soundberry Linn Kan Review

Performance: Not surprisingly, this no-grille frame approach, along with its point-source radiation pattern, allows the KAN to image like crazy. Voices and instruments occupy their own very specific place within the KANs' large, holographic sound field. To hear what I mean, try a truly great recording such as the recent Roy Gaines CD, I Got The T-Bone Walker Blues. One hallmark of Linn speakers has always been a superb sense of dynamic shading, which not only makes them sound quick and lively, but also contributes to their great sense of musical timing and pace. The KANs' ability to follow the most looping Coltrane saxophone solo or the deft interplay of a string quartet will bring to mind Fred Astaire's effortless feets (I mean feats) on the dance floor. Value: I powered the KANs with Linn's nifty CLASSIK, an excellent-sounding $1700 single-chassis integrated amp with a built-in CD player. Indeed, the KAN was designed as a companion to the CLASSIK, and together they make up a simple, smart and wonderful-sounding $2200 system. Rating: E E E E

Linn's first Kan appeared way back in 1980, and was actually based on the same veneered birch-ply enclosure used by the highly respected BBC LS3/5A design. Linn had its own ideas about crossover networks, and subsequently drive units, so the lookalike was anything but a soundalike. The sonic contrast couldn't have been greater, which is maybe why the Kan too developed a loyal cult following.

The true successor to the original Kan is Linn's £550 real-wood-veneered Tukan (LS3/5As now cost around £700), but the initial Kan intention was always to provide an entry-level speaker, which the Tukan is not. Hence this £295 revival of the original Kan name and concept, which is brought up to date with a vinyl finish, carbon fibre cone, ceramic tweeter and offshore (Taiwan) manufacture.

Like its predecessor, the new Kan feels immensely solidly built, and if it's by no means the heaviest in our test group, it is just about the smallest. In fact the enclosure itself is exactly the same size as the original Kan (and 3/5A), only instead of a front baffle which is inset by a grille's thickness, the new Kan's baffle stands proud by a full 20mm, so the actual enclosed volume is larger.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was discovering a small port set into the bottom corner of the rear panel. The original Kan's sealed-box alignment made a good wall-mount room-match, but its extra subsonic stability was more relevant to the vinyl era than to today's CD dominated scene. Adding a port does aid overall efficiency, and allows the new Kan to be used a little further out from the wall than its predecessor, improving midband coloration in consequence. The bass driver uses carbon fibre composite for both 92mm cone and dust dome, while the 19mm tweeter has a ceramic dome.

You can simply bung the Kan up on a shelf and forget about it, but the in-room responses do suggest that some experiment with proper stands and placement will pay worthwhile dividends. Moving them about a foot from the wall helped to smooth out the midrange while still providing ample bass output down to 50Hz. It's still not the smoothest midband around, retaining a measure of classic Kan forwardness, but the treble looks very well judged.

The Kans produced a strong showing in the formal listening tests, albeit with one dissenter, and attracted praise for the good impression of scale and weight. The sound is a little pinched, nasal and shut in, but it's also expressive, with good dynamic range and a degree of genuine bass drive which is rare in something so small and relatively inexpensive.

Its strongest feature is probably the way the bass and box manage to avoid cluttering everything else up. Timing is predictably good too, making it that much easier to pick up on all the musical activity right across the band. The midband might not be the sweetest or most gracious sounding cosmetically, but treble is clean and clear, if a little over-cautiously balanced.

I have a friend who has been using the original Kan since 1981, so I couldn't resist introducing him to this new version. Although we both preferred the more open midband of the originals, the new Kan does retain much of the spirit and charm of its ancestor.

The fact than the Kan costs £300 and has only a vinyl finish might militate against it on perceived value for money grounds, but the resources seem instead to have gone into solid engineering. Its bass drive and dynamic range is quite exceptional, and the overall communication skills are high enough to merit Recommendation.