Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 31, 2018 15:43:55 GMT
Borrowed one from a mate. It’s a very clear and tidy preamp with a “studio” quality about it. Very good phono stage too. It was a bit clinical for my tastes but I couldn’t fault it objectively.
LK1 is a lot cheaper. You need to make sure you get a fully working one with remote, but I really like them. Kairn is probably cleaner sounding, but is it worth the extra? I’d rathter have an LK1.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 31, 2018 18:02:36 GMT
Biggest bargain out there for me is early Perreaux. SA3,SM2, SM3. All ridiculously good and £250-300 inc a fab phono stage.
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Post by dsjr on Jul 31, 2018 19:29:19 GMT
Anyone got any opinions on these?
Yeah - It's a pile of shite!!!! The Lk1 is even worse and these two are only being talked about 'cos they're LINN!!!!!!
If you don't believe me, compare with the AV5103 set to stereo! This one totally annihilates the Kairn and it starts to reproduce the depth perspective the Kairn can't and the LK1 doesn't even look at...
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 31, 2018 20:01:12 GMT
Yeah - It's a pile of shite!!!! The Lk1 is even worse and these two are only being talked about 'cos they're LINN!!!!!!
The word LINN did get me interested I must admit, but instead of being my usual impulsive self, I thought I'd ask. @westie: thx. Noted And as ever you got two almost diammetrically opposing views I do think you could do better for the money though. Ultimately it will depend on your tastes and the things that matter to you. I actually own a Linn Kolektor. What’s it sound like? No idea. It’s parked with a mate until such time as I have a use for it. Would I buy a Kairn? Not unless it was cheap. An LK1. Definitely. They only sell for £100-120 with a fab phono stage and remote volume. Bargain IMO.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 8:26:24 GMT
I've owned several LK1's at the time (as they evolved it) and worked extensively with the Kairn (my ARC and first Croft were musically better). All we had to compare then initially in the shop was the Naim 72 and that's cack too!!! I forgot the Nakamichi CA7, which was so beautifully constructed but still sounded two dimensional in comparison with its peers from Glenn and also the better US models. The 5103 to the kairn (any generation, there were several...) was like a NAC52 to a 72. If you can, do it and then tell me I'm wrong.. The LK1 may have a 'quiet' phono stage, but the music gets lost and smothered on the way - sorry, but you need to look at a broader view and again, I can't demonstrate what i'm saying The AVI preamp (S2000MP+P) was far more transparent although the phono stage needed 45 minutes or so to come alive (all the ones I dealt with did it, so not just a duff sample)
I remember the Kolektor as needing a HiCap to more fully open it up
The Bryston BP25 was good if left on 24/7. The Quad 77 is also cheap and better, the Myryad preamp if you find one and for balanced outs, the very fist Cyrus preamp I liked (with XLR outputs) and the Meridian 501mk2 (MUST be mk2) and 502. All better imo...
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 8:54:09 GMT
I've owned several Lk1's at the time (as they evolved it) and worked with the Kairn. All we had to compare then was the naim 72 and that's cack too!!! The 5103 to the kairn (any generation, there were several...) was like a NAC52 to a 72. If you can, do it and then tell me I'm wrong.. The LK1 may have a 'quiet' phono stage, but the music gets lost and smothered on the way - sorry, but you need to look at a broader view and again, I can't demonstrate what i'm saying The AVI preamp (S2000MP+P) was far more transparent although the phono stage needed 45 minutes or so to come alive (all the ones I dealt with did it, sonot just a duff sample) I’m not sure what a “broader view” would be. The same as yours perhaps? I box-swapped incessantly for 30 years up to 2016. In that time I have listened to far more than most and I know what I like and don’t like. It rarely aligns with what you like but so what? I don’t understand why it’s always a problem for you when other people make different choices. I think we simply have very different tastes in the vast majority of instances. Our opinions based on hearing the same gear are often polar opposites. To me it really highlights just how important it is to trust your own ears because we clearly don’t look for the same things or value the same attributes. It doesn’t make either of us “wrong”: Just different. I have never heard a 52, but I have liked the 72s I’ve owned. I have enjoyed many a Naim phono stage in my time, although there are better ones IMO, including the Linn. I’ve had a few Lk1s and never once felt the phono stage was lacking. I've compared it to many others too, includimg older NVA and my Michell Iso. Nothing smothered or missing for me. I haven’t heard the 5103 at all. It’s a later generation and has too much going on internally to really interest me. I’m happy to take your word on it being better though. It won’t be available for £100 any time soon though. It must have been tough to sell all that Linn and Naim kit whilst despising it so much. Then again, I guess you were simply demonstrating what the customer asked for and they bought what they liked. It would’ve frustrated me and I would’ve wanted to work for a dealer who stocked the stuff I liked. I always liked the stuff and probably always will, although I do like other sounds too these days.
