Opinions on Linn Unidisk

I gave the Linn Unidisc a good listen at HE 2004 and was VERY impressed. I guess it depends what you want to do. I don't think ANY of the multi-format players will play CD as well as the BEST of the dedicated CD transports...so you will be making some compromises. I've chosen to spin my CD's on a Wadia 270se modified by Great Northern Sound...and am very glad I didn't move to a multiformat player. I'm spinning DVD-A/SACD on a DV-47a extensively modified by Dan Wright with Bybee devices in all 5 channels. I've never A/B'd it to the Unidisc of DV50, but my guess is that it would hold its own for a fraction of the cost. But that is pure speculation.

FWIW I had a Unidisc 2.1 and DV-50 in my system for a few weeks.

The DV-50 has much better bass, while the unidisc is somewhat more musical, more of that Linn sound. I personaly like that sound, but had to agree with the wife the DV-50 just was more 'complete' and accurate. I think the Unidisc sounded better on DVD's, and the picture was slightly sharper IMO, but now that Teac is offering the DVI output for the DV-50 (well, soon.. I suspect the video will be a wash).

While I liked the Unidisc, I kept the DV-50. One thing to realize is this player takes a long time to burn in, mine took better than a month to really come around, but when it did, it was worth the wait.

I also auditioned the Linn Unidisk 1.1 vs. the Esoteric DV-50 and the Krell SACD Standard (and a half dozen others, to boot). I found the Linn to be a bit finicky on what you fed it, and to take a LONG time to startup on some disk formats, or when switching between formats. For more than $10K I just couldn't justify having to power cycle the thing to get it to read some of my disks. The Linn sales guys and reps made excuses about new versions of the firmware and some disks just not living up to the specs - but the bottom line is that neither my DV-50 or my Krell SACD have EVER choked on a disk (I bought them both).

Has anyone else had a similar experience with the Linn? You could go offline if you are afraid your local Linn rep will stop being nice to you...

Check out this new review by David Robinson Positive-Feedback:

LinnUnidisk 1.1 review

I feel that the Esoteric UX-1 is superior to the Linn in all respects; audio, video, with superior transport that plays everything including Dualdisc. If you are considering spending 11K, check out the Esoteric for retail of 13K.

Steve