Tannoy Westminster amp matching question.

Art80342, I have Tannoy Canterbury SE'S and was driving them with an older LFD Mistral, which I still use for my TV setup.It's a nice little integrated. I recently hooked up a pair of de Havilland Aries 845 monos and the difference is shocking.I'm now getting thunderous bass along with a rich midrange and even a more detailed treble than with the LFD.The dynamics are in another league altogether. You should try to get a listen to one of the deHavilland's and see for yourself.Of course, the price differential makes this an unfair comparison.

To agree with Atma-Sphere, a high damping factor amp is not necessarily the way to go with the Westminster Royal SE.

If you want to get the full bass potential of this speaker you do need the right amp. And with such a glorious, detailed, natural, open bass it is worth getting it right, believe me. I'm not a rocker or a blaster but I won't give up the great bass this speaker is capable of.

I wish the Atma-Sphere MA1 got it all but it does not in the bass. The speaker sounds light with it, and does not go down with realism in the deepest bass. I love Atma-Sphere and Ralph's dedication so this is no slam on either.

I would focus on what works for Westminster owners as that rear loaded folded horn bass presents a different load to the amp than other Tannoys. It's just a different beast.

There's a manufacturer who won't want to be quoted by name but his Westminsters sound powerful, seductive, rich, natural, dynamic, with deep bass, using a CAT amp. I heard classical, drum demo reoords, organ, rock, vocal, jazz and contrary to what an above poster says, you can get it all with one amp on the Westminsters. I am an SET triode guy with extremely efficient speakers but I would try the Westminsters after what I have heard many times at his place but I don't have the room for the Westminsters.

And, I am considering a CAT to replace my SETs. Do a search on the CAT JL2 and you will see other guys who say it sounds like the good parts of SETs but with power and bass drive.

Very interesting commentaries ... Based on much experience.

I owned Tannoys System DMT 15 MKIIs for about ten years. This is a studio monitor .... While rated at 98db efficient, I found that they sounded best with high current amplifiers. My journey began with George Wright 3.5 single ended 2a3 monoblocks. Wonderful tone, poor timing. Next we're a pair of (Harvey 'Gizmo' Rosenberg recommended) Sun Audio 300b push pull monoblocks with a likely 20 wpc. Those amps were a fine match ... very much a 'classic' sounding combination ... certainly not 'monitorish' sounding.

It was when I was persuaded to follow Tannoy's recommendation of higher powered transistor amps that old assumptions about the superiority of tubes began to be questioned ... at least for these monitors. The Naim 250 was a good match. But my final amp for those Tannoys was designed and manufactured by a small but renouned shop in England called Avondale Audio. I used their 'standard' stereo amp for the last 7 years. It is truely extraordinary sounding, at a moderate price. They also make monoblocks, whose owners totally rave over. Check out their site, and do a search on the Pink Fish audio site in Great Britain.

I recently moved, resulting in the sale of my beloved Tannoys. They've been replaced by refurbished Quad 57s. The Avondale Audio electronics remain.

WTS

I've heard the CAT amplifiers on several occasions and can understand their appeal (depending on system needs). It's a very accomplished high power push pull amp and offers near universal flexibility for speaker choice. I don't honesty hear much similarities to SET amplifiers. They sound very different to me, this is aclear case of listening preference and system matching. These speakers can sound fine with either type of amp, it really depends on what sound presentation you want . Neither is better than the other, it just a issue of taste.
Regards,

Wow, this thread has taken on a life of its own. Excellent !! I thought I'd drop in to give a quick update on where I am with the power amplifier experiments with WMSE.

1. So I bought the Sophia 300b monos and a new set of tubes ( psvane 6sn7 / Sophia royal princess 300b / RCA 5u4g rectifiers ) all together not cheap. In my system I found this match a little underpowered in the bass. there is plenty of it but its not as controlled or defined as I was hoping. That's not to say that some things don't sound fantastic with them. But its not a combination that I enjoy listening to complex, rhythmic, dynamic music on. having said that solo guitar etc sounds fabulous. I'm keeping these amps they do some things very well. But I need more control so ..

2. I took a risk and bought some (not so cheap)Chinese 845 monoblocs. I was very impressed with the PSvane tubes I'd bought and so I bought a pair of Psvane 845T ref Mono blocs. 2x Two 845's in parallel driven by a 300b and 6sn7 . they are fabulous looking things and they certainly give me more control and better imaging however they are very difficult to match a pre-amp with. The power amps present a 600ohm input load( ridiculously low) to the preamp. My first attempt was with a SS plinius pre-amp I had on hand. This was a fiasco and rendered me an ear bleeding top end and and next to no bass. At this point I am almost crying into my empty bank account. However I have just swapped in my schitt Lyr headphone amp with a set of pre outs on it. This is superior by far. Now I have bass ( thank the hifi gods )- Its still not the most tuneful but at least I know the power amps respond to different pre-amps and can do bass.

I'm interested in trying to get the best out of these amps ( not least because my wife will get the disembowelling cutlass' out if I have to buy more power amps ). I have a friend who has a Cat ultimate mk2 and a Einstein the tube pre-amps and I hope to try these over the next couple of weeks.

In the meanwhile I throw myself open to suggestions as to pre-amps that are good at driving difficult loads. Namely 600ohms. I don't know why they would design a power amp like this. Maybe its because they want to sell their pre-amp that is designed to match. I'd be happy to do that but I don't want to go throwing good money after bad if its not going to improve things.(If you know what I mean).

I'd also like to hear experiences in pre-amp / power amp miss-matches. Has anyone else come across a bassless performance as I describe above and solved it with a preamp switch out. Or should I consign the Chinese power amps to the great transformer graveyard in the sky ??

Yours hopingly,
Myron.