Active Kans

You want to speak to Ron the Mon.

Anyway, The Kan I was not available in active, though it can (and was) converted by those who love them.

The Kan II was available in an Active verion no cross-over). Naxo is worth about $500-$600 in new style, and a bit less in old style. Were I interested, I'd pay about $400-500 for a "nice" pair of activated Kan I's. A lot depends on condition (at least to me).

Judd

I believe there are three of us on this forum who have active Kan 1s. Do a search and you'll get many questions answered. If you want to e-mail me privately that is OK too.

I disagree with what Justin wrote above: There were stock active Kan1s and Kan2s made at the Linn factory(along with active Saras and DMS). I have heard Kan1s active with 42XOs(pre-amp with built-in active crossover designed for Sara but will work with Kans) and NAXO-2 from the same era.
Because active Naim crossovers come up used rarely, Justin has over-estimated their true worth. I wouldn't pay more than $200. for a 42XO or $300. for a NAXO-2. [the crossover in a 42XO is an independent circuit board from the pre-amp so you can remove the crossover and resell the pre as a stock NAC-42] If you intend on running them in your main system, you will want to update them or have them modified to take advantage of a dual-rail power supply. If the deal includes a power supply, make sure you allow several hundred dollars for a recap. During any service, it is an easy modification to have the outputs rewired for two different amps or have an SBL unit changed for Kans. My opinion is that ideally you should have one stereo amp per channel but if the amps are of a different vintage or model, you should have one for tweeters and one for midbass. I personally prefer the better amp on the bass drivers in Kans though it is not a demo I've done exhaustively.

My Kan1s are highly modified; I removed the internal passive crossovers myself and rewired them, I currently use the newest Linn Neodymium tweeters, and have the front baffle shaved smoothe to eliminate all grille diffractions. (And they are a beautiful rosewood finish which exactly matches my LP-12!) They are driven by two NAP-140s and a custom-made crossover module, though I've used a 42XO, NAXO-2, and Linn Tukan Aktiv modules.

If you haven't set-up an active system before, please learn first. It is very easy to connect the crossover or speaker connections to the wrong amp which can fry tweeters in a second. Also, make sure all 14 driver mounting screws in the Kans are tight. Any speaker of this vintage will have worked them loose. When removing the grille frame, check the 10 screws holding the front baffle on too. These are easily over-tightened so take care as they are less critical because the baffles are also glued on.

And lastly, take great care in choosing the right stands. This generally means Kan2 stands or a good wall-mount.

Is going active with Kan1s worth it you asked?
The worst that can happen is you don't like them compared to your SBLs. But you can resell them to one of the 50 people reading this thread for what you paid. Or you can sell the SBLs and buy a better amp or crossover. It's a win-win situation.

Ron The Mon,
Arch Kan defender and wall driller.

Hi Ron:

Ron, perhaps you can determine the vintage of these Kans/Naxo. (By the way your email listed here doesn't connect.)

The Kans have the hiquphone tweeter/4mm speaker connectors and from
the serial number 369xx appear to date from about 1985. (Kans 1 or 2)?

The stands have four uprights (Kan 1/Kan 2 stands?).

The NAXO says Naxo 2 but has a 5 pin connector for a HiCap . From its serial number 274xx it should be 1986 (?) but I would have thought that this would make it a NAXO 2-4. What is the difference anyway? Will this NAXO 2 also work with SBLs or need reconfiguring?

cheers,

Paul

The Kans are late model Kan1s. The earlier models had Scanspeak tweeters as well as binding posts on the oldest units. Kan2s have a tweeter mount which is flush to the grille; very easy to distinguish.

The NAXO-2 is the same as the NAXO-2-4 internally. All that means is 2(stereo)amps or 4(mono)amps. Both are a two way crossover. Since the older NAXOs came out before the 135s, the oldest ones are just called "2" and the "4" simply has more output connections for mono amps. In 1985 Naim released the Hi-Cap which was the first "dual-rail" Naim power supply. Shortly thereafter, the pre-amps and electronic crossovers became slash-fives; ie. NAC32/5 or NAXO-2-4/5. The numeral 5 simply means newer and dual rail. Naim did offer slash-five updates so it's possible to have an older unit that was updated but I'm not sure that the serial number would be changed. (BTW, the newest crossovers are the same basic circuit but have capability to be powered by the "Burndy" of the Supercap, hence "S"NAXO-2-4.)

