Floorstanding loudspeakers — Tannoy Canterbury GR

The Canterbury GR is a two-way floorstanding loudspeaker from the Tannoy Prestige Gold Reference series, built around a 15 inch Dual Concentric driver and designed and made in the United Kingdom. The Prestige GR series also includes the smaller Kensington GR. A pair costs about EUR 32,600, and Tannoy gives a 10-year warranty.

Key specs that matter

Bass comes from a 380 mm treated paper-pulp cone, suspended on an impregnated fabric surround with two rolls and driven by a 52 mm round-wire voice coil. The high-frequency section is a compression driver with an aluminium and magnesium alloy dome of about 52 mm, heat-treated, with a Mylar surround and a PepperPot waveguide. The magnet is Alnico. The crossover point is 1.1 kHz. Sensitivity is 96 dB at 1 W and 1 m, and nominal impedance is 8 ohm. Power handling is 140 to 150 W continuous and 600 W peak. Dispersion is 90 degrees conical, and maximum output is 118 dB continuous and 124 dB peak. The cabinet has an internal volume of 235 litres and measures 1,100 mm high, 680 mm wide and 480 mm deep. The finish is oiled walnut veneer with burr walnut inlays.

Engineering and use context

Tannoy mounts the compression tweeter behind the large cone and lets it radiate through the woofer's centre, giving both sections one common axis and a single point of origin. The PepperPot waveguide in front of the tweeter shapes the high-frequency output as it passes through the woofer's pole piece. The passive crossover is hard-wired and bi-wireable, with a second-order time-compensated low-pass and a second-order compensated high-pass filter, using low-loss laminated-core inductors and thick-film resistors. Two controls adjust treble energy, a shelf of ±3 dB between 1 kHz and 22 kHz and a slope of +2 to -6 dB per octave between 5 kHz and 22 kHz. The cabinet is high-density birch plywood with extensive bracing following Tannoy's Differential Materials Technology, and a dual variable distributed port can be adjusted. The terminal panel carries bi-wire posts and a fifth post for grounding, which reduces radio-frequency interference.

Pairing

Being very efficient and an easy load, the Canterbury GR reaches high levels from low-power amplifiers, including single-ended valve designs, and Tannoy recommends amplifiers from 20 W to 300 W. The large cabinet suits rooms above 20 m2.

Alternatives

The Tannoy Kensington GR is the smaller floorstander of the Prestige Gold Reference series.