Upgrading from Canterbury SE to GR

[mulveling]

Thanks guys!! And girls if you're out there, but probably not, lol...

Originally Posted by Rojet2015

Congratulations Mike. I enjoy modern design but Tannoy seems timeless.

What size is your room?

Would love to hear these speakers.

It's an odd, old one-off loft apartment. There are no other residential neighbors on this block, and everyone else goes home at night, so I have no fear of noise complaints (catch me cranking my system from midnight to 4:00 AM). It's on the 2nd floor, but in a 100 year-old commercial building with very solid construction -- brick & plaster walls, stout and well-braced wood floor -- so it's got none of the acoustic nasties of a modern suspended wood-floor flimsy shoebox (I've been there and it sucks). Great physical security too! An old factory door, consisting of 2.5" thick hardwood clad in steel plate (!!) guards the only entrance from ground level. I've been here 8 years, a confirmed bachelor for life, so home ownership doesn't appeal to me.

The main room is roughly a 30'x20' overall dimension, with 10' ceilings, but my speakers "fire" down the long way of a 14'x21' section of it, with partial openings on both sides. I find the Canterbury to be an ideal size for this section; they fill the space beautifully without any hint of overwhelming in bass. Though by far, I'm mostly concerned with my sweet-spot, positioned about 9' from each speaker (it sounds awesome here, especially after the GR upgrade). By contrast, my old Kensington SE had a tough time delivering a satisfying low-end in this same space.

As far as other references, I have my computer/digital setup consisting of: Stax SR-009 electrostatic headphones, Head-amp Blue Hawaii SE amplifier, and Schiit Yggdrasil DAC fed by Audiophilleo 2 w/ PurePower (the USB input of the Yggy sucks). It's about as good as headphones get, and I've heard (or owned) nearly all of the legends. It's extremely neutral and detailed; a great reference to know so that you can instantly recognize what parts of a given speaker system are sounding out of whack. That said, it can't begin to measure up to the vividness, lifelike dynamics, impact, and soundstage of my Tannoy setup.

Here's the Blue Hawaii amp (fitted with NOS EL34, as it should be for best sound). Amazing amp, inside and out (and sonically):


A bit off topic, but I'm sure you guys know the struggle of an addict -- when your system takes a significant leap forward in performance, that's when you often get your worst cases of upgradeitis! I'm still waiting on my amp, rack and TT upgrades to arrive, and already I'm contemplating some AQ WEL Signature interconnects to upgrade my AQ Fire & Wild Blue Yonder...

[mulveling]

Upgraded my rack and turntable a little bit. And amps upgraded too, but only a very little bit. Need a silver faceplate on my little phono stage for some continuity. Would like a silver ARC Ref 3 and Ref 6 in there eventually. The matte finish on the CMS Maxxum rack is VERY nice. A Glossy finish just won't do with the Canterbury's raw/oiled walnut. Now, at age 38, can I please finally be done with audio upgrades for life? (after the ARCs of course...and some cables...)




Need to finish getting stuff hooked up, boxes cleared, and need get my favored Graham/Koetsu setup mounted on the table.

[tweet]

Mike,
Wow, that's awesome! Congratulations on the new rack, amps and turntable. That's was a massive haul. It looks fabulous and I can only imagine how good it must sound. Looks like another all-nighter at your place. I will be looking forward to your impressions. Enjoy!

[mulveling]

Originally Posted by tweet

Mike,
Wow, that's awesome! Congratulations on the new rack, amps and turntable. That's was a massive haul. It looks fabulous and I can only imagine how good it must sound. Looks like another all-nighter at your place. I will be looking forward to your impressions. Enjoy!

Thanks Terry! It sounded FABULOUS indeed last night; tonight I take off the loaner Shelter Harmony and mount my old Koetsu Jade just to get a better feel for how things progressed from this batch of upgrades. The CMS rack is a true marvel. Let's be real, these racks are too damn expensive. But now that the pain of payment has subsided, I LOVE having one. Here's a slightly better pic of the updated system. So glad I went with matte black; it looks awesome and glossy would look awful in my system lol:

[tweet]

Mike,
You have a gorgeous setup! I really like the new matte black MS Maxxum rack. It looks fantastic and I'm sure it has increased the enjoyment of your music. The new Innovation Master turntable and Rogue Apollo monoblocks look pretty sweet as well. Dang, that's a nice rig. Can you tell a lot of difference in the amps?

I know the Canterbury GR sounds amazing. I was out of town last weekend and have been glued to the couch playing one album after another since we got home. I might as well bolt them to the floor. They are here to stay.

[mulveling]

Originally Posted by tweet

Mike,
You have a gorgeous setup! I really like the new matte black MS Maxxum rack. It looks fantastic and I'm sure it has increased the enjoyment of your music. The new Innovation Master turntable and Rogue Apollo monoblocks look pretty sweet as well. Dang, that's a nice rig. Can you tell a lot of difference in the amps?

I know the Canterbury GR sounds amazing. I was out of town last weekend and have been glued to the couch playing one album after another since we got home. I might as well bolt them to the floor. They are here to stay.

Thanks again, Terry!
Every day I'm glad I went for the GR; just wish I'd done it sooner. From what I can gather so far - the Apollo "Dark" amps actually sound very similar to the prior Apollos, which to be fair sounded excellent. We'll see if the sound develops further as they break in. I do love how they look in black!

The rack seems to be helping a good deal with footfalls and maintaining clarity in higher volume listening (of which I'm a big fan). This thing is a BEAST. It always made me nervous to see those big 15" woofers pumping heavily from seismic energy feeding into the turntable, and this is now notably diminished thanks to the CMS rack. Also I can safely LEAN on this rack while making adjustments; the prior stacked tripod rack was a disaster waiting to happen!

With this last round of upgrades, the overall sound has tightened up a degree further. This was a good thing, except that now I was missing some bass. So I switched from ports half open to ports fully open on the Canterbury GR. Voila! Perfect balance again, and yet with tighter, cleaner bass than I had before.

Oh, also I snagged an ARC Ref 6 preamp, in black. That will arrive Thursday, along with my 2nd set of silver AQ Kilimanjaro cables for a double biwire. This is gonna be awesome! BUT I had to promise myself not to buy anything else for a while (totally gonna happen).

[Douger]

Wow! Congratulations, thanks for the update!

[For The Love of Music]

Very nice indeed!

[Rait]

Originally Posted by mulveling

Thanks Terry! It sounded FABULOUS indeed last night; tonight I take off the loaner Shelter Harmony and mount my old Koetsu Jade just to get a better feel for how things progressed from this batch of upgrades. The CMS rack is a true marvel. Let's be real, these racks are too damn expensive. But now that the pain of payment has subsided, I LOVE having one. Here's a slightly better pic of the updated system. So glad I went with matte black; it looks awesome and glossy would look awful in my system lol:

Hello Mulveling.
Nice setup and your speakers Canterbury GR are also on my shopping list with Audio Note AN-E . Plan to buy on of theses in next month. Audio Note AN-E Spe HE I have listened for on hour in my room and liked. I never hear Canterbury and it is not possible, otherwise I find some dealer abroad and take plane trip to audition. It seems strange to want speaker that never heard, but specs, look on photos and reviews, foorum posts (also hours)pull me to Canterbury also. Have you ever heard Audio Note AN-E? Soundstage of Audio Note is huge and feel of present is very good, bass is deep. How about Canterbury? My Power amp is EAR 861 (2x32 w tube). Thank you advance.*Rait

[Masterlu]

Rait... Welcome to AA!