LINN KLOUT QUESTION

At one time, Linn was really into active speaker systems (that is, crossover after a preamp, and individual power amps connected directly to the speaker drivers). They always used the word "Aktiv" (Linn has a creative way of spelling product names.) At one time, the crossover was a seperate box (named something like "Kaber Aktiv" for the Kaber speakers, etc). Later, I think they allowed the crossover boards to be installed inside an amp. In any case, I'm guessing that the Klouts you have were part of an active system, and they drove the bass drivers of the speakers. If they crossover boards installed inside of them, they'd have to be modified to be used with normal speakers. But a complete active system might be worth selling alone, for all I know.

Were there speakers included in package buy?

As for the Klout alone, it was once the top of the line back in the early nineties. I can't remember how much it cost, but it wasn't cheap. They were also unusual in that they did not have a power switch on front. There was something on the back, as I recall, but they were intended to be used with a Kairn preamp, which could send a "trigger" signal of some sort to turn the Klout on and off.

It's probably not just a case of the Aktiv board working with non-Linn speakers. It probably will only work with one specific Linn speaker system. I don't know about recent years, but at one time Linn Aktiv crossovers were designed for one specific Linn speaker model. Thus, if you had, say, a pair of Linn Kaber speakers that were "Aktiv" and you upgraded to the Linn Isobarik speakers and you wanted to make them "Aktiv" as well, you had the supreme joy of replacing your Linn Kaber Aktiv crossover (costing, say, a mere $2000) with a new Linn Isobarik Aktiv crossover. (The boards installed inside of the amps would probably have run less, since you didn't have to buy the Aktiv case or the power supply. On the other hand, I wonder if the older stand alone crossover, despite the higher cost, wouldn't have been better sounding since it had its own power supply.)

Supposedly, the idea was that by making a specific crossover, Linn could tailor it for a particular speaker system, and thus maximize the performance in a way that one couldn't if making a generic active crossover.

Of course, there is one other question that comes up--given that the included speakers are B&W. Assuming that the speakers were used with the Klout, then I'd guess that the amp was probably already modified back to non-Aktiv status, but the label was left in place. I'd seriously doubt that Linn would have ever made Aktiv crossovers for anyone else. (Keep in mind that when the Klout was released, they had a complete line of speakers.) Thus, to check to see if the Aktiv board is in place would require actually openning up the amp and checking to see what's in there.