Linn Klimax DS. How good is it?

I was a slimdevices intusiast for many years and i still think the userplatform is the best there is.
I have owned sb3`s , transporters , duet and along side that many different outboard dacs including the benchmark and stello. dac

I never really liked the transporter , its more detajled then the sb3 but thats about it, and when i A/B them the difference was close to nothing.

I actually liked the duet better for music listning.

My slimdevicces dealer started to sell Linn DS products and offered me do demo the sneaky (the cheapest ds)against my transporter and duet, and sb3/benchmark combo.

Instantly the sneaky sounded better, the highs are completly grunge free yet everybit as detajled as the transporter, musicaly there is no comparison to ither slimdevices products IMO.

As much as i like the slimdevices product , it seems to me that the designer of the transporter as skilled as he may be dont have a clue what makes a source musical, instaed the focues on the specs and use that as explanation why its good.

After i had been using the sneaky ds for a couple of month as my primary source i bourgt the majik DS, the gap between the two where not large, but worthwhile because the music just became clearer and easylyer to understand , but it wassnet a night or day difference.

6 month later i traded in my majik ds and got the akurate DS without dynamic power, that was a night and day difference, the akurate ds is a intirely different animal the the majik ds, is more dynamic and goes much deeper in the bass , but its really the music that sets it apart from the majik, its hard to put words on really its just a much more life like presentation musicians sounds like the have the preformans of there life, wich i can apriciate as a musician.

I was so impressed with it that i sold my Linn solos lost alot of money , bourgt the Klimax DS with the dynamik PS.

At the time linn had just released the Cara firmware for the DS units, wich linn claims to give better and more precise sound then the Bute versions the started out with.
linn have been very concervativ with the upgrades the have launced the past years , usaly its just a white papaire with measurmenst that show better specs, wich gives me a feeling that the sound improvment in cara software is very real.

I did compare the two different software versions , and the difference was much more fundamental then i would have thourgt , bute sounds more full more like cd players, where cara removes the feeling that you are listning to hifi and instead the music just floates out into the room and the speakers disapear.

The klimax DS with dynamik and Cara 4, made me fallen in love with music again , and because of the Klimax im now a full time musician again.

Its not for every one, if you are more of a hifi person the a music lover i would recordment the Akurate Ds /with dynamik it would be plenty enourgh, the klimax just gets the music under the skin to a degree i have never heard with digital before.
And with 24 bit its almost to much.

IMO the Klimax ds is a remarkeble music machine.

Perrew, indeed. Actually the sweet spot from slim devices logitech, IMPO, is by far, far, a Receiver with the Ipeng. Great sounds, excellent control, cool and convenient, for under 150 euros...!

TDA2200, thanks for extensive feedback. You know what? I do agree with the duet (actually the receiver is the music player). This not only sounds better than SB3, but also it is very close to the transporter in performance....if not superior. it is a hell of a player for the money. Probably one of the best cost/performance ratios I know out there in digital playback, period. A hell of a player. I did A/B comparations with several CDPs worth in the thousands... not that much behind, and in specific aspects of the music reproduction even better than some of the CDPs. Really, I do recommend it. For just 130 Euros, you need to hear to believe this piece.

Anyway, interesting all your feedback on the DS's. Good news it seems. Not sure what you want to say by liking better the Klimax only if you are a music lover vs a hifi person. Can you please elavorate this a bit?

Also I would like to know what other digital sources, CDPs in this case, are you familiar with and listened to before the DSs? How would they compare to the later.

Lastly, is there an specific music type where the Klimax exceeds over others (classical vs jazz, vocals, live performances...)

Thanks in advance
Eli

Eelii08,

do I understand you correctly when you say you want to keep the Esoteric X01D2 and add a Klimax DS and possibly an analog front end?
If so I would recommend you to keep the X01 and send it to APL HiFi to have it rebuilt to a NWO-4.0-SE player.
This means you would have the Klimax functionality and Esoteric transport in one box and with way better sound than the Linn and Esoteric. Also you dont need to worry about analog unless you need the medium for hard to find cds.

But the question he would then have to ask himself is when (or if) he would ever get his player back from APL after paying all that money.

Hi Eli

Yes the duet is diffently the sweetspot in the smlim line up.

The akurate Ds/ with dynamik gives the Wow factor , it has that big dynamic window teh majik a and slim procucts lack.
It also stringes everything harmonicly together and puts weight to the music at the ecxact right time,wich is what i would call exceptional musical and gives a great emotional connection to the music i havent heard since i first listend to the sondek cd12.

But you are still aware its reproduced music as spetacular as i may sound.

The akurate ds is most diffently also for the music lover.

Why i would recormendt the akurate ds if you arent toallay into hifi for the love of music , is mostly because the Klimax cost 3 times as much.

There is one area where the Klimax instantly sounded different and that is the dynamic headroom and extension, its also the first player where 24 bit truly sounds alot better the flac, infact its also the first player where my 320 bit mp3s really showed there shortcomings wich is a good/bad thing becuse it seems that its only limitaion is the data its playing, if buget is not a problem by all means get the Klimax .

This may sound alittel long haird but i mostly judge a source component by the way my buddy responses to the music , When i demoed the klimax i feelt it more then enything else.
I havent listend to ones without getting goosspots,It really captures the rave emotion of live music , heard or played, if you have the same prioertyes the Klimax is a golden ticket and priced very reasonble compared to what the wadia , DSC can offer.

There is no music it handels better , but the more complex music you throw at it the more it will shine, rock, pop, classic it captures the emotion and dos as littel as possible to destroy it.

Linn also have a long time record company and have indeepth knowledge on what the recoding sounded like live in the studio.

Thnaks