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Post by macca on Aug 1, 2018 11:45:30 GMT
I had an LK1 for a few years. It wasn't that bad for £140. I'm struggling to think of an active pre-amp you can pick up for that little that would be as good.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 12:42:01 GMT
That was my point, Martin, I’ve had them for as low as £50. The most i have paid was £120 with remoate. Evan as a phono amp they are better than anythjng you could get at that price. Remote volume too. They can really sound good if supympathetically paired. I even ran one with a KSA50MK1 and that certainly raised my opinion of what they are capable of. Might not be to all tastes but they certainly aren’t universally crap either.
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Post by macca on Aug 1, 2018 12:49:43 GMT
Good build quality too, and no moving parts to break or seize up. I'm thinking about getting another one now You see this is why I closed my eBay account...
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 12:50:55 GMT
Westie - You've box-swapped your way around mid price mainstream Linn-Nail-Fi and equivalents from what i can see, with maybe a smattering of better gear in between - have you had a top ARC, Krell (Pam 7 onwards), Levinson or hell, even CROFT preamp your way for any length of time?. I don't know if Sonneteer make a preamp, but if they did, with say, a Sedley built in, it would be on a different plane of existence to any of the crap Linn, Naim and Quad made in the mid 80's!
I'm seriously not trying to be patronising here, but the 80's UK audio scene was in dire straights by and large, with Linn, Naim and their wannabe hangers on strangling the Sh#t out of the music on offer. All this gear was bought by people my age then (around 30) with £500 upgrade money to spend too.......
I had a number of experiences thirty years ago which changed my outlook on domestic audio for ever! Unlike many of my Linn-Naim peers, I attended live orchestral concerts in good venues and couldn't understand now the Linn-Naim systems we sold and enthused over couldn't usually sound anything remotely like real life. My now departed friend with the Quad 44/405/57's got far closer, but all of these systems were 'airless. Jimmy had his three Krell 50's and these were superbly delicate into his Isobariks (early chipboard ones) and even the Naim crossover easn't so bad with a DNM preamp feeding them (hideous lengths of interconnects too as the preamp was easily ten metres away and the NAXO in between...
Naim 32.5 and 72 sound up-front, dry, airless and no real inner details, which the fruitbox masked well but CD didn't! The Quad 34/306 was 'nice' on simple chamber music but gutless on anything percussive (I admit the 34 may be the main culprit here) and the later much improved 44/405-2 was too little too late in many respects - Less harsh than the Naims though but no difficult speaker driving ability.
Then Linn upset naim and most of the cosy-blinkered dealers with the LK1 and Lk2. I didn't feel hugely guitly trying one to replace my Naim but when I did, I suddenly found strings sounded more realistic (less harsh and chrome plated even before the Scan 2008 added its own character). The sound was still dry and airless though but I didn't know much better in 1985. Within a year, the preamp improved a bit and so did the Lk2, now in 2-75 issue, which a lot of bodging piggy-backed on the original board. Naim got supremely pissed off and ex-communicated me for a while after a disastrous dem they gave in the huge Salisbury dem-room (JV told me I didn't know what a good sound was any more, lit a roly and skulked off to his workshop!!!!!!)
Major changes for me in the late 80's were the live jazz trio at the pub near Ruthin (big speakers with some authority or no speakers for me, frankly), Linn showing me plus a colleague how awful their version of top vinyl replay was (it really was truly dire in the pre-Cirkus-Troika-Ittok days)and this was finally capped off with my being introduced to Hi Fi Dave at Radlett Audio. After a slightly cool greeting, I thanked him for allowing me to visit, started asking schoolboy questions about the different gear he was selling and a thirty year precious friendship was forged. he had an ARC SP9/D-70 (the latter blowing up regularly as it wasn't properly optimised for UK mains apparently), he introduced me to Glenn Croft's second generation work (preamps were in black oblong boxes with mesh tops), E.A.R, Roland Research (which took ages to properly 'warm up) and pro-Ac speakers, of which the Response 2's became a favourite. As for sources, NAS turntables blew the LP12 away, the Gyro was ok but not as precise as the Spacedeck and Omega Point, and he also had some DPA as well and I bought a PDM1mk2 with Croft mains filter which sounded superb at home.
