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Old 01-10-2019, 02:09 PM
mulveling mulveling is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Originally Posted by Sonic Guild View Post
Thanks a lot!

I care the most about image and soundstage with dynamics.

I am surprised that u didn’t find the Focal bright and enjoyed it. How it is compared to the Kensington?

I do have a pair of REL 5 subs, will this make the Kensington complete with no issues at all?

I am looking for a soeaker that doesn’t make me feel wanting to upgrade for a loooong time. What brought me to the Tannoy’s territory is the dual driver but never heared Tannoy before.
If at all possible I would strongly encourage auditioning one of these Tannoy speakers before purchase. The Tannoy dual-concentric sound is something that presents itself as very special for some audiophiles (like myself), but not for others - just due to differences in the way we hear and evaluate sound. I started out from high-end headphones in the early 2000's, and other speakers I'd been purchasing/auditioning at the time generally sounded like an incoherent, non-musical mess - i.e. bad hifi designed (at best) to show off sonic special effects and Diana Krall albums; God help you if you wanted to thrash out to rock or even heavy metal.

The first time I heard the dual-concentric was Tannoy Eyris DC3 (very compact floor-stander, much like the Revolution series today) driven by a PS Audio HCA-2 (class D), and it blew me away how coherent, musical, and natural it sounded. It had all the coherence of single-driver high end headphones, but with the full soundstage and tactile bass of speakers. I got minted as a Tannoy fan for life at that time, though I didn't fully realize it yet.

Some folks run subs with Tannoys (even Canterburys!) and love them, but I haven't tried it yet. That setup with Kensington GR could be really really nice! I kind of like that idea. Without subs, I think the decision of GRF90 vs. Kensington/Canterbury will come down to a choice between better bass performance vs. more beautiful midrange, due to the porting differences (extrapolating from my experience with the Yorkminster).

I've read about treble/brightness issues with the Focal tweeters, but it did not vex me when I heard the Sopra 3's or owned Utopia headphones. That said, they are NOT a relaxed sound, and I could see it potentially causing fatigue in a long session. To be fair the Tannoys can have a bit of a slightly "hot" spot somewhere in the low/mid treble region; I think this is caused by the horn. It can exacerbate harsh recordings. You can mitigate it somewhat with gear matching and setup - but generally I find Tannoys to be exceeding musical and non-fatiguing. And also to be honest, I think these modern speakers with high-tech tweeters/drivers are generally going to eclipse the Tannoys in soundstage size. Also look at current Vandersteens for large soundstage.

Unfortunately it is tall task for us audiophiles find a "perfect" speaker. Tannoy Canterbury GR is the compromise that worked wonderfully for my ears & budget.

Last edited by mulveling; 01-10-2019 at 02:16 PM.
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