Hi James, I have heard several members of the Tannoy Prestige family in different systems - the Turnberry, Kensingtons, and a couple of Westminister Royals. Being somewhat of a fan of high efficiency and dynamics, I compared them to Avantgarde horns.
The Avantgardes definitely sound more dynamic, but some among my group of friends thinks that the dynamics are exaggerated on the AVG's and the Tannoys are more realistic.
Where the Tannoys have it all the AVG's is coherence. There is no way to make a large multi-driver speaker like the AVG approximate a point source like the Tannoy dual concentric driver. This has attendant benefits on soundstaging and image size. The AVG's always sound too big and a tad overblown compared to the Tannoys.
The Tannoys have a warmer and more romantic tone than the Avantgardes. On every model I have heard, there is a rosy midrange coloration that makes the midrange sound fat. Not a good thing in my opinion, because I prefer my speakers to be more neutral - but certainly quite appealing with some types of music. According to one owner, this coloration is exaggerated with certain types of amplifier and can be "tuned out" by careful amplifier selection.
Tannoy makes and sells a super tweeter. If you do go down the Tannoy route, you should strongly consider getting one of these because it makes a hell of a difference to the resolution and soundstaging.
The Avantgardes definitely sound more dynamic, but some among my group of friends thinks that the dynamics are exaggerated on the AVG's and the Tannoys are more realistic.
Where the Tannoys have it all the AVG's is coherence. There is no way to make a large multi-driver speaker like the AVG approximate a point source like the Tannoy dual concentric driver. This has attendant benefits on soundstaging and image size. The AVG's always sound too big and a tad overblown compared to the Tannoys.
The Tannoys have a warmer and more romantic tone than the Avantgardes. On every model I have heard, there is a rosy midrange coloration that makes the midrange sound fat. Not a good thing in my opinion, because I prefer my speakers to be more neutral - but certainly quite appealing with some types of music. According to one owner, this coloration is exaggerated with certain types of amplifier and can be "tuned out" by careful amplifier selection.
Tannoy makes and sells a super tweeter. If you do go down the Tannoy route, you should strongly consider getting one of these because it makes a hell of a difference to the resolution and soundstaging.