proper Tannoy Canterbury room set up

William, while in the case of Canterbury's, or larger in the Prestige line, in most cases they are seen near the back wall. This would suggest that they are designed with that in mind.

In my case, my 150 liter (16" W X 20" D X 48" H) enclosures are out into the room, with the back corner of the speaker about 60" from the wall. I found this placement on Cardas' site, it's a worthwhile read, and this placement has worked out well for me.

The Canterburys are most likely too large to sit this far into your room, unless it is particulatly cavernous.

Have fun, you've got a lot of great listening in front of you.

Regards,
Dan

Congratulations on a very wise purchase! My Canterbury SE's are similarly positioned to your Quads and sound excellent.
One of my concerns was easy access to the back because I change speaker cable once in a while. I assume yours are new,
so don't be put off if they are coarse in the midrange for the
first 20 to 100 hours, breaking in. Then they are as good as
your equipment permits... Enjoy!

William, congrats on your choice.

Possibly the best thing you could do is buy Jim Smith's book, "Get Better Sound" which includes extensive set up advice. Coincidently after writing that Jim bought a pair of Canterburys for his own system.

Also Dan, I've read many helpful comment from you regarding Tannoys, but since you refer to the "back wall", what do you call the wall behind yourself when listening?

Don't put them against the wall. The manual even advises against this. You'll see Tannoy speakers in wacky locations (like right up against the wall) in ad/product photos, but that's silly. Your listed distances sound like a reasonable starting point, though with a 14' front wall you'll observe that the bulk of the speakers themselves will start cutting into your optimal spacing. It's still quite workable, though. You were wise to scale back from the Westminster in this case!

I like a nice midfield triangle myself (6.5-7' x 8-9' x 8-9'), with a healthy dose of toe-in -- close, but not *quite* directly pointed at the ears, and certainly not crossing over in front of me (a very questionable manual recommendation there).

The tweeter height is an issue with the Canterbury SE. Get pedestal stands or pucks to tilt them up. Perhaps the GR has more treble energy to allow for the right amount of off-axis energy, but then that would become dependent on seating distance -- so hopefully the GR also sounds best with tweeters and ears level, and it remains up to us to achieve that.

Raising Canterburys -

A friend with Canterburys was advised by Jim Smith to experiment elevating them and found that did improve upper frequency info. Pay attention to Mulveling!