Old amp vs New amp for Tannoy M20s?

Preliminary: I know almost nothing. I am not dumb. Tell me things, and I will gladly study and learn. Please. And thank you.

Question 1: WHAT AMP?
In 6 months I move into a bigger place, and at age 35 I will FINALLY have enough (London) space to justify buying better 'speakers and everything.

Did some research. Sounds to me like I want to start out with a pair of Tannoy V30s if possible (or else M20s), but now I need to learn about matching amp to speaker, and then there's the DAC question.

I get that amps have their own character, and that DACs (Burr Brown vs Cirrus) bring a third flavour. Balancing 3 flavours well should require some finesse... So older and trusted amp + DAC (given 65% digital inputs)? Or modern amp with a known DAC flavour so you're only intorducing 2 degrees of freedom?

DISCUSS! To help inform the debate I'll include this link to a 1991 review of that Tannoy family sound around that time.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-05-10/entertainment/9102110419_1_m20-tannoy-scotch-whiskey

Qustion 2: BUT WHAT 'SPEAKER?

Didin't I already say? Yes, but there are a lot of assumptions in my choice. Please read the 1991 article. That sound. I know it's for the M20, but the V30s were (are) also very highly respected and must have been similar. If however there is a similar sound in an affordable pair of main 'speakers (less than £300) from the past 25 years that I should consider, I am 98% open to your suggestions.

Thank you all for your time.
 

TrevC

Well-known member
Brian Makepeace said:
Preliminary: I know almost nothing. I am not dumb. Tell me things, and I will gladly study and learn. Please. And thank you.

Question 1: WHAT AMP? In 6 months I move into a bigger place, and at age 35 I will FINALLY have enough (London) space to justify buying better 'speakers and everything.

Did some research. Sounds to me like I want to start out with a pair of Tannoy V30s if possible (or else M20s), but now I need to learn about matching amp to speaker, and then there's the DAC question.

I get that amps have their own character, and that DACs (Burr Brown vs Cirrus) bring a third flavour. Balancing 3 flavours well should require some finesse... So older and trusted amp + DAC (given 65% digital inputs)? Or modern amp with a known DAC flavour so you're only intorducing 2 degrees of freedom?

DISCUSS! To help inform the debate I'll include this link to a 1991 review of that Tannoy family sound around that time.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-05-10/entertainment/9102110419_1_m20-tannoy-scotch-whiskey

Qustion 2: BUT WHAT 'SPEAKER?

Didin't I already say? Yes, but there are a lot of assumptions in my choice. Please read the 1991 article. That sound. I know it's for the M20, but the V30s were (are) also very highly respected and must have been similar. If however there is a similar sound in an affordable pair of main 'speakers (less than £300) from the past 25 years that I should consider, I am 98% open to your suggestions.

Thank you all for your time.

The M20s are an easily load, almost any amplifier will work well with them. I had a pair of M20 Gold and a tweeter blew, couldn't get another. Great speakers.
 

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