced in the late 80s and early 90s.
Speakers from the ‘*** Red Monitor’ range are predecessors of the ‘*** Gold Monitor’ range. Similarly to many other Tannoy designs, Tannoy LRM speakers feature famous ‘Dual Concentric’ construction which means that we have two diaphragms (HF and LF) combined in one driver and working on the same axis (for more information about this please see the Speaker Info paragraph in the Monitor Gold 15″ Review). Consequently, it is possible that the Tannoy LRM that you want purchase will sound different than the pair I reviewed. 30 and often 50 years it’s a long time, and one can never be sure how this time affected driver suspension compliance, ferrofluid cooling is some tweeters, etc. Also, bear in mind that purchasing vintage speakers is always a gamble. On this occasion, caps were within the specs, so there was no need to replace them. Please note – usually before reviewing vintage speakers, I recap the crossovers to ensure that capacitors are within manufacturer’s specification. I still had the Tannoy LGM at the time, so I was able to run side by side comparisons. They belonged to his late father and were in a pretty nice used condition. I was lucky enough to pick up a pair of Little Reds from a gentleman not too far away from where I live. In my opinion both look equally good, but the LGMs replaced LRMs, so logic would suggest that there should be some improvements there.
Since purchasing Tannoy Little Gold Monitors, I always wondered if there is much difference between them and Tannoy Little Red Monitor speakers.