Final change was a final visit to Naim (JV had mellowed a bit towards me 'cos a customer [who became a lifelong friend] bought a six-pack 135 system, but needed to return two of them as they drifted off and began running too hot, setting the noisy fans off - common in active Naim setups) and hearing the very fist 52 preamp (with hinged perspex drop-over door. the first time I'd EVER heard a Naim system reproduce air and space properly (I'd had the Nak CA7 and ARC SP14 by this time and was using Tube Technology Genesis valve mono's by this time into ES14's - fantastic if over-expensive system and each of the amps ate their quartet of EL34's in a year, or 500 hours roughly).
So, apologies for dissing a Linn preamp, but compared with what I'd become used to, they really weren't good at all. Even when I returned to a Linn-naim-Rega dealership in 1998, 'we' were linked to KJ then and had access to other gear, which again sounded so much better although nobody in Northampton wished to spend that amount, so 82/Supercaps it was (I liked the 82), the Kairn on dem became the 5103 which again to me, showed the later Klouts could 'do' air and space given a chance and of course the preamp upgrade showed how much better the Karik III/Numerik III could be - the early Ikemi wasn't nice but the later ones were...
Just my potted vibe from the times. By the time I was working in Northampton, my own stereo was in a Sh#t state, but that's another story...
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 12:52:14 GMT
Good build quality too, and no moving parts to break or seize up. I'm thinking about getting another one now You see this is why I closed my eBay account... LK1's - beware burned out main boards on some used 24/7 for a few years!
I doubt you'd find a Kairn for £100 would you?
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 13:23:25 GMT
Dave. Yes I have had better stuff including an ARC SP8, MF MVX, LFD, and others. I also use an Iso which is the same as Tom Evans Microgroove, which some have preferred to the Sedley. I also have mates who have been through more Krell, Levinson and ARC than you would believe. I’ve heard loads of the stuff first hand. There is better to be had, but it isn’t in “another plane of existence” as far as I’m concerned. Not even close.
But you’re completely missing the point or trying to divert it. Sure, if you have big bucks to splash you will likely beat an LK1 and a Kairn’s phonostage and most other parameters too. the OP wasn’t in that ball park so it’s pointless. Would you normally say something costing a few hundred quid is utter crap just because something costing way more trumps it? Of course not. You even had a go at the OP’s motivations because of the brand.
Increasingly, every time you pop up it seems you are out to diss Linn and Naim, Spam NVA or tell others their opinions are wrong and somehow don’t count in comparison to yours. I don’t doubt or seek to devalue your experience, but there is a huge difference between experience and taste, which you don’t seem to grasp. We have had this same argument across many forums for 5 years. You also know I’m far from being the only one to be irked by it. I just don’t know how you can have sold so much Linn and Naim for decades only to come out with all this dissing now. If you don’t like the gear, just say so. No need to try and override or devalue the opinions of those who do. You have so much that is positive to offer without doing this.
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Post by macca on Aug 1, 2018 15:06:32 GMT
It doesn't irk me, I'm always interested in what Dave says even if I disagree with it.
But the point remains - an LK1 may not be the best pre-amp ever, or even the best pre-amp of the 1980s. But for less than a ton you can't really fault it. (Unless it's faulty).
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 15:24:07 GMT
I diss them because looking back they deserve it, a lot of what they made isn't competitive on the world stage, we were prevented from exploring other brands a lot of the time and we had the wool pulled over our eyes for a very long time in my experience, plus the fact we had a totally brainwashed sales director who was all but dictatorial in his dogma, but we were young and ripe for a domesticated PA system which couldn't reproduce voice or acoustic instruments that well at the time (the Ninka and Espek properly driven were in a different universe from the screechy boxes made in the 80's - compare them and see!). Just get a listen to some seriously decent stuff and then see if you feel the same - the SP8 was soft toned and again, not strictly neutral, but many ARC fans wanted this colour and the FET preamps they did only lasted a very few years. If you want to stay stuck in 1985 with the UK lines available then to dealers and punters who knew no better, that's fine by me and I'll back off. Not honestly sure you're actually reading what I'm typing either, just reacting to the obvious. I've heard this effin stuff in repeated comparisons and for *me* what I'm saying is real. If I haven't heard I say so or don't comment!
