I did accomplish some renewing for my Linn Keilidhs yesterday.
Surprise awaited me how much better they sound now.
Gone is the lazyness and softy nature which always took Keilidhs apart
from KANs. Now my Keilidhs remind me of KANs by the speed and
slam. Also tunefulness had a remarkable lift. They also can take more
beating by power without going on their knees. What else could you ask for?
I have never compared them to Kabers but my system always lacked
the speed and top rhythm of a KAN system I listen frequently.
Not anymore. Now my Keilidhs are comparable with KANs but give more
low freq. Exactly as one could hope. Sound is accurate and
decays better. The leading edge has entered into the building.
You can lift up your Keilidhs considerably
by making some easy done refinements.
THE PROBLEM
The problem with Keilidhs is the lack of strenght and
stability which results in unwanted vibrations of the enclosure.
According to my experience (once again..) it is a question of only
few thousands or hundreds of millimetres and we will have clearly
audible degradation of music. I mean compression distorsion.
The tune goes flatter (unevenly in the freq. range) and the rhythmic
contect looses it's grip - the one which is called leading edge.
This means the music is loosing it's magic touch.
Also the emotional contents are not transmitted to the listener anymore.
This is how Keilidhs were made obviously. To be a mid class spkr. Not a top class one.
THE SOLUTION
I bought some 2,5 m of wooden pin. I think it was about 16 mm dia.
Sorry - I did not use a measurement tape so I cannot give you exact lengths of the needed pins. What I did exactly was:
I opened the upper mid/bass unit and plowed the end of the long wood pin into the enclosure. Took the measure from back wall to the front wall and marked it to the pin. Then saw a piece out - few mm's longer.
Then same on width.
After fitting the pieces inside I used them as models and saw three more pieces of both, longer and shorter pieces. So I ended up with 4 longer and 4 shorter pins.
Then started the fitting. I used expensive but very strong and soft remaining rubber glue called Casco Liquisole - great strength, made for shoe repairs really.
I glued both ends of one SHORT pin and placed it behind the tweeter unit between the sides of the Keilidh enclosure.
Then I glued a LONG pin and placed it between the back wall and the front wall of the enclosure just 1 cm under the mid/bass unit.
----
By making the pins A BIT longer, you can make them tight. But don't apply too much force here. Otherwise they may tear your Keilidhs into pieces by time. Just a bit tight and the glue will keep them there. Actually, otherwise, with the long pins, you will bent the front baffle so that the hole of mid/bass will not be tight anymore. Be careful. Just a bit tightening...
IF you will have one or two mm's too short pin, take a small square of say 3-4 mm thick sorbothane sheet (30x30 mm) and place that to one end of the pin, between the pin and the enclosure wall. It will make it tigh. Use a bit glue on both sides of sorbothane.
Also you could place a suitable plates of veneer into both end of the pins against the enclosure wall. I guess this would make this modification even more efficient.
----
Same to the lower mid/bass element. HERE you have to place the longer pin a bit off center as there is the crossover unit on the back wall in the middle. No problem - it will work okay a bit off centre IMHO.
THE RESULTS
When I had finished the other eclosure, I tried by knocking the enclosure by my knucles. CLEAR DIFFERENCE! The original box had that lousy sound which meant vibration/resonance. While the pinned enclosure was much more rigid and not vibrating with long sound.
By music the difference was also very clear. More tune. More rhythm. Leading edge. Clarity. Tune performance is now more evenly spread over the freq. range. Music sounds genuinely faster after the modification.
Straight talking they are now clearly one class better speakers they were. And this should apply as well passively as actively run Keilidhs.
NEW TWEETER?
IF you have changed the tweeter for the new "Ninka-tweeter" as I have done, this makes even more space inside. You know it is somewhat critical how much material is put into the calculated speaker enclosure. The old tweeter had a substantially sized can inside of the speaker enclosure but the Ninka tweeter is a small one. So you have some extra room made for the pins! No problem.
EXTRA TIP
What else did I do? I did turn the mid/bass elements upside down. They have been hanging there more than ten years now so it was about time to turn them before their voice coils start to ground!
TO MAKE IT EVEN BETTER THAN MINE
Make one set more of the short pins and place ones also between the back wall and the mid bulkhead. I placed them only to the speaker side of the bulkhead and that is propably more important. But on both sides even better, I guess.
CONCLUSION
This is VERY easy and fast built modification for this splendid value for money speaker making them to reach nearer to Kabers. Economically it is near free and also does not effect on the after sales value as it is invisible to the surface. Strongly recommended! This is one the best mods I have done against the investment!
Oz
Here's some photos:
(I am not sure if there exists that mid bottom drawn here - that's why the question mark. I did not check it but I am guessing it is there)
The red ones are the wooden pins I placed into my Keilidhs.
Other modifications for the Keilidhs done are welcomed into this thread by all means!
