Musicman19
pfm Member
Kairn Lk280/Spark here prefered over a 52 supercap 2x135s couldn't live with the hum and in yer face presentation.
The Links have given sterling service .
The Links have given sterling service .
The only amp that I've ever heard that was even worse sounding than the LK1, LK2 was the Intek.
The Intek really was dire, I had one for a couple of months in the day.
Looking at your list of equipment I would expect nothing less. Linn and Naim are my least liked brands and I would have nothing made by either even if it was free (other than a few Linn arms and carts which were not actually made by Linn).
I enjoyed my LK1/LK100 with vinyl, but cd was dead.I was bored to near death with the LK1/LK100...
Kairn Lk280/Spark here prefered over a 52 supercap 2x135s couldn't live with the hum and in yer face presentation.
The Links have given sterling service .
You say that, but almost all of them are still working, not in landfill. Linn amps are very reliable… some of the early SMPS can fail, but they’re no more prone to failure than a linear supply, the difference is they just stop rather than noticeably degrading, they’re really easy to fix though. Where they can be problematic is when they get blown up by user error, it’s a pita when a trace gets burned in a multi layer board, fixable but it’s crappy job.At least it was a budget amp.... The LK1, 2 were priced to rival the Naim 32/250 but were not that much better than the Intek!
At least they eventually got their amps sounding OK... pity about the extortionate prices and PITA to fix SMPS and microprocessors, EPROM's etc that say "hello land-fill"
I’m afraid I agree regarding early Linn electronics. Frankly they were woeful compared to Naim at the time.
I remember taking my 72/hicap/250 round to a friends who had bought an all Linn system including a LP12/Ekos/Troika, Isobariks and Kairn/LK280. Suffice to say he was gutted.
You say that, but almost all of them are still working, not in landfill. Linn amps are very reliable… some of the early SMPS can fail, but they’re no more prone to failure than a linear supply, the difference is they just stop rather than noticeably degrading, they’re really easy to fix though. Where they can be problematic is when they get blown up by user error, it’s a pita when a trace gets burned in a multi layer board, fixable but it’s crappy job.
The only amp that I've ever heard that was even worse sounding than the LK1, LK2 was the Intek.
You say that, but almost all of them are still working, not in landfill. Linn amps are very reliable… some of the early SMPS can fail, but they’re no more prone to failure than a linear supply, the difference is they just stop rather than noticeably degrading, they’re really easy to fix though. Where they can be problematic is when they get blown up by user error, it’s a pita when a trace gets burned in a multi layer board, fixable but it’s crappy job.
The Ikemi is an absolute class act, and it would cost a significant amount of money to better with a new machine… I hear a lot of people making statements to the effect of “any budget DAC will outperform any high end product from 20 years ago”, but it’s just not true at all, that’s why they still fetch £1k.Some of the LK boxes were ok imo.
The little Majik-I with FM module was a pretty well playing receiver, even its rated 33W, it was pretty bomb proof and reliable soft sounding.
As most others, I liked Kairn/Klout, still fetching good prices, unfortunately non Linn supported these days - they soon left their customer support with the remark: Buy new instead ! such behavior sucked, they refused to help with issues - my own experience, hence no longer buying anything from them and never will.
A pity really as their latest K.uniti are really good.
I believe Ivor created amplifiers, also to offer alternative to the CB sound back in the mid-80'ies when Naim and Linn parted.
Never really came on with LK1/2 myself.
LK140 are peanuts nowadays, oh and the Ikemi were delicious.