Audio Note AN-E and Tannoy Canterbury GR (battle)

[Jazid]

Well I have had three pairs of Tannoys come and go and I do not miss them at all. I bought them at high-priced because I so wanted them to work. None were Canterburys though. My AN-E have remained throughout as they are so much easier to listen to for extended periods, less coloured, and more lucid to my ears in my room.

In this room the alleged 'pseudo bass' is just extended, it is nice to get to 28Hz flat, and down to 20Hz at - 7dB, Tannoy 15" never came close, tailing off nearer 50Hz, not even pseudo full range although crisper and more tuneful, so this makes them a better choice for eg. Bass players and rock music fans. And some like the tweeter, it certainly has a way with cymbals, but again I find the AN-E soft dome more natural and far better integrated with its bass unit (I always seem to prefer soft dome tweeters, not just an AN thing)

. Both suffer from crossover artifacts, in different ways, so sometimes Tannoys sound just alive on violins and vocals, other times shouty, and have a 'papery' metallic treble. AN-E can sound fab on piano, mine are not too good at violin tone which is sad for me as an ex-violinist, and someone on here criticised the treble as being plasticy. Horses for courses.

I agree with far-flung star that 20W helps with AN although my 300b SET is fab as well, but amps do make a significant difference, even if they are an easier drive than Tannoys.

What can I say, it's your ears and your room, you owe it to yourself to hear both in that room before making your decision, the room may well prove to be the most important part. I sometimes wonder if AN aren't tailored almost model by model for different room sizes they are so variable, and provoke such divided responses from different folk. If they work in your room there's not much that will beat them.

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