.
Surprise awaited me how much better they sound now.
Gone is the lazyness and softy nature which always took Keilidhs apart
from KANs. Now my Keilidhs remind me of KANs by the speed and
slam. Also tunefulness had a remarkable lift. They also can take more
beating by power without going on their knees. What else could you ask for?
I have never compared them to Kabers but my system always lacked
the speed and top rhythm of a KAN system I listen frequently.
Not anymore. Now my Keilidhs are comparable with KANs but give more
low freq. Exactly as one could hope. Sound is accurate and
decays better. The leading edge has entered into the building.
You can lift up your Keilidhs considerably
by making some easy done refinements.
THE PROBLEM
The problem with Keilidhs is the lack of strenght and
stability which results in unwanted vibrations of the enclosure.
According to my experience (once again..) it is a question of only
few thousands or hundreds of millimetres and we will have clearly
audible degradation of music. I mean compression distorsion.
The tune goes flatter (unevenly in the freq. range) and the rhythmic
contect looses it's grip - the one which is called leading edge.
This means the music is loosing it's magic touch.
Also the emotional contents are not transmitted to the listener anymore.
This is how Keilidhs were made obviously. To be a mid class spkr. Not a top class one.
THE SOLUTION
I bought some 2,5 m of wooden pin. I think it was about 16 mm dia.
Sorry - I did not use a measurement tape so I cannot give you exact lengths of the needed pins. What I did exactly was:
I opened the upper mid/bass unit and plowed the end of the long wood pin into the enclosure. Took the measure from back wall to the front wall and marked it to the pin. Then saw a piece out - few mm's longer.
Then same on width.
After fitting the pieces inside I used them as models and saw three more pieces of both, longer and shorter pieces. So I ended up with 4 longer and 4 shorter pins.
Then started the fitting. I used expensive but very strong and soft remaining rubber glue called Casco Liquisole - great strength, made for shoe repairs really.
I glued both ends of one SHORT pin and placed it behind the tweeter unit between the sides of the Keilidh enclosure.
Then I glued a LONG pin and placed it between the back wall and the front wall of the enclosure just 1 cm under the mid/bass unit.
----
By making the pins A BIT longer, you can make them tight. But don't apply too much force here. Otherwise they may tear your Keilidhs into pieces by time. Just a bit tight and the glue will keep them there. Actually, otherwise, with the long pins, you will bent the front baffle so that the hole of mid/bass will not be tight anymore. Be careful. Just a bit tightening...
IF you will have one or two mm's too short pin, take a small square of say 3-4 mm thick sorbothane sheet (30x30 mm) and place that to one end of the pin, between the pin and the enclosure wall. It will make it tigh. Use a bit glue on both sides of sorbothane.
Also you could place a suitable plates of veneer into both end of the pins against the enclosure wall. I guess this would make this modification even more efficient.
----
Same to the lower mid/bass element. HERE you have to place the longer pin a bit off center as there is the crossover unit on the back wall in the middle. No problem - it will work okay a bit off centre IMHO.
THE RESULTS
When I had finished the other eclosure, I tried by knocking the enclosure by my knucles. CLEAR DIFFERENCE! The original box had that lousy sound which meant vibration/resonance. While the pinned enclosure was much more rigid and not vibrating with long sound.
By music the difference was also very clear. More tune. More rhythm. Leading edge. Clarity. Tune performance is now more evenly spread over the freq. range. Music sounds genuinely faster after the modification.
Straight talking they are now clearly one class better speakers they were. And this should apply as well passively as actively run Keilidhs.
NEW TWEETER?
IF you have changed the tweeter for the new "Ninka-tweeter" as I have done, this makes even more space inside. You know it is somewhat critical how much material is put into the calculated speaker enclosure. The old tweeter had a substantially sized can inside of the speaker enclosure but the Ninka tweeter is a small one. So you have some extra room made for the pins! No problem.
EXTRA TIP
What else did I do? I did turn the mid/bass elements upside down. They have been hanging there more than ten years now so it was about time to turn them before their voice coils start to ground!
TO MAKE IT EVEN BETTER THAN MINE
Make one set more of the short pins and place ones also between the back wall and the mid bulkhead. I placed them only to the speaker side of the bulkhead and that is propably more important. But on both sides even better, I guess.
CONCLUSION
This is VERY easy and fast built modification for this splendid value for money speaker making them to reach nearer to Kabers. Economically it is near free and also does not effect on the after sales value as it is invisible to the surface. Strongly recommended! This is one the best mods I have done against the investment!
Oz
Here's some photos:
(I am not sure if there exists that mid bottom drawn here - that's why the question mark. I did not check it but I am guessing it is there)
The red ones are the wooden pins I placed into my Keilidhs.
Other modifications for the Keilidhs done are welcomed into this thread by all means!
.