Hi - I am not saying they were rubbish, but I was disappointed in them overall. I bought them without auditioning. Perhaps I was expecting too much, not least as I use Yamaha actives in my ‘studio’. Anyway they are in my garage now… As I say in my opinion they are bettered without too much difficulty - but I advocate anybody deciding for them selves if they can to see if they want them.
Well I have about 40 years of experience with Linn Kans ( over 20 pairs over the years), so I think I know the speaker pretty well ![]()
this is not a p*ssing contest - I am sure you are fond of your Kans - but you should also hopefully agree with me from your four decades that the user should decide for themselves rather than be reliant on 3rd party subjective assertions. ![]()
Of course always best to buy a pair and test yourself.
Second best to take advice from someone with experience.
I have a pair of ATC scm 7 v3. ATC recommends using 75-300 watts on them. I can’t play for the neighbourhood, but the Nait 50 plays really loud in my livingroom. 25 watts are 25 watts no matter what’s the naim of the amp, but all of them are present for shure.
and remember that those 25 Watts are for playing a sine wave into a constant 8 ohm impedance which would likely be very loud. If playing music the peak power is typically much higher with the N50 peaking upto over 200 Watts for transients and the impedance will be almost certainly dynamic across the pass band… Naim, I believe, also over specified the current handling of the output stage as well to help the amp drive difficult loads and deliver this peak power, which is what we see with customer’s real world experiences for the most part. The N50 is ultimately constrained by the size of its PSU.
You can sort of understand why Naim didn’t like to express basic specifications initially, so I understand, as they could get mis understood.
All I know is they power my QLN Prestige 3’s insanely well, with plenty of volume and deep bass. They are a flat 8 ohm speaker, but 86-87db. I’m enjoying this little amp way more than my old SN3 with hi-cap. Seems crazy, but for me it’s true.
Same with ATC. They need power and volume to come alive. Much better with for example Tannoy. Synergy.
That’s my experience too,the Nait 50 works best with speakers that are easy to drive.
The N50 is designed according to Naim to work optimally with any type of speaker and indeed I have found it has accommodated many different speakers in my medium sized room. The limiting factor will be the typical sound pressure level in large rooms.
It certainly drove my ATC SCM 19 well, albeit they are easier than the earlier ATCs with older cross over and SEAS tweeter. Most people will partner with quality smaller speakers,and quality small speakers are often harder to drive than larger floor mounts, that tend to be more efficient and easier to drive.
The LS3/5a is challenging for many solid state amps, especially the 15 ohm version, with impedance peak up to around 30 ohms around 95 Hz… not usually good for low voltage, high current amps like the N50.. the N50 drives them with aplomb. The BBC even had a dedicated special amp for them back in the day.
I have yet to hear the N50 noticeably clip or harden… but I am sure I could overload if I wanted at very loud levels. The N50 handles sub bass superbly well and confidently in my setup
Yeah my ATCs needed a bit of volume to open up, but to be fair I found the latest SCM models with the in-house tweeter and revised crossover better in this regard than the older models say of 20 years ago. My 19s worked well with the N50.
And my SCM11s work incredibly well, as do my alchris TX9 for balance.
Why so many? Did they keep blowing up when used on the end of powerful amplifiers? ![]()
Made me chuckle
Also very happy here with a N50 driving SCM11s. Somewhat disappointing that my BD NAP160 doesn’t drive them very well.
Another happy N50 user driving SCM7’s in a near field system, lovely full and rich sound with nothing missing as far as I’m concerned ![]()
There are many different versions of Linn Kan you know,I wanted to try many of them,and also active Linn Kan ,that’s when they really shine.
Linn Kan has no problems with good big amps.![]()
Another thing that’s very important with Linn Kan is a really good preamp and that’s also a problem for Nait 50,I found.
Can you please elaborate on that last part?
The Nait 50’s Preamp is not sounding as musical as the separate Preamps like Nac 32,5,Nac 72,Nac 82 etc, Linn Kan and Naim IBL reveals that.
But it’s punchier and faster, and extremely close in terms of refinement and delicacy :). Words spoken from real experience.