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Naim Nait 3 & Bose 301

Royd's? I'd rather have the Bose 301's! Only thing worse than Royd would maybe be Kans!
Never really got Kans, heard a pair a few times and thought they were a bit meh... I have Royd Sapphires though and I love them. I suppose we all have different tastes, but I don’t hear many people criticising Royd speakers.
 
Never really got Kans, heard a pair a few times and thought they were a bit meh... I have Royd Sapphires though and I love them. I suppose we all have different tastes, but I don’t hear many people criticising Royd speakers.
I'm sure Bose 301 are a good sound machine. I played Bose 151 for years working in a bar next to the sea, they never under-performed (you can actually immerse them under water they will still play the same).
Nevertheless, there is this factor of having something so massively produced & advertised vs. something so rare and hand made.
So I go for the latter.
 
The old school Bose speakers like the 301 and the mad as a box of frogs 901 were only marginally 'hi-fi', but were actually very pleasant to listen to.

I've never been a fan of the Nait, but as post #7 suggests, it might work quite well with the 301.
.....mad as a box of frogs.....loool :))))
 
Kan 1 can be fun when driven hard, but they are a bit wearing no matter the source material. Kan 1 at low to moderate volume level are a bit shit. Switch over to Kan II, especially so, the later Kustone variant, and it takes a few tracks to realize that the tweeters aren't actually fried. Once one adjusts to this, they are a much better all-rounder.

Obviously, these are my own subjective impressions, however, they are based upon having owned all of the variants, including both early Kan 1 (both Scan-speak and Hiquphon tweeters), Kan II, and Kan II Kustone, some at the same time. I still have the Kan 1 (Hiquphon) which I occasionally pull out and thrash the hell out of for old times' sake; particularly so in the Before Times, I really enjoyed beating the Kans for visitors; the looks on their faces resembling those of kids' first visit to Baskin-Robbins.

The best sound I ever heard from Kan was immediately after @mykel replaced his Scan-Speak tweeters with the then new cheaply made Ninka (Neodymium) ones. Cassandra Wilson (was it 'New Moon Daughter' @mykel) suddenly sounded like a woman I'd love to cuddle with in front of an open fire for eternity. With benefit of hindsight (hindhearing?), it wasn't the quality of the tweeter so much as it was the response falling neatly between that of Kan 1 and Kan II.
 
@Robert Nikolic,

I've just run the published electrical specs of your VdH cable through Excel. Unfortunately, as VdH hasn't seen fit to list inductance, the spreadsheet can only return a maximum length that fits with Naim's recommended limit for capacitance. However, the main issue here is minimum length to supply sufficient inductance. Looking at the physical construction of the cable (which they apply numerous superlatives for), it doesn't appear to be a type that would be dangerously low. Should yours be close to 3m length each side, I'd say give it a go when you eventually bring home a NAIT.
 
@Robert Nikolic,

I've just run the published electrical specs of your VdH cable through Excel. Unfortunately, as VdH hasn't seen fit to list inductance, the spreadsheet can only return a maximum length that fits with Naim's recommended limit for capacitance. However, the main issue here is minimum length to supply sufficient inductance. Looking at the physical construction of the cable (which they apply numerous superlatives for), it doesn't appear to be a type that would be dangerously low. Should yours be close to 3m length each side, I'd say give it a go when you eventually bring home a NAIT.
Great many thanks for this Craig! Must measure my VdH.
Also, the Royd's seller shall complimentary include a pair of Chord Silver Screen, he thinks 2m a piece - super kind of him.
When I get all the data I will post you for opinion Craig.
 
Kan 1 can be fun when driven hard, but they are a bit wearing no matter the source material. Kan 1 at low to moderate volume level are a bit shit. Switch over to Kan II, especially so, the later Kustone variant, and it takes a few tracks to realize that the tweeters aren't actually fried. Once one adjusts to this, they are a much better all-rounder.

Obviously, these are my own subjective impressions, however, they are based upon having owned all of the variants, including both early Kan 1 (both Scan-speak and Hiquphon tweeters), Kan II, and Kan II Kustone, some at the same time. I still have the Kan 1 (Hiquphon) which I occasionally pull out and thrash the hell out of for old times' sake; particularly so in the Before Times, I really enjoyed beating the Kans for visitors; the looks on their faces resembling those of kids' first visit to Baskin-Robbins.

