Amp recommendations for Tannoy Canterbury SE

You guys gushing about the Canterbury are not helping my medium-term financial situation... AT ALL :)

Wilfredt,
I never liked extreme toe-in (i.e. crossing in front of your head). I've had mine crossing just a touch behind my head. As for the crossover controls: always ended back at 0dB flat. There are times I've *wanted* to dial the treble down a couple dBs, but those controls always seemed too heavy handed; also felt like some of the dynamics and detail were being robbed. That's on the Kensington SE, though. With the right tubes in my amp now, I get the perfect balance on 0dB settings.

Must warn you I've also become a die-hard tube & vinyl fanatic; I just won't give SS a 2nd look these days. That's my prejudice to bear :)

As for a passive vs. active preamp - with the LOMC carts I use, passive preamps are not a great option; need that extra gain. The Rogue Hera II and VAC Renaissance Mk III are excellent sounding preamps with high gain (> 20dB), though note that will be *too much* gain for somes systems, especially those with a digital front end. With your 96dB Canterbury SE, you would likely hear a soft noise floor from your seating location (with no music playing) using such a high gain tube preamp - perhaps 9 to 16dB gain would be more ideal, there.

You may already be aware that it looks like Jim Smith has been powering his Canterbury SEs with Viva 845 amps - if not, check out Jeff Day's blog. Sounds like he was a pretty happy camper as of a couple months ago...

Mulveling, thanks for your tips. I will need to introduce a good preamp with the right gain as you suggested, at some point in time in the future. But that's when my own financial situation improves ;) or after I sell my Dali MS5 speakers !

Cfluxa - yes, I believe Jim is quite happy with the excellent Viva 845 amps. Unfortunately the Viva amps are too expensive for me now. I need to sell my Dali MS5 speakers first !

Also, I am trying to understand the differences between 845 based amps and KT88 based amps, as I have only heard KT88s. For the kind of fast, dynamic music, I am not sure if I would be better off with the punch given by KT88s and whether 845 based amps also can provide that kind of dynamics and punch.

Cfluxa, some time back I was going thru Jeff Day's blog, and it was interesting to see that Jeff was using the famous Leben CS660p Amp with the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE speakers. Just when I was drawn to this amp as it was more affordable than the Viva amp, I noticed that Jeff sold it off and is now planning to use a 300b based amp. Perhaps this is something to consider in future, but the question is whether 300b amps can drive the Canterburies and deliver speed, dynamics and punch.