Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

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bonzo
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Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by bonzo »

So the recent possibility of acquiring a or of Komri’s has got me thinking and wanting to try different speakers. I’ve only owned Kaber, 212s, Keileidh Tukans, and 242s. I’d really like to try different manufacturers. I’m a sucker for Sonus Faber, the older models as well as interested in Harbeth, Dynaudio, and Totem.. the jbl that many have simply aren’t an option. Ideally I’d like to pick up a pair of used/ex dem speakers and see how things go.. try them with and without my sub, and if I don’t like, sell and try something else. (I’m not unhappy with my 242s and don’t think I’d ever sell them, I’d simply like to listen to more speakers with my system. Am I crazy for wanting to do this? Any suggestions?

Thank you for taking time to read this.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Matteo »

A lot of options out there (Spendor, Klangedang, Neat etc.).

I'm tempting to try a very low-budget speakers (Mission LX-2, 180 €) and compare them to my mod. M109 ...

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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Ianw »

I’m running 242mk 2 with Solos D so I know the speaker.

I’ve heard a pair of Sonus Faber floor standers, can’t remember model, but around £10k. I was very impressed by their beautiful musical rendition. Not overpowering at all but like liquid chocolate. Can’t remember the amps I’m afraid.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by matthias »

bonzo wrote: 2019-06-03 17:40 .......the jbl that many have simply aren’t an option.
Jon,
may I ask why?

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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by bonzo »

Matt,
Of course you can ask. My bride does not care for them at all, which I am ok with that. She’s Always been 100% on board with gear I’ve purchased. I have no problem taking one for the team
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by bonzo »

Ian,
May I ask what sources you are currently using with your solos and 242‘s? When you listened to the Sonus Faber floorstanders, did you have N opinion on how they compared to 242s?
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Ianw »

Full house Klimax LP12 (everything), Klimax Radikal D fed into Klimax DSM/2 Katalyst, 2 x Solos D, 242 Mk2 with upgrade stands and positioned.l by the Tune method. So my system is passive.

The audition of the Sonus Faber was in a dealer listening room using Moon amps I think with Klimax LP12 and Dynavector DRt ? Cartridge.

So a completely different system to mine. In this configuration the Sonus Fabers were very smooth and musical; the opposite from instantly impressive, so gave the impression one could listen to all night. Not saying they are “better” than 242 but they are a quality act. Could be an off the wall choice but a home audition in your room and system a must.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Geoff »

Great idea! You read my mind. The beauty of my Exaktbox-i is I can haz almost any speaker in the world, Exakt aktiv. I've got a pair of 104's on the sea as I type as hors d'oeuvres. I'm waiting for a cheap ratty pair of 212's to surface too, if you know of any....
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Defender »

I can completely understand you
Those companies come are on my list in case money comes in as surprise
Vandersteen
Dynaudio
Verity Audio
actually in that order.

The best is to trust people who hear many varieties and in that case I think Thomas is a good source of experience.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by pblang »

I did just that at the start of the summer. I fell for a pristine pair of s/h Proac Response D38’s. They are passively biamped by my A4200 and I am extremely happy. New Linn speakers are too expensive and require too many channels of amplification for my modest finances.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by lejonklou »

pblang wrote: 2019-08-24 16:08I did just that at the start of the summer. I fell for a pristine pair of s/h Proac Response D38’s. They are passively biamped by my A4200 and I am extremely happy. New Linn speakers are too expensive and require too many channels of amplification for my modest finances.
Have you tested using only two channels of your power amplifier and single amp, single wire your speakers?
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by pblang »

lejonklou wrote: 2019-08-24 16:36
pblang wrote: 2019-08-24 16:08I did just that at the start of the summer. I fell for a pristine pair of s/h Proac Response D38’s. They are passively biamped by my A4200 and I am extremely happy. New Linn speakers are too expensive and require too many channels of amplification for my modest finances.
Have you tested using only two channels of your power amplifier and single amp, single wire your speakers?
Honestly no, I went straight to biamping. For some silly reason, I didn’t want to « waste » 2 channels! Also I read that the Proacs at 4 ohms were hungry so I figured I would feed them with 4 x 200w...

Do you think I should try? But I only have the factory jumpers...
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by tokenbrit »

From personal experience with 4200 and Spendors, not ProAcs, it's definitely worth trying, even if it's only with factory jumpers... Biamped sounded bigger, but single amped, single wired, was unquestionably more musical in my system at the time. Easy to try; easy to put back if you don't think it works with the ProAcs - let us know what you think.

Meant to add that you can try the different speaker terminals too: treble vs woofer with the single wiring. Also, not all channels are created equal. At least they were not in my 4200 so you can play with finding the best two channels of your four channel amp and use those.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by snatex »

Anyone find a new speaker paring that tops Linn or 3677 with Lejonklou components?
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by mbabst »

Seems like people don't like Harbeth here but the Super HL5+ is a phenomenal speaker. The Piega Coax Speaker range is also great.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Spannko »

The Shahinian Compass are pretty good, but I’ve never heard them with Lejonklou amps.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Charlie1 »

There's a Swedish Lejonklou dealer that rates the little Jern speakers but that's more as an alternative to Kans.

If they don't see this thread then you could PM David Neel about this Grahams LS5/9s or sunbeamgls about his PMC 20.26s. I recall sunbeam saying that other PMC speakers in the range at that time were not so much to his liking.

I don't think you need to worry too much about finding high efficiency speakers like the JBLs. If a Tundra Stereo 2.5 will grip Majik 140 bass better than an Akurate 2200/D then it can't be too fussy. Even a Boazu is not like a Nait that will sound thin unless using very efficient speakers.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by mrco99 »

Graham Audio speakers work very well with Lejonklou amplification.
Monitors LS6, LS5/9 and their floorstander version 5/9F are great musical speakers.

