Dan,
Thanks for your inputs. I believe the current delivery capability matters most here. I am wondering what is the equivalent of the older VAC model you mentioned available nowadays. I see only high powered amps on their website now.
Phaelon,
Thanks for your observation. For my personal preference, perhaps powerful solid-state is the way to go... |
Goldprintaudio and Musicophile, thanks for your recommendations too.
This tempts me to hook up my previous Nuforce Ref9V3SE amps with the Tannoys to check the results. |
Dan, Thanks, I shall look into VAC Phi 200. Glad to know that VAC is well experienced with Tannoys. Also nice to hear that you love your updated amps ! Enjoy ! |
Sksos1, thanks, I guess as mentioned earlier in the thread, the current delivery capability maybe more important than the watts specification itself. Will read more about the Thor. |
Buconero117, I see your point. I hope to get a few names/types which people found to be matching well with Canterburies, I will have this shortlist as a starting point in my search. |
Dover, I am using the Pentode mode. Although I tried the Triode mode on couple of occasions with different speakers, it appeared so lifeless to me that I actually wondered why the Triode mode was there at all. Perhaps it was bcos of my speakers/system, I could only enjoy the Pentode mode. |
Mulveling, thank you very much for your detailed and encouraging response.
It's a relief to know that a 100 watt tube amp should reasonably drive these speakers. Also good to know that you are running 250 W amps. At one point, I was wondering if I should upgrade to the Ayon Orthos II amps which are 200 watts.
As for tube rolling, I am currently using Shuguang Black Treasure KT88s which are nice and on the warmer side. My amp supports KT88 and KT120 tubes. I want to try KT120 later. Not sure if the EH KT90 tubes you mentioned can work on my amps bcos only KT88 and KT120 is written on the amp. Will need to check with Ayon.
Will try the positioning and variable port tuning as you suggested. I must admit that I haven't yet put them on the pointed footers yet since I am still experimenting with position. I guess putting them on the footer might tighten things up. Will give an update soon. |
Charles1dad, you are right. Going by the specs, the Westminster is 99db versus Canterburies which are 96db. Nevertheless it will be worth to try the 300b amps whenever possible. And yes, your point regarding active gain preamp is something I would definitely try. |
Cfluxa - thanks for your encouraging feedback on 845 tubes.
As we speak(well, post), Jim has sold the Viva amps and apparently has found a better matching amplifier.
I shall consult Jim Smith and Jeff Day to seek their advice. |
Maril555, thanks a lot for your inputs. I have very high regard for Jim Smith and the fact that he had bought the same speakers also motivated me to go for the Canterburies. You are absolutely right, I would have loved to hire Jim Smith, however I am outside US and am based in Dubai and hence not practical.
I am right now going thru the "Get Better Sound" Book and DVD to position the speakers properly. Hopefully I can get it better... |
Sksos1, you have pointed out another important area - the gain in the preamp. In my case, I don't have a preamp and also just switched from Ayon CD5 to Oppo BDP-95 to play directly into the amps. This could be a problem area too and I need to revert back to CD5 and play with the gain settings on the CD Player to see the effect. |
Hornguys, thank you for your response. Appreciate your inputs on couple of points :
1. I had initially toed in the speakers as per the manual in "intensity stereo toe in" mode or "crossfiring" mode. However, yesterday I followed the "Get Better Sound" book to toe them in such a way that they crossfire 1 feet behind listening position. Is there any recommendation on what is the best approach that works for the Canterburies ?
2. Are there any tips in setting up the fine tuning settings in front of the speaker ie "Energy" and "Roll off" ? I could not get much difference between these settings; perhaps bcos I didn't play the right music that covered those frequencies. In any case, I guess these are the final tuning parameters once the speakers are dialed in, correct ?
Appreciate your inputs. |
Dover and Dave72, thanks for your responses. It appears that good powerful amp is preferred to control the base. To implement Dave72's suggestion, I would need a preamp with two outputs. Nevertheless, it is an interesting point to understand theoretically if there are any disadvantages in combining solid-state with tube or rather two different types of amplifiers. My own opinion is that this may not be a good idea since both amps' will have different characteristics including gain etc which might compromise heavily on the "coherence" and/or "integration of the sound", due to lack of a better word. But will be curious to see if someone has got good results by setting up this way. |
Mulveling, thanks for your tips. I will need to introduce a good preamp with the right gain as you suggested, at some point in time in the future. But that's when my own financial situation improves ;) or after I sell my Dali MS5 speakers ! |
Cfluxa - yes, I believe Jim is quite happy with the excellent Viva 845 amps. Unfortunately the Viva amps are too expensive for me now. I need to sell my Dali MS5 speakers first !
Also, I am trying to understand the differences between 845 based amps and KT88 based amps, as I have only heard KT88s. For the kind of fast, dynamic music, I am not sure if I would be better off with the punch given by KT88s and whether 845 based amps also can provide that kind of dynamics and punch. |
Cfluxa, some time back I was going thru Jeff Day's blog, and it was interesting to see that Jeff was using the famous Leben CS660p Amp with the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE speakers. Just when I was drawn to this amp as it was more affordable than the Viva amp, I noticed that Jeff sold it off and is now planning to use a 300b based amp. Perhaps this is something to consider in future, but the question is whether 300b amps can drive the Canterburies and deliver speed, dynamics and punch. |
Charles1dad, the nominal impedance of both Canterbury and Westminster is rated at 8 ohms. |
Dover, thanks so much for your inputs. Looks like I will need to try a few different amps to find the best match. |
Good news is that this weekend I spent some time playing with the speaker positioning which has yielded good results. I may still have to spend more time in fine tuning though.
Another big improvement I got was when I used the provided spikes. The base became tight and the overall presentation became effortless. I was not expecting such a change and was pleasantly surprised.
I will be interested in knowing whether the Canterbury owners use the stock spikes or any better spikes or vibration control accessories. Also, I am wondering what is the size / measurement for the spikes, if I were to explore some other vibration control mechanism. |
Now that I got some idea on the Amp possibilities, my next question would be what are the best interconnect/speaker cables that would match with the Tannoy Canterbury SE.
I currently use Gabriel Gold Reflection Interconnect and Acoustic Zen Absolute Speaker cables, which are both Silver based. I am wondering which brand cables worked best for you or copper/silver based cables in general. |
Thanks for your inputs. Another interesting option would be the Auditorium speaker cables.
From Tannoy's website we can see that the Canterbury uses Acrolink cables inside. Pasted below :
"The Canterbury SE benefits from Acrolink® cable right through from terminal panel to crossover, crossover to drivers and the LF board wiring itself; not forgetting the bi-wire links."
Based on this, will it be better to consider Acrolink cables for better synergy ? Any opinions on Acrolink speaker cables ? |
Dover, thanks. Yes, it makes sense to first finalise the amp and then finalise on the cables.
On a separate note, last weekend when my friend visited my place he suggested to use the 4 ohm tap on the Ayon amps instead of the 8 ohm tap I was using. Although Canterbury was rated 8 ohms, I tried connecting them to the 4 ohm tap and then it was suddenly very interesting. The Tannoys were much faster and with tighter and well controlled base ! I presume this means that the Tannoys present a more difficult load than the specs imply. |
