Auditioning The Fyne 703 Soon

Thanks for the clarification.

Canterbury SE $30k (similar in sound to Jim's older modified pair) vs Fyne F703 $14k which Jim prefers and bought.

Kind of looks like the F703 would be the no-brainer.

But still best to use your ears. I would strongly recommend anyone considering the Tannoy Canterbury SE to also audition the Fyne F703. Or if one insists on spending around $30k, then audition the Fyne F1-10 ($32k).

BTW, the Fyne F703 and F1-10 are made in Scotland. The company was founded by ex-Tannoy employees.

Jim's old Tannoy Canterbury speakers were made in Scotland.
The new Tannoy Canterbury SE is made in China as are all current Tannoy products.

Canterbury GR is the current model, since 2013. SE is the old model, which Jim owned, and which I owned before I bought GR. It does appear now that the move of all Tannoy production over to China (including Legacy and Prestige lines) has been confirmed, sadly. There may still be UK stock on hand filling orders for the time being - hard to say for sure. I bet they’ve dropped the UK stickers for Chinese production.

I’ve been watching Fyne with very much interest, but it’s gonna be tough to make me move from my Tannoys. The fact is that dual 10"/12" drivers or a single 12" is going to sound different than the single massive 15" alnico Tannoy. There will be plusses and minuses to that. There is a scale, intimacy, and life-like image size of the 15" driver that was not replicated in the 10" and 12" Tannoys. On the other hand, asking a 15" woofer to reproduce up to 1.1kHz (and beyond) has its problems too. 

I wouldn't move to Fyne if I had your speakers, what appears to be a very nice system.

What I'm proposing is that anyone in the market for the upper Tannoy models should go out of their way to also audition either the Fyne F700 or F1 series speakers. Jim Smith did and the rest is history. I've attended one of his RoomPlay Reference sessions and confirm that Jim has special skills and a special room. I would recommend this service to anyone. While in GA, take time to see The Big House (Allman Bros museum in Macon) and spend a few days in Savanah, our new, favorite US city.

Recently, I heard the models in the F1 line at the Capital Audiofest and I was extremely impressed with the sound.  All three models had the fast, lively and engaging sound you expect from Tannoy-based designs, but, to me, they sound substantially better than Tannoys because they did not have the slightly hard and sibilant edge in the upper midrange that I hear with the high end Tannoys.