Best amplifier for Tannoy GRF Memory HE

Hi Gang. Great to see some vintage Tannoy users on this forum. Rdr... nice post and well said. I concurr with futterman here regarding and the OTL amplification marriage,however there are many amplifiers that work well with the big tannoys...both tubed and solid state.In actual fact...it's difficult to make the Westminsters sound poor with any decent amplification.I preferr tubes with mine but have heard buddies 70 watt Pass amp [not sure of model] and was very impressed as it does have a nice tight grip on the big woofer.Solid State? My vintage class A 25 watt bedini does make real magic with the tannoy. I used to have a pair of original 25 watt Mark Levinson ML-2 monos. They were far and away the best ss amplification I have used in my rig. That thickness thing in the midbass/upperbass area mentioned above can be completely eliminated with a good solid state amplifier as well as most any of the OTL amps out there. However... there is a better way and a must for the big 15 inch tannoy users that preferr vacuum tubed amplification.Simply remove the crossover from the cabinet and that thick dense colour completely disappears! My pair of Westminsters were factory wired with Van den hul cable... I removed the crossover boards and rewired[with the same van denhul wire] from the crossover taps directly to the 8 omp tap of the amplifier. This little mod is a revelation and not suttle either!It also allows one to bi-amp if you preferr a different amp on the tweeter.It also eliminates the binding posts and speaker wire per se. I have used small set amps from the 3.5 watt 2a3 based wright monos,300b based amps as well as the big 60 watt parrallel 845 set monos from Antique Sound Lab and all of them exhibit a cleaner textured bass resolution with the crossover out of the cabinet. Some food for thought?

S23chang. A very good analogy , you have good ears sir. Although in my experience the 300b triodes are probably the most difficult set amps to voice with vintage 15 inch tannoys due to the 300b's typically softer and bloomier bass range flavour .I also agree that any of the older Jadis p/p amps are simply fabulous with big tannoys. Regarding el-84 based amps????..... I can honestly say I have never heard a el84 based amplifier that I didn't like. Hell... even my trusty old vintage Fisher 400 makes for a very engaging musical experience when driving the Westminster,albeit a rather lumpy bass range but still magic nonetheless. To be candid here: I personally believe the nos 6bq5/el84 power pentode should to be considered one of the best sounding tubes ever produced. Which brings to mind the sensational sounding el84 based VTL tiny triodes. I just cannot say enough about these little beauties when paired with fairly efficient speakers. They are a modern, up to date, simple circuit topology that "bang for the buck" cannot be beat in commercially produced market sector IMHO. Each and every time I hear them they always make me wonder about the other el84 amp offerings out there, like the musical reference,audio notes etc. To be sure... one must spend some serious cash to beat em! I Would love to build one employing some of the great old trannies like the accrosound or perhaps the tangos.

I use the MA2275 and it was the best results of all i have (Krell and ML). This was made to valves.

Anyone reading this obviously has interest in Tannoys. If you've not seen it yet, check out Jeff Days's review of the Westminster Royal SE at Positive Feedback Online.

I have vintage 12" monitor golds in custom cabinets and have had great results with single ended 300b,845, and pushpull EL84's. The Tannoys although being very musical speakers, are also very revealing of their upstream electronics feeding them and certainly do show the differences in all three amplifiers. The main thing is that they are easy to drive, so just pick out a quality amp whose house sound you like and the Tannoys will gladly give it to you.