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Comments on Tannoy Kensington SE - Room size

I have auditioned the Tannoy Kensington SE at In Living Stereo in NYC with Shindo electronics and I must say the I was extremely impressed. (I have a Monbrison and Quicksilver 6C33C monoblock triodes). There is a dynamic orgainic musicality to them unlike virtually any other speaker I have auditioned. Also very emotionally engaging. No hi fi thrills. No supertweeter or bass down to 20hz, just plain musical. Why don't more people have these speakers or other tannoys? The size of my room is 13.5' x 17 x 8. I do not believe they will overpower the room. Any comments as how they will play in the room or the speakers?
aronsss

Showing 2 responses by mulveling

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,079 posts
 
Jetrexpro,
That's exactly what was happening to my Kensington SE's, on higher volumes or with high dynamic range recordings, when I was using 25/35/55 Watts/ch push pull tube amps. They still sounded really great to me, so it took a while to catch on. Recently upgraded to Rogue Apollo monoblocks (250 Watts/ch, 1500 Watt transients) and it's a whole new level of dynamics and distortion-free/compression-free music :)

The Kensingtons can yield incredibly clean and life-like full-range dynamics, provided you've got the power available. Their 93dB efficiency is high in a relative sense, but even then it'll still take a good bit of power to get the life-like dynamics.
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,079 posts
 
Yes, the orchestral stuff (a small segment of my LP collection, but a highly enjoyable one at that) is incredibly demanding. You'll need either lots of power or very high efficiency speakers (upper 90's at least). Perhaps someday, go for a 2nd system with Tannoys a high-power PP amp? Or, go for the high efficiency Tannoy Westminster SEs, assuming an accommodating room & budget :)

I do so love the midrange of the Kensington SE. It has a certain "magic" to it that gives me chills. I think it might be due to the Alcomax/Pepper-pot driver used in that model and the Yorkminster/Canterbury/Westminster. The Tannoy tulip-waveguide speakers are also excellent (I've heard Glenair 10, 15, and Dimension TD10), but don't have that touch of sweetness/honey like the Kensingtons.
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