[mulveling]

I owned the Kensington SE before my current Canterbury SE, and have never liked any Rolloff setting other than Level; it's interesting to see Tannoy's explanation on that (i.e. Rolloff adjustments are not intended for hifi sources). I must admit that I'm running the Canterbury with +1.5 treble energy/shelving; the inner purist in me hates typing that, but it just sounds better in my room. With the Kensington, I ran all Level, and even that was a bit too bright without warm tubes to tame it (the Canterbury is the darker speaker). However, -1.5 also didn't work, as it killed the sound. I find the steps to be rather coarse.

The supertweeters shake things up. I've tried the ST200 with Kensington and ST100 with Canterbury. Using all Level settings in the main speaker, combined with the prescribed ST100/200 setup, yields notably too much treble energy with a hifi source (low MC carts, in my case), in my experience. Even with the darker-sounding Canterbury. Remember, these ST units do contribute noticeable output in the audible range. I'm still playing with the ST100/Canterbury and haven't tried -1.5 shelving yet (as per NZ421291), but that's a good idea -- I hadn't thought to reach into the negatives since the awful results I got there (years ago, now) on the Kensington.

Besides bumping up treble, the super-tweeters do improve clarity, impact, and definition -- and yes, the perception of slightly tighter bass comes along with that. However, in the negative side again is that they also reduce overall coherence and musical flow. Occasionally some sounds do seem localizable to the ST's (I sit midfield, which is worse for integration). Where the ST's worked wonders was with a reel-to-reel tape deck source (too bad my deck quit working a few years ago) -- it was an epic combination; even 7.5 ips tapes recorded from vinyl (on wonderful Maxell UD) were stunning, and the ST's filled-in the tapes' soft treble. With most vinyl records (lo-MC carts), so far I've found that I prefer to run without ST's. And this is with MC carts on the warm side, e.g. Koetsu Onyx Platinum (though actually very neutral and extended compared to earlier Koetsus) -- something like the Windfeld MC I used to own would peel paint from the walls when combined with ST's and Level settings! I must admit though that the black-ask ST100 looks awesome atop the Canterbury (why accent a huge body of walnut with more walnut??).

And I turned 35 recently (male), so I guess I have maybe 1 or 2 years left of passable high-frequency hearing before this ST stuff becomes a non-issue :P