Listening In A Meadow? Exaktly.

I quite like pizza.  And red wine.  Generally, these are consumed indoors – either at home, or in a restaurant.  Occasionally (it would be summertime), it might be on a terrace overlooking the Med, or perched on a stool outside a tent.  It’s not normal to be consuming these treats in a field, but that might’ve been what was happening the other night, accompanied by Dire Straits playing in the background on a pair of Linn Exakt 350s. Maybe I just have an over-fertile imagination.  It’s strange though, as in reality, we seemed to be sat in a large top-floor room which was as real as the pizzas, and the red wine.

What is this opening ramble?  What does it mean? Was the wine too strong?  Were there too many glasses consumed?  Let’s start back at the beginning and work through to what that opening paragraph is all about.  Maybe.

Cards on the table.  I’ve heard lots of Linn 350 speakers.  And Linn Exakt systems.  Some were combined together.  I tend to like Exakt systems, when they’ve been set up properly (not a given), but tend not to like 350s.  When I’ve heard them both together, they’ve been in inappropriate locations, like a massive double storey hard surfaced furniture shop (not a great approach to showing off your systems Linn), or in the factory in a ballroom with 200 people, etc.  So Exakt and 350s have not been a great experience so far, but then they’ve not had much of a chance either, with the best I've heard them being in the main dem room at HoL - my preference still being for the Akubariks or Komris.

One of the more enjoyable systems featuring 350s belong to Linn Forum member (let’s call him “A”) and uses a Renew DS/0, Akurate Kontrol/0 and a non-Dynamik Twin.  That system still features their special feature – a slightly “disconnected” bass.  A and I meet up from time to time with music and hifi always the excuse – be it at shows, dealer demos or in the listening room.  A lives down South, I don’t.  So we get together when it makes sense.  Through A, I met P, also a forum member and living down South, and we tend to meet up at either of their houses when there’s a good excuse to listen to some music, or compare the effects of software changes and other bits n pieces of new kit.

The 2 guys down South have recently added another member into this happily sceptical band of middle aged music listening blokes.  For simplicity, this new bloke, also a forum contributor, will be called N.  This week was the first time I’ve had a chance to join in, with another trip to London being necessary for work purposes.  Logistics sorted, pizza orders confirmed for the 3^rd time (sorry P) and all was set for a bit of Exakt 350 listening.  It even all went to plan.  Decent pizzas, great red wine and we settled into the listening room to munch over the background Dire Straits.

And what a listening room.  Perched on the top (2^nd floor) of a substantial place, approx. 6m by 4m and with a sloping wall / ceiling down one long side as it tucks under the roofline.  A pair of rather tasty looking Linn Exakt integrated 350s in piano black stand guard either side of powered grey screen on one of the shorter walls, with a TAG MacLaren centre speaker stood on a pedestal stand.  A venerable Linn Melodik and associated Exaktbox sub are in one front corner. That’s all you see from the listening seat – side / rear speakers are multi-driver MK units flush fitted into the side walls.  There’s a large L-shaped sofa for 5 or 6 and a vast footstool big enough for all.  This is a very comfortable place to settle into for tunes and movies.  Across the back wall there are 2 built-in cupboards.  One houses the very large SIM2 projector (watching movies with all the lights on is no problem), the other the equipment rack.

Piano Black Linn 350 Exakt.  Tasty. And old skool Linn Melodik sub

And what a rack this is.  Much of what’s in there will be on the wish list of many an audiophile / music lover.  Perched on traditional Quadraspire are (from top to bottom): an SME 30 turntable equipped with series V arm and Koetsu Red; Linn Klimax Exakt DSM; Tom Evans Audio Design phono stage, Anthem processor and multi-channel TAG MacLaren power amp (for centre and rears).  Music is normally held on a 4 bay QNAP NAS, but with some currently stored on a Melco N1A and some on a Melco N1Z whilst the resident A is being compared to a demo Z.  All connectivity to the main stereo system is with standard Cat 5 ethernet cables.  Exakt links included, with one cable from the KEDSM to each speaker and the sub daisy-chained from the right hand 350.

