new GRF 90 owner
 

Hello,

I recently picked up a slightly used pair of GRF 90 from a gentleman who was downsizing. I must say, these are bigger and heavier than I was expecting.

I am powering these with a Luxman 507ux ii.

It's been a month and my first impressions are mixed. I have not heard sound this clear and smooth in my home before. The stage and image are impressive to say the least. They are the best speakers I've owned by far. However, I have also had these nearly tare open my ears with a loud horn passages. I was also expecting a little more bass throughout my listening experience. I keep reading about the extreme low end other GRF users are experiencing, and I want that too...!

I have been experimenting with the treble adjustments. But have elected to keep them flat until I get placement correct. My room is not ideal. It is an older apartment living room. One speaker is near the corner and one halfway along the long wall. The front baffle is roughly 44" from the front wall. I have them toed in slightly: pointing several feet behind me.

Previous speakers have been Harbeth SHL5+, Devore O/96, Klipsch Belle, Altec 604s...

Id love to chat with other owners and their experiences.

Talk soon,
Steve

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...G?format=2500w

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...G?format=2500w

Congratulations and beautiful!

Unlike other models in the Tannoy Prestige line, the GRF-90 is rear ported. Dialing in just the right amount of bass will require some experimentation to find the proper distance from the rear wall (and corners) to the back of the speaker.

I’ve owned Tannoy dual concentric drivers (10” and 15”) but not the 12” found in the GRF-90. I’ve never found them to be harsh. You might want to consider an all-copper speaker cable to tone down some of the brightness you are experiencing.

Gosh those are particularly beautiful speakers! I found the GRF 90's predecessor, the Yorkminster SE (though superficially different, they are very similar on paper and share the 12" pepperpot driver and rear-porting), to have a bit too much treble energy for my liking, on flat settings - more so than the adjacent models Kensington and Canterbury. However I also did get absolutely excellent bass response from the Yorkminster, in my room - they really beat the pants of Kensington SE & Canterbury SE in that. The Yorkies also had more detail and transparency than either, though not more than the newer Canterbury GR.

In general, the Kensington SE, Yorkimnster SE, and Canterbury GR (to a lesser extent the Canterbury SE, which was darker) have all been able to produce searing treble at times. It's something I'd struggled with intermittently in the past, especially after major component changes. Maybe this is the downside of the efficient tweeter horn. Gear matching is crucial (some gear is just NOT pepperpot horn friendly up top) - perhaps that's why I ended up greatly favoring Koetsu cartridges (cartridges like upper Ortofon MC's are just too much up top), and also use tubes. The VAC amplifiers and integrateds, particularly the latest auto-bias line, are absolutely superb matches with Tannoy Prestige speakers. Just beautiful. I have a pair of Signature 200iQ on their way to my Canterbury GR right now. I literally can’t imagine a more perfect balance than this with the 200iQ’s - nothing missing, nothing out of proportion just my target for beautiful music.

And certainly, further experimentation with positioning, acoustic controls, even speaker feet can possibly make strides towards your ideal sonic balance. I hope you make progress and enjoy a long relationship with these beautiful speakers!

What cables are you using? You can do a lot by experimenting with power cords, interconnects and loudspeaker cables. I can completely rearrange the sound on my Kingdoms just by playing with cables.

I sold mine because of a bit to hard mid-range for my taste, and as you write, i was expecting more in the bass-domain. I think probably McIntosh/Electrocompaniet would fit them better than my Accuphase gear (pretty same sound signature as Luxman).

Which Accuphase are you running, I cant imagine Mc/Elct would outperform the Acc especially with Tannoys.

At that moment : Dc37 dac, C2120 pre, m6200 power.

Try a couple different preamps to go with the 6200,s.