I have always heard that the Tannoys are smoother than the Altecs, but have never heard them. I do know that my Altec Big Red Supers (tri-amped with in-line passive HF eq) sound very sweet and are certainly smoother sounding than my L300s. In fact, these were made for a recording studio (electronic crossover and HF eqs professionally created just for these speakers) and may just be some of the nicest sounding Altecs around regardless of vintage.
Momma Jo's Studio in North Hollywood used Altec Big Red Supers. I did some synthesizer tracks there (1975) and my speakers are similar except that theirs were sofit-mounted. All of these artists recorded on Big Red Supers at Momma Jo's back in the day:
From Wikipedia:
Dave's Room was built in the late 1960s by producer, and engineer Freddie Piro.
[1] Originally called Mama Jo's, the studio was the first independent recording studio in North Hollywood, California. Albums by artists such as
Richie Furay,
Keith Green,
Billy Joel,
Pat Benatar,
Amy Grant,
Sam Phillips,
Ambrosia,
Ziggy Marley,
George Michael,
Love Song,
Michael W. Smith,
Margaret Becker,
BeBe and CeCe Winans,
Andraé Crouch and the Disciples,
Blink 182,
Chuck Girard,
The Way,
Smokey Robinson,
Randy Stonehill,
Sweet Comfort Band and
Daniel Amos were recorded there.
Producers and engineers including
Alan Parsons,
Jack Joseph Puig,
Jonathan David Brown,
Al Perkins,
T Bone Burnett,
Andy Johns,
Brown Bannister,
Burt Bacharach and
Larry Norman were clients during this period.
After falling into disrepair in the mid-2000s, in 2006 it was completely refurbished by
David Bianco. Bianco restored the recording space with an eye toward maintaining the incredible period feel, and acoustics. The control room, originally designed by Vincent Van Haaff,
[2] was updated technically. The main speakers were re-built using matching components from another Van Haaff-designed room at
Larrabee Sound Studios, and was re-named Dave's Room.
Albums by
Lucinda Williams,
Blues Traveler,
Bob Dylan,
Big Head Todd and the Monsters,
Trombone Shorty,
Exene Cervenka,
Meghan Trainor,
Bettye LaVette,
Tift Merritt,
Susan Tedeschi and
Judith Owen were recorded there. Along with soundtrack music for
The Muppets,
Blades of Glory and
Gangster Squad.
After Bianco's death, in June 2018
[3] the studio was taken over by his longtime friends, and colleagues David Spreng and Paul "Fig" Figueroa with the support of the Bianco family.
When it became Dave's Room, they switched to Tannoy monitors and said they sounded better though it looks as if they have now gone to TADs still using Tannoy near field monitors.
http://www.davesroom.net/our-story/
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