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
Maril555
I assure you Charles1dad's system is not lean or lacking in dynamics. I have heard the Coincident system at many CES shows and can tell you that the sound you hear thin and aggressive is what I also heard. I know Isreal likes to use the Esoteric dac and transport which is very lean in itself. Isreal actually had decent sound at RMAF last year. I am not familiar with his flagship speaker, but I can tell you that Charles1dad with his speakers are great. This hobby is so suggestive that no two people hear the same way. That's why some people use Lamm single ended amps with their Wilson Max II speakers which has huge woofers and still seems to be very dynamic.
Hi Bvdiman,
Thanks for your addition thoughts.
I understand the concept of'amplifier headroom' and power reserve. At one time I was quite an advocate of'one can never have too much power'. We do change and evolve and fomerly held opinions are changed.For me, generally the simpler a component is(with high part and built quality) the more I seem to like them(there`re always exceptions).I just like the purity and natural sound of simple circuit,lower power SET.I certainly respect those with alternative solutions.
Regards,
Charles,
Jwm,
Thanks for your very kind comments about my system.My experience is the polar opposite of what Maril555 described.I except his experience as real and Lamm was the better choice for him.I`m glad it worked out.Jwm has spent much time enjoying music listening in my home and I really enjoy his superb all VAC system in his home.
Regards,
Borg7x9, if brightness is something that bothers you in a system (I know it does for me....) then you will want to avoid amps that employ negative feedback. Feedback will make any amplifier sound brighter.

Remember how I mentioned that the ear uses the odd ordered harmonics to tell how loud a sound is? Negative feedback in an amplifier will reduce most forms of distortion, but will increase the odd orders slightly. By 'slightly' I really do mean by trace amounts - 1/100ths of a percent. But our ears are so tuned to this issue that it is safe to say that using negative feedback violates a fundamental rule of human hearing- how we detect the volume of a sound.
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.