Keilidh, Bloody Keilidh!

Posted by: davewarehouse on 17 July 2002

Or should that be Keilidh, muddy Keilidh?
Either way, have just picked a pair up as a stopgap and I must be honest, having just sold my Briks to a friend, I am not a happy chappie!
Sounds like the music is being piped to me down a long, narrow tube lined with fur!!
On downloading the user manual from Linns website, it appears that there is an internal treble adjustment possible(supposedly by dealer only), to compensate for less than perfect room acoustics(or modern Linn amps??)
I would be very grateful for any info on this adjustment and to hear if anyone has worked it to their advantage-they sound very dull to me!
Posted on: 17 July 2002 by Tony L
The only official mod I am aware of is to drop the treble output by 1DB by cutting a resistor on the crossover - I guess there is a chance that your pair has been done in the past. I have emailed you some info on how to check.

Tony.
Posted on: 18 July 2002 by Frank Abela
If Briks were made today, they'd retail for at least £6k, possibly more. The Keilidhs were £850 at last price, which was pretty recent.

You could be suffering from reducto syndrome - reduction in quality beyond acceptability. If so, it will take some time before you tune in to enjoy your Keilidhs.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.
Posted on: 19 July 2002 by davewarehouse
Your page from the Linn service manual very much appreciated. Hoping to have a go over weekend...Thanks again
Dave
Posted on: 19 July 2002 by garyi
I think what Frank is saying is your speakers are crap.

As the Scots may say, 'you can't polish a turd.'

snigger snigger.

Why did you lose the briks, ugly as they are I believe they 'do' music rather well?
Posted on: 19 July 2002 by jcc
check the tightness of the driver screws. i once worked on a pair (converting from active to passive) and found all of the screws to be less than 'hand tight'.

Not sure of the correct torque value, but if they're loose, a good 'snug' can't hurt.

cheers
jim
Posted on: 20 July 2002 by Andreas Nystroem
I once compared a pair of keilidhs with a pair of Kan1's. Switching from Kans to keilidhs sounded like stuffing your head with wool.
Posted on: 20 July 2002 by Tony L
quote:
I once compared a pair of keilidhs with a pair of Kan1's. Switching from Kans to keilidhs sounded like stuffing your head with wool.


It has to be said that if you want small cheap fast Bariks get Kans! I've owned both and they are actually remarkably similar in most areas other than the whole bass and volume thing.

Tony.
Posted on: 21 July 2002 by Chris Metcalfe
It sounds like you have an original pair with the mesh tweeter. If you upgrade them to the 1998/99 tweeter (vertical bars over the unit) you will hear a massive improvement in both treble and midrange. Exceptional change.
Posted on: 22 July 2002 by Andrew Randle
Yep either go for Kans or Saras, or Katans (which will knock the stuffing out of Kans and laugh at the Keilidhs).

One other thing, a pair of Ninkas (they MUST have those bases on) will bring back much more of the barik's qualities of scale and weight.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
Currently in the "Linn Binn"
Posted on: 22 July 2002 by mg
JCC said

"check the tightness of the driver screws. i once worked on a pair (converting from active to passive) and found all of the screws to be less than 'hand tight'.

Not sure of the correct torque value, but if they're loose, a good 'snug' can't hurt."


Just be careful how tight you make them. Linn told me not to tighten the bass/mid drivers. Unfortunately it was too late for me as I had regulary tightened the screws (but not Linn tight)but because of the thin metal surround they had drilled right through. The plus side of this was that the only option I had was to silicone the drivers in, producing a totally airtight seal. This resulted in a substantial improvement in the sound quality.

In defence of the the keilidh's I do not recognise the negative comments made about them. However they do need to be set up properly. In addition to the silicone drivers I have removed the speaker terminal linking bar and replaced with 'F' type connectors, they are on Linn's granite type stands, which in turn rest on Mana sound bases and the tweeters are the later version.

The sound is musical,the bass is tight and dynamic and they are very revealing.

Obviously my comments can only refer to my experiences in the context of my system in my room.

Regards
Posted on: 22 July 2002 by Andrew L. Weekes
My dealer tells me he used to snip the mesh away with some fine cutters, for a big improvement in treble quality.

Linn didn't like it though wink

Andy.