Amp recommendations for Tannoy Canterbury SE

Are you using pentode or triode mode with the Ayon's.

I have been listening to Tannoy GRF Pro's and 15" Monitor Golds in Canterbury sized cabinets for over 15 years. In my view tubes are not the way to go - I've had Futterman OTL's, Quicksilvers, Conrads, EAR etc high power, low power , pentode, triode, ultralinear 6550's, EL34's, 8417's, 211's etc. The ear opening experience I had was listening to von Karajan's Beethoven 5th on the GRF Pro's with 500 watts of heavily modified Perreaux 5150B - as in the only thing original was the power supply and mosfets. Even though the speakers are hugely efficient the big power amp's headroom and control over the speakers clearly enabled the relentlessness of this performance to be communicated which I never previously heard. My supposition is that high power amps provide better control over the driver, Tannoys own reference amplifier was a 250wpc mosfet amp. I have come to the view that if you value speed and timing high current solid state is the way to go, I use a 50watt high current ss amp. I would look at something like MBL's or Pass Labs.
I would also echo the views above, speaker positioning and angling adjustments of even 1/2 an inch can yield significant changes in openness, balance and bottom end.

Wilfredt, one thing I would strongly recommend is to finalise your amplifier before making the final decision on cables. The acrolink are very good, very high quality materials, basic construction but quite musical.

Wilfredt, the biggest difference between the Westminster and the Canterbury is that the Westminster is a back loaded horn design. This means that the driver movement is heavily rebutted by the backwave in the horn. The Canterbury is a distributed port design, more like a base reflex, so the driver has considerably less back pressure and can move back and forth much more freely. The main differences in sound are that the back loaded horn, by dampening cone movement, provides a cleaner more neutral midrange. On the GRF PRO's which are also back loaded horns, they provide a much more even midrange. The base reflex will give a lumpier bottom end and the midrange can be a little more uneven. I do think that the Canterbury's require more control than valve amps generally provide. There are exceptions such as the unity coupled EAR 519's & 549's and MacIntosh's or OTL's. You should probably try a few different amps on your speakers at home so you can get a feel for what works in your system.

Wilfredt, prepare for a thousand different views. For me I value speed timing and coherence and I run MIT Oracle/Reference through the whole system. Cardas Golden Reference - sounded warm, coloured and confused, Kondo Silver - pleasant at low levels, but discombobulated in the upper midrange and little or no coherency, Nordost ??? mega$ - thin, bright lacking harmonic structure.

Charles1dad, yes I heard the Kondo it in a shop and it opened the soundstage up and sound much more natural than the Nordost, but when used in a known system at home even the MIT Shotgun 3.3 ( well down the pecking order ) highlighted the issues in the upper mid. I dont doubt that many cables - the Kondo and LFD are examples - have been designed by listening in a specific system and hence the variable results.