Opinions on Tannoy Canterbury SE?

Hi Mike,

A couple of years ago a local dealer added the Tannoy line. I first heard the Westminster Royal at his showroom in a demo for our audio club. That was set up in a home theater demo room and left some things to be desired. Even so, I could hear past some faults and found many elements of natural, musical presentation that impressed me.

Shortly after that a friend arranged with the dealer for home auditions. He didn't try the Kensingtons but I got to hear the Yorkminsters while he had them home. He then tried the Canterburys and bought those.

I was so impressed with the overall Tannoy musical presentation that my own interest was stirred. Due to budget limitations and room configuration, the only model in the Prestige range I could consider was the Kensington. But the dealer didn't have those at the time. Then at last year's THE Show - Newport, I had the chance to audition the Kensingtons. I don't know if they were brand new and not broken in but I found them a huge disappointment. So much so they fell out of consideration for me.

I really enjoyed both the Yorkminster and Canterbury models. They present a rare combination of detail (many times over done by high end components in my opinion) and musical accuracy (meaning tone, presence, and body). The choice between the two could be determined by your budget and room.

Hornguys,
I'm in Marietta, very near the square. Unfortunately I've got severe agoraphobia that makes getting around even Atlanta very problematic (the awful traffic doesn't help). It's lucky that my Tannoy dealer is right down the block, but no Canterbury in stock. Certainly, my hi-fi system serves as a wonderful figurative escape, when a literal one is not possible.

Pryso,
Yes -- the Kensington can sound anywhere from bland to over-bright to awesome, depending on gear and room setup. It's not like they require super expensive gear and fully treated rooms with CAD-calculated room dimensions to sound wonderful, but the overall system matching is crucial to get that rare blend of detail and musicality you reference. In my experience the Alnico Prestige drivers are extremely revealing of differences in upstream gear -- surprisingly so, in fact.

It's clear that the Yorkminster clobbers the Kensington in bass response (and increasingly so as you increase room size), but I felt they were much closer from the mids & up. I even preferred the Kensington's sweeter mids, but of course that could've been a break-in issue with the Yorkminster. To me, the looks of the Yorkminster made it not worth the risk of waiting for break-in to (hopefully) yield sweeter mids. These speakers would be a BIG piece of my living area, and I need to love how they look: the Caterburys pass this test. I just want to make sure they're at least the equal of the Kensington's mids :)

Agree that a lot of hifi gear sounds too over-done on the detail front, and in general tipped-up on top and amusical. Not sure how much is that perceived detail is faux detail from a tipped-up/unnatural tonal balance, or other mechanisms (i.e. over-complexity and over engineering). On the flip side there's some really warm gear out there that sacrifices gobs of detail, and that's not great either (though I can generally tolerate it better).

I'm yet to hear a decent sounding Canterbury. Everytime I hear them at the dealer's they sound like giant wooden boxes with transistor radio inside. Must be a nightmare to set up right.

Mike, I suggest that you contact Jim Smith. He can be found by doing a Google
search for his book, "Get Better Sound". He can answer your
questions regarding Tannoy in general and the Canterbury specifically.