Amplifier Recommendations to Match the Tannoy GRF90

I haven't heard the GRF90, but was very interested and almost went that way instead of Canterbury GR. It's hard to find anyone with good experience in Tannoy, so I'll pitch in again.

On paper, and given the sonic descriptions I've read on these, the GRF90 very much looks like a refined version of the Yorkminster SE (vastly improved cosmetics too). The GRF90 is really a GRF in name only (no horn loading). Some years ago I tried the Yorkminster SE in my room -- excellent speaker, but missing a bit of the lushness and magic in the midrange vs. the Kensington and especially Canterbury models. So yes, that makes these more like the Kindgom Royal or Churchill. I've heard both of those speakers too, but not in my room. The bass of the Yorkminster was especially exceptional and extended compared to the Canterbury -- but this might make it problematic for smaller rooms.

I love my Rogue Apollos with Canterbury, and it was also very good with Yorkminster, but the midrange was slightly on the hard side. Killer bass response and dynamics, though. Either they've fixed this is on the GRF90 or you'd want to go for a tube amp with a slightly more romantic midrange. To that end, the owners of the Churchills and Kingdom Royals were both using VAC tube amps. I feel you'll sacrifice a little on bass impact and extension by going that route, though. You don't want to sacrifice too much on the low end & dynamics of these speakers though, because it is quite fantastic.

The Canterbury GR was a big improvement on the SE and I've very happy I went that route, though I'm still curious how they've taken forward the Yorkminster/GRF90 design.

mulveling, thanks a lot for that input. I usely prefer SState because of dynamics and general handling of speakers. I heard about some hard mids on those GRF, and was wondering whether there wasn't a lack of break-in there. It is often the case. My Westminster were very much ear wrecking when new, and it took much much more hours than the few hours mentioned by Tannoy to get them tuned in. It seems that they are still improving to date. They are playing on Gryphon Mephisto monos, and it is just phenomenal in every way, never heard this level/quality of sound anywhere before. If I had the means, I would have gone for Gryphon Colosseum (Mephisto maybe too neutral for the GRF, although I also read that putting a very neutral amp like the Bryston 7B3 would be great to keep that neutrality), but no longer the budget for such amps. What would you think about the Coincident Dragon 211 MkII, they are 75W pure classA and have great low end.

Sheer curiosity forces me to tag in here.

Its suprising to hear someone say VAC is more so about the mids than extension in either direction. This could be said of many tube amps I suspect. Sorry, just thinking out loud.

If SS attributes are an inclination, maybe something like the Pass labs 30s or 60s XA series. ??

Wouldn’t it be safe to say then the output tubes attributes might be the key when seeking a tube amp solution which yields better evenly distributed bandwidth presentation?

I can only say from EXP EL34 & the Russian output tubes BAT prefers aren’t what I would call great bottom end providers. Past those, I’m clueless as to which others can do better. I only suspect KTs may.

Sorry I can't be more help. Good luck.

Thanks blindjim, i share those views... and Pass is actually in my thoughts. Tubes are nice, and i own some nice ones, but I've come back on them, except for smaller applications. In reliability, power, dynamics, attack, bass control, all versus their cost and put up against serious and well built SS, they seem to lose the battle, especially for bigger speakers and rooms.