Tannoy Canterbury GR
 

After months of researching, looking and listening to an impressive range of speakers, one grabbed me like no other. All were amazing in their own way and beautifully built but the Tannoy Canterbury GR was magical, seductive and real-life to the point that I couldn't stop listening. During the last audition of tapping my foot so much that my ankle was tired, I knew the Canterbury GR was the one for my den. The delivery truck arrived yesterday.

More soon.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4274

Nice! Looking forward to some pics of them in action.

Terry, congrats!
Very nice speakers to hear... and to see!

Terry.......This is exciting.

Congratulations! I'm looking forward to hearing about your initial impressions and how they sound after break-in. The throwback look is awesome - like Tesla himself had a hand in the design.

Terry - You're really going to like them. I purchased a pair a few months ago. They're not fussy when it comes to placement, thanks to the front porting. Best wishes.

Sweet! I remember how excited I was to receive my (then) brand new Canterbury SE back in 2012. Still proudly rockin' em today. Though I probably should've waited for the GR series, lol!

Have to admit I was a bit shocked how much I had to re-voice my system coming from the Kensington SE (from a tipped-up to a tipped-down FR). Hopefully your transition is a smooth one. Fantastic speaker for a music-lover audiophile.

Thank you, gentlemen. I turned the system on early this morning to begin accumulating hours and they have been getting better with each hour. I will post my initial impressions and some more photos soon.

Congrats Terry -- fantastic speakers. Enjoy and you'll always remember the this delivery/and unboxing.

Bob

P.S. I didn't realize Dan (jdandy) delivers speakers.:D

Bob.......Funny. That delivery guy does sort of look like me, although a bit younger.

Terry.......Did you stay up all night listening to your new Canterbury GR's?

Way to go Terry. Now is the time that break-in is really annoying. Can't wait to hear you review.
Gary

Dan,
You know it! The new Tannoy Canterbury GR's are so good I just couldn't bring myself to shut down. I jumped right back up early and started again. The sound right out of the box was a huge jump over my last setup (not even close) and is getting better by the hour. I'm afraid audio is really going to hinder my other activities. Such is life when you have new speakers in the house...

Gary,
Thanks. I'm working hard on the break-in period. As soon as those big drivers get loosened up a bit and I have a better feel for the sound I'll post my impressions with a few more photos. If they get any better I may retire earlier than planned.

Terry.......The Tannoy Canterbury GR is a beauty.


http://www.audioemotion.co.uk/ekmps/...0[ekm].jpg

Dan,
The pictures just don't do it justice. In the flesh it is stunning in every detail. When we first removed the protective cloth after unboxing, my wife stared at it for a couple of seconds and then said that's the most beautiful piece of stereo equipment I've ever seen. Scotland certainly knows how to do woodworking. The Canterbury GR walnut woodwork is a thing of beauty from any angle.

Well - in the time since my last post I'm now happily in a position to consider upgrading from my SE to GR. You happen to have any information, anecdotal or 1st-hand, on how the SE might compare to the GR sonically? Even my Tannoy dealer doesn't have any of the upper line models on hand anymore (maybe a Definition 10A, bleh) -- I was shocked when he brought the Canterbury SE in 5 years ago.

Mike,
Sounds like you're in a great position. If you find a pair of Canterbury SE and GR's in the same room, please let me know. I traveled all over the east looking for Canterbury's to audition but never found the two anywhere near each other. I did audition both speakers over a period of several months so my take is likely not much help.

I seriously considered a pair of lightly used SE's with ST-200 super tweeters. I was a fan within seconds of the first track. The price wasn't great so I kept looking and finally had the opportunity to listen to GR's for a couple of hours. My search ended that day.

To my older ears, the GR seemed to have a more natural midrange. Voices are sublime on the GR. Higher frequencies didn't sound like they rolled off as quickly as the SE. High end on the GR was similar to the SE with ST. Bass seemed to be a lot faster and tighter as well. The GR just feels more punchy and powerful. That said, both the SE and GR have seriously good bass. Again, these listening sessions were not same day/room comparison so may be way off the mark in reality.

I also purchased the new Prestige GR SuperTweeter for my GR's but we're remodeling so they are not in the system yet. I'd like to get to know the sound of the GR before any additional components are added. I'm also adding two JL Audio F113's. I joked with my wife that I'm assembling a poor man's version of the Kingdom Royal. Not sure how that will turn out yet but it's a fun experiment. If it's a total fail, I'll still be thrilled with my GR's and not the least bit disappointed. The Canterbury GR is fabulous and needs no assistance in bringing music to life in your room.

Hope this helps. Best wishes on your decision. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions.

