Linn Klimax DS. How good is it?

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

Sorry i accidently pushed Submit as-is

Read this instead

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

The akurate Ds/ with dynamik gives the Wow factor , it has that amazing soundkvality and musical rightness the best digital has wich the majik and slim dont .

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 also 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 just listning to great spund (wich many hifi people do) for the is mostly because the Klimax cost 3 times as much.

Havever There is areas 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 then 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 boddy responses to the music , When i demoed the klimax i feelt it more then enything else.
I havent listend to it 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 its the source to get if you want to feel somthing.

Linn also have a well established record company and have indeepth knowledge on what the recoding actually sounded like live in the studio.
Its just neutral

Ok, so I did finally go for an audition and placed a deposit at local dealer to get the Klimax home for a weekend tryout. Very nice guy and excellent service and advice.

Was the unit good? Yes very good, I think I can even say excellent. Did I go for it...? No. I did extensive listening sessions. THe unit was well burned in as per dealers saying. TO begin with, I think my Esoteric is better sounding. Very different sounds though. Linn is very very detailed, (as detailed but not more than the Esoteric), very very fast, precise, almost analytical. In all those fields I don't think one player exceeded the other. Maybe the Linn was a bit more analytical, in a good sense, but if so only marginally.

In terms of scene, also as good as Esoteric; excellent, although not better neither. Open wide, good 3D placement, separation and location... all great, very much as Esoteric.

Now where did it failed, in my opinion and in my system? In "weight", texture and bass extension and presence (although bass was precise and tight). Sound was just too thin and texture of instruments and vocals were just short of expectations, and not up to Esoteric performance. Dynamics were there, but the above made the listening experience less engaging.

Do not get me wrong. It was not by a huge margin, nor the Linn was bad at all. But it was surely audible. You could listen to a track on the Linn and say, excellent. Than you paly it right away on the Esoteric and you could hear the difference with not too much problems.

ALso did A/B blind test and the results were the same.

It was a bit of a disapointment, cos I really wanted this unit to be a killer given convenience of use, hi rez downliads and the like. Bit I did have to admit, at least in my case it made no sense to go for it. I would likely find myself using the Esoterc most of the time short afterwards.

maybe it has to do with system synergy, personal tastes or a mix of it. Who knows. Also maybe listenig was too short only 3 days, although I spend long hours each day, to the joy of my wife... Also the fact that I have Synergistic Research holograph D on Esoteric and the stock on Linn did not help, but that can not be fixed since the Linn won't accept any aftermarket PC....

Anyway just thought I could share my findings and experience with you if they are of help to any.Others may have different experiences or findings, but after all, that is what this is all about:synergy with rest of system, room et all, personal tastes... In my case, I can say this is not the finest source out there, as per Linns claims. Esoteric X01-D2 is better, and surely there a many others out there as well. But it is a very good source. Just do not feel good enough for that money moreoever considering is only "half" a solution (no transport mechanism, so for the money it should deliver more on the DAC than similar priced complete transport DAC players.

Will keep searching for a high end streaming solution that can beat my Esoteric, ideally on an ethernet interface.

Perrew, did some search on the APL you advised. Initially it looked good, with great reviews and the like. But then found a bunch of forums and people who say they send this aparently one man company, money and units and never got back neither one of them for years! Now not sure if that is the case or not, but there are many many many of this claims all over. I think I will not take the risk of shipping such an expensive unit, to a company with this reputation, and of course not a dime in advance.... Too much risk regardless of it being true or not. I guess your experience is different, and again I have no experience with this company at all, so can not say anything good or bad. I was just shocked of all hte sh*t I read out there in the web... Is all over the place., really.

Eelii08,

my experience with the Klimax DS was similar, I was very interested in aquiring one but after hearing it not so more. I compared it with Esoteric X-01Ltd, Weiss Jason/Medea, MBLs big combo 1611E/1621 which were all better imho, some cost more and some less. Also the Esoteric can play SACD.

Regarding APL I honestly understand your reluctance after reading on the web. My experience was I found out about the company after seeing a member here had his NWO listed so I started researching what it was. There were glowing reviews interspersed with problems in custom relations.
My own analysis at the time boiled down to that Alex had taken on to many upgrades and sold to many players at the same time, which resulted in big delays for some customers, which then understandably got quite upset from having to wait extended time for their machines. Anyway I was looking for the best sound available so I took the risk and put my money down for a machine. While I was waiting for it Alex had done more research and had a new upgrade in the coming so I ended up waiting a year before the player arrived. Wait was long, but well worth it. I have since upgraded the player one more time to the NWO-4.0-SE which is the current version. All outstanding orders that Alex had have been filled also he supports his old machines that are not in current production. The nice thing when you buy an APL NWO is that it is future upgradable, you will never need to buy a new player. I jsut wanted you to be aware of what a nice machine there is out there that has all the features you were looking for and with sound nothing else is close to. The one man company is comprised of several engineers now. If I were you I would shoot Alex a mail at alex(at)aplhifi(dot)com just to hear what he has to say about the player, hes very friendly and desriptive in his explanations. Good Luck!

Let's start a topic - ETHERNET vs AES

Pros/cons? Are packets streamed via TCP/IP better or worse than AES? If you transfer music via ethernet, will the "bits" arrive at the DAC fully intact with no deterioration? If so, then theoretically it should be the same?