Very elegant looking style, excellent finish, precise and well balanced sound, warm tonality

Audiophile amplifier required to really obtain the best sound

Music is not only about sound but also about esthetic. When I have seen Linn Ninka, the first impression was the beauty of the form and the color. Before listening I have also appreciated the high quality of the finition. You can very easly adapt the connectivity (in the back door) to the kind of amplification you will use. Unfortunatly no bias regulation exist. Therefore and depending of the environment, no adjustment can be done (that does not cause me any trouble). Having used Ninka only with the polymer floor stand (extra $$), I can not compare musicality without. I had opportunity to listen Linn Ninka with a Linn (TR), Unison Research Unico (hybrid) and my Antic Sound Lab (Tube) amplifiers, and also with my very old Technics New Class A (TR). From my perception, it is obvious that to obtain the best musicality, the warmest sound surrounded with good relief, Ninka requires a tube amplifier. The difference between Tube and hybrid is already significant for the listner. Even if I am impressed by Unico sound quality (it's really a fantastic sound with strong bass and clear high), Antic Sound Lab (AQ1001) provides a warmer tonality. The overall musical picture is more colored, bass are powerfull but remains well balanced, and don't kill the medium and high. High and medium are precise, but not excessivly and furnished a good support for voices. The music seems to come from inside the room and provides an higher subjective impression of "reality". Bottom line Ninka supports all kind of music successfully and provides a well balanced coloration. Nevertheless, the difference of result with Ninka between a TR amplifier compared to a Tube is major (at least for me), and certainly much higher than my ESS Tempest use to be. Finally I could not have done a better choice in this range of price because I fit 3 criterias : beauty, sound quality and still a reasonable price.

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Acoustic Energy AE309, JM Lab Cobalt 826S, JM Reynaud Cantabile

everything...

if anything, the bass response could be a little better (as is, only down to 50hz,) but supposedly the polymer stands help (I've ordered them, and will have them in a week) and if you go "active" (LINN's biamping system with LINN crossovers and amps etc...) the response is lowered to 38Hz.

I have been searching for speakers for about 3 months now... and I've auditioned just about everything in my price range, from 1200-2600 (pair). I listen to mostly pop/rock (BNL, Phish, Ani Difranco). These speakers are just amazing... first off, they look beautiful, the book-matched cherry is breathtaking, and the no grill front is clean and simple. The sound of these speakers just blew all the others away (B&W, Dynaudio, PSB, Triangle, Infinity, Paridigm, the list goes on...) The highs are defineed, but not bright, the lows are tight and punchy, and the mids... oh the mids... this is where they took the cake... even comparing these up against speakers nearly twice the price, male and female vocals sounded like they were coming through a cardboard box comeapred to the Ninkas. I don't really listen to classical, so they might not be as nice in that realm, but for any type of music with bass, guitar, vocals etc... even jazz, they are just the most present, clear and natural sounding speakers out there. I auditioned many different pre-amp/amp and intergrated combo's, and found that for the money, NAD sounded great... to get enough power in the LINN equipment was too much $$$ for me, but for between $800-$1200, the NAD 160, and 270 combo sounded better than anything else.

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Every speaker known... NAD, Adcom, Rotel, sim audio, Marantz, Dennon, Klipsch, B&W

Excellent mids/vocals Build quality One of the best in its category

Need some break in time(most speakers do)

Upgraded my Keilidh to the Ninka's in cherry. Beautiful speaker. Sounds great with all types of music. Much more open than the Keilidh. Excellent mids. Vocals are crystal clear. I am using the optional poylmer stands( amust) and went active. The opened up nicely after going active, but still need to break in a bit more. My system has all Linn electronics except for a NAD DVD player. These speakers just do everything right from hard rock to soft jazz and even movies!

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Thiel, Epos, Linn Keilidh, Monitor Audio

Balance, detail, tight, easy on the ears ater extended listening

Have to bust out the plastik one more time to get the 'must have' stands. Will likely cost me more $$ when I hear them bi-amped.

