Amp pairing with Tannoy Turnberry?


Hi all!

Going to be picking up a pair of Tannoy Turnberry speakers in the near future, and was looking at some various options for integrated amplifiers. There are a couple on my radar and was wondering if anyone who owns the speakers has any insight. 

1. Primaluna EVO 300 or 400 - torn on whether the extra $ warrants going for the 400 over the 300. I had a Primaluna + Tannoy pairing some years ago and loved it, so immediately thought of this one.

2. NAT audio single HPS v2 - this is at the very top end of what I could consider budget wise. I have heard this amp, but not with the tannoys. It sounds incredible to me, but I'm not sure if it would play nice with the Turnberry speakers and don't have the ability to test one at home. 

From what I've hard of the NAT, I'm thinking it may be the better option, but maybe there is a better solid state in the price range I'm looking at. Ideally, I'd like to stay in the 5-6k range, but willing to stretch a little bit more for something I will be happy with for the forseeable future. 

Thanks for any insight.

128x128mmcgill829

Showing 1 response by ianderson

 

jtgofish

“Tannoy DCs sound best with amplifiers with medium output impedance /damping factor.That generally means push pull valve amps of more than 15 watts”

Although Tannoys usually rate in the 93-94 db rage, they don’t respond well to lower power SET amps. Heck my 15 watt Quad ii are anemic with the Tannoys. My Frankenstein 300b are good for background music an not much else. My ASL845 amps are the starting level where the it started to sound very good, and it controlled the woofer well. In the end, my Churchill’s benefit from more power still. My Luxman 509x delivers a very warm sound without any horn brightness. And my Atma-sphere M60 is the sweet spot with enough power, and being OTL, by removing the output tranny rivals the magic of SET.

For me there is more magic in the Atmosphere / Tannoy combo than my 94db Coincident Total Eclipse (TE) and 300b Frankenstein, which was a formidable combination in its own right where the 300b is more than enough to drive the TE speakers which present a much easier load at 10+ ohms.

To the OP mmcgill, if you like the purity of SET, and your down the the two choices only, I think the GM70 in the NAT audio single HPS v2 has got the minimum current and can drive the Tannoy to sing well, and will really sound sweet. As usual it about personal preference, synergy, and your room. You need to find what works best for you. Buy used, and if you don’t like it, you can swap it own without any relative loss.

I’ve also had PassXA25, ASL Hurricanes, Coincident Dragons PP211, and the Atma-sphere was the best combo for my Tannoy situation.YMMV

All the best in finding your utopia, and enjoy the ride!