ampedup
Lost in audio
……Only 26 years after its production ceased. I’m a bit late, but bear with me.
In the late 1980s I walked into the Sound Organisation, York, where they had set up an LP12, Naim Nait and Linn Kans, with almost nothing else in the white-walled room. It was like a shrine. They alternated the Blue Nile with the Rolling Stones. Visitors were standing around shaking their heads and grinning. I was highly impressed and the experience stayed with me as a reference point in my mind for powerful sound.
My first Kan purchase didn’t yield great results. I had some early Linn Kan Is and despite repeated attempts to set them up well, I failed: they were picky, shouty, sensitive to placement etc. I could hear some good music making going on but it didn’t sit very comfortably on my ears.
Then, recently, I had the opportunity to buy a mint pair of late model black Kan IIs.
They arrived looking like they had just come off the production line, all crisp edges and unblemished surfaces. Also, wonder-of-wonders, no-one had ever attempted to lever off the grills. I already owned Linn Kan II stands, so I was ready to audition.
(Black Kans on black Kan II stands are a delight in my eyes).
I used solid core DNM cables based on my previous experience with Kans.
My amp delivers 150 watts per channel into 4 ohms, and I needed all of it.
In my 14’X16’ space, I set them up well out into the room on the stands, away from the walls. I wanted to hear what they could do with minimal room reflections. It didn’t go well. They barked, were bass-light and they didn’t sound like they were in the right place. Yes, I heard holographic sound, air, and good timbre, but it all felt wrong somehow.
I moved the speakers flat to the rear wall, leaving a 5cm gap. They sounded much better, not just because there is bass reinforcement there, but also because that position invited more of the room reflections. This helped the overall coherence and balance in a way I don’t fully understand. All of the sound changed, not just the bass. The soundstage depth became shallower, but the trade-off in coherence, smoothness and sheer beauty of sound was worth it. Crisp detailed accurate timbres made it easy to hear into the inner detail of recordings. They sounded balanced, coherent, lively, sophisticated with a wide soundstage. A classy listen.
Bass response is not huge, but it is full and accurate sounding. On some bassy recordings, it thumps powerfully, with much more than one-note bass. Ella Mai’s ‘Switch Sider” was fully present and even Massive Attack’s ‘Angel’ works well.
The midband has fast, crisp leading edges to sounds, resulting in easy delineation of complex music. i wasn’t prepared for Stravinsky’s Petrushka to sound so gloriousy clear and easy to understand, with the orchestra yielding all of its varied colors without smearing or overhang.
Female vocals are clear, without nasality, and not at all forward-sounding.
The Kan IIs have a character, partly stemming from a lift in the upper midband and a lean bass, but it doesn’t create hardness. It creates an impactful musical drive. It’s easy to tweak that upper midband emphasis, by dropping it a couple of dB to your taste, using a Schiit Loki for example.
On rock music, the clean rendition of instruments removes the effort of hearing into a complex mix. It may not all be there throughout all the octaves and sound amplitudes, but the critical parts of the sound mix are cleanly drawn and well supported by the high treble and low bass response. Led Zeppelin’s BBC sessions comes across as ball-busting, tight, fast music making, albeit on a small-ish scale, depending on room size.
The tweeter is well integrated in the crossover design. It is entirely inoffensive and natural sounding with no graininess or other anomalies to bring attention to itself.
I have some other first class monitors in my studio here and I think, upon comparison, there is a case to be made for manufacturing the Linn Kan II again, to compete with other high end monitors currently in the marketplace.
But only if they don’t change a thing….
Belatedly,
David
In the late 1980s I walked into the Sound Organisation, York, where they had set up an LP12, Naim Nait and Linn Kans, with almost nothing else in the white-walled room. It was like a shrine. They alternated the Blue Nile with the Rolling Stones. Visitors were standing around shaking their heads and grinning. I was highly impressed and the experience stayed with me as a reference point in my mind for powerful sound.
My first Kan purchase didn’t yield great results. I had some early Linn Kan Is and despite repeated attempts to set them up well, I failed: they were picky, shouty, sensitive to placement etc. I could hear some good music making going on but it didn’t sit very comfortably on my ears.
Then, recently, I had the opportunity to buy a mint pair of late model black Kan IIs.
They arrived looking like they had just come off the production line, all crisp edges and unblemished surfaces. Also, wonder-of-wonders, no-one had ever attempted to lever off the grills. I already owned Linn Kan II stands, so I was ready to audition.
(Black Kans on black Kan II stands are a delight in my eyes).
I used solid core DNM cables based on my previous experience with Kans.
My amp delivers 150 watts per channel into 4 ohms, and I needed all of it.
In my 14’X16’ space, I set them up well out into the room on the stands, away from the walls. I wanted to hear what they could do with minimal room reflections. It didn’t go well. They barked, were bass-light and they didn’t sound like they were in the right place. Yes, I heard holographic sound, air, and good timbre, but it all felt wrong somehow.
I moved the speakers flat to the rear wall, leaving a 5cm gap. They sounded much better, not just because there is bass reinforcement there, but also because that position invited more of the room reflections. This helped the overall coherence and balance in a way I don’t fully understand. All of the sound changed, not just the bass. The soundstage depth became shallower, but the trade-off in coherence, smoothness and sheer beauty of sound was worth it. Crisp detailed accurate timbres made it easy to hear into the inner detail of recordings. They sounded balanced, coherent, lively, sophisticated with a wide soundstage. A classy listen.
Bass response is not huge, but it is full and accurate sounding. On some bassy recordings, it thumps powerfully, with much more than one-note bass. Ella Mai’s ‘Switch Sider” was fully present and even Massive Attack’s ‘Angel’ works well.
The midband has fast, crisp leading edges to sounds, resulting in easy delineation of complex music. i wasn’t prepared for Stravinsky’s Petrushka to sound so gloriousy clear and easy to understand, with the orchestra yielding all of its varied colors without smearing or overhang.
Female vocals are clear, without nasality, and not at all forward-sounding.
The Kan IIs have a character, partly stemming from a lift in the upper midband and a lean bass, but it doesn’t create hardness. It creates an impactful musical drive. It’s easy to tweak that upper midband emphasis, by dropping it a couple of dB to your taste, using a Schiit Loki for example.
On rock music, the clean rendition of instruments removes the effort of hearing into a complex mix. It may not all be there throughout all the octaves and sound amplitudes, but the critical parts of the sound mix are cleanly drawn and well supported by the high treble and low bass response. Led Zeppelin’s BBC sessions comes across as ball-busting, tight, fast music making, albeit on a small-ish scale, depending on room size.
The tweeter is well integrated in the crossover design. It is entirely inoffensive and natural sounding with no graininess or other anomalies to bring attention to itself.
I have some other first class monitors in my studio here and I think, upon comparison, there is a case to be made for manufacturing the Linn Kan II again, to compete with other high end monitors currently in the marketplace.
But only if they don’t change a thing….
Belatedly,
David
