Hello, Richard, I had Kans many years ago, which I bought from Fleabay (or similar) for not a lot, as the cabinets were tatty (although the drive units were fine). I filled in the dings with wood filler, and sanded and sealed them, and used them for a few years until my elder son “borrowed” them to make up a sound system when he went off to Edinburgh Uni.
He still has them today, now with a glorious piano black n-Sub, which I found from a seller in Cricklewood (or somewhere in London), for which I handed over quite a large wad of “folding” (as Arthur Daley would say) some years ago.
Merry Xmas to you, sir, kick off your shoes and have a couple of decent bottles of the red stuff!
As for bass, I think it depends on what you consider to be bass response and good! For me that means full undiminished output down to 30 Hz or lower as well as taut, to hear (and feel) fundamentals of the lowest recorded notes, not just fill in from their harmonics.
I owned either Kan 1 & 2 ('87 & '91) different now IBL S1, different times & systems, Kan at their best with analoghe. Overall i prefer IBLs now. However, nostalgia sake, i’d like to own a pair of Kan 1 again.
Merry Xmas you all.
Early MK 1 with Scanspeak tweeters. I also have a very early pair 10xxx, very lively indeed.
MK II Kustone are also very good when active,I have a pair that I updated with Ninka tweeters, they are more refined.
This thread is making me nostalgic. My first speakers were a pair of late Kan Is (1988), fronted by a 32.5 / HiCap / 140, which was later changed for a 250. On the right material, they had a vivid and direct quality I’ve never heard from any other speaker, but I never overcame their tendency to be strident and fatiguing. In those days, it was a rare listening session that went beyond a single record.
I still have them in my attic, along with their matching stands. I would be very tempted to set them up in my current space, but it would need some major rearrangement to get them hard against a straight wall, and that’s not on the cards (my current speakers are in a shallow bay). But I remain curious.
I have found in the rooms I have had, that they sounds better if not hard against the wall, about 5 cm for MK1 and up to 10 cm for Kan II, otherwise the bass gets stuck in the wall.
I remember a mint rosewood pair of Kans were on the bay about a year ago. I should’ve just bought them and kept them as a future project. I do also like the black ash colour too.
Merry Christmas 
