advertisement


So old linn Kairn, LK140 & Keleidhs

P

Petehill

New Member
Hi all, I have lived with my very simple set up for probably 25 years and have been happy as larry with the older Linn kit. I recently spent a few of my coins on 2nd hand upgrades, and having read through all of the posts I have a few questions on this ancient kit after adding a 2nd LK140 and some aktive cards, installed over the weekend.

I was very happy with one LK and the Kairn, and knowing the inherent faults/characteristics of the Keilidhs (015/02) and (booming bass) so I was expecting some change when active with two LK140's, however my ears are struggling with the change.

Even my son said 'dad where's the bass gone?' though he always plays his marantz with 'loudness' so I practically ignored his rudeness and soldered on (no pun intended).

What am I hearing?

Much better clarity in instruments and vocals
Notes are much more clear and elongated
Bass sounds from selected CDs which in passive really rumbled, are now much less deep but with more punch and rhythm (is this refinement...I have no idea!)

My questions are:

Kairn has this issue with inverted phase, therefore should I reverse polarity on just the treble or both the treble and mid/bass inputs?
Should I be driving both amps directly from the Kairn or looped through?
Is what I describe above your experience of passive to active in the older Linn range

Thanks all for comments

Peter


Rega Apollo
Rega P3
Linn Kairn
2 x LK Active
Linn Keilidh + Bases + K400
 
My guess is that you'd need to invert both inputs but I'm sure someone else can clarify.

I know someone compared daisy chained vs dedicated amp per speaker although this was with later generation Linn amps. He found daisy chaining more tuneful and better HiFi but dedicated amp per speaker was more cohesive and together sounding. In other words, pros and cons to each.

Upgrades can clean up the bass and make it seem less full, albeit more punchy. You could try moving the speakers back further towards the rear wall.

Don't be afraid to swap back after a few weeks and see if you prefer it as it was. You're the one that is using it to enjoy music so doesn't matter what the mainstream opinions are.
 
I would check the connections carefully. I went from passive Kabers to active, back in the ‘nineties, and yes, the bass seemed slightly lighter (but was much better defined). However, I never lost the bass as such.
Your situation sounds as if you *may* have connected something out of phase. With a Kairn you should reverse connections at the speaker end, on all connections.

Mick
 
I think you're lucky for that lot to last so long.
My Kairn only made it to 10 years or so before its battery leaked and destroyed it.
 
You should invert the polarity on both amps... just to be sure, did you convert the speakers for active operation and have you got the links in place between the two bass drivers? If you don’t have the bass drivers linked in bi-amp active operation, you’ll only be driving one bass driver in each speaker which will result in a serious loss of bass, not only because you only have half of your bass drivers working, but because the unpowered one will move in the opposite direction of the powered one (because they’re in a sealed volume), which will result in phase cancellation.

PS, you should have deeper bass extension in active operation since the active card augments the lower frequencies.
 
zippy said:
I think you're lucky for that lot to last so long.
My Kairn only made it to 10 years or so before its battery leaked and destroyed it.
Click to expand...
If they receive the right preventative maintenance, they should last a very long time... unfortunately for some, they only found that out once it was too late.
 
vicdiaz said:
If using a Kairn you should invert phase at one place, at the amp outputs, or the speaker connectors.
Click to expand...
Yep, good point, otherwise you’re not inverting anything.

The question here was in summary “do you need to invert the phase on all amplifiers in an active system?”, to which the answer is yes.
 
i invert all the outputs from the LK280s at the Brik end (IIRC, without looking).

Although I have run the whole system "+ to +". Can't say I noticed much difference.
 
Invert phase on each speaker output to compensate for the Kairn and then adjust the Aktiv card’s output accordingly. I wouldn’t adjust speaker positioning if you were happy before. I would also suggest only changing one thing at a time in order to get used to it and waiting a couple of days before changing anything else.
 
Howdy said:
Just curious, what is this prophylactic for Kairn?
Click to expand...
Recapping the power supply and changing the backup battery. By now, a full recap would probably be beneficial for any Kairn that hasn’t had it done. I would be changing that battery every six years personally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top