I had my head blown off with cheaper and BETTER SOUNDING gear back in 1988 or so and the sanctimonious attitude that Naim and Rega had back then and Linn's recent cruel price increases too, was beginning to rankle. There was a bit of a crisis in all honesty and my manager and I, when we knew he was taking over the home-counties store in the early 90's, were taking prospective clients to ATC and selling them that way as the main store wasn't interested - the ATC salkes were easy then as at the time, they were so much better than anything Linn or Naim could manage in active form and rather cheaper too. I can't take you to that time and the comparisons I made, but even the ARC SP14 was replaced with a Croft 4PP at home which sounded pretty much the same (my first one did, the second one sounded softer) and cost a little over a third of the price of the US model. The Genesis mono's should have been an EAR 509 pair looking back, but they were better than the Nak PA5mk2 and this in turn was better in direct comparison with naim 135's. I've already said how much better the Naim 52 and 82 were over the 72 and 102 which replaced it (why i can't take a 72 seriously these days). The Croft was better again in comparison for £900 all in! The Spacedeck out-performed a fruitbox in all the musical ways the LP12 was supposed to be better in - I've explained all this before, but don't think anyone's bothered to read.
There was some really good alternative stuff around thirty years ago, so good in fact that I just couldn't even look at an LK1 these days (it's got a quiet MC stage). Can you buy a Kairn for a hundred quid? Have you compared either with the 5103? This latter was so much better it make the other two all but unlistenable as so much music is missing through their line stages. We obviously listen to different things in recorded music, but the last thing I want these days is an up-front, dry and lifeless presentation with band limiting, remote control and qwuiet MC stage be damned!
Best I back off again and retreat. I can't dem you the effin' stuff, but had you been there with these experiences, you might begin to understand where I'm at today... I've never been a true box-swapper, as I tended to want to get to know the gear that passed through my hands so I can remember it better.
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Post by nonuffin on Aug 1, 2018 15:35:58 GMT
I had an LK1 around 10 years ago and it lacked any real vitality and dynamics, so I can see why people who preferred a "mellow" sound loved it.
I paid £130 for my Rotel RC-03 pre which has remote control and I wouldn't swap it for an LK1 for sure, so there are other inexpensive pres with good performance available.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 16:06:14 GMT
It doesn't irk me, I'm always interested in what Dave says even if I disagree with it. But the point remains - an LK1 may not be the best pre-amp ever, or even the best pre-amp of the 1980s. But for less than a ton you can't really fault it. (Unless it's faulty). Disagreement is natural,and welcome. It’s telling people you are right and they are wrong that winds me up. There are many ways to do this hifi thing and what one person hates, another can and will often love. To me it insults the intelligence of the thousands of people who bought Linn and Naim on demonstration to suggest they were soemhow conned or bought something that sounded crap. Loads of people still enjoy this stuff today and won’t change because they like what they hear even when compared to other kit. Sure, it will do some things badly, but it will do other things very well. And people have very different priorities and tastes. I can understand people “moving on “and discovering stuff they like better, but that doesn’t mean the stuff you once owned and enjoyed is now “utter crap” or “even worse”, Moreover, it certainly doesn’t mean that any8ne else who still likes the stuff you’ve moved on from is deluded, wrong-headed or lacking in any way. Dave has clearly been smitten by NVA over the last few years. I’ve liked and used NVA since 1986 but I like other stuff too. I remember my NVA pre power with MC phono stage and 4 PSUs being replaced by a Linn Intek, which was superior IMO, especially on vinyl. Would someone else make the same choice? Yes and no. The buyer of the NVA and his mate listened to them comparatively. The buyer slightly preferred the NVAs, nis mate strongly preferred the Intek. There was no right or wrong. No “utter crap” and no absolutes. Just 3 blokes listening and having their own preferences. It’s often wrong to assume that someone’s different tastes are down to simply not having heard enough “good” stuff or that they somehow need educating. Worse still that their own experiences are somehow “wrong” or less worthy than someone else’s. It’s not a religion. No conversions needed. We can all worship our own Gods even if others think they are false.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 17:28:47 GMT
