ell, there's this, gleaned from another forum...
"The best way to get the grill off is a paint scraper or other big flat blade. Push a piece of thick card in the gap, to protect the wood, then the paint scraper. Just gently prize the grill up. The trick is to do it very slowly. It should lift without damaging the cabinet at all. "
...though there are those who would advocate a large hammer and a chisel.
I quite like my Kan V's.
Pretty decent mids and highs if a little bright sometimes. I have them 10" off the back wall and the bass is sufficient - however I don't think anyone can expect them to do full scale Opera - they are what they are.
I've never really been blown away by the the Harbeth P3ESR's but they have rave followings.
The mk1 and 2 versions still seem to command quite a price! Not sure I'd pay £500 for a set!!
What seems to be wrong with the Kans?What is the best way to get inside the speaker? Should I remove the woofer or should I remove the whole panel?
What seems to be wrong with the Kans?
What is the best way to get inside the speaker? Should I remove the woofer or should I remove the whole panel?
The cabinets can be used for indoor plants.
You will need a claw hammer and a large guage, preferably short, self-tapping screw. Remove woofer screws. Insert the self tapper far enough so that it engages with the driver fixing hole. Place a piece of card or something between the hammer and cabinet, and lever the screw head up. You may have to repeat on the opposite side of the driver.
I can't speak for other kans but my mk2 were only harsh when used with some Naim amps (42 102 180). With the Onix OA21 they were fine but seriously lacked bass and needed a subwoofer to fill out the low end.
The correct answer, is of course the Quad ESL. What was the question again?
The P3ESRs are just plain accurate. They'll faithfully reproduce what's on the source material within the confines of their spec. Best near field monitor I've used. Less that great in larger rooms, obviously.
I've also had Edens and Kans. Edens are voiced a tad too bright for me, but are otherwise very good and a steal S/H. It'd be fun to take out the crossover of a pair and run them off a Linn Aktiv setup where the Treble gain can be tweaked.
Kans can sound bloody amazing in the right room. In most they will sound very thin indeed. I've had a pair from '79 and a pair from '86 and the later pair were by far the better speakers. I haven't heard LS3/5as.
If you didn’t like the sound, how can you say it was well set up?
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!
Mentioned this before and this came direct from one the people who designed the NS10. They were designed to sit against a wall and be used at low volumes in conjunction with an amplifier's "loudness" button in the active position. It was a specific design aimed at the Japanese market and never really intended for export. Engineers used to descend into virtual fist fights over what was the best "tissue paper" to drape over the treble units and their rise to prominence was almost wholly down to a single person. Had that person been British then, there's a good chance the AR18 would be today revered as the NS10 is, as that was the British equivalent.