Which cables for my Linn set-up?

Yikes!!! Thsalmon is right! The Espeks do need to be tri-amped and tri-wired in active configuration. You can bi-amp them but only passively, not actively. I had a nagging feeling when I wrote my post that there was something different about the Espeks. Now I remember, you can't actively bi-amp!

Okay, now here are the options with respect to wiring the Espeks:

1. single wire (K20) with one amp;
2. biwire (two K20s or one K400) with one amp;
3. biamp passive (two K20s or one K400) with two amps;
4. triwire passive (three K20s or one K600) with one amp;
5. triamp passive (three K20s or one K600) with three amps;
6. triamp active (three K20s or one K600) with three amps containing the electronic crossovers for bass, mid and treble.

So for active use, the Espeks will need one K600 cable or three K20 cables per speaker.

As Thsalmon said, if you can situate the LK 85s closser to the rear speakers, it will be sonically better, and cheaper, to run a long interconnect with shorter speaker cables than vice versa. It will require a custom length interconnect but that's no big deal to obtain from a high-end store.

Thank you very much guys, that is very helpful. keep you posted, looking forward to try out the whole setup! thanks again. Frans

Just to be clear, I am going to tri-amp the Espeks (3 channels of each Chakra for each front speaker and the 1 channel per Chakra for the Center Speaker). Based on your advice I woudl go for:

* The K600 for the front speakers
* 2 K20's from the Chakra's to the Center Speakers (1 channel per Chakra)
* A longer Interconnect to place the LK85's closer to the rear speakers (didnt think about that) with 4 K20 cables

For the last option, I use one LK85 to drive the treble on both speakers and the other one for the base. Or is it better to use one LK85 per speaker? (is that possible?). In that case I could use k400 cables per rear speaker.

thanks

Sounds good.

One K600 for each front speaker.

A K20 from each Chakra to the Ekwals. Or, if the Chakras are very close to each other, you can use a single K400. You would have to split the K400 for a foot or two at the amp end so that each pair of wires in the cable would reach each of the amps. This is neater; however, it is psychologically uncomfortable to buy a four wire cable and then start tearing it into two separate cables.

A longer interconnect, rather than longer cables to the rears, if possible. It's cheaper and tidier provided that you can place the amps closer to the speaker.

Two K20 cables to each rear, or, as above, a single K400 with the cable separated at one end to reach both amps before going off to the speaker.

You can use one LK85 for each speaker, or use one for the treble and one for the bass of both speakers. The former is called vertical biamping; the latter is called horizontal biamping. Most of what I read says that vertical biamping is better. However, Linn recommend that you use horizontal biamping. You can always try both and see if it makes a difference to you. It's not an issue to you at the moment; however, if you horizontally biamp, and the amps are different (although they need to have the same gain if they are different amps), then Linn recommend that the "better" amp be used for the treble.

One last point. I am not familiar with the older C series Chakra amps. I am assuming that you can in fact put three Espek and one Ekwal active cards in the amp. I have a couple of AV5125 amps and there are some limitations as to how many cards of what type that can go into them. Hopefully you don't have that issue.

Thank for the detailed explanation Markphd, that was exactly the info I was looking for! Frans