I have just bought some Mark 1 Kans with Hiquphon OW2 tweeters and hooked them up to my system. The source is an ND555. The level of detail is extraordinary. If you were looking for an argument in favour of source/preamp first this would be a good place to start. It would take some time to get tired if the Kans in this set up [the full-timers are Titan 808s]
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Picture or it didnāt happen 
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We ran a 500/552/NDS into Spendor S5e. Not as diminutive as the Kans but small for a floor stander. They sounded remarkably good. It just shows what a quality signal can do. What they didnāt have was scale, but boy did they revel in the grip, control and detail that got pumped into them.
You have expressed it better than I did - your description is spot on. I have taken advantage of my wife being away to see how the kit sounded with speakers which are about as far apart as you can get from the Titan 808s normally in the room. If my wife hears the Kans I fear that the ā those speakers are too big - whatās wrong with those little ones?ā is a question I would rather not face. So, tonight, the Kans go in my garden room to complement a second system. I also tried the set up with a pair of Royd Edens. The quality of the voice reproduction was something to behold but they didnāt really cope too well with anything too challenging. The Kans seem to cope with a very wide range and considering how small they are the low frequency reproduction is very good. What they lack in scale they have in detail and control, presumably attributable to the 552/NAP500 DR grip
ā¦. A post script: I also thought, wrongly, that investing in a 500 system would be a waste unless partnered with top end speakers. It isnāt. As Harry noted, modest speakers with a very good source and amplification produce engaging music
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Exactly. I have a NDX2/555 and SN3 with my Tablette 10 Signatures, and @GraemeH has taken it far further with ND555, 552 and 250 with his. Small but really high quality speakers are hugely capable. So many rush for bigger and ābetterā speakers rather than feeding those they already have on a top quality diet.
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Indeed. Iām considering trying a 300DR up āemā¦and see how they like that.
G
300/552 worked well for us.
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I have had great fun playing with my old Kans on the end of the main 552/250DR Naim system. I also had fun gathering as many cheap small standmounts as I could muster and giving them a go. IIRC, The Royd Sevens were great fun if a bit unrefined and slightly raucous at times. The Goodmans Maxim2s were just ridiculously good for what was a pair of speakers that had cost me the grand sum of Ā£10 the pair. There were a couple of Missions (750LE and something else?) that were fine if unremarkable. A couple of Tannoys (M1, R1) that were OK - weirdly I think I preferred the cheaper one here. The biggest surprise though was a pair of KEF Coda 7SEs. These weighed about as much as a bag of crisps and I didnāt reckon they would be up to much, but how wrong I was. On serious stands fronted by a serious system these were incredible, and with some sense of scale and some proper refinement too. I think these cost me about Ā£40 the pair. Very impressive.
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I keep toying with the idea of trying out my IBLs in the main system. Even to the extent of watching out for a Snaxo 242. But the thought of moving the Isobariks keeps putting me off. God only knows what shifting 808s around must be like 
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Quite different loudspeakers!
This is the morning after the night before - shoulder aching, muscles aching I did not even know I possessed - the Titans are aptly named. When re-siting them I moved them out a bit. I am just waiting for the reaction but hoping I get away with it. I donāt want to have to move them again!
Listening to the Kans and the Royds and then replacing the 808s had an unanticipated effect: the lightness and detail of the bass response seemed to make the Titansā bass response too big for the room. No doubt I will re-acclimatise
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