I moved on and now couldn't live with what I once thought was good. This was made worse for me in a way because I was discovering better products at lower prices and finding as the 90's began, people were becoming entrenched in a particular sonic ideal, one I found increasingly compromised. I discovered gear that presented reverb and atmosphere in a recoding very well. Coupled with 'good musical tunes' (for want of a better term), I was happy at last. the big ATC's did it when pushed hard, but I couldn't live with them now as they were, as I could never play them loud enough. I've said many times, what I regard as good, bad and/or crap is my opinion only and wherever possible, I've given reasons why and how i reached my opinion. I disagree with the power amp part of the review as several LK280's I had at home all sounded grainy to me and even after six months 24/7, I couldn't clear it - a UK review suggested that distortion at the power amp input was being amplified by the rest of the amp and the review below avoided distortion tests by the look of it. I also compared my run-in 280 to a pair of original LK1's used as single channel mono amps into Isobariks and we found the 280 made the sound forced as if the music was being squirted through a toothpaste tube and in *this* system, the LK2's didn't sound 'grey' at all. I'm also rather angry that my negative opinions of my NS1000's were almost certainly due to the Lk1/280 I used at the time. Have a look here - I'd have probably gone for the Adcom had I known it existed back then - www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/789linn/index.html
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 17:55:22 GMT
I moved on and now couldn't live with what I once thought was good. This was made worse for me in a way because I was discovering better products at lower prices and finding as the 90's began, people were becoming entrenched in a particular sonic ideal, one I found increasingly compromised. I discovered gear that presented reverb and atmosphere in a recoding very well. Coupled with 'good musical tunes' (for want of a better term), I was happy at last. the big ATC's did it when pushed hard, but I couldn't live with them now as they were, as I could never play them loud enough. I've said many times, what I regard as good, bad and/or crap is my opinion only and wherever possible, I've given reasons why and how i reached my opinion. I disagree with the power amp part of the review as several LK280's I had at home all sounded grainy to me and even after six months 24/7, I couldn't clear it - a UK review suggested that distortion at the power amp input was being amplified by the rest of the amp and the review below avoided distortion tests by the look of it. I also compared my run-in 280 to a pair of original LK1's used as single channel mono amps into Isobariks and we found the 280 made the sound forced as if the music was being squirted through a toothpaste tube and in *this* system, the LK2's didn't sound 'grey' at all. I'm also rather angry that my negative opinions of my NS1000's were almost certainly due to the Lk1/280 I used at the time. Have a look here - I'd have probably gone for the Adcom had I known it existed back then - www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/789linn/index.htmlRemember the times when you used to make love to the Rega Brio-R? Once you stuck your tongue down it's throat. God, I'll never forget that!! S.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 18:00:10 GMT
Adcom power amps in particular are really good to my ears, not just good value either. good in their own right. About as un-sexy as you will get though. I think they would do particularly well in a blind test. Could I live with one long term? Yep, I could.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 18:01:41 GMT
Adcom power amps in particular are really good to my ears, not just good value either. good in their own right. About as un-sexy as you will get though. I think they would do particularly well in a blind test. Could I live with one long term? Yep, I could. So not worthy of making your dick go hard then? S.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 18:02:41 GMT
Adcom power amps in particular are really good to my ears, not just good value either. good in their own right. About as un-sexy as you will get though. I think they would do particularly well in a blind test. Could I live with one long term? Yep, I could. So not worthy of making your dick go hard then? S. Not without a paper bag over its head
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 1, 2018 18:04:36 GMT
The GFA 555 reminded me very much of the Aragon 4004 mk2. Not as pretty though. Probably not quite as good either but that’s a damn good amp IMO.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 1, 2018 19:40:37 GMT
Remember the times when you used to make love to the Rega Brio-R? Once you stuck your tongue down it's throat. God, I'll never forget that!! S. Shane, that's not appropriate, we're grown ups here...
Go back several years to a time before I knew NVA. What other retailer bought new £550 integrated amps would you have with a phono stage and remote control, plus a basically honest stab at reproducing music?
Arcam? Rotel? Cambridge? Yamaha?
The Yamaha looks retro-cool and has around 100WPC on tap it appears, but sounds rather soul-less and bland with it. Arcams became bland but it's a very long time since I heard one, Rotel as well. Maybe Onkyo did something, I don't know.
For me here, the Brio R remains a good little amp, reliable, great after-care and a good honest sound, if not the thing Top End is made of. A great modern-day Creek 4040, NAD 3020 or A60 or similar kind of amp and it looks cool as well. What's not to like about it? Sounds sublime driving RX3's and fed with Apollo R (or a Planar 6/Ania/Fono MC to taste) nd ast the Audio east show playing such a system, the Rega room made a better musical and entertaining sound than all the others except the Levinson driven (£££ ouch!) JBL 4367's I thought. Everything else sounded so bland I put it down to my ears, but the Rega system entertained...