Well it has now been approximately 4-5 months since purchasing my Ninka's and I am extremely pleased with the investment. I initially was looking for a set speakers to use upstairs with my downstairs-relocated Yamaha 3090 AV amp. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to delve into the world of high-end audio. Little did I realize that my amp limited that brands of speakers I should be demoing. After talking with numerous sales representatives I finally decided on looking at Tanoy, Sonis Faber, JM Labs and Linn. I brought in my fist full of CD's and happily created my short list. After a great afternoon of comparing the brands my wife and I decided on the Linns. What pushed the Linns over the top was the clarity of these speakers playing Hard Rock. All the speakers could easily play Santana or Jesse Cook, but when Metallica was placed on the tray the Linns walked away. It was the sound detail and tightness regardless of style of music or quality of recording that set the products apart. I have since purchased a Linn Classik Amp/CD (got sick of running up and down the stairs) and most recently up graded to the polymer stands. I knew the Classik would vastly improve the sound of the Ninkas, but I couldn't have immagined what a difference the bases would make. Not being an audiophile I do not subscribe to the smoke a mirrors of widgets and bobbles. But these stinky resin smelling stands are worth every dime. I now know how easily people can fall into this high-end audio world.

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See above

Very well made and a fair price.

The high frequency balance is a step back from the Katans.

We auditioned the Ninkas with a tube based system and found them a very good dynamic design. It''s balance was quite good except in the area of the high frequencies where the balance was not as good as the smaller Katans. We found the high frequencies tended to cause listener fatique over time. Unfortunately, the speaker provides no adjustment provisions.

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Many

Very well made and a fair price.

The high frequency balance is a step back from the Katans.

We auditioned the Ninkas with a tube based system and found them a very good dynamic design. It''s balance was quite good except in the area of the high frequencies where the balance was not as good as the smaller Katans. We found the high frequencies tended to cause listener fatique over time. Unfortunately, the speaker provides no adjustment provisions.

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Many

Very detailed in evry way. Though the speaker is light in base, it is a very fluid sound. Plays Jazz, Soul, and Hip Hop as well as both the recording and electronics allow.

Polymer stands not included. This makes the speakers more than 1600 a pair. More like 1900 a pair.

Years ago the wife and I fail in love with the Linn 51 HT system. So we decided to build our HT based on Linn products. By the time we were ready to purchase the then 2700 dollar Linn 51 Towers, the Espek came out at 3300. More money than we could spend so enter the Ninkas. We demoed the Ninkas, JMLab Cobalt 715 or 716 towers, and the Paradigm Ref 60v2 towers. The 60v2 lost out in detail against the others. The Cobalt 7xx series was actually my favority. The Colbalts had far better base response. According to my wife, the Ninka''s mids and highs were much better in detail and overall sound. If you throw in the new Cobalt 8xx series at 1600 we would have not bought the Ninkas. The 8xx came out after we purchased our speakers. Once we got the Ninkas home we noticed something missing. We had no clue as to what this was. The sales people told us we didn''t need the upgraded stands so we thought it was either our new amp or of course the speakers. We had no warmth in our system at all. Well we decided to give the polymer upgrade a shot due to the small cost. WOW! The difference the stands made was huge. The Cobalt 7xx and Paradigm 60v2d aren''t in the same league. The best part about this speaker is how well it plays with my entry level amp. I have an Anthem MCA-2 at 750 dollars. The rest of my system includes an Anthem AVM20 SSP, a Toshiba DVD player, and a Audio Refinement CD player in analog mode only. With the polymer stands, the Ninkas deliever a very nice sound stage with lots of detail. Yes they are base shy, but I don''t think a sub is required. My goal is to replace my amp with Linn amps and bi-amp the Ninkas.

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JMLabs Cobalt 8xx, Paradigm Ref 60 v2

See above

None

This is a small update. The Ninka''s are now totally broken in and the sound is so great! After two months I upgraded to the polymer stands and the difference is amazing; more detail (high, mid & low) and the bass is so tight! If you don''t have the polymer stands already, go to your local dealer and by them; they are worht every $.

