Which tube ampli for Tannoy Canterbury Se

gustavo

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2018
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Good morning WBF friends

I am happily using my Jeff Rowland Coherence II / 2 preamp and a Jeff Rowland Model 8 TiHC to drive my Tannoy Canterbury SE (Cardas Golden Reference interconnects and power cables plus two pairs of: Duelund GA12 low and Double Duelund GA16 high). The sound is very transparent, dynamic and musical, now I would also like to try an integrated tube amplifier or a pre / amplifier solution (stereo) - amplifier (mono)
I was also evaluating 2 pairs of Luxman mQ 88uc stereo amplifiers bi-amp, 20watt ,,,,,,,,

What are your experiences? What power should I look for? What benefits should I expect from sound?

Thanks for letting me know your ideas ...

To further complete the whole scenario, I'll add the following data:
- my listening room is 12 meters long and 6.30 meters wide. The Tannoys are located on the side of 6.30 meters positioned at 1.20 meters from the back wall and approx. 1mt (each) from the side walls. 3mt between the two speakers and I listen to them at a distance of 4 / 5mt leaving 5 / 6mt behind my back. The room is very moderately threaded.
- I mainly use my Garrard 401 as a spinner for my LP collection; a Sony SCD1 for my CD collection and a Lumin T2 for streaming ...
- I mainly listen to 60% of jazz, 20% of classical music and the remaining 20% of other musical genres.

Thank you,
Gustavo
 
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etunes

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Jan 8, 2012
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Air Tight ATM-2211 or ATM-2
 
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knghifi

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Dec 6, 2014
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I'm not familiar with your speaker but if looking for tube amps to drive real life speakers, checkout CAT. Before SE upgrade, JL7 already made ARC REF20SE sound broken. 120 wpc CAT JL5 might do the trick. GL!
 

gustavo

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2018
38
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90
Italia
thanks it could be a good idea 50/60 watt stereo or mono tube amplifiers rightly must also control the dual concentric woofer 15 I just need to figure out what kind of valve it takes
 

Atmasphere

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May 4, 2010
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thanks it could be a good idea 50/60 watt stereo or mono tube amplifiers rightly must also control the dual concentric woofer 15 I just need to figure out what kind of valve it takes
The power output of the amp has nothing to do with how well it can control a woofer. That's really more about how the speaker is designed and the output impedance of the amplifier.
 

mulveling

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Jul 6, 2017
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The VAC 200iQ amps sound absolutely perfect to me with my Canterbury GR. See if you can get your ears on any of their current iQ/auto-bias amps. Even the entry-level 80 Watts/ch will be enough for the Canterbury's 96dB/Watt. I wouldn't go under say 40 - 60 Watts, though. Extra overhead yields you better clarity and dynamics with these speakers. I ran Canterbury SE and Kensington SE before the GR.
 

gustavo

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2018
38
8
90
Italia
thank you for all your very valuable answers to me as i also tried luxman 900u series solid state preamps and amps but i didn't find them superior to mine jeff rowland but i was too curious to try a tube so yesterday i took home to try out a 60 stereo Leak power amp with el34 all nos Mullard even if not really suitable I used my preamp The Choerence Two / 2 Jeff Rowland. well I understood that with transistor amplifiers it takes a lot of watts as in my case while with tubes it really takes 30/40/50 watts. I am very amazed that a vintage 30 watt tube amp had so much power to drive the canterburys and sound good. so i asked my hifi shopkeeper friend to try; Luxman CL1000 with 2 stereo amps that I will use in bi-amp luxman MQ88UC and also Air Tight pre Atc-5 and 2 stereo ATM 1S amps that I will always use in bi-amp.
Ciao
 
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gustavo

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2018
38
8
90
Italia
Hello , for the moment I abandoned the idea of tubes because I wanted to try the bi-amp with another Jeff Rowland model 2 amplifier. I must say that the result is very good with the model 2 on the high range frequencies and the model 8 on the low range frequencies. Only strange thing (250 watt model 8 and 100 watt model 2): is it possible that even without any crossover I don't feel the difference in power so without any adjustment? it always seems like I only have one amplifier but the sound is even richer...

F3303DFB-2F37-4E66-B832-1883C57FE196.jpeg
 
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Ron Resnick

Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Jan 24, 2015
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I think the votes in favor of an OTL for the Tannoys are very astute. I would also add KeithR's and JimFord's suggestion of current generation Audio Research (which I liked very much on Jim's Westminster Royal Golds).

I think each of these amplifiers would bring desirable transparency and clarity to the Tannoys, as JeffreyT suggests.
 
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Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
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While this may be heresy (blasphemy) the measurement crowd is correct. There is no substitute for good clean power. Unfortunately that is not where the inquiry ends. That is the beginning. ;)
It has been some time since Luke Manley made transformers which made high power in tube amps available at an affordable price. Since that time high powered tube amps are fairly routine. You have some idea of what ss power is required. Generally speaking less power would be required for the same perception of loudness when using a tube amp, IME. IMO even more so with a hybrid tube amp.
Manufacturers a re loathe to give a true number for fear you might not buy their speaker because it does not not match your preferred amp. They tend to specify as wide a range as possible. The speaker might might" work' it is far from optimum.
Are you looking for synergy? Are you trying to cure a problem? What type of music do you like? What is your speakers true efficiency? You can actually calculate the wpc into a specific load purely by the numbers. You can determine what you need to get that 3db of headroom. That still may not do it for you. You'll need to try it in your system.
 
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Gregadd

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