Mike, thanks for the listening time. System is great! Cant wait to hear it when the new table/arm get there.

tom_hankins March 24, 2013 16:24

I listened to them only a couple times in a friend's setup, but they were super once dialed in; natural warmth and natural sound, with excellent articulation. No harshness or hardness to be found. Excellent speakers at moderate listening levels; a really nice experience. Worked great with the high-end BAT gear.

If I had a 2nd audio room it might be fun to tinker with a Harbeth setup, that is if the inner Tannoy & high-efficiency fanboy in me would allow such a thing.

In my current setup, the 86dB efficiency vs. 96dB thing is a big deal since I have a large-ish room like to go quite loud at times. I also like running without a subwoofer, and I've been a fan of the dual-concentric for so long now that it's just darn hard to adapt to anything else.

I'm loving the Canterbury SE; they've opened up beautifully since accumulating some hours (slowly, on my schedule). Bass quality is superb (once ports and electronics are dialed in), which runs counter to the typical prejudice upon seeing those 15" woofers and fat cabinets! They were thick and wooly out of the box and (especially) until you get those tweeters firing up at ear level. Now the balance is dialed in about perfect; the smaller Kensington SE had a surplus of energy up top (in a larger room like mine) so I'd been fighting in the different direction for so long.

mulveling January 31, 2013 18:25

Hi Mulveling, have you listen to Harbeth M40.1? What are your opinion on Harberh vs Canterbury SE?

Thankyou

jmohd January 31, 2013 05:42

Musicophile,
I've always been curious about both SET amps and Manley amps. EveAnna, the head of Manley, runs Tannoy Churchills (as per their website).

BTW I've listened to the Churchill Wideband in a friend's setup, and the dynamics are just nuts! Though, I do prefer the midrange sweetness/wetness of the Prestige line. Hooking the Churchills up with el84, el34, or SET (i.e. fat wet midrange) might make for a really nice combo, but then I certainly don't mind pairing a fat midrange amp up with sweet-midrange speakers, either. A dry/analytical sound is NOT in the cards for me!

mulveling January 09, 2013 00:08

Congratulation Mulveling. Lovely speakers Canterbury!

As to the discussion about power and Kensington; I think it is all about the design of the SET amp. At the moment I`m driving Kensington with 11 watts Manley 300B SEP - no problem at all in a medium-large living room. And I listen a lot to RnB, Kensington sings with bass slam and drive :-)

musicophile January 08, 2013 08:53

BTW -- happy New Year to all us audio & music aficionados!

mulveling January 01, 2013 02:23

I've driven the Kensington SE with 25 Watt/ch vintage amps, and from that I recognize that low-power tubes (even push-pull) have a certain magic to the sound. It can be enthralling. However, it will start to distort and then clip on the peaks of recordings with a higher crest factor -- unless you're in a small room and/or listen strictly at moderate levels. I've got a fairly large room, and like to listen loud. Though, at 93dB/Watt, many pop/rock recordings with little dynamic range still don't need much power at all to knock your ears off (25 Watts was more than ample for me there; 9 Watts would probably do). Folks with parameters in the other direction can get away with a lot less power, especially when those meager few Watts are sounding so glorious.

If you can religiously keep the volume levels moderate with an engaging speaker like the Tannoy alnico/pepperpot, then I salute you sir/madame :)

Otherwise, it's a balancing act: do you care more about pursuing the holy grail of tone/midrange, or soul-crushing dynamics? Either -- and many spots in-between -- can yield superb results. The gear-chase results from an attempt to attain both. Ideally we should be satisfied with the Tannoys plus a solid amp that plays toward our particular preference within this spectrum. Unfortunately, for some of us this preference is a moving target :/

I've got to admit, sometimes I'd like to try a lower power tube amp again in my setup now that I'm running the 96 dB/Watt Canterbury SE.

mulveling January 01, 2013 02:20

Robertwolfee,
Some say that in order to drive the Tannoy to its 'full' potential requires at minmum 50 watts of push-pull tubes or solid state power. Do you feel you`re missing anything with a 9 watt SET and have you tried larger amplifiers?

