Tannoy Mercury 7.2, quality compact speakers at your fingertips
The veteran British manufacturer Tannoy (he has turned 90) is able to offer very high-end products, but also to be up to date with speakers such as its competitive Mercury series , a range that has a long tradition. The most current model in the family is this compact box or "monitor", the Mercury 7.2 , available for 389 euros . It has a little sister, the Mercury 7.1 , whose price is 299 euros .
Details
Both boxes share a modern and striking aesthetic using the screws that secure their two speakers to the front as a decorative motif. In both cases it is boxes with bass reflex design , with rear output, and two - way . The two Mercury compact used to reproduce the high frequencies one dome tweeter fiber woven polyester, with external coating nitro-urethane, which coil is excited by a neodymium magnet high power.
The midrange speakers do change from one to the other, although in both cases they use the same technology: the cone follows the traditional recipe of paper , reinforced with a lacquer and fibers of various types. Tannoy has been designing loudspeakers for a long time and continues to believe in paper as the best material for the loudspeaker to deliver full-bodied sound and a real, ear-friendly tone. In Mercury 7.1 speaker this has a diameter of 127 mm , while the somewhat larger Mercury 7.2 mounts one of 152 mm .
Measurements
The dimensions of the boxes are compact, more in the case of the small Mercury (7.1): 160 x 270 x 195 mm (Width x Height x Depth) with a weight per box of 2.7 kg . Larger is the Mercury 7.2 , reaching 193 x 292 x 266 mm to weigh almost double, 5 kg per box.
With size, you gain in bass capacity and sensitivity, that is, how easy it will be to amplify the box and how many decibels it can produce with the same power; to from about 20 W to 100 W and is recommended logically depends on the size of the room or hall. Tannoy declares for the Mercury 7.1 a sensitivity of 87 dB / W / m and a minimum frequency of 53 Hz , which are remarkable measurements for such a compact monitor. The Mercury 7.2 bumps those figures up to 89 dB / W / m sensitivity and 42 Hz , a low-end capability uncommon for bookshelf speakers.
Always keep in mind that these types of speakers, despite the name "bookshelf speaker", really do perform all their possibilities in a good stereo when installed on dedicated feet and away from the rear wall . A shelf is, therefore, a (very) bad place to place them, although in this case the rear reflex port has an anti-turbulence design that will help minimize this effect as soon as we leave a few inches of space behind it (no less than 10).
Complete family
The quality of finishes and materials of these boxes is remarkable , something that makes them stand out from their competitors. And not only externally, the electrical part is important: the filter components (where the frequencies are shared between the two speakers), the terminals or the internal wiring.
The Mercury family is completed with a column loudspeaker (the Mercury 7.4 ) and a horizontal loudspeaker to be used in the center channel of a home theater equipment ( Mercury 7C ), as is usual in manufacturers that offer this option to mount such system with all the speakers of the same origin, which ensures tonal consistency right.