Thanks Terry,
Your perspective is much appreciated. I absolutely love the Canterbury SE midrange and very much like its bass -- but treble does indeed roll off a bit early, and I always find that the older ST100b/ST200 supertweeters fix that while imposing a slight penalty towards the musicality and coherence of the SE alone. I always end up with supertweets disabled, Canterbury SE tilted up (slightly) towards me, and 1kHz+ energy level at +1.5dB (with a Koetsu cart; would certainly switch to 0dB if running an Ortofon Windfeld or A95). These speakers also do exceptionally well in near-field, for when I end up listening in front of my girlfriend, seated on the floor!

I definitely remain very interested in the GR after reading your impressions. My dealer also says that "we have to get you into a set of Kingdom Royals", but at 80K list, he must have mistaken me for a richer man!

"I end up listening in front of my girlfriend, seated on the floor!"

I used to worship the ground my wife walked on, now I have to worship the ground in front of her!

Looks like I'm on my way to becoming a Canterbury GR owner
:banana::banana::banana:

Hope I like 'em more than the SE version! It will be sad to see em go -- all that time spent waxing 'em and watching their walnut beautifully darken over the years. That said, certain little SE cosmetic "blips" bugged me, e.g. the bad looking thin brass plate (for crossover adjustments), the twin "boogers" on each 15" paper cone, the weird binding posts -- it appears these have been properly addressed in the GR version.

Terry, hope you're enjoying yours more as they run in. Good to see you start this thread; Tannoy owners are very scarce!

Mike,
Congratulations! :banana:

I know you're a huge Tannoy fan and have been following your posts for some time now. I can only relate my brief experience as a Tannoy owner but so far the Canterbury GR has far exceeded my expectations. When I decided to make a change, I wanted speakers as the foundation of my system and feel like I made an excellent decision with Tannoy. The Canterbury GR is a very solid sound foundation. I'm confident you will be thrilled with them as well.

There are a few others here on AA with Canterbury's. I've chatted with a few and found them to be very happy to answer questions but as anyone that has searched for Canterbury information knows, it's scarce at best. If I can answer any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

We're getting our hardwood floors refinished in a couple of weeks so we've been going wide open painting some rooms before they start work. I had planned to post initial impressions sooner but the number of rooms to paint keeps growing. Funny how that happens...

Anyway, here's a view of my Tannoy Canterbury GR's. I'll post some thoughts about them as soon I can catch a break.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4308

I had an interesting experience on Friday. For past few weeks I've had a pair of MC275 VI's in my system to try with the new Canterbury GRs. I returned them on Friday. I had never owned or spent any time with the legendary MC275s so felt like I needed to find out for myself what they were all about. They are definitely fantastic amplifiers and worthy of any setup but in my room the big 15" drivers in the new GR series seemed to be better controlled with my MC601s. I think I've finally accepted the fact that the MC601s are going to be here for a long, long time. I'm still considering a C1100 and MC2301s but for the time being have zero complaints about the MC601s. We shall see.

We spent about 3 hours in the listening room looking at some new pieces that had arrived since my last visit. They had B&W 800D3s, Wilson Sasha 2 and Alexia's connected to a pair of beautiful MC1.2KW amps with a C1100 preamp. We listened to several CDs and Tidal albums via MC450/D1100. Each setup was fantastic and a dream system. Amazing sound is all I can say about each speaker.

When we got home, I couldn't resist replaying some of the same tracks on the Canterbury GR's. For the first time in my audio journey I enjoyed my setup over the dealer setup. The big Tannoy's just sound so dynamic, life-like and musical. My wife came downstairs and joined me for a few minutes and after a couple songs said - "I like the way this sounds better. The music sounds real."

The journey continues but that was a Friday worth remembering.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4314

Those speakers are just gorgeous. Man, now I want a pair :)

B

Terry,

They are looking amazing! Glad to hear they are sounding that way as well.

^ Great photo Terry, gives a much better sense of what they're like "in the flesh". Hope mine look that nice! Also, nice to read about your latest experience hearing other top-notch systems and still coming home to pure satisfaction. Getting excited for my GR's arrival.

The Canterbury definitely does well with very powerful amps; it would be a shame to limit their dynamics in any way. I've been running my SE's with 250 Watts/ch Rogue Apollo tube amps, 5 years now (and 2 more years with the Kensington SE before that). Could start to play the swap-the-amps game, but my dealer pushes mainly VAC and Soulution, and though they're nice I'm not too much into them based on my showroom listenings so far -- and I'm especially not into their pricing. I'm saving my pennies right now to simply upgrade to the better Rogue Apollo "Dark" amps (basically their "Signature" version) and be done with it.

Mike,
The Canterbury's look far better in real life than any photo. I catch myself staring at them even when no music is playing. They are beautiful speakers.

When are you expecting the new GR's?

