Certain brand names become so entwined with a particular item, that the brand enters into our lexicon. For example, one does the cleaning with a Hoover, an off-road vehicle is a Jeep. If two things need sticking together one uses Sellotape, and if a permanent marker’s required, reach for a Sharpie.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of a historic British Brand, the subject of today’s blog, we have come to refer to a powerful, intelligible audio system as a TANNOY.

TANNOY – The Early Years
Tannoy’s history goes back as far as 1926 when Guy R Fountain founded the Tulsemere manufacturing company in London. It took another two years, however, until the famous name TANNOY appeared. The name itself was a cunning contraction of TANtalum/allOY – the two materials used in the company’s rectifiers.

Very quickly, TANNOY became associated with portable, mobile public address systems; so much so the word ‘Tannoy’ is now listed in the English dictionary as a generic term for a PA system. Mobile vans with ornate horns labelled TANNOY with the now famous ‘lightning flash’ design feature became prominent fixtures at outdoor events.

With the onset of war, Tannoy PA systems were purchased in great numbers by the Ministry of Defence and used extensively for important public speeches by figures such as Winston Churchill. TANNOY’s prominent branding and ubiquity ensured that the TANNOY legend had been firmly established.

The Mighty Monitor
In 1947 Tannoy displayed a new product at the London Radio show, one which was to revolutionise audio reproduction and invent a whole new market sector. That revolutionary product was the now legendary TANNOY Monitor loudspeaker.

The key to the Monitor’s incredibly clean, wide, and transparent response was the introduction of TANNOYs famous ‘Dual Concentric’ technology. Two-way speakers, whilst for the time being a high-end feature, were not in themselves a wholly new idea. Wharfedale had released a gargantuan two driver loudspeaker in the 1930s for example. What WAS revolutionary, however, was TANNOY’s arrangement and positioning of the drivers.

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