Nice! I hope you get a chance to enjoy them in your home someday :) Sometimes my girlfriend will clap with the recorded audience at the end of live tracks. It's a great feeling for me lol.

I've only had 'em 3.5 years, and nobody has reason to trust any of my "this is the last <such and such> I'm buying" assertions, but these could quite possibly be my "speakers for life". With the SE model I'd have these hot & cold sessions where they seemed stellar for a while, then "not so much" for a little bit, rinse repeat. It was also a bit of a struggle finding a steady system balance, mixing in new gear "now it's too bright" then "oops now it's too dark again!". 5 years of that. The SE were beautiful speakers, but a flawed gem for me. The GR have been 100% of the time a stellar experience from day #1. The GR naturally hits a "musical neutral" for me, as opposed to the SE which I felt were a bit on the dark side (hence the gear matching struggles). And they LOVE the VAC tube gear. Tannoy absolutely nailed it with the GR version.

Here's the system as of today. As you can see, my system has been hitting the gym pretty hard these few years, lol. Compare to the pic at start of this thread. Also the Canterburys have darkened nicely. Actually, I put in an order of three Critical Mass Systems Black Platinum shelves & spike sets for the tube amps & power conditioner. As you can see, the full CMS amp stands would eat up my path to the turntable - but the shelves and spikes alone will be a big upgrade. The VACs deserve better than hockey pucks! The Niagara sits on a lone Lovan Sovereign shelf, man those are truly awful racks to put a nice turntable on. The CMS stuff is so dreamy. Glad I got over the hump of "I would have to be CRAZY to spend $18K on a rack". So I guess I'm crazy :)

https://i.imgur.com/7ybuFBE.jpg

You’ve been busy. Must sound fabulous. I love Tannoy and am glad to see them still kicking.

Thank you sir! It sounds SO good now. This system is the default "weekend plans" for my girlfriend and me.

Didn't you own an Innovation Wood? I was mounting a new-to-me Ortofon A90 Friday, and noticed how loose the aluminum cylinders had gotten over time. Man that was my whole Friday evening tearing down the Innovation Master and figuring out how to re-tighten everything "just so". I'm gonna have to keep on top of this every few months or so.

My Innovation Wood went dead on me and is currently with Clear Audio for repair. You are the third person I have heard of that had to re-tighten everything. Mine seemed to be a Motor problem, which drove me nuts. I replaced it - I can’t figure out how to link to it from here, but search for the thread with the words “svelte 180” in the title to read about the replacement (yes, it weighs 180 pounds).

in your opinion, do you recommend the change from a kensington se to a canterbury se? where will the benefits be? they have the same midrange, only the woofer changes.

tano.longo... Welcome to AA! :wave:

I ask for your help. I am in great difficulty and I am afraid of being overwhelmed. the room is 32 cubic meters

32 cubic meters!? Exactly how many American bald eagle surface areas is that??

Ok, for real though that's what - something roughly like a room 12 feet x 10 feet x 8 feet, right? That is a very small room for speakers of the Kensington/Canterbury size! I would also have concerns of being overwhelmed, very much so. The Kensington might work OK, but I'd definitely look at something even more compact (e.g. Stirlings / Sandringhams). Also look monitor speakers (Fyne Audio makes some nice ones with the Tannoy-style dual concentric). Maybe even the Autograph Mini GR :)

So update - I have to sheepishly admit a friend lent me a Solid State amplifier last week, and I absolutely fell in love with it. It's been so long since I moved on from SS to tube amps, and I hadn't earnestly tried a SS amp in my system for over 10 years now. It sounds to me like...the Canterbury GR actually prefer a SS driver over tubes, as good as those 200iQ are :o

The amp is a Phison A2 120SE. I would never, in a million years, have come to this amp on my own and thought: "this is something I need to try". There is only sparse information about it online. But it's kinda blowing me away. It's also a phenomenal match with the new VAC Master preamp. Adrenaline and detail, without the fatigue (long & loud sessions no problem). It's like it woke up the system by an extra amount I didn't even know was there to be had. Because my primary cables were cut specifically for monoblocks, and this Phison is being run as a stereo unit, I've also had to run it much cheaper speaker cables ($1000 AQ Rocket 88 vs. my usual $10K double Kilimanjaro run) and unhook the supertweeters for my listening so far. Didn't seem to hold it back a bit!!

Well so much for being a lifelong tube snob (I still love them tho).

Here's the mess I've made of my system now - Phison is the silver box in the middle.
https://i.imgur.com/53s9BVj.jpg