Thank you, gentlemen. I'm extremely happy with my new Tannoy Canterbury GR's. :banana:

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4318

The Tannoy Prestige GR SuperTweeters have been added to the Canterbury GR's. Amazing build and sound quality with stunning good looks. Visual and auditory art.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4322

Close-up of detail with some McIntosh blue reflections.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4332

Awesome! Tell us more about what they bring to the table sonically. I've hooked up my ST100b again to the SE, while I wait on my GR.

Would like to hear more about the SuperTweeters sound signature as well. I wonder how they'd perform on SE's?

Sorry about the delay. I’ve been on the road for the past few days.

The Tannoy Prestige GR SuperTweeters have been in my system for about three weeks now. I'm still in the early stages of tweaking and evaluating so please keep that in mind.

I'll start by saying the Canterbury GR needs no assistance in producing extremely enjoyable and satisfying music in a home. I auditioned a lot of speakers before purchasing the Canterbury and still can't get over how musical, dynamic and real-life they sound in my room. I'm more thrilled with the Canterbury’s today than the day I first unboxed them. I'm a Tannoy fan.

Since the GR SuperTweeter was designed by Tannoy just for the GR series, I wanted to find out for myself what they could do for the already outstanding Canterbury GR. That was my only reason for purchasing them. Their awesome good looks and off the charts WAF was not a contributing factor.

The first thing that I noticed after connecting the SuperTweeter's is how they make the Canterbury's sound a lot taller. Much more than expected. I've read where some Canterbury owners tilt the front of the speaker or raise the entire speaker to get the tweeter at ear height. In the short time I’ve owned the Canterbury GR's, I haven’t noticed anything that made me think they needed to be tilted or raised higher. The ST actually sits above ear level on the top of the speaker but since it’s designed to work seamlessly with the Canterbury tweeter, soundstage height is very natural. Upper frequencies come at you from a much taller and wider area with the ST. The entire soundstage is taller and wider and more detailed.

The midrange on the Canterbury GR is exactly what I wanted in a speaker. It's sublime. Voices are life-size and completely natural at any volume level so I didn't want to do anything that would alter the midrange. The GR SuperTweeter comes with Tannoy's recommendations for each of the Prestige GR speakers and an easy-to-use placement guide. After getting them placed in the exact right spot on top of the speaker, I started with the recommended Canterbury settings at 18kHz crossover, 95db sensitivity, but to me it was a little too obvious the tweeter was sitting on top of the speaker. It reminded me of my B&W 802/800D2s Diamond tweeter at that setting. Extremely resolving and accurate but with certain music just a little forward. I left the crossover at the recommended 18kHz but gradually moved the sensitivity from 95db to the lowest sensitivity setting of 89 db. At the lower sensitivity setting, the SuperTweeter disappears unless you should hear something in that frequency range. Leading edge of higher frequency notes sound cleaner and more detailed without altering or overwhelming the Canterbury tweeter. The overall sound has more detail but maintains the natural sound of the Canterbury. When you should hear something in the music, the ST is crystal clear but not out of place. I've replayed several albums that had excellent upper end on my 800D2s but to me the ST combined with the Canterbury sounds more like the sounds you would hear in a live setting.

In addition to the GR SuperTweeters, I added a pair of JL Audio Fathom f113's to the rear of our den listening room. Bass from the massive 15" dual-concentric Canterbury drivers is seriously plentiful, realistic and deep. As they say, there’s no replacement for displacement. With the f113s about 6 feet behind the couch, bass response throughout the room sounds much smoother. This arrangement is delivering the best low end I’ve had in my home. From the couch, bass comes straight at you in waves from the front of the room. The incredible dynamics of the Canterbury's with the STs and f113’s can produce an energy level that is quite impressive. At reference levels, it’s startling. Notes seem to just leap out of the Canterbury’s with unreal naturalness and presence. My wife still can't figure out how it's possible to have two big subs behind her yet all the sound comes from the front.

Overall, the sound is real-life in scale, extremely dynamic, musical and non-fatiguing. Much more than I ever imagined it could be in my home. Listening is pure pleasure.

Finally, adding SuperTweeter's, like subwoofers, will be loved by some and loathed by others. My impressions may not even be close to what others have experienced but then they are not in my room listening to my setup. It’s definitely room, setup and personal preference at this point. When I first connected the SuperTweeter's, I immediately started analyzing each and every note to determine what had changed or if I liked this or that. Typical audiophile stuff. After a few days with them in the system, I realized I was back to the thing I love about the Tannoy's - listening to music and not a speaker system. The SuperTweeter doesn’t seem to be doing much until you unplug the wires or toss a cloth over them. When that happens, you will want to reconnect the wires or remove the cloth. The combination of Canterbury GR and GR SuperTweeter is like a drug. It's terribly addicting. And very nice looking.

Hope this helps.

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=4331

Awesome write-up Terry, very informative. Thank you!