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Sweet, detailed sound at any volume. Very musical, great looking. Reasonably priced; in fact,an audiphile BARGAIN.

The heavier stands are a marked improvement, but at half the price, would be expensive for what they are.

I recently bought the Magneplanar 1.6QR''s, because they sounded really good at the dealer, and since I have a large living room with a cathedral ceiling, I assumed they would be ideal. While they did sound pretty decent, they were finnicky re: placement, needed to be played quite loud to be appreciated, and no matter how much I tried to ignore their size and dominance in the room, they were just too much. My very understanding wife didn''t complain, but when I tried to listen to music, especially after the kids were in bed, the Maggie''s couldn''t provide any detail at low volume. Fortunately, the guys at Sound Plus were most willing to let me try another speaker. When I first heard the Ninka''s I could not believe how great they sounded. The soundstage was wide and deep, and the highs were so silky smooth I thought I had died and gone to audio heaven! After a month they just keep sounding better. The heavier stands are a fairly substantial improvement. Listening at lower volumes is a real joy;lots less fatiguing without ANY loss of detail/resolution. I''m using a Rega Planet, and an Acurus A-250 amp with L-10 preamp. This combo(probably the Acurus)has usually sounded fairly bright, and when I recently put in hardwood floors, my Acoustic Energy 120''s were way too bright/harsh. The Ninka''s are sooo sweet, that I am going through my whole collection of discs, and even older poorly produced CD''s are actually listenable. The audiophile discs however,are pure magic! They do take a while to break in, but I never thought that I could find a dynamic speaker in the same price range as the Maggie''s that actually sound BETTER! Do yourself a favour and have a good listen to these babies. Not only are they fine looking (I prefer the Cherry to the Maple) with a very small footprint, they''ll sound as full and dynamic as any large electrostatic. Bravo Linn!!!

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Vandersteen 2CE''s, Maggie 1.6QR''s.

Clarity, dimension, appearance

Nothing ... great for the price range

From a frequent lurker to a poster ... to be honest, I am not an audio expert, but I enjoy listening to music and experiencing home theater. And really that is all that counts.

I upgraded by AV receiver last year to a Denon 3300 and held off on the speakers as my Best Buy JBL 171TXLs were satisfactory while I made an extended search. Originally, I focused on the Monitor Silver Series based on good Home Theater reviews - dismissing the complaints of bright sound. Yet, after frequent repeat visits to the audio dealer I began to understand what people meant. There was an over-the-top quality to the speakers that I could only enjoy is small time frames without getting a headache. I love listening to George Winston's December CD in the winter and the every key became painful with the Monitors.

Next, I moved to the B&W 600s - a warmer and fuller sound that was great for music ... but I felt like I was losing something in the sound ... washed out? I decided that my JBLs were good enough and waited.

A couple months ago I read some reviews of the B&W CDMs and decided to take a listen. I liked them better than the 600s, but it still didn't grab me. Something was missing from the playback ... I couldn't put my finger on it.

The salesman recommended listening to some Linn Ninka's (obviously there specialty ... and I was sure, more expensive). The first CD was U2 ... A definite difference could be heard. Like the B&Ws the Ninka's provided a warmer and more detailed performance when compared to the Monitors. But unlike the B&Ws there was a level of clarity that I hadn't experienced before. The only comparison I can compare it to, is pretend that you are in the same room with the artist. With the B&Ws it seemed like a screen was in between me and the artist. The Ninka were clear.

I never really understood the argument that speakers were a personal choice ... I always felt that one was good and one was bad. But, while many people rave about the CDMs, I was moved by the Ninkas and love these speakers.

Now, I just have to wait for Linn's new center channel.

Conclusion ... They are not the less expensive speakers on the market, but they are damn good.

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B&W 600s and CDM 7 NT, Monitor Silver Series, JBL 171TXL