Tannoy Prestige line: Westminister and down

I cannot comment on the Kensington per se, but I had 12" Monitor Golds from the early 70's to the late 80's. A couple of years ago, I determined I needed to return to Tannoys. Instead of trying to buy new or used in the Prestige line, I bought some mid 70's HPD 315 drivers (12" Dual Concentric) on Ebay UK. Massive custom cabinets were made to my specs, and I reconed the woofers with new cones, and "hard edge" surrounds as on the current Prestige drivers. Custom crossovers with premium parts were also made.

The result of all this is a pair of one-off, stunningly musical speakers, all for less than the price of a used pair of Kensingtons.

Although this response is not directly related to Kensingtons, I feel the performance of these speakers is similar to what can be expected with the Kensington, or others in the Prestige line. This project has permantently led to my dismount from the upgrade "merry-go-round", as least as far as speakers go.

I don't know if this is any help to you, I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents worth.

Have a Good New Year, Regards,
Dan

Thanks, Islandmandan,
For someone like yourself who knows how to complete the assembly; the old Tannoy route make a lot of sense.
It is a known fact that the technology on speakers and amplifiers have not advancing for a lot during the last 50 years, yet, the know how and knowledge to make speakers cabinet is still not as easily accessible as one might think.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and hope all the others who have experience on the new Prestige can make their valuable comments.

Not sure where the Glenaires (sp) fit in the line up but I think retail was $7k or so. Anyway my good bud has those and I hear them for extended hrs once or twice a year and they are great, I just think they need a sub and always felt a Super Tweeter was in order. Love the sound just add more sizzle on top and bottom for my tastes. He runs SS pre and switches between tubes, Pass Labs monster mono amps and lower SS power, they never disapoint.

Disclsure: I retail Tannoy Prestige, Departure Audio. Couple of things:
-They are not "audiophile"
-They are about music, not sound
-Lots of speakers will out spec them and tick more audiophile boxes. Few, if any, penetrate so deeply into the musical message
-Many people find them a final destination after not finding satisfaction with other speakers
-The magic lies in 70 years of Tannoy refining a fundamentally correct technology for sound reproduction, i.e. dual concentric drivers
-The Kensington model has the most advanced Prestige features, i.e. pepper pot wave guide and alnico magnets
-bigger models = more bass for bigger rooms, but same sonics
Just one man's experience.

I have a slightly different take. In my opinion, the Prestige models worth the money are the Yorkminster and up, but they all require big $ and a really big room to excel. For a room smaller than about 3700 cu.ft. I would go for the Definition DC10T, which I believe is less expensive than the Kensington, its bass is almost at Westminster level, you can plug one or both ports to control it, and it looks beautiful. I listened to it for a short while and it surprised with its crystalline purity and, as I have posted before, the Hi-Fi World DC10T review is the ravest I have ever read.