Good article, it touches on the design elements of the dual concentric drivers and explains some of the characteristics of the rather unique sound of Tannoy speakers. It certainly reinforced some of the traits I've been hearing. Having explored 3 pairs of Tannoy speakers working my way up the line, as well as pairing them up with both SS and various tube amps, I've circled around and am coming to the conclusion that the best "overall" sound is achieved with a high quality push-pull tube amp and a truly "magic" and "Holy Grail" sound with SET amps for when the music is simpler/less instruments and the pace allows you to enjoy and savor the harmonic bouquet and the immediacy of acoustic instruments and vocals.
The purity of tone and the hauntingly real presence of instruments and vocals in the room when the pace slows down is virtually unmatched in my experience. I have not paired other SS amps other than Bryston which really did not bring anything to the table that I liked, quite the opposite...
I even clearly heard the difference between an ARC REF5 and the hybrid JFET/tube ARC LS27 preamp, enough to steer me away from the hybrid preamp instantly. Tannoy is not Sonus Faber, Tannoy will tell you right away if it is happy with the pairing or rather if your ears will be happy. Yes Tannoy tends to be really musical, smooth, non-fatiguing but only if the rest of the gear behind them is up to par. In my system, even a pair of different IC makes it's presence audible and sways the sound balance enough to be liked or not... So no SS for me with Tannoy.
I can't wait to hear the KT120's of my new ARC REF250's.
I also discovered the step in the right direction with the extra 3 dB of efficiency when it came to Canterbury and Shindo Cortese 10w of SET. Big time.
If I had to make an intelligent guess right here, the Cortese would be at the very pinnacle and summit of it's performance with 100dB of efficiency too.
My intuition tells me my own Canterbury's will be at their very best for my taste and preference with about 20w of SET to really cover the whole span of my music genres I listen to. The Shindo push-pull amps will probably be a very close second. The ARC will be an interesting experiment but may be pulled to another room/project. We'll see.