Tannoy Westminster amp matching question.


Hello again everyone. Its been a while but I'd like your advice if possible.

I'm waiting for a pair of Tannoy Westminster royal SE's to arrive ( end of dec ). And I'm wondering what to amps to match them with. I have very limited funds at the moment(budget of 3k or so), having lashed out on the speakers, and I'm thinking I'd like to go SET power amps again. So looking at second hand bargains. At the moment I'm thinking Sophia Electric 300b or Art Audio symphony II. Alternative suggestions please !!!!

To give you an idea of my tastes. The system I've put together, that I enjoyed the most, was Avantgarde Duo's and Yamamoto A08s. Loved it. I listen to all sorts of music: Rock, choral, opera, jazz. Love well done female vocals :-)

Thanks for your time.
borg7x9

Showing 2 responses by maril555

Charles1dad,
I've been coming across your threads for a while now. And it seems, you are just about the only voice in support of the particular combination of speakers and amplifiers- namely Coincident Tech. Pure Reference speakers and Frankenstein power amps.
It is very clear, that you love the sound.
Coincidentally (pun intended) I was in the market for a new system a couple of years ago, and a combination of Pure Reference and Frankensteins was at the very top of my list.
So, naturally, I've made an effort to have an audition, and ended up listening to the combo on quite a few occasions- at least 2 shows in the Coincident own room, and at my local dealer for rather extensive audition.
Every single time it struck me as a surprise- my expectations after reading glowing reviews and the actual sound, I heard. The sound was not dynamic, exceptionally lean with no bass to speak of, and overall rather unpleasant.
Funny enough, the dealer for Coincident REFUSED to demo the Pure Reference with the Frankensteins, sitting in his room, and insisted on a more powerful (50 Wt)pair of PP tube amps.
I made him to connect the Franks anyway, and after about 2 mins of listening to a track, I'm intimately familiar with, asked him to switch back to the PP amps.
He was absolutely right, I wouldn't have considered buying the speakers, based on that pairing.
I ended up going in a very different direction, as you can see in my system.
One comment about efficiency- Coincident claims 94 dB sens., but reading reviews of their other models, it's clear, that they exaggerate sensitivity rating rather significantly. I don't remember the particular speakers, but the claimed sens. of 93-94 dB turned out to be around 88-89 in the measurements. I doubt, PR are any different in that regard.
So, after reading your never ending admiration and praise of this particular combination of 8 Wt. SET amps and the average sensitivity box speakers, I just had to express my impression of the same.
We sure do have different tastes in what we consider a "good sound", but yours strikes me as rather VERY DIFFERENT.
Maybe you would find it educational trying a different and more powerful PP amps in your system.
Cheers,
One last comment, I'd like to make.
I doubt very much, that Franks and Coincident speakers (Total Eclipse, or Pure Reference) sound radically different from one system to another. And even though I'm not a big fan of being guided solely by measurements in my equipment choices, the facts are just that- 8 Watts of SE power is likely not to be enough to drive a multidriver box speaker of average sensitivity to it's full potential. Neither Coincident speakers, nor their amplifiers posess any mysterious secrets to make their products any more different in this regard.
What I DON'T have doubts about, that we certainly put a different emphasis on various aspects of music reproduction, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had judged the sound of the very same system differently, given a chance to be in the same room, at the same time, listening to the same music.