Tannoy question

[Barry]

My particular speaker prejudice is that whenever I see electrostatic speakers, they will be tonally 'thin', uninvolving, lack dynamics, with ridiculous hyper-real soundstaging effects. Hate them

Not in my experience, save perhaps the limited dynamics. But I'm going off topic here.

[farflungstar]

Still getting to know these remarkable speakers and also having to change the system to accommodate them. The big SE Cary's sound awful wth them (might be up for sale shortly) whilst the class A Hiraga 20 watter sounds fantastic - and I'm currently wrestling wth speaker cables. The isoldas were perfectly suited to the Ane's and the valve amps but with SS and the kensingtons I'm not so sure.....

[montesquieu]

Still getting to know these remarkable speakers and also having to change the system to accommodate them. The big SE Cary's sound awful wth them (might be up for sale shortly) whilst the class A Hiraga 20 watter sounds fantastic - and I'm currently wrestling wth speaker cables. The isoldas were perfectly suited to the Ane's and the valve amps but with SS and the kensingtons I'm not so sure.....

They don't need tons of welly but they do need about 20w+ of nice clean push pull with a strong bottom end ... totally recommend Petrat's EAR 861, or a Radford STA25 from Radford Revival.

[farflungstar]

I've thought about petrats ear but I wontt be in a position to replace the amp until November.

[The Black Adder]

Still getting to know these remarkable speakers and also having to change the system to accommodate them. The big SE Cary's sound awful wth them (might be up for sale shortly) whilst the class A Hiraga 20 watter sounds fantastic - and I'm currently wrestling wth speaker cables. The isoldas were perfectly suited to the Ane's and the valve amps but with SS and the kensingtons I'm not so sure.....

Yes... I wouldn't use the SE amp with them. They need a good push-pull amp. Speaker cable wise, I use twisted (two cables twisted) of Van Damme black 4mm on each side. I'm blown away with them.

[anthonyTD]

I tend to agree; ie conventional single ended not being the best partner for the Kensingtons, However; I have always used mine with my own hibrid Soul single ended amps, and anyone who have heard them' I am sure would agree that they work very well.

Yes... I wouldn't use the SE amp with them. They need a good push-pull amp. Speaker cable wise, I use twisted (two cables twisted) of Van Damme black 4mm on each side. I'm blown away with them.

[montesquieu]

I tend to agree; ie conventional single ended not being the best partner for the Kensingtons, However; I have always used mine with my own hibrid Soul single ended amps, and anyone who have heard them' I am sure would agree that they work very well.

What would you say makes them different Anthony? What do they measure at in terms of damping factor/output impedance ?

[anthonyTD]

Hi Tom,
The soul amps [without going into detail of their circuit design] are very diffrent to conventional SE in a couple of key areas, ie; they have a wider' flat frequency bandwidth, better damping factor, and have exceptionaly low noise floor.
This amounts to the Soul amps being able to control and drive speakers in a similar way to push-pull while still maintaining some of the better virtues of single ended.
Hope this helps.
A...

What would you say makes them different Anthony? What do they measure at in terms of damping factor/output impedance ?

[walpurgis]

Still getting to know these remarkable speakers and also having to change the system to accommodate them. The big SE Cary's sound awful wth them (might be up for sale shortly) whilst the class A Hiraga 20 watter sounds fantastic - and I'm currently wrestling wth speaker cables. The isoldas were perfectly suited to the Ane's and the valve amps but with SS and the kensingtons I'm not so sure.....

The humble (but very good) Transparent Audio Musichord speaker cable works superbly with Tannoys. Although I have many cables to choose from, the Musichord is now the only cable I use with them. No longer available new, but occasionally offered second hand. Rare though.

[anthonyTD]

For years I was using an individualy insulated multistrand cable, which for the life of me' I cannot remember who made it, then for a few years I went over to Townshend, then the last few years with Telurium black, now I have gone full circle' back to the unknown brand cable, and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised how good that cable is, even though my system has gone through some major changes since last using this cable, going back to it was like coming home, and I think I will be sticking with it for the forseable future, just goes to show that diffrent isnt always better.
Jez is now probably laughing, while choking on his cornflakes reading this.
A...