Ninka/Katan comparison

I had the Ninka's at home for a demo over a long weekend. Wanted to hear the new tweeter which I ended up installing in the Kan 1's. ( also wanted to see if I liked the new ones any better than the previous line ie Keleidh (sp) which I demo'd extensivly and did not like.

Anyway, my room is just over 3 x 5 m and I could not get the Ninka to work properly. While the bass weight and extension was nice compared to the Kan's, the quality was not. I found them a bit thick and lumpy in the bottom end. Maybe not one note, but more like 2-3 notes. The agility was not there. At the time I put it down to my setup ( Yes, I know Mullet city ), and my reluctance to rebuild my system to suit a demo. Getting Kan's "right" is a PITA, so you play at your peril. But as you mention some have had the same results as mine, so maybe it was not just my setup.

As for the Katan, I have never had a proper demo, but on casual listen, they are impressive and on the list; maybe even knocking the Ninka off, but another demo would be required for that.

regards,

michael

Heard both at a dealers in a Linn set. I prefered the Ninkas. Took them forever to loosen up in my (much larger) living room. I think they sound markedly better with my naim than in the showroom.
I can't help but wonder if many of the negative comments I've read are break-in related. I feel the ninkas have more potential than what's been explored, at least based on the comments posted in this fourm. I like them enough to try to plumb that potential in the context of my system. Who knows, may end up selling them eventually like countless other speakers that have come and gone over the years. If I find anything earth shattering I'd post it. In the mean time, there's no such thing as a perfect anything, particularly when it comes to the final transducer

If anyone wants to hear a good Ninka demo, try Audio-T in Reading - they do a fantastic demo and set them up well. Katans are great, but IMHO the Ninkas are on the whole much better.

I passed on the Ninkas as I reckoned they'd be too much for my small room.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
Currently in the "Linn Binn"

Try Linn SARAs. They are sonically like Kans with proper bass extension and punch. New age Linnies might not like'em but they are a viable (and superior) alternative to Kabers...or Keilidhs! And they use the same HF unit as Kans but with(2 of)the larger Kef B200 bass unit as versus the single B110 in the Kans. I know that it takes more than just drive units to make a speaker, but I feel the components used are vastly better than the excrement that followed!

Interesting to hear the different opinions on these speakers. Thanks to all for your input.

I too - like Bob - wonder if some of the negative opinions on ninkas might be at least partially due to breakin/setup factors. Vuk's and Mykel's description certainly reminds me of mine before the ninkas had at least a couple of hundred hours on them. Until them I found them quite - for lack of a better word - constipated, with an irritating and poorly integrated tweeter, rather ill defined bass, and rather colourless. I've had them over 6 months now and I think they are still changing abit. Of course I would suspect that the Katans would also require this long breakin and share some of the same weaknesses initially as they share the same drive units as ninkas. Which also makes me wonder why they don't share more of a similar signature, different cabinet design notwithstanding. In my naivete, I thought the ninka would sound quite similar to the katan with more weight and extension (possibly abit smoother) while giving up abit of agility , speed, and soundstaging - which I consider a forte of smaller standmount designs - to its little cousin.

I also feel that the ninka absolutely requires the optional stands and that Linn is doing a great disservice by even offering the speaker without these as opposed to only selling the speaker with the optional stands and adjusting the price accordingly. IMHO the speaker is simply not designed to be used without these as it sounds crap with those dinky wooden platforms.

I find ninkas are quite fussy re. positioning - at least in my room - and like quite abit more room behind them than one would think of a Linn speaker requiring.

Cheers,
Garth

Like Vuk, I too heard the Ninkas in an all Linn setup and was, quite frankly, horrified at what I heard (brittle, dry, harsh etc). I am perfectly willing to accept that this was break in issue as suggested here, though I'd have hoped that a dealer wouldn't be demoing equipment that wasn't run in. Anyway, the experience led me to Naim, so ultimately I'd say it was a positive experience

"Brittle, dry, harsh, definitely sounds to me like insufficient runin to me, certainly the speaker has shortcomings - don;t they all - but I don't hear these characteristics. I think I read in listener magazine that they thought the speaker needed somelike 600 hours(!!) to be thoroughly runin. I suspect it takes a long time for a dealer demo model to clock that number of hours.

Interestingly, a fairly consistent criticsm seems to be that the speaker's tweeter is a little too mellow, which runs somewhat counter to postings here. Wondering if you listened to other speakers in the same setup for comparison or if some of what you heard might be attributed to other components. I certainly enjoy my Ninka's more with my naim kit that the Linn Classik I heard t hem on at my dealers. Could also be my room of course.

Cheers,
Garth

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Hi Vinnie,

Any particular reason why you would not consider Linn speakers? I am assuming you have tried them and they were not to your taste. If so, what was your assessment? If not, why don't you give katans or ninkas a listen and let us know what you think. Seems these would be a natural match for your classik.

Garth