Tannoy Speaker Owners

A lot has changed in my system since my last post.  I never did audition the BC power amps.  As much as I liked the ZTOL40, I’m now giving serious consideration to the PS Audio BHK 250 because I recently purchased the BHK Reference pre amp, DirectStream DAC, and Stellar Phono pre amp.  Price wise, the 250 is a better deal because of PS Audio’s trade-in and existing customer discounts, which is great.

The BHK 250 gets great reviews and I’m convinced it sounds great with its matching components and the right speakers.  As a hybrid power amp, I’m wondering how it will sound with my Tannoy's.   

I’ve read Tannoy’s sound better with tubes.  The BHK 250 has a tube input stage only.  I’m inclined to buy it because I can always send it back, but before I do, I’d like to hear from other Tannoy speaker owners - especially any that might be using a BHK 250.

Tannoys are too good to use with NAD

@stringreen I realize the NAD M22v2 is the weakest link in my system.  Overall however, it is a nice sounding amp.  If it were not, I would have replaced it long before now.

I am looking for a warmer amp that has better speaker control, particularly in the mid range because I listen to old school R&B, contemporary jazz, and some soft rock.  Because I am space limited, monoblocks are out.

I have the Tannoy Canterbury GRs and tried a few amps with them. They are in a moderately large room with doors or opening at all 4 corners.  Very little bass modes and RT 60 decay time in bass frequencies are lower than  midrange and treble. There is a even 5 db boost from 35hz to 120hz.  Flat at 30Hz and dive off a cliff below that.  I use two JL subs crossover at 35hz.  

Canary 339 mk2 - At 50W per ch, the presentation is  most detailed and pure, surprisingly tight and dynamic low bass but deficient upper bass.  Some distortion in the highs and makes Canterbury sound bright.  Need treble setting adjusted.  The purity and transient portrayal of the 300B tubes in attack, sustain and decay far surpass my other amps.   Deficient upper bass and run away treble adds up to unbalanced presentation.   Expensive to operate 300B x 8.   

Vac 200iq (stereo with KT88 and KT150) - Not quite the purity or microdynamics of 300B but still very good music flow.   KT150 has tighter bass and more bass pop.  KT88 sweeter midrange and treble.  Overall fairly good balance.  Not quite the bass dynamics of the  bigger tube amps and SS.

ARC 250 ( non SE with KT120) -  Excellent bass dynamics with sweet midrange and treble,  good musical flow.  Gives up some  microdynamics and detail to VAC 200iq.   Outstanding macrodynamics with big drums.  Missing some subtle bass detail in the left register of the piano.   

ARC 150 SE - Not quite the macrodynamics of the ARC 250 but actually better bass control.  Bass is tighter with more subtle bass details.   Midrange slightly more mechanical than the 250 ( KT120s) or the VAC.

Accuphase A70 - Outstanding macrodynamics and most bass control.  Many piano recording sounds like a real event rather than stereo reproduction.  Class A power is richly texture similar to a tube amp but does not quite equal tubes in music flow and decay.   It does not bloom as much on strings or big drums reproduction.  

The Tannoys are very good speakers but not without short comings.  In terms of micro and macrodynamic contrast, it leaves most medium size modern speaker in the dust.   

I’ve read Tannoy’s sound better with tubes

:) Many speakers do...