I`m curious as some Tannoy owners in contrast report excellent results with lower power SET amps.
Regards,

charles1dad December 31, 2012 12:50

Kensington driven by a 9 watts Audionote SET and for the sound level; it is only 4 clicks from the minimum.
The preamp is a VAC, upgraded with V-Cap and all the power caps upgraded with Mundrof.
The sound is beating the Maggies I used to have by a wide margin.
Tannoy is the way to go

robertwolfee December 31, 2012 01:58

Mulveling - The DH Labs Redwave Power Chords sound just fabulous on redwave!

thegoodarcher November 16, 2012 03:42

How ideal to have such a space in that setting. More pics of the actual listening room!

agear October 28, 2012 02:03

Congratulations Mike! I guess Lyra and i need to make our way over there for a listening session.

tom_hankins October 23, 2012 09:35

System edited: Added pics taken today.

mulveling October 21, 2012 21:50

Correction on my previous post: I meant to say 12AT7's, instead of 12AH7 tubes.

Dan

islandmandan October 20, 2012 21:26

Congratulations on your Canterbury's, what a wonderful upgrade for you. We have Tannoy and VAC in common, speakers are custom built cabs and outboard crossovers, with a factory upgraded VAC PA 35.35 amp.

The amp has NOS Telefunken 12AU7 and 12AH7, and Genelux KT 77's, and does quite a good job of driving the 12" HPD's.

I have always admired the Canterbury and Westminsters, but they are out of my reach, but I'm very happy with my custom HPD's, they also have been converted to Hard Edge surrounds, as in the current Prestige line.

I live in a residential neighborhood, but my neighbors are far enough away, they never hear my system, which is a good thing, as I listen very late into the night, at moderately high volumes, without disturbing anyone.

Again, congratulations, and enjoy,
Dan

islandmandan October 20, 2012 21:17

Congrat's on the Canterbury's... that's quite a jump up! Looking forward to seeing pics of the big beasts.

pdreher October 20, 2012 15:11

Big upgrade: just dropped in a pair of Tannoy Canterbury SE!

They're what I was looking for: same Tannoy pepperpot/alnico midrange, a coherent & integrated sound top to bottom, with substantially more bass/dynamics/scale than the Kensington can deliver in a room this size. In fact, it would take some serious doing for *anything* to touch the dynamics and impact here.

This is what an honest 96dB/Watt w/ 28Hz extension looks like -- it's HUGE -- it has to be! As expected, the 3dB efficiency increase is huge. Small number changes on paper (they're also spec'd to only extend 1Hz lower); big result in real life. Sounds "live" at a much lower volume setting.

With the Kensington I was working to keep brightness in check and coax as much bass response as possible. Warm tubes were used liberally. With these, I'll be going in a different direction: keep the bass in check; coax out a bit more treble (or rather, start undoing all the warm tubes I'd stuffed everywhere). The variable ports are awesome; so far it's sounding like all closed is the way to go!

mulveling October 20, 2012 08:35

First of all, congratulations on a great system! I bet it sounds awesome. Now, I know you don't have the Ares any longer, but I was wondering whether in your opinion the built-in subsonic filtering affected the sound in any way. Any type of filtering is generally frowned upon by audiophiles as altering the phase in the signal path so I'm curious what your experience was with this in the Ares. I find it interesting that Mark decided to implement this somewhat controversial feature in his phono preamp.

Also, it appears there are options as far as the trannies when ordering the Ares. Is this something that needs to be custom-ordered? Many thanks!

actusreus September 03, 2012 07:40

Aronsss,
I've actually moved from the Ares to the built-in phono of the VAC Renaissance III, but -- as good as that VAC is -- I'm kinda wishing I'd kept the Ares around. I think a lot of the difference (besides tubes) may come down to the step-ups used (I think the VAC uses Lundahl); I wish I'd ordered my Ares with the blue 1131. I may try the 1131 at some point. I'm lucky in that I can always borrow an Ares to give it a 2nd crack :) Before the VAC, the Ares clobbered my previous stages (Sonic Frontiers Phono 1, Benz PP-1, PS Audio GCPH).

For my tastes, the Rogue gear is sometimes voiced a touch too analytical/SS sounding with the stock tubes, but responds like crazy (in a good way) to NOS signal tubes -- and the Ares is a perfect example of this. In contrast, rolling with the VAC tends to be somewhat frustrating -- it retains its character pretty strongly.

