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© copyright AudioEnz 2003
Linn Ninka loudspeakers
Natural talent
By Brent Burmester
Linn Ninka loudspeakers. $4295
In the $2000-and-skyward price
range, nicely-finished floorstanding
loudspeakers are not a rare commodity.
Two-way, three-way, D’Appolito array,
there’s plenty of choice, I’m happy to
say. Chances are, however, whatever
you’re eyeing-up in this category has a
big hole in it for the air to get out, unless
it’s the model under review this month.
Jacketed in a very nice wood veneer
and standing at just under a metre, a
20kg Linn Ninka is very easy on the eye.
They pull off the rare feat of looking
better and more purposeful with
their mesh driver covers left on, and
these seem not to detract from their
transparency. Adding an exotic element
to the Ninkas’ appearance is their tapered
planar cross-section, which is to say
they get thinner toward the rear of the
enclosure. Cross-sectional asymmetry
reduces the incidence of internal
standing waves, and it looks cool.
Sealed with a kiss?
The Ninka is one of a vanishing
breed featuring an infinite baffle
enclosure. Rather than extend and
augment bass via an opening in the box
to vent an internal duct, transmission
line, or quarter-wave tuning pipe, the
Ninka presents no obvious way out for
those lovely low notes.
Those familiar with closed-box
speakers typically
For boxes of such
single out the bass
something they
healthy dimensions, as
do particularly
well. While sealed
the Linn Ninka’s
enclosures may
afforded new
not produce
as much lowinsights into well
frequency energy
as their perforated
run-in CDs
cousins, they’re
signature is taut control and often
superior timing.
Subject to normal household
amplification, the Ninka’s level of bass
output is perfectly fine for most types of
music, but quantitative considerations
are secondary to the low-end traction
achieved by leaving the rumbly stuff
June 2003
entirely to the twin mid-bass drivers.
Björk’s first three albums
were played in quick
succession when the Ninka’s
were installed, and with each
arrangement the highs and
mids were underpinned
by a bass that genuinely
engaged in the musicmaking, rather than
simply adding weight
to the proceedings. An
excellent test in this regard
is the left hand of a concert
piano, and here the Ninka’s
combined gravity and
melody to excellent effect.
Those highs and mids are
not shabby either. There is
a slight tint to the speaker’s
voicing, the sonic equivalent
a UV filter on an SLR camera.
While clarity and insight can be
heightened as a result, the sonic
picture is a robbed of a little
brilliance. Once I’d adjusted to
this, the Ninka’s balance proved to be
very attractive.
For boxes of such healthy
dimensions, image placement across
and behind the plane of the speakers
afforded new insights into well runin CDs. Radio Tarifa’s Cruzado El Rio
came across with the vocalists’ Latin fire
and passion intact, and I could almost
see the polish on the tubing of brass
instruments.
Going all the way
As good as the Ninkas are when biwired to a single stouthearted amplifier,
I would recommend purchasers
prepare to take them far beyond that.
You see, Linn’s thing is systems – its
products are intended to give their
best when partnered by the company’s
complementary electronics.
A Ninka, for example, comes with a
connection-terminal array that can be
configured for single-wire, bi-wire, biamp, and active bi/tri-amp operation,
and I can well believe that going active
via Linn’s electronic outboard crossover
would yield significant dividends.
Adding even one extra amplifier would
coax greater dynamic contrast and detail
from the Ninkas, and the active tri-amp
option reportedly extends their
bass response by 12 Hz! Very
nice, but it entails substantial
additional outlay on Linn
ancillaries.
Still, you can upgrade
the Ninka’s without
spending twice their
price on electronics.
In their common or
garden form, the Ninka
screws onto a MDF base
to enlarge its footprint
and increase stability. To
give them a more massive
footing, a heavy after-market
plinth made of fancy black
polymar of flint and resin can
be substituted for the standard
base.
I found they added a degree
of relaxation to the highmidrange, perhaps damping a
resonance or two. There was also
a stronger sense of placement in
the soundstage and bass improved a bit
in terms of leading-edge definition, but
not dramatically.
If you can spike to a concrete floor
there’s no great need to be anxious
about this $800 add-on, instead I’d try
a pliable rubber-washer between the
spike-nut and the regular plinth, then
explore the benefits of bi-amping. If you
intend to push the envelope with active
operation, these plinths would then
come into their own.
All in all, these are accomplished
speakers with considerable potential
scoring full marks for musicality. Maybe
hi-fi nerds (like me) would hanker
after a more analytical transducer,
but if you are not constrained by a
small listening space, are possessed of
capable amplification and an ambition
to improve your system over time, the
Ninkas should be on your shortlist.