Amp pairing with Tannoy Turnberry?

I correct what I said above.  I meant to say "I have heard the Turnberry speakers and Primaluna amps"  

For warmer sounding amps (something that would complement the Turnberry), I would look for amps run will 6L6 or KT66 tubes. I would tend to avoid KT88 amps because the tendency to have a "hard" or "brittle" sound might exaggerate the slight tendency toward sibilance of the Turnberry. Of course a 300B pushpull or single-ended amp will have the right tonal qualities, but, the issue would be sufficient power. I personally don’t listen at very high volumes so my compromises would be in favor of low-powered alternatives, but, this is a personal decision.

These days, not that many amps are made with KT66 or 6L6 tubes because they have a lower output than other similar tubes making it harder to sell in a market driven by output specification. But, to me, they are the best sounding tubes of tetrode/pentode types. I also like EL84 amps, which are often the tube of choice in lower cost amps, but can still deliver lievly and punchy sound without being thin tonally.

This is a very good point. The Tannoy horn tweeters can get a bit sharp up top, especially on some vintage pop / rock vinyl. The KT66 / 6L6GC has a sweet sound that is a good complement, but the current hifi amp market largely ignores these tube types. I often use KT88 / KT120 amps on my Tannoys, but sometimes wish for something a tad sweeter.

I wish it were more common to see really nice modern amps (auto-bias circuitry, large transformers, premium parts, no 12AU7’s) made with MULTIPLE push pull pairs of EL34/KT66/6L6GC to hit say ~ 100 Watts.

My experience with EL34/KT66/6L6GC is years ago on Kensington SE (93dB). I had a few vintage amps restored, which used these tubes. Good for 20 - 35 Watts per side. Really sweet sound, but at the end of the day that's not quite enough power for me. I listen loud. Sure 8 Watts can get loud on SOME material, but the dynamics will be softened/compressed and you'll start to hit hard clipping on more dynamic recordings. 

@mmcgill829 We have a number of customers using Tannoy loudspeakers. From what they report, its apparent that you benefit from more power on that speaker- 60 Watts being a good minimum, unless you have a smaller room! One of our Tannoy customers has run both our tube amps and our class D amp on his Westminsters and reported good results with both, so apparently the speaker is friendly to both tubes and solid state as long as the solid state amp does not exhibit harshness.

Due to the efficiency of your speakers, unless you have a smaller room I would avoid SETs in particular. If you do get talked into one, here's something that you should know: To really hear the SET at its best, the speaker should have enough efficiency to avoid using more than about 20% of full power of the amp. Above that power level the higher ordered harmonics show up on transients, causing the amp to sound 'dynamic'. But its really distortion masquerading as such due to how the higher orders interact with the human ear. Dynamics should only come from the signal and not the amp! Larger SETs also make less bandwidth entirely on account of the output transformer; its very difficult to make an output transformer for an SET that has 'hifi' bandwidth and handles more than about 7 Watts!

There’s no shortage of very good amplifier choices as the numerous posts confirm.  One significant factor for @mmcgill829 is he has actually heard the NAT amplifier driving the Tannoy speakers. This is a major factor as it eliminates much speculative talk. 
For sure he’s fortunate to have lots of fine options. Could they be “incredible “ as his listening encounter with Tannoy and NAT? Maybe, maybe not.

Charles

@jonwolfpell 

I don’t know your speakers but another thought might be a Rogers High Fidelity EHF 200 Mark II integrated amp. Rogers is selling directly a used one w/ their full lifetime warranty for $8500 or best offer. I own one & it’s substantially better than a Prima Luna in build & sound quality..His amps are hand made, all pint to pint wiring w/ top quality components. It’s pretty big, puts out some heat as if offers over 100 watts / side operating fully in class A running a total of KT - 150’s. Big, full rich sound w/great dynamics & bass & beautiful mid &top end. 
 

I believe in & like to support , smaller independent, American made products & Roger is a very smart guy who designs & build his products in North Adams, MA.. check out his videos on YouTube or on the website. 

Interesting! I have never heard of or heard this brand at all. This amp does have quite a lot of power in comparison to the NAT, though even on sale it's slightly over what I'd be comfortable paying. Would be hard to pull the trigger without trying it first, and it appears that they only do at home trial periods for new items from what I can gather. I'll do some research on this as an option, however. It does have more power than the NAT, which may be beneficial, but could have all the power in the world and not matter if I don't like the sound 😛

@lalitk 

Thanks for sharing your genre and sound preferences. Now that you mentioned, you’ve already heard HPS with Kensington and really liked the sound; that makes HPS an easy choice for Turnberry’s. Keep us posted on your journey.

If you’re ever step into my neck of woods (Houston), feel free to stop by for a taste of Accuphase/Tannoy sound. I stream most of the time so there won’t be any shortage of Jazz musicians :-)

I will keep that in mind if I am ever down there! Thank you for the offer! While my experience with higher end speakers is a bit limited, I've always loved the Tannoy sound. 

@larryi 

I have the Turnberry speakers and the Primaluna amps (although not together) and I think the speakers are best used with warmer sounding types of tube amplification.  I am not a fan of Primaluna amps, but I've never heard the NAT amps so I cannot recommend then either.  The NAT design looks interesting, and if they are available in your price range, they might work out.

For warmer sounding amps (something that would complement the Turnberry), I would look for amps run will 6L6 or KT66 tubes.  I would tend to avoid KT88 amps because the tendency to have a "hard" or "brittle" sound might exaggerate the slight tendency toward sibilance of the Turnberry.  Of course a 300B pushpull or single-ended amp will have the right tonal qualities, but, the issue would be sufficient power.  I personally don't listen at very high volumes so my compromises would be in favor of low-powered alternatives, but, this is a personal decision.  

Interesting point. I have only ever heard the tubes on the NAT (GM70) on that particular amp, so outside of that one experience, I am not sure if I can really judge their sound signature. From what I've read, they tend to be sweet, dynamic, and detailed, which tracks what I heard from the amp, at least. When I had my Primaluna before, I swapped the tubes out for....(I think) EL34s and found it much nicer with those, but this was quite a while ago now.

@atmasphere 

Due to the efficiency of your speakers, unless you have a smaller room I would avoid SETs in particular. 

With this particular amp that I am looking at - the NAT - the room it was in was larger than my room, was driving Kensingtons and sounded wonderful. As much as I'd love to consider mono blocks + pre-amp separates, realistically they are out of my budget for the time being, at least at the level I would prefer them to be if I went that route. I would likely have to get very, very lucky on the used market to put together 2 excellent mono block amps and a great preamp for $8k. A goal for the future!