Also I have high hopes of their newest BBC model, BC1 due to be released in June. This is a 3-way monitor that originally has been developed 50y ago for professional use by the BBC but eventually also found its way to domestic environments.

This new model has been engineered for Graham by Derek Hughes, son of Spendor founders Spencer & Dorothy Hughes.
Last edited by mrco99 on 2021-05-06 16:31, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by David Neel »

mrco99 wrote: 2021-05-05 18:45 Graham Audio speakers work very well with Lejonklou amplification.
Monitors LS6, LS5/9 and their floorstander version 5/9F are great musical speakers.

Also I have high hopes of their newest BBC model, BC1 due to be released in June. This is a 3-way monitor that originally has been developed 50y ago for professional use by the BBC but eventually also found its way to domestic environments.

This new model has been engineered for Graham by Derek Hughes, son of Spendor founder Spencer Hughes.
I lack extensive comparison with other brands of speakers, but I was always happy to listen to my Linn dealer's LS5/9s, bringing back good memories of the Spendor BC1 from 45 years ago. Despite that, when my dealer put his passive Akubariks up for sale ex-demo, I wanted them. I took my four monos along, and we listened. About thirty seconds before I wrote a cheque, he insisted we also listen to the Grahams. Why?? I wanted the Akubariks, a speaker I had always preferred to 350s. That feeling lasted only a few minutes...

The Grahams are more natural, organic, coherent and musical than Akubariks. They also (this really surprised me, two-way vs five-way) require the volume level to be cranked up, compared to Akubariks. Almost three years on, their only failing (to me) is that they require some free space, rather than working best hard against a wall.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by macrotech2 »

Avalon Idea Mk 2 are driven beautifully by Lejonklou amps.
They require a lower volume setting than Akubariks and Majik 109s.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by ThomasOK »

I didn't initially answer this as the requests seemed to be for personal experience of speakers that top well known choices like the Linn 242 and other Linns or the JBL 3677. I haven't dragged a whole lot of speakers home to try in my system (too heavy, to upsetting to the system) so I wasn't going to comment based on personal experience. I do find the Lejonklou amps to be wonderful and ideal with the original Quad ELS (also called the 57) but that isn't exactly a current item. I also found the Tundra Monos to work wonderfully with my ATC SCM100s when I had converted them to passive, although ultimate loudness in a large room would be limited.

But I think the better question in some ways would be "What speakers don't work well with Lejonklou amps?" Since the speaker is the last item in the chain it is the least important in terms of the quality of the music you hear. So as long as it will play loud enough for you pretty much any speaker that sounds good to you will sound better driven by a quality source and Lejonklou electronics. Speakers do have a big effect on the cosmetics of the sound and there are a wide range of preferences. But you will find in the various reviews out there that the reviewers find Lejonklou to sound wonderful with all sorts of speakers. David Abramson, who gave the Boazu a rave review and bought his review sample, has used it with Xavian Peria Esclusiva monitors, Tekton Lore Ref and Dali Oberon 5s in his review and loved it with all of them. He has also found it to be quite good with the little Quad S2 monitors and commented that Sonus Fabers or JM Reynauds or Xavians or Spendors or Harbeths should work great with a Boazu. I have found them to drive most Dynaudios and PSBs quite well and to work well with some Vandersteens in most rooms. Another reviewer, who also bought a Boazu, uses a pair of Auditorium 23 single-driver, open baffle, horn type speakers and loves that combination. Others I have heard work well from dealers are Line Magnetic horn loaded speakers with their recreation of the Western Electric drivers, DeVore speakers, especially the Orangutan series, Manger speakers and the Wharfedale Lintons and Dentons I have been told by a couple of dealers that the JM Reynaud speakers in their latest versions are an exceptional match and I plan to check them out when I can.

As has been mentioned there are members of the forum who use Harbeth, Graham and PMC speakers and I have customers who love them with original Linn Isobariks and new units like Majik 140s or passive Akudoriks. I believe another forum member was using Totems and quite pleased with the combo.

So I would say that you should listen to see what you like with other reasonably good equipment in front of it and you will almost always find that it will be more musical with Lejonklou amps in the driver seat.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Whatsmynaim »

Maybe use the videos in the Playground as help. Out of all videos you've heard, pick the one you think sounded the best and get the same type of speakers as the ones in the video. Then you know they can sound at least that good :)
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by Kantata Audio »

What about Kudos Audio?

Very flexible, great sounding speakers which sound great with Lejonklou.

Currently running the range topping Titan 808s with a Sagatun and Tundra. The 808s are very easily driven and work superbly with the Tundra.

The Kudos Titan range (or Super 10A's and Super 20A's) are very easily converted to active (30 sec job for both speakers!) and can be used with Linn Exakt, Devialet, Naim or Exposure VXN crossovers.

You will also save yourself a small fortune in power amps over Linn!! Only 4 channels required for any model except for the T808 (6 channels).

Just a thought.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by macrotech2 »

Good to hear the 808s are easily driven. Not so the 606s from my experience. It’s the only time I’ve heard a Tundra clip, in a demo a few years ago.
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Re: Mixing things up.. non Linn speakers?

Post by matthias »

macrotech2 wrote: 2021-05-11 08:10 Not so the 606s from my experience. It’s the only time I’ve heard a Tundra clip, in a demo a few years ago.
Understandable,
606s have with 84dB a crazy low sensitivity, the 808s have 91dB for example.

Matt
Last edited by matthias on 2021-05-17 09:09, edited 1 time in total.
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