Sorry about the delay. I’ve been on the road for the past few days.
The Tannoy Prestige GR SuperTweeters have been in my system for about three weeks now. I'm still in the early stages of tweaking and evaluating so please keep that in mind.
I'll start by saying the Canterbury GR needs no assistance in producing extremely enjoyable and satisfying music in a home. I auditioned a lot of speakers before purchasing the Canterbury and still can't get over how musical, dynamic and real-life they sound in my room. I'm more thrilled with the Canterbury’s today than the day I first unboxed them. I'm a Tannoy fan.
Since the GR SuperTweeter was designed by Tannoy just for the GR series, I wanted to find out for myself what they could do for the already outstanding Canterbury GR. That was my only reason for purchasing them. Their awesome good looks and off the charts WAF was not a contributing factor.
The first thing that I noticed after connecting the SuperTweeter's is how they make the Canterbury's sound a lot taller. Much more than expected. I've read where some Canterbury owners tilt the front of the speaker or raise the entire speaker to get the tweeter at ear height. In the short time I’ve owned the Canterbury GR's, I haven’t noticed anything that made me think they needed to be tilted or raised higher. The ST actually sits above ear level on the top of the speaker but since it’s designed to work seamlessly with the Canterbury tweeter, soundstage height is very natural. Upper frequencies come at you from a much taller and wider area with the ST. The entire soundstage is taller and wider and more detailed.
The midrange on the Canterbury GR is exactly what I wanted in a speaker. It's sublime. Voices are life-size and completely natural at any volume level so I didn't want to do anything that would alter the midrange. The GR SuperTweeter comes with Tannoy's recommendations for each of the Prestige GR speakers and an easy-to-use placement guide. After getting them placed in the exact right spot on top of the speaker, I started with the recommended Canterbury settings at 18kHz crossover, 95db sensitivity, but to me it was a little too obvious the tweeter was sitting on top of the speaker. It reminded me of my B&W 802/800D2s Diamond tweeter at that setting. Extremely resolving and accurate but with certain music just a little forward. I left the crossover at the recommended 18kHz but gradually moved the sensitivity from 95db to the lowest sensitivity setting of 89 db. At the lower sensitivity setting, the SuperTweeter disappears unless you should hear something in that frequency range. Leading edge of higher frequency notes sound cleaner and more detailed without altering or overwhelming the Canterbury tweeter. The overall sound has more detail but maintains the natural sound of the Canterbury. When you should hear something in the music, the ST is crystal clear but not out of place. I've replayed several albums that had excellent upper end on my 800D2s but to me the ST combined with the Canterbury sounds more like the sounds you would hear in a live setting.
In addition to the GR SuperTweeters, I added a pair of JL Audio Fathom f113's to the rear of our den listening room. Bass from the massive 15" dual-concentric Canterbury drivers is seriously plentiful, realistic and deep. As they say, there’s no replacement for displacement. With the f113s about 6 feet behind the couch, bass response throughout the room sounds much smoother. This arrangement is delivering the best low end I’ve had in my home. From the couch, bass comes straight at you in waves from the front of the room. The incredible dynamics of the Canterbury's with the STs and f113’s can produce an energy level that is quite impressive. At reference levels, it’s startling. Notes seem to just leap out of the Canterbury’s with unreal naturalness and presence. My wife still can't figure out how it's possible to have two big subs behind her yet all the sound comes from the front.
Overall, the sound is real-life in scale, extremely dynamic, musical and non-fatiguing. Much more than I ever imagined it could be in my home. Listening is pure pleasure.
Finally, adding SuperTweeter's, like subwoofers, will be loved by some and loathed by others. My impressions may not even be close to what others have experienced but then they are not in my room listening to my setup. It’s definitely room, setup and personal preference at this point. When I first connected the SuperTweeter's, I immediately started analyzing each and every note to determine what had changed or if I liked this or that. Typical audiophile stuff. After a few days with them in the system, I realized I was back to the thing I love about the Tannoy's - listening to music and not a speaker system. The SuperTweeter doesn’t seem to be doing much until you unplug the wires or toss a cloth over them. When that happens, you will want to reconnect the wires or remove the cloth. The combination of Canterbury GR and GR SuperTweeter is like a drug. It's terribly addicting. And very nice looking.
Hope this helps.
