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THE WILDCATS : P - SERIES

In 1984 the Research and Development team at Tannoy wanted to prove that the Dual was an excellent
solution to very high quality live music performance venues. Clearly, with the sizes of magnet and
levels of efficiency available it could not compete with the outdoor rock concert systems from Altec,
Meyer and JBL but there was a niche in the cabaret and small club market where the sound quality
needed to be considerably higher than that to which people were accustomed. Specially adapted Duals
were designed that had more power handling and greater sensitivity than had ever been produced before
by Tannoy. These were fitted to a range of very robustly made cabinets with reinforced handles and
corners suitable for mobile cabaret or fixed contractor installation work. The line was christened the
'Wildcats' and was the start of a very successful venture into high quality voice and music provision
for sophisticated venues such as clubs, theatres and churches.

The Dual Concentric is a unique speaker system ideally placed for communication and intelligibility in
difficult acoustic surroundings. The dispersion character (directivity) is much more constant
throughout the audio band than with most other systems. Therefore more direct sound reaches the
listener than reflected sound and the intelligibility of the reproduced program material is greatly
enhanced. The directivity characteristic also prevents excitation of troublesome room resonance
associated with the reverberation time of room acoustics.

Intelligibility and communication ability in halls and theatres is measured in 'Alcons' or 'percentage
alcons'. The measurement is a quantitative analysis of the hit rate of a listener in the hall
interpreting different words that have similar vowel and consonant sounds. A perfect acoustical
environment would score 100%. The Dual Concentric system is notoriously good at providing the highest
percentage alcon figures in any environment when compared to the competition.

The Tannoy Wildcat range consisted of the following speaker systems:


Lynx using 3169G two 12" high sensitivity Dual Concentrics in a double cabinet.
Bobcat (B50) using 3169R 12" high sensitivity Dual Concentric in a single small cabinet.
Puma (P100) using 3805 15" high sensitivity, high power Dual Concentric.
Jaguar (J200) using 3809 Puma driver in a larger cabinet for deeper bass.
Panther (P200) using 3859 15" Dual Concentric in a front sectored horn cabinet.
Cougar using 3859 15" Dual Concentric in a floor wedge monitor.
Lion (L300) using 15" bass unit in a coupled cavity bass bin.
Cheetah (C150) using 15" bass unit in a small coupled cavity bass bin.
Leopard (L200) using 15" bass unit in a direct radiating bass bin.

The original Wildcat series was split into two ranges in 1987 to create a dedicated road proof MI
cabinet series and a specialist contractor's line for permanent installation. In 1985 Tannoy started
test marketing the high-output Dual Concentrics of the Wildcats into the more domestic end of the
market. The Impulse Series was created using similar Duals to the Wildcats in more acceptably finished
cabinets for home use. The series was not considered a major success but out of the work in
engineering, a new high power studio monitor was developed - the FSM.
The FSM was designed to sit at the top of the studio monitor line that was being improved and
developed by Engineering for launch in autumn 1985.

Many improvements had been worked on in the period from 1980- to 1985 and the time had come to
incorporate all enhancements into the new range. The range change is signaled by the move from Super
Red Monitor to Super Gold Monitor. Edge would coils, higher power and thermal handling, improved
levels of sound quality and a 'faster, tighter' sound quality contributed to the success of this line.

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