The best sound I ever heard from Kan was immediately after @mykel replaced his Scan-Speak tweeters with the then new cheaply made Ninka (Neodymium) ones. Cassandra Wilson (was it 'New Moon Daughter' @mykel) suddenly sounded like a woman I'd love to cuddle with in front of an open fire for eternity. With benefit of hindsight (hindhearing?), it wasn't the quality of the tweeter so much as it was the response falling neatly between that of Kan 1 and Kan II.
After listening to the “Ninka tweeter” in all of my main speakers for the past 18 years, I can confirm that it’s a very, very good sounding unit... looks a bit weedy compared to the earlier Linn units but it sounds better... the neo magnets are smaller, so the back of the tweeter doesn’t need to be so large.

PS, the Royds are pleasant enough at low volumes, but they’re also a speaker that really come alive when you give them some welly!
 
Kan 1 can be fun when driven hard, but they are a bit wearing no matter the source material. Kan 1 at low to moderate volume level are a bit shit. Switch over to Kan II, especially so, the later Kustone variant, and it takes a few tracks to realize that the tweeters aren't actually fried. Once one adjusts to this, they are a much better all-rounder.

Obviously, these are my own subjective impressions, however, they are based upon having owned all of the variants, including both early Kan 1 (both Scan-speak and Hiquphon tweeters), Kan II, and Kan II Kustone, some at the same time. I still have the Kan 1 (Hiquphon) which I occasionally pull out and thrash the hell out of for old times' sake; particularly so in the Before Times, I really enjoyed beating the Kans for visitors; the looks on their faces resembling those of kids' first visit to Baskin-Robbins.

The best sound I ever heard from Kan was immediately after @mykel replaced his Scan-Speak tweeters with the then new cheaply made Ninka (Neodymium) ones. Cassandra Wilson (was it 'New Moon Daughter' @mykel) suddenly sounded like a woman I'd love to cuddle with in front of an open fire for eternity. With benefit of hindsight (hindhearing?), it wasn't the quality of the tweeter so much as it was the response falling neatly between that of Kan 1 and Kan II.


For reference my Kan1's are also very early chip-board, external binding post versions.
@Craig B - I do believe it was actually Patricia Barber. What I don't remember is if we were driving them with the Nait 1 or the 32.5/160? They do however sound phenomenal on the 135's.
 
Never really got Kans, heard a pair a few times and thought they were a bit meh... I have Royd Sapphires though and I love them. I suppose we all have different tastes, but I don’t hear many people criticising Royd speakers.
There are many incarnations of the Linn Kan.
I have the II kustone and imo they better the Royd Sapphire that I had.
 
For reference my Kan1's are also very early chip-board, external binding post versions.
@Craig B - I do believe it was actually Patricia Barber. What I don't remember is if we were driving them with the Nait 1 or the 32.5/160? They do however sound phenomenal on the 135's.
Definitely 32-5/160, Michael.

More importantly, it had to have been Cassandra too, perhaps a different title. The reason I recall this is that I started collecting her work shortly thereafter, possibly even starting on the way home from your's.
 
Plus, Barber’s voice is not particularly “cuddly”. Cassandra’s is like a warm bath, ahem.

May I suggest Mogami 3103 speaker cable for the Nait 3? I preferred it to the NACA5 on all the Naim amps I’ve had before. Still using it on a Nait 1 currently.
 
Bose 301 and 501 both had pretty darned good sounding woofers, made by a company called "Oxford" that is better known for supplying speakers for Fender guitar amps in the 1960s. They're both designed to work kind of like an Epos 14 - the woofer is run full range with no low-pass filter, and is reasonably well behaved at the top end of its range (for the price).

Where they're let down is with the quality of the enclosure, bass tuning, tweeter quality, system design... But if you took the woofer out of the Bose and built a whole new speaker design around it, you could have something decent.
 
Bose 301 and 501 both had pretty darned good sounding woofers, made by a company called "Oxford" that is better known for supplying speakers for Fender guitar amps in the 1960s. They're both designed to work kind of like an Epos 14 - the woofer is run full range with no low-pass filter, and is reasonably well behaved at the top end of its range (for the price).

Where they're let down is with the quality of the enclosure, bass tuning, tweeter quality, system design... But if you took the woofer out of the Bose and built a whole new speaker design around it, you could have something decent.
Nice info Yank.
Almost forgot to mention, I have the Bose Wave (Series 4, if I recall correctly), the little alarm radio. It does have very impressive sound for its size. One day, I might see myself to the 301s.
For now, I cannot wait to receive the Royds.
 


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