The Platinum B6 is a two-way bookshelf loudspeaker from the Tannoy Platinum series, designed in the UK. It was announced for the UK market in June 2019 at GBP 499 per pair alongside the F6 floorstanding model, and both were offered in Black, Black/Burgundy and White. The variants carry the suffixes BL for black, BU and WH for white. The model has since been discontinued.
Key specs that matter
A 25 mm soft dome tweeter with a coated silk diaphragm works with a 165 mm mid/bass driver with a cone of treated paper and composite material. Both drivers use neodymium magnets. The crossover point sits at 2.5 kHz. Frequency range is quoted as 50 Hz to 20 kHz, sensitivity is 86 dB at 1 W and 1 m, and nominal impedance is 8 ohm. Power handling is 40 W continuous and 160 W peak. Each cabinet measures 230 mm wide, 360 mm high and 235 mm deep, and weighs 6.6 kg.
Engineering and use context
The cabinet is vented, with its reflex port on the back. Its walls are 19 mm MDF, and internal plywood supports stiffen the high damping cabinet against vibration, an area Tannoy singled out for extensive bracing work. The crossover is built with ultra-low loss components. Rubber damping feet on the base reduce resonance transferred to the surface below. The front baffle has no exposed screws, and the grille attaches magnetically. Connection is through a pair of binding posts, and the specification lists no second set for bi-wiring. The F6 floorstander in the same series uses the same tweeter and adds a second mid/bass driver in a 2.5-way layout with four binding posts and ferrite plus neodymium magnets, and it launched at GBP 899.
Pairing
Tannoy recommends amplifiers rated between 20 and 80 W for the B6. For a matching front pair in a larger system, the same series offers the F6, which takes amplifiers of up to 150 W.
Alternatives
The Tannoy Mercury 7.2 is a two-way bookshelf model with a 152 mm woofer, a 28 mm tweeter, 89 dB sensitivity, a 3.4 kHz crossover, a quoted range of 42 Hz to over 32 kHz and a 9.4 litre rear-ported enclosure, offered in Walnut, Light Oak or Black Oak.