Main Quadraspire Rack,  Untidy Cables Due to Experimenting with NAS Storage (see later pic below)

SME 30 / Series V / Koetsu Red

It’s gonna be good, right?  

The 350s are stood very close to the front wall, to enable them to be positioned either side of the off-centre screen (off-centre due to the sloping ceiling).  This is possible due to Linn’s SPACE Optimisation+ feature.  During set up, the room is measured, the speakers are manoeuvred until they’re at the point they sound best in the room (the ‘ideal’ position measurement), then their position is also measured.  The speakers are then moved to their practical position and measured in this position, relative to nearby walls.  All this data is then entered into Linn’s Konfig software, algorithms are crunched and the signals sent to each speaker allow for their compromised position in the room.  I’ve heard this demo’d a few times and its very impressive.  It doesn’t perfectly recreate the sound generated in the “ideal” position, but its very close, considering what it allows in terms of much more physically discrete speaker locations.

What about the sub?  Well Linn have just added subwoofers to their Exakt system with the Exaktbox Sub which is designed to take the Exakt signal to a sub with built-in power amps.  N had just hefted the sub into the room a couple of days before (his and his mate’s back are probably still recovering – its not exactly lightweight), and it hadn’t been set up.  We had it powered up to start with, but then chose to shut it down and come back to it later.

Pizzas done, music was loaded up into a playlist on the iPad Mini (or the iPad, or the Macbook!) and we got on with some listening.  It was very quickly clear that there’s only one sweet spot in the room – the intended listening seat.  Being elsewhere in the room was a real compromise – even just one seat to the right of the hotspot.  Not to worry, that’s not at all unusual.  We listened to some classical organ music (vague, sorry about that, it’s not something I know much about), some Clapton on video and some Seal.  We settle into focused listening with something we’re all very familiar with – Daft Punk’s Georgio Moroder from the Random Access Memories album.  It has an interesting opening with a narrative by Georgio, underpinned by background chatter and some bass meanderings.  Then of course it kicks in with some driving bass lines and electronic tuneage.  It’s very good for understanding system resolution and tunefulness.  Tune dem anyone?  We don’t discuss that, as everyone has their own way of listening for what they like, but we all do try to figure out if we’re just enjoying the flow of the music and if it’s causing foot tapping or not.

It was difficult to establish what’s going on away from the hot seat, so we take turns to try it out.  For me the sound was OK, but not overwhelming.  I suppose I was expecting something special, and to hear that from the off.  We mess about a bit more with some more material – including a great scene in the film Fifth Element.  I’d forgotten just how quirky and amusing that film is – must get around to watching it again sometime very soon.  Having got used to the sound, we start thinking about tweaking a few things and start with the QNAP and Melco options.  Various combinations were tried – each Melco on its own, then with the QNAP fed through one of them.  I think I heard some small differences, with a very slight preference for the N1A Melco, but there was nothing there that was making the system sing, nor were any changes (real or imagined) very significant.  Another aspect was a serious lack of imaging – there was no single point for the singer’s voice and London Grammar’s album just didn’t shimmer and fill the space in the room.

To the left, QNAP NAS main storage and a couple of Melco NAS boxes, the N1A being resident, the N1Z being a demo unit

I think it was P who finally bit the bullet and we cranked up Konfig on the Macbook.  We switched SPACE Optimisation on and off a few times, but I really couldn’t hear it making any real difference.  Strange, it’s normally very obvious.  We checked the SPACE filter graph and found a straight line.  Those familiar with looking at what SPACE does, will know that this is unusual.  Essentially, the software calculates where the room is likely to give bass humps (due to the dimensions of the room) and then feeds a signal to the system that has very narrow, often quite deep, notched attenuation filters – the idea being that the deep notches in the signal cancel out the humps created by the room.  Most rooms have 2 to 4 nodes.  Yet here we have a completely flat profile.  And a room map with no speakers or furniture identified.  Now, there have been some recent software updates that have had odd effects in Konfig, such as completely shutting down one speaker, forgetting which speaker models are in use etc., all fixable by restarting the software and the system, although forgetting the speaker model did actually need the model to be re-input.  So maybe a software bug has caused the problem, but it’s not really possible to track down what’s happened here.  The cause of the lack of filtering was soon obvious and I hope it’s been down to an error somewhere along the line as N clarified that there had been notches on the graph previously.  Perhaps a software or hardware change had caused the problem.  One for owners to check back on from time to time (rather like I discovered that my speaker model had been dropped from the standard SPACE config in my own system – noticed one day after a software upgrade seemed to have degraded the sound a bit).