Sure, an AP20 is better musically to my ears and tastes, but there's no phono stage or remote and the whole baggage around the brand doesn't suit everyone.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 2, 2018 12:37:03 GMT
You lot have me thinking and I apologise again humbly for being forthright, but the experiences I rather forcefully put forward are real to me... I don't NEED a phono stage, but a cheap MC one would be handy and I know a couple of little tricks with a typical LK1 which may help a little...
First to find a not too early one for peanuts and then see what's what. If the board is salvageable (samples used 24/7 may have heat damage around the regulators as happened to one or two I remember - and Linn no longer have spares I believe).
I can't look at a Kairn as they fetch too much money and I have other (better for me) alternatives to look at - and I sold my last AVI a few years ago on AOS as it just sat there unused, only coming out as a general reference...
By the way, according to the Linn forum, Linn no longer support the Kairn either - and apparently, power supplies can fail...
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Post by macca on Aug 2, 2018 13:45:37 GMT
I bet there is nothing in either the Lk1 or the Kairn that a competent engineer can't fix. I've always regarded this fixation with whether the manufacturer 'has spares' to be one of the more amusing things about hi-fi enthusiasts.
I mean it's an amplifier, not the space shuttle. It can always be fixed even if the manufacturer went out of business a century ago. Even if there is a specific op-amp that is no longer made there will still be a work-around. Although admittedly that will take more time and money.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 2, 2018 16:50:30 GMT
I'm looking around now too macca, for the reasons you've given BUT...
The LK1 is a REMOTE CONTROL preamp, with apparently a remote board on the front panel that has a circuit-track-eating battery (so do Quad 34/FM4 and so on) and it seems an eprom that loses it so the whole thing becomes unusable (I've been doing some reading between work sessions). I've already warned about the on-board regulators cooking some unfortunate samples although since this amp didn't need 24/7 operation, most have survived this. The remote isn't usual Philips spec either, so you need a working one to copy the codes across to a learning type. The electrolytic caps may not need replacing as I think there was enough margin and comments I read indicate the numerous tants there may be one of the sonic 'issues.' The boards were high quality and used through hole connections and I remember they're more difficult to de-solder/re-solder, but that may be my skills at the time which are rather more honed today...
Kairns are £400+ so not worth (my) looking at when there are others that to me, let more music through, even if they don't look as stylish or slick to use.
So, now to find a good working LK1 that hasn't been butchered or case-trashed around, with remote and for a ton...
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 2, 2018 17:24:03 GMT
I'm looking around now too macca, for the reasons you've given BUT... The LK1 is a REMOTE CONTROL preamp, with apparently a remote board on the front panel that has a circuit-track-eating battery (so do Quad 34/FM4 and so on) and it seems an eprom that loses it so the whole thing becomes unusable (I've been doing some reading between work sessions). I've already warned about the on-board regulators cooking some unfortunate samples although since this amp didn't need 24/7 operation, most have survived this. The remote isn't usual Philips spec either, so you need a working one to copy the codes across to a learning type. The electrolytic caps may not need replacing as I think there was enough margin and comments I read indicate the numerous tants there may be one of the sonic 'issues.' The boards were high quality and used through hole connections and I remember they're more difficult to de-solder/re-solder, but that may be my skills at the time which are rather more honed today... Kairns are £400+ so not worth (my) looking at when there are others that to me, let more music through, even if they don't look as stylish or slick to use. So, now to find a good working LK1 that hasn't been butchered or case-trashed around, with remote and for a ton... I'm honestly not sure how many LK1s ive had. I'd guess about 8. £50-120 paid. Probaby spent a couple of years using them. The batteries can need replacing but pretty much all else is good IME. Mates have had them too. Only one needed a repair. Darran at Class A is the man for these. Remote is a BARCO model and the codes are available but just buy one with a remote. Or look for one with a "non working" front panel for peanuts. Chances are its been locked by a former user, and pressing two buttons at once can unlock it. I've had two like that It was a feature to stop tiny fingers interfering and leaving it operated only by remote. Unbeatable for the money but maybe I should just keep sctum and let those in the know enjoy such agreat argain
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2018 17:25:23 GMT
DSJR,
Stop humping that AP20!!!!
S.
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Post by dsjr on Aug 2, 2018 17:27:25 GMT
Oh FFS!!!!! Not funny. Not funny at all
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2018 17:28:52 GMT
People, you must be 18 or over to chat with DSJR.
I'll get my coat.
S.
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