Tannoy HTS-101 review

Best style package up to £700, Awards 2014. It might be small, but Tannoy's HTS101 is perfectly formed, with an open sound and good integration. Tested at £500

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

Best style package up to £700, Awards 2014. Persuasive in the extreme, the Tannoy is a great way to spend £500.

Pros

  • +

    Glossy and neat

  • +

    sounds open and explicit, and bigger than it looks

Cons

  • -

    Centre channel isn’t quite as effortless as its partners

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.

Having crashed the front-running pack of compact, affordable speaker packages following a five-star First Test back in February 2011, Tannoy might have been forgiven for thinking its work was done.

That’s only half-true, though: the hard work that’s gone into the HTS101 has paid off handsomely, but delivering a product so good only motivates the competition. When you’re perceived as a class-leader, you’re there to be shot at.

MORE: Awards 2014 - Best speaker packages

Stylistically, the HTS101 plays it safe. Those little speaker cabinets are wooden beneath their glossy finish, which is unique in this company, but they’re straight-edged and boxy – and we’d like the edges dulled off a bit more, please.

Still, the appearance of proper binding posts able to accept a banana plug is welcome.

The four satellites each house a 19mm titanium-dome tweeter and a 75mmm paper mid/bass driver. The bigger centre channel doubles up on the bigger driver, and the sub (just as glossy as the speakers, and just as willing to collect fingerprints as an overzealous copper) features 100W of power and a 20cm driver.

Dynamic, spacious and effortless
Granted sufficient running in, the Tannoy is a dynamic, spacious and, above all, effortless listen.

The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack to Shutter Island is meat and drink to the HTS101: simply in terms of scale, it’s deeply impressive.

The soundstage is wide and tall, and sounds on it are focused and separated every bit as adeptly as they’re integrated into a whole. Dynamic shifts are dispatched with ease, and integration between speakers and sub is exemplary.

Tonality is nicely pitched just on the exciting side of neutral, with briskly attacking high frequencies complemented at the other end by the fast, substantial and textured bass.

By these high standards, the Tannoy’s midrange isn’t quite as expansive – but it’s detailed, communicative and crisp, which is ample compensation.

Accomplished with stereo music
In broad terms, the HTS101 is just as accomplished when it comes to reproducing stereo music.

Tom Waits’s Down, Down, Down is a considerable test of staging, timing and fine detail retrieval, but the Tannoy makes about as convincing a fist of it as any product of its type and price we’ve heard.

The same midrange reticence is apparent as with movies, but there’s no shortage of detail or character in the voices the HTS101 describes.

As an overall package, then, it’s hard to find significant fault with the value the Tannoy HTS101 represents.

You can buy even smaller systems, certainly, and you can buy a touch more mid-range assurance, but if you’re after open, exciting and full-scale sound from a discreet and shiny set-up without spending an arm and a leg, the HTS101 is as good as is currently available.

MORE: Awards 2014 - all the winners

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What Hi-Fi?

What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence.

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