Anyway, thinking back to some stuff I’ve read on the Linn forum, the problem was soon identified.  The room dimensions are supposed to be entered into Konfig in metres.  Here they had been entered in cms.  So a 6.3m long room becomes a 630m long room, as far as the calculations are concerned.  And when that room is also recorded as being 410m wide and 255m high, the speakers imagine they are living in a field.  And when a set of speakers live in a field, they don’t create any bass humps as their field is too big to have bass humps.  So SPACE sets a correctly flat profile.  Except we weren’t in a field, we were definitely in a room.  The measurements were quickly corrected to metres, and we entered a rough position for the subwoofer.  But when we did this by roughly guessing its distance from the room boundaries, the Konfig diagram showed the subwoofer was half outside the room. Hmmm.  Something not right there.  A quick run of the optimisation software delivered 4 notches and we were clearly starting to head in the right direction.

N quickly dug out the laser measure and we got to work stepping through Konfig’s measurement requirements.  Even when converted from cms to metres, some of the dimensions were out – the room width was recorded as 4.1m, but turned out to be 3.66m – an error of 0.5m is quite significant.  About 15 minutes of measuring, checking and entering the data and we had a new optimisation ready, with 3 notched filters – the lowest frequency notched to about -29dB with the other 2 much further up the frequency range and much shallower.  Due to time restrictions, we just converted the speaker’s “ideal” location from the cms already in the system.  With much more time it would be worth revisiting the ideal position data too, but that involves removing speaker spikes and shuffling the speakers about in the room – there wasn’t time this evening.

Daft Punk went back on, Leonard Cohen, Seal and some London Grammar.  Some listening, some small tweaks on the depth of the optimisation notches.  We dial in a +1.5dB treble shelf to compensate for the heavy soft furnishings between speakers and listening position.  I think we ended up with the notches back to the SPACE recommended settings in the end – quite unusual.  This was quite some improvement.  Bass lines are now tuneful, and there’s real imaging going on – still a little shallow front to back (possibly an effect of being so close to the front wall of the room), but very wide left to right and instruments and voices easily pinpointed as individual parts of the whole.  The opening to the Georgio track had a stable, central voice, the background noise was recognisable as chatter and the quiet underlying bass line is playing a clearly distinguishable tune. Excellent.  What a difference a few measurements can make (although, to be fair, changing from cms to metres isn’t exactly a subtle tweak).  Next we mess about with some cables and the system really starts to sing.  Now, we’re listening to the best pair of 350s I’ve heard.  The bass lines are even in time with the rest of the music, which is not a 350 forte – Exakt must be doing its stuff, and perhaps the latest 4^th order bass roll-off changes have been really fundamental to getting the best from the 350s.  This system is now really enjoyable – something quite special, given my previous challenge with enjoying 350s.  Sitting position in the room is now much less critical, although still best from the hot seat of course.

N then played Porgy and Bess Summertime, Procol Harum performing A Whiter Shade of Pale with the Danish National Concert Orchestra, Eva Cassidy Fields of Gold and some of his other favourites (he has a very extensive and eclectic music collection) which all sounded very engaging.

There’s probably more to come.  Given that we have relied here upon the “ideal” speaker positions that were existing in Konfig (but converted to metres), there’s probably scope to go right back to the beginning and determine the “ideal” speaker position again.  If that’s not right then the SPACE Optimization+ facility for positioning the speaker into the practical position will be based on some incorrect calculations.  If that is the case, then this system really could move on from excellent to truly stunning.  That’s the work of at least half a day.

Now I’m hoping to get back again soon (probably in early 2016) to spend the evening listening to music, to give that SME a good listen and to put that fantastic screen and projector to good use. Hopefully, over the next few days and weeks, N can enjoy settling into some serious music listening too.  Thanks for your hospitality N, a very enjoyable evening.

