Founded in 1926 by Guy R. Fountain in London as the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company, Tannoy-a portmanteau¹ of "tantalum" and "alloy," after a tantalum-lead alloy used in rectifiers-took on its current commercial identity in 1928. Through the war years and beyond, the company specialized in public-address (PA) systems.
Indeed, today, "tannoy" is a widely recognized generic term for a PA system in the UK; there's an entry for "tannoy" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Tannoy was 20 years old when the company introduced, in 1947, its Dual Concentric drive unit, the basis of much of the company's subsequent commercial success, at home and in studios. By the '70s, Tannoy was one of the world's bestknown manufacturers of studio monitors.
In the 1990s, Tannoy expanded its reach into commercial and home audio installations; their in-ceiling speakers made their way into many restaurants and churches.
In a way, it was a return to the company's PA roots.
Tannoy's orientation toward installation and pro audio led to its takeover, in 2002, by Denmark-based pro-audio company TC Electronics; the resulting new company was renamed TC Group. Then in 2015, TC Group was acquired by Music Group, a Philippines-based, pro-audio–focused holding company that, a couple of years later, renamed itself Music Tribe.
After this last acquisition, the new owners announced that Tannoy production would be moved from Scotland to China and the Scottish factory would be closed. That led key Tannoy personnel—quite a few of them—to leave the company. It became a major local controversy: Even Pete Townshend went to bat to keep Tannoy Scottish.2 Subsequently, Music Group announced that products would continue to be produced in Scotland, at a new manufacturing facility.
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