Martyn Miles
pfm Member
In your opinion...
Are Linn Kans and LS3/5As similar?
- Thread starter Flashman
- Start date
In your opinion...
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
I well remember when myself and the manufacturers of Kudos and NEAT speakers all kinda worked together and they came into my workshop in the basement 10 mins or so after some music had started playing up two flights of stairs in the listening room... I said "what the hell speakers are playing up there cos they sound wrong even from down 2 flights of stairs.." they grinned and said in unison "isobariks!!" and we all ripped the piss out of them for a while... True story.
Enfield boy
pfm Member
I can easily believe that, Kudos and Neat make wonderful loudspeakers, I've enjoyed listening to quite a few sets of Kudos speakers especially the Titans. I have had Isobariks for over 30 years and feel zero need to change. They need good amplification (going from a 250 to 135s was an essential change for me) and also a really good source. But there is a lot of hate out there for them/Linn.
Craig B
Re:trophile
More like German Scheiße after one's Kans have been driven to within an inch of their lives for a couple of decades; especially so, after those B110s sag into a fartin' and a buzzin' along.
Martyn Miles
pfm Member
So we go from Kans & LS3/5as to Isobariks.
Some threads really do wander...
Craig B
Re:trophile
I still like my old Kans; for sure, they are not what one would call 'refined', however, they really are fun to listen to with certain sorts of music. Trouble is, like small and strong alpha puppies, they demand a lot of attention. I do agree with the consensus that they can actually dictate what one listens to. Like Martyn, I've collected lots of different 'speakers so it is no bother to change them out should I tire of their 'relentless' nature.
Slightly OT, but one of my all-time favourite small 'speakers are Castle's Trent. The two drivers simply gel in ways that many other 'speakers can never hope to achieve. The Trents are also one of the best around for late night low volume listening.
Slightly OT, but one of my all-time favourite small 'speakers are Castle's Trent. The two drivers simply gel in ways that many other 'speakers can never hope to achieve. The Trents are also one of the best around for late night low volume listening.
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Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Kan and Isobarik both made by Linn and both leave rather a lot to be desired if judged by any dictionary definition of "high fidelity".
The LS3/5A on the other hand was designed by the BBC's in house research establishment by some of the greats in speaker design who invented Bextrene and polypropylene cones and went on to found companies such as Spendor and Harbeth. Each speaker had to match a BBC approved "golden sample" to within very tight tolerances and many drive units were rejected as out of tolerance.. they put KEF through hell!. Even today, after donkeys years, they are the yardstick against which all mini monitors are compared.
I hope I meandered in an orderly direction there
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
The reference for mini monitors is the Yamaha ns10.
Martyn Miles
pfm Member
That should prompt some discussion...
narabdela
who?
Debatable, but they are interesting speakers, and I'd much rather listen to them than Kans.
Tony L
Administrator
In some ways, yes, but maybe not for the reasons you think! They are used in studios as nearfields mainly for sheer consistency - they are the one thing a visiting engineer, producer, band etc can expect to be there, a point of familiarity in a unknown monitoring environment. They are bass-light and over-bright (I’m convinced they are actually a wall-proximity speaker like the larger NS1000!) and are used to give a good indication how a mix will sound on a compromised domestic audio system. They are not really a quality reference. The LS3/5A is. It was designed for BBC broadcast monitoring in space-constrained locations, outside broadcast vans etc.
PS I’d actually really like to hear a pair of NS10Ms sitting on a good heavy pair of Target R1 stands close to a wall in a good hi-fi system. I bet that response would flatten out very substantially!
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
Kans work well with a nait. Certainly no more than 100w is required. They would sound nice active with a pair of klouts or a quartet of 135's.
Ugly Tuco
pfm Member
Thank You. I have seen somewhere that Kans sensitivity only 85 db, so maybe nait is not enough and pair of 135 seems very expensive for the Kans.
dadgad
pfm Member
Snap1 - thats what I used for many years! The Meridian is still going strong...
Martyn Miles
pfm Member
I used a 101/103D with my Spendor BC1s.
In a moment of madness I sold it to buy an integrated amplifier.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned Kans or LS3/5as...
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Not in this universe
suzywong
Wot, no electrons?
Ours is in the attic, but may well be coming down; my wife wants a hifi in her workroom, and I just happen to have some old Kan Mk.1s lying around............
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