Was not a fan of the late-production JAN-Phillips 5814A my Ares shipped with. I ended up running the first-version RCA black plate 12BH7, which is a gorgeous sounding tube if you require some warmth. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find quiet-enough examples of that tube specimen, but I did. If you only need a little warmth, the later RCA black plate foil/square getter 12BH7A are the ticket; if warmth is not required, the black plate Tung-Sol 12BH7A is quite good. Any of these 12BH7 beat the heck out of the 12AU7 RCA cleartops or GE & Phillips 5814 I'd tried, but do be prepared to weed out plenty of microphonic 12BH7 tubes. The stock Ares can supply the extra 0.6A heater current that the 12BH7 will require.

For 12AX7, I really liked a pair of mid/late 1950's RCA black tall plate 12AX7A. These tubes impart a touch of warmth (not too much) without sacrificing any detail, and are beautifully musical. Preferred these to the usual Tele & Mullard suspects. If I felt the need to brighten things up a touch (which I almost never do), then the Teles would have been a good choice. Didn't ever try 5751 in those 12AX7 slots (note: the Apollos LOVE the 5751).

mulveling May 30, 2012 01:01

Great system. I have just ordered the Ares with the 1131 transformers. What tubes do you like with them?

aronsss May 25, 2012 23:24

Dammit - I've got to stop underestimating the Rogue Hera preamp. Just when I thought that the VAC Renaissance III w/ phono was clobbering it - and it was indeed beating the Hera + Ares phono combo - lately I've been using the Hera II fed from the VAC's MC phono stage, and that beats all. It doesn't make a lot of sense that the VAC's built-in phono beats Rogue's best standalone phono, while the Hera II line stage beats the VAC line stage - but that's what's happened in my system.

Perhaps the Hera needed burn-in after its upgrade to II status; but then, the VAC was burning in too. And let me say, the system sounded off by SEVERAL notches while the Hera was off for upgrades and I dropped a discrete class A solid state preamp in its place. That experience renewed my appreciation for a fine tubed preamp (for which the VAC certainly qualifies).

At this point, I kind of feel like the Hera II is the finest electronic (non-transducer) component in my system.

mulveling February 19, 2012 06:55

Actually, as far as the ear-test goes, there's more bass energy at any other location in those pictures -- which implies too close to a wall boundary and/or speaker. It's a good suggestion to move the table WAY out of frame & elsewhere (say 15-25 feet; my friend Tom did so with his system), but I do like having the gear where it's at; it's well protected from foot traffic...not that there's too much traffic, but for the occasional possibly-clueless guest.

mulveling January 14, 2012 01:15

Great set up, but really, why is the TT right in the way of all the acoustic energy flying around. Putting it elsewhere is audio 101.

buconero117 January 11, 2012 15:04

Robertwolfee,
I've never used SET; certainly that represents a huge hole in my audio experience. Their theory holds much appeal, but I have in fact (rarely) run a robust 55 Watts/ch PP tube amp into clipping, and found that a vintage 35 Watts/ch PP was notably easier to clip (more than you'd think from a ~2dB difference).

The 250+ Watt/ch Apollos have easily handled any dynamic range of material -- at any sane volume -- that I've thrown at them.

I've heard the Yorkminster SE right next to my Kensington SE, and was surprised at what a difference that +2dB of efficiency made; with >= 95dB/Watt I'd feel a WHOLE lot more confident in looking at SET amps. In my listening sessions with present gear, I still preferred the rich mids of the Kensington over the Yorkminster (though the Yorkminster's bass was clearly far superior)...so perhaps Yorkminsters + SET would be quite close to (if not a dead lock on) my ideal. Too bad the Yorkminster's looks just rub me the wrong way.

I think the long-term plan for now would be to eventually get the Canterbury SE, which are 96dB and FAR prettier than the Yorkminster :) Then, at some point after that, I'll likely need to scratch that SET itch.

Oh, also -- I've switched to a VAC Renaissance III preamp + phono. The buit-in phono is amazing, and the unit's midrange is incredibly smooth and clean. Met Kevin Hayes of VAC too -- just a top flight company, there.

mulveling January 11, 2012 03:48

Have you ever try the Single Ended Triode; for example, the Audio Note or Kondos.
The Kensington deserves the best of wattage out there and I truly believe the above two will do.
Rogue is, I believe, a second class or even third class citizen to the community of Tannoy Kensington.
Anyone who has tried the SET route will definitely agree with me.
Enjoy
Robert

robertwolfee December 27, 2011 21:28