Comments on Tannoy Kensington SE - Room size

About a year ago, I decided to sell my very fine pair of Dynaudio Contour 5.4's, and go back to Tannoy. I bought a pair of thirty-five year old HPD 315's, 12" Dual Concentric drivers from Ebay UK. I had 150 liter nearly 2" thick, 200lb. (ea.) enclosures built for them. I have just completed one side of a custom designed/built crossover for the right speaker, and have started on the left. These speakers are just inherently musical, and perform very well in my 17'X26' room w/cathedral ceiling.

I owned a pair of 12" DC Tannoy's from 1971 'til 1988, and decided I had to go back and see what Tannoys would sound like with a much better system behind them. They have not disappointed.

Tannoy Dual Conentric loudspeakers are still using the same basic design and technology that was developed in the mid-late forties. They seem to be overlooked to a large degree by the audiophile community, but if you make the switch to them, you probably won't want anything else. That's where I'm at!

Enjoy,
Dan

I'd love to hear a pair, but no where, absolutely no where remotely close to me to hear them. They are huge in Japan, and you see photos of the biggest Westminsters in tiny rooms, cabinets wall to wall, with the amp dwarfed in the middle.
I would say they'd fit in your room easily, from what I read. It's just that many don't want such a large cabinet dominating their space. I suppose it's no different than the case of big planars.
If they sound like people say they do, I'd give them the space in a heartbeat.

I think that your room will match Kensington just right. Even though your room is half of mine, I can tell you that they are not that finchy on placement. I have them placed between 1,6' - 2' (I hope I got that right, I am used to the European meters) from bounderies behind and on the side; so they do not need a lot of space to breath. But within these bounderies you notice the different by moving them only 0,07'.

I see from your electronics that you may get a stellar setup with Kensington. They really love tubes, and especially dynamic and musical gear. I have only read about Quicksilver, but from the rumours it seems to be about dynamic action. And Shindo is famous for musicality.

Yeah, one more thing: Chasas1 mentioned all the Japanese systems with huge Tannoys in small rooms. I have seen a lot of pictures of these beautifull systems. However, I have the impression that they often pair Tannoys with flea-powered SET amps and conduct near-field listening. I am sure this has its beauty, but it is different from the effect it has when you pair Tannoy Prestige with push-pull amps in a bigger room: they may then project a huge soundfield that energize the room in a liquid, holistic and musical way.

I also own a pair with a Mac 2300 preamp and Mc 275 amp my room is 14x15 and they sound great one of the best sound stages. I would recommend a pair of Tannoy ST 200's.