Side-note: I'm sitting here at home, took the day off work, waiting for my GR's to be delivered in a few hours...and for the SE's to be hauled off down the block to my dealer's :tears:

I'm definitely a "tilter" with the SE, using plain hockey pucks, but I've thought about something more solid like the HRS Nimbus. The height of stage, as you noted, is just 1 reason why I need to either tilt or engage supertweeters.

The ST100b is something I use only sometimes with the SE. When I can sit directly in the sweet spot, they aren't as necessary, plus the overall coherence & musicality of the Tannoys is best (by a hair) with them disengaged. However, the ST does seem to extend the sweet spot a bit, which helps when it's both my girlfriend and me listening. I think it's pretty clear that top-end extension and off-axis response are slight weaknesses of the Canterbury SE -- exacerbated by the lower-than-ear-level horn tweeter!

The Canterbury GR probably changes the game a bit with its better extension up top; not sure how well they'll work with ST100b -- and I'm sure the new GR ST has a much smoother, cleaner response too (plus they look so cool). At least I know I'll definitely have to dial ST's down from the 14kHz / 95dB recommended for the SE (a bit hot even for SE, but usually I'm off axis when they're engaged anyways).

Love that you run 2 big subs with the Canterbury (Jim Smith of Get Better Sound Fame does this with his SE); that will be something else for me to consider in the future!

Mike,
Wow, this is an exciting day at your place. Unboxing new Canterbury's is quite the experience. Can't wait to read your impressions as a long-term Tannoy owner.

I've followed Jim's journey with Canterbury's for some time now. I saw he recently traded his REL B1's for a pair of 212/SE's. I considered those as well and pretty sure they sound outstanding in his room. The JL f113's are fantastic subs and very musical with the Canterbury's so no regrets. I'm very happy with them.

Keep us posted and enjoy your first day with new Canterbury's! :thumbsup:

I've only had a few quick listening stints, and not all from the sweet spot, but boy - these speakers sound fantastic right out of the box!!

I won't be having any SE regrets. The GR's kept all the musicality and coherence Tannoy is famous for is intact, and perfectly integrated a dose of modern hi-fi technical acuity. Very clean, well-balanced and dynamic. Notably more punchy, snappy sounding than the SE's. Notes hold more weight and have more clearly defined edges. Great imaging. No supertweeters tried yet; not sure I'll even need them in my room and listening spot. Took some fighting with the SE's to open them up and push the top-end. Not here.

Also not sure yet whether I hear any improvement from the new AQ Niagara 7000 (installed after 1st listen to the GR) -- but the GR definitely sounds different than the SE, LOL!

On its way next 2 weeks: CMS Maxxum rack (3 levels is all I can afford, and then some), Clearaudio Innovation Master turntable, Rogue Apollo Dark monoblocks. I've been on quite a run, but don't worry -- next month I'll be firmly shackled back into the galley-slave slot of my working-class life!

http://cdn.charismanews.com/images/a...Hur-Heston.jpg

Mike,
Congratulations! Wow, glad to know the Canterbury GR's arrived and you enjoyed them right out of the crates. You already know this better than me but they take some time to loosen up. Those big 15" drivers need some shaking to get their voice. I think mine are still changing or at least it sure seems that way. They definitely get better as the hours roll up.

You are on a roll. That's a nice list of new gear heading your way. Sounds like you will need some time off work next month to play before they put you back in shackles. Look forward to reading more about your new setup and how the Canterbury GR's are sounding. Post some pics when you get it all together. :thumbsup:

Terry.......That is an enjoyable review of your new Tannoy Super Tweeters. You explained the impact in an inciteful way that was easy to understand. It is abundantly clear they are there to stay. I am happy you were successful integrating the super tweeters into what is already an outstanding speaker system. I have been a Tannoy fan for many years. If I had one more room in my home where I could squeeze another sound system, I would love to give a pair of Canterbury GR's the opportunity to shine. Happy listening for the both of you.

Congrats and thanks for sharing your experience Terry, the GR's are beautiful speakers and the GR SuperTweeters appear to be an excellent complement! They certainly look amazing. I moved from B&W Nautilus to Tannoy as well. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. With your comments and Mulveling upgrading from SE's, I'm tempted to give them an audition but I've promised myself that I'm going to stay put for a while.

Maybe a dozen or so hours into my new pair...the Canterbury GR is such an amazing speaker! Not gonna make a concerted effort to burn these in (I don't even have a digital source in the main rig); I'm just gonna soak up the listening bliss 1 hour at a time!

Mike,
I'm very happy to know you are enjoying them right out of the box. I agree with you 100% - the Canterbury GR's are an amazing speaker. Mine were so good the very first day I stayed up until almost dawn listening to one album after another. It was a marathon session that should have been a warning of things to come. I'm still having a terribly hard time turning my system off at night.

Enjoy racking up the hours. It gets better and better with each one.