If the NAXO-2 is factory set for Kans you can use it for SBLs without damage, however it won't be optimized. Same is true of an SBL NAXO with Kans. IMO a non-optimized active hi-fi is better than any passive so if you are intentioning comparing your active SBLs to active Kans, you'll get a close approximation.

To e-mail me drop the _NO_SPAM from my address.

Ron The Mon,
Arch Kan defender and wall driller.

Forgot to mention the stands. Do a search on this forum for Kan stands and you'll find several photos to quickly determine which model you're considering.

Ron The Mon,
Arch Kan defender and wall driller.

As Ron mentioned a search on the forum will get you plenty of info on the act of converting normal Kans to active.

I've got modded Kan Is with a Naxo 2-4. I acquired the naxo when I was looking for a 2nd hand HiCap. If I recall I paid approx GBP500 for the pair so only about GBP100 for the naxo. It's actually an SBL naxo, which as Ron says can be used with Kans (the tweeter settings are the same, the kan bass driver rolls off a bit higher than an SBL). It may be a cheaper option to get an SBL naxo (as there are more around) and get it modded for Kans.

Phil

quote:

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Originally posted by Ron The Mon:
The NAXO-2 is the same as the NAXO-2-4 internally.

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No it isn't.

NAXO2 is a 72-style device, with the various filter modules on separate plug-in cards.

The NAXO2/4 and 3/6 are one integrated motherboard

quote:

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All that means is 2(stereo)amps or 4(mono)amps. Both are a two way crossover. Since the older NAXOs came out before the 135s, the oldest ones are just called "2" and the "4" simply has more output connections for mono amps. In 1985 Naim released the Hi-Cap which was the first "dual-rail" Naim power supply. Shortly thereafter, the pre-amps and electronic crossovers became slash-fives; ie. NAC32/5 or NAXO-2-4/5. The numeral 5 simply means newer and dual rail.

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No.

32 became 32/5
NAXO2 became NAXO2/4
NAXO3 became NAXO3/6

There is no such thing as a NAXO2/4.5

The /4, /5 & /6 revisions allowed use of a dual rail power supply, and have sufficient output sockets for 135s.

quote:

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Naim did offer slash-five updates so it's possible to have an older unit that was updated but I'm not sure that the serial number would be changed.

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Naim do not currently offer this option for NAXOs, although the serial number was retained when then did.


cheers, Martin

Indeed, 1984 I ordered a pair of active Kans and got them. Nearly all my friends in Cologne had active Kans. The reason to get a Kan is you get full sound from a small box without any bass boominess. And yes, women like small loudspeakers, too ;-)

regards,
Hartmut from Munich

Sorry for the confusion. I never said the electronic crossovers were "identical" inside but implied the circuits were similar, which they are. Here in America at least the NAXO-3-6 was released before the NAXO-2-4. The American distributor at the time was doing a big push on the legendary "six pack" which featured three new items; the NAXO-3-6, Hi-Cap, and 135s. Later there were /5 updates for the NAC-42, NAC-32, NAXO-2, and NAXO-3. This was to take advantage of the dual-rail power in the Hi-Cap. Up to that point the Hi-Cap still used a SNAIC-4 and used only half its supply. You are correct about the older units being mother/daughter boards. However there were updates for those as well. The American distributor even drilled out a few crossover chassis to accomodate future use of 135s (which NANA and Naim don't do). I try and blot this period of hi-fi history out of my head as there were many customers who bought Hi-Caps and a few months later found out they had to buy a 5-pin SNAIC and spend another $300, just for a mother board for their 32. And the active customers (of which there were luckily few) were a nightmare to sort out. This was also the time when people were upgrading to Karmas from Asaks and needed new phono boards, Valhallas were catching fire, and LP-12 dustcover springs didn't work!! But I digress. In order to save the customer money (and me a big hassle) and being without music for a few weeks, I modified pre-amps and crossovers by simply installing a 5-pin input and splitting the board's power myself. I later found out from JV that the real advantage to the /5 updates wasn't actually the dual-railing but the new grounding schemes. According to JV, I wasn't the only dealer doing DIY mods which is why I mentioned to Paul above not to pay more than a few hundred for a used NAXO; it may not be as current a model as you think.
Phil's advice above is the best; buy it cheap, then send it to Naim to be brought to proper spec.

Ron The Mon,
Arch Kan defender and wall driller.