(with thanks to P for a contribution on the tracks played and correction of some of the details).

Today's TLA Report: KCT, TST, KDS and DVC. Linn and Lejonklou Content.

TLAs?  Three Letter Acronyms.  There's a lot of them about.  Do they sound any good?  I spent an evening chez Whizz to find out.

Here's an itch that's been scratched at last - how does a Lejonklou Tundra Stereo 2 (TST) stack up against the Linn Klimax Chakra Twin (KTC), both in their latest, up to date 2015 configs?

Much has been written on the Linn forum, the Lejonklou forum and probably in other places too, about the giant killing abilities of the £2.5k Tundra Stereo - now in, I think, its fourth iteration - v1, 1.1, 1.2 and now v2.  As is usual, the inside of the Lejonklou and the design science that goes into it is less than accessible than it might be.  Lejonklou put a lot of effort into the design, focussing primarily on sound quality, encompassing all aspects right down to the torque settings for the outer sleeve (you're not supposted to change these, hence there's not much information about what goes inside the box).  The KCT has also evolved over time, the biggest change of note being the Dynamik power supply and a new main board layout - but it is an old design now - based on Chakra circuitry, its a bit like an Linn Akurate amp on steroids.

Previously...

Given that the KCT is based on Akurate design, I need to put some cards on the table - I don't like the current Akurate amps - to me they sound like hifi.  I've had Akurate in my system and went back to Majik as, although Majik amps don't extract as much information from the signal, they do, to me, sound more musical.  To use Linn's terminology, the Majik amps Tune-dem better, at least to me.  And when you can't afford Klimax amps, then its Majik or something non-Linn.  Talking of which, I've heard only one Lejonklou product to date - the original Tundra Stereo (it wasn't called Stereo then, as there wasn't a Mono version) in a system with Linn KDS/0 Renew and Linn Katans (note, no pre-amp in that system).  You can see my notes on that here: http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toms-system-linn-klimax-lejonklu-tundra.html   As you will see, it worked well within the limits of physically small speakers, I did appreciate the imaging (a Katan strength) and subtle finess within the music.  Lejonklou doesn't use Tune-dem to evaluate their products, they use Tune-method - subtle eh?

Also in the "previously..." category is the KDS/1 which is the streamer I use in the main system at home.  To date, its the best digital source I've heard, that's why its in the system.  Recently, it was superceded by (imaginatively), the KDS/2 which has a new clock and revised circuit layouts, in addition to Linn's Exakt outputs.  With the launch of KDS/2 (streamer) and the sister KDSM/1 (streamer and pre-amp), Linn also stopped producing analogue pre-amps - they say the Digital Volume Control (DVC) now outperforms the analogue volume control in their previous top-or-the-range pre-amp, the Klimax Kontrol/1/D (also in my system).  This has caused some controversy on the forums (forums like that, don't they?) too, with some pro- (they're the quiet ones, if they exist) and some anti- (they're the vociferous ones) the DVC.  So, is set, the background to the evening's listening.

I suppose that I also ought to say at this point that I'm not a fan of the Linn Klimax 350 speakers - I've yet to really enjoy them either passive (with their active servo bass system of course), internally active nor Exakt internally active.  I find their bass challenging - its deep enough and there's plenty of it, it just sounds a bit detached from the rest of the music, somehow.

Expectation bias - yep, I guess we all suffer from that, in my case, this time, I was expecting it to be very difficult to choose between the amps.  This is based on reviews on forums that claim the Tundra is close to Linn's Klimax Solos, never mind the Klimax Twin.  I was prepared for having to pick out small nuances and to have to think about the character of the sound rather than the musicality or detail presented.

Bistro

I met Whizz in a bistro.  Very nice it was too - decent  food and a glass of wine.  We headed off to Whizz HQ and settled down with a cuppa, looking at the following, very simple looking, system:

Linn KDS/2 (DVC in use)

Linn Silver Interconnect

Lejonklou Tundra Stereo 2

Linn K200 speaker cable

Linn Klimax 350 passive speakers in Cherry with black arrays

Quadraspire Evo rack

No fancy mains treatment, room treatment nor cable lifters in sight...

