Tannoy Prestige Kensington Gold Reference Speakers

Rating:

After purchasing the Kensingtons it took a little time before they arrived at my home . This was coused by the delayed banktransfer of Paypal . Once the payment was ready they were delivered in 3 days, very good packed and very quikly in my opinion. Also we had a regular contact wich was very Nice. Now on to the wonderfull sounding Tannoy Kensingtons. It appears after the 20 ours of inplaying they sound very good. Before i used the Tannoy rev xt8f wich is also a very impressive speaker for the money, But the Kensingtons are really something else, connected on the meridian G57 amp and Go2 pre, they produce a sound wich is not coming out of a speaker But its al around you, playing on low level you really hear all of the sounds wich are recorded, you dont have to play them loudly for a good listening experience. But when you turn the volume up , youre feeling if youre with the concert. Great overall soundstage and very wel balanced.

Rating:

I decided to move up from a pair of audiovector speakers due to both the performance and appearance of the Kensington GR speakers.

They took around 30 hours to really 'settle' and now they sound fantastic. The highly sensitive nature ensures they work well with tube/valve amplifiers. I am using the prima luna dialogue premium pre amplifier and dialogue premium HP power amplifier.

With the default EL34 tubes in the power amplifier, the Kensington GR's did sound a little too soft for my liking, even with silver cables and Van Den Hul Hybrid cables in the mix.

I bought 8 Tung Sol KT 150 power tubes and run it in ultra linear mode and it has helped dramatically to make music more involving and dynamic.

After a few weeks of more tuning I have bought some Artisan silver cables for between the pre amp and power amplifier and had my friend make 8 inch custom solid walnut stands for the Kensington GR's to raise the driver higher - this has helped bass response dramatically.

Lastly, due to a little recession in the mid range (which I felt could be tweaked with tubes) I decided to roll the 12AU7 tubes in both pre amplifier and power amplifier for 12 E80CC Phillips Mini Watt SQ tubes (hard to get as they are no longer made but some on ebay). The 12AU7 and E80CC aren't directly compatible, however the power transformers in both the high end Prima Luna amplifiers are capable of dealing with the exta 0.3 demand per tube/valve.

I am happy now with the audio quality, and the Kensingtons are able to produce a very lifelike, organic sound which I would attribute to the fantastic driver they produce. Vocals are sweet, detailed, surrounded by a luscious sound stage. Bass response can hit you firmly in the chest and shake the floorboards (had to get granite platforms from RS acoustics).

All in all these are beautiful speakers and I like the adjustments available on the front, however if you set the rest of the system up properly, you can comfortably leave them on the default flat settings.

Some people have mentioned that due to the somewhat smallish 10 inch drivers that bass response will be somewhat limited, but unless you have a very large room, I think these are more than adequate - rather than moving further up the range to get the full 15 inch tannoy driver. The size is also a consideration, especially if you are contemplating the Westminsters!