Any experience with Tannoy loudspeakers?

The 12” driver with traditional reflex porting, like the discontinued Yorkminster SE and current GRF 90, will give excellent bass extension - significantly better than the 15” Canterbury. I think that is due to the distributed port on the Canterbury and most other Prestige models - but also I speculate that distributed porting helps given them a sweeter midrange at the expense of bass extension. 

Thinking about this some more, I wonder if @islandmandan ’s custom build, with reflex porting and a large vintage Tannoy HPD driver, would achieve a nice balance of bass extension plus sweet midrange. Especially paired with the right tube amp, which it seems he’s also done. And good god Dan - your custom cabinets are beyond gorgeous! Brilliant work.

Mulvening, I have to be honest with you, I didn't actually build them myself. At the time I started the build, I didn't have the necessary space, or the tools and skills to make them. Frank Wyatt of Wyatt Woodworking built them for me.

I have, since then, sanded and polished the finish (Frank attempted his first high gloss finish, which he had much trouble getting right). There was orange-peel, and a few runs as well. They still looked nice, I but I wanted them better. I replaced the woofers with ones that Lockwood converted to hard edge surrounds for me. I also built the crossovers, and wired the speakers.

My woodworking skills have improved, which is evident on my plinth for the Garrard 401.

The SET 300B amp is an Audio Assemblage which was built by Sonic Frontiers, which was sold in kit form. This particular amp had been built for a reviewer, with all the available upgrades. After I purchased it, I sent it back to them, and had the caps and resistors upgraded, and bought EML XLS 300B tubes to run in it, which made the amp sound very nice indeed. The amp has a set of quite large transformers, which has a great deal to do with why it can drive the Tannoys to very satisfying levels.

I apologize if you feel mislead about the speaker enclosures, I feel, after having spent years working on them, including the fact they were built to my specifications, that I feel I had a great deal to do with the outcome of what they are today.

I have admired your system for years now, and I know how much you must enjoy it. The fact that you are able to listen to the music you do shows what Tannoys are capable of. They are what I would call agnostic regarding what music they will play well.

Best regards,
Dan

@twoleftears,

Here is the link to Tannoy’s Prestige line,

https://www.tannoy.com/Categories/Tannoy/PRESTIGE-GR/c/Tannoy-PRESTIGEGR?colExpFlag=,PRESTIGE%20GR&a...

I have Tannoy 8 dcTi from their Definition line.  The Tannoy's are positioned about 3' from the back wall and 3' from each side wall. My room size is 12' wide, 13' long, with 9' ceilings.

I use a NAD M12 pre/dac and NAD M22 v2 power amp.  I listen to jazz and old school R&B streaming Tidal and ripped CDs from a Innous Zenith MKII via Roon, and vinyl from a Technics SL-1200G with Ortofon Quintet Black cart.  I love the music, sound of the vocals, and I get a nice tight bass.  The music is crystal clear and the sound stage is quite good.