Most of the music we used came from Tidal (a few tracks from the local laptop) and included Malia, Eagle Eye Cherry, Deadmau5, Ficci, Felix Laband and Tina Doci.  Control was via a laptop running Kinsky (for ease of use) and Kazoo (for access to Tidal).  The KDS/2 was using SPACE room optimization, set up by Whizz when using the KCT power amp.

DVC

Let's get this one out of the way to start with, but first a qualifier.  This is the first KDS/2 I've heard, I've not yet compared it to the KDS/1 back to back in the same system, nor have I had the chance to compare one using the DVC versus feeding it through the analogue volume control of a KK/1 - that's the subject of a near future post.  We used volume levels of between 58 and 62 (for the Linn power amp) and between 66 and 72 (for the Tundra, which has 8dB less gain than the Linn).  So we didn't try the DVC at lower listening levels.

  

Across both the Tundra and Klimax power amps, I can't say that I heard anything that made me think there was any problem at all with the DVC.  With the Klimax amp, there was occasionally an "edge" to the lead of some instruments and voices, but that could be the KDS/2 or the Klimax Twin amp, as I've not heard either of these in their current configs.  Interesting that the Tundra didn't reveal these edges, so maybe it was the amp...  Anyway, at these volume levels, there wasn't even a hint of the "horrendous" nor the "unlistenable" comments I've read elsewhere.

Sweden

So kicking off with the Tundra Stereo 2 - an unassuming little black box - this one being just a few weeks old and only with about 10 hours use.  It was warmed up though, having been switched on and used a couple of hours earlier.  And what a polite little box it is.  Goes plenty loud enough, at least for me, but its really rather soft in its presentation - almost valve-like (and that's not really a complement from me, but I know many will like this kind of presentation).  The top-end doesn't sparkle, the imaging is flat and rather narrow but vocals (particularly female vocals) are sweet and clear.  Not sure why Tori Amos sounded about as wide as the window between the speakers though.  

What of the bass?  Well, it was difficult for me to tell as the 350s were sounding very different when driven with this amp - the usual slightly detached bass issue was not very easy to distinguish because it was all rather loose.  Bass notes started OK, but they don't stop too well.  Its not boomy as such, it just kind of happens then takes its time to stop again. Deadmau5 didn't have me tapping my foot or wanting to dance, which is an usual experience - even on my much more modest Majik amp and speakers, the track we used drives hard and always gets me foot tapping or jigging in the seat (so to speak).  Another favourite is Blues Company's Dark Day - a track full of sparkling cymbals, triangles and snappy rimshots, along with some extremely deep electronic drum effects.  Whilst the vocals were good and the track flowed along, the cymbals, which should be distinct, clear, individually identifiable in space and shimmering as they are struck and fade away, well, they're just underwhelming and ill-defined - some of them being very indistinct.  The electronic bass drums impacted well, but then kind of flapped about a bit - it really had me wondering if developing a power amp through the little Linn Majik 109 standmounts makes sense, or are the 350s just too demanding?  Maybe Lejonklou used other speakers too, but I understand the 109 was the most frequently used in development.  

It was all OK, but we tended to talk over the music, or move onto the next track before the existing one was finished.  I've never heard the Klimax 350 powered by anything less than its internal amps or external Klimax amps before, so I have no idea how they sound when powered with something less exotic and more affordable.  So maybe this is how a £2.5k power amp sounds with these speakers, I just don't know.  And maybe something more expensive doesn't do a better job either?

Scotland

After about 50 minutes of Sweden, we moved onto Scottish power.  The KCT had been switched off for about 3 weeks, so was going to be fired up and used from cold.  Swap over only took a few minutes and the music was up and running pretty quickly - Whizz had the amps back to front on the rack to provide quick access to the connections.  And whoa!  Even from completely cold this amp was a revelation in comparison to the previous hour or so of listening.  The 350 bass timing "characteristics" were back, because now the amp was gripping these speakers much much better - you could hear bass notes starting and stopping.  And the room got bigger - not the actual room, but the room in which music was recorded - Fink were in a proper venue, not the front room.  Tori Amos's voice is now a much more sensible size - and absolutely locked to the centre.  

And detail - