Mother of all Demos - Linn vs. Naim

Posted by: Andrew Randle on 21 October 2000

Dear all,

I've arranged the mother of all demos at the Sound Organisation (York).

Currently I have a Mimik/42.5/110/Kan IIs

I'll be upgrading my amps first. So I'm trying to figure out, once and for all, which side of the fence I will jump to - i.e. Linn or Naim.

The main thing that I am wary of are that the demo 'speakers will be the Linn Katans. Never heard them and realise that Linn speakers nowadays tend to be voiced to favour Linn amps.

I hoped that they would have the Royd Sorcerers, but they only stock the Royd Envoys. Can anyone alay my fears about the Katans? Would the Rega loudspeakers be better (Alya or Jura)?

The electronics will involve:

Linn
Ikemi/Kairn/Klout (was hoping for LK240s)

Naim
NAC72/NAC82/HiCAP/NAP250

Will this be fine?

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 26 November 2000 by David Dever

quote:
There is only way in which your Linn speakers can be activated with the Naim amps. I don't know if this is still the case, but Linn offered a separate box (with power supply) that the active cards can be installed in.

Uh, who do you think made the active crossovers before Linn tried their hand at electronics?!

You should be able to find (at the least) an older NAXO (2-4 Sara/Kan or 3-6 Isobarik) to do the job; some have had SNAXOs made up as well...this alleviates the need for DIN-to-RCA interconnects (as would be needed by the Linn box) as well as providing drastically better sound.

Dave Dever, NANA

Posted on: 26 November 2000 by Andrew Randle

Dave,

I was going to state what you've stated BUT..

wouldn't the peculiar crossover regions of this "two and half way" speaker be too much for a Naim crossover to cope with?

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 29 November 2000 by Frank Abela

Sorry for the late reply guys, I've been really busy at work.

I like the new Linn speakers a great deal. I think I prefer the Katans to the Ninkas in some ways. The Ninkas are a little restrained and laid back. But they're great value for money, just as the Intro and Credo speakers are.

Vis-a-vis Keilidhs/Kabers, the new Linn range offers a great deal over the old one. The Kabers were always buggers to wake up and the new range is much easier to drive. Kabers were very accomplished when driven properly and probably have better performance ultimately than Ninkas, though I haven't done the direct comparison.

In some ways I prefer Keilidhs to Ninkas, but I would say that I would have to choose Ninkas over Keilidhs since they have better transparency and a bit more life. It seems to me that both are in the same league.

If I had to choose between Katans and Intros on, say, a Classik system or a 5-series system, I would probably choose the Intro for its extra pizzazz and extra grunt in the lower regions.

If I had to choose between a Credo and Ninka in a similar or better system, I would choose the Naim offering for its extra pace, though I could miss the Ninka's warmth occasionally.

There is also the new Dynaudio Audience range which has just been released in the last 3 weeks or so.

As for SBLs - they are NOT competition even if they are 2-way. That's a bit like saying that a Porsche Boxster is a competitor to an MX5 because they're both 2-seaters! The SBL is in another league both in terms of price and performance.

Joe - although the Sorceror is around the same price as the Katan, it isn't exactly going to ruffle any feathers. As far as I know, Royd don't sell in anything like the same numbers as Linn do. The Sorceror is a great little speaker but it is very 80's in appearance and sound quality. The Katan certainly takes the cake for looks and its musical presentation is phenomenal in my view - very un-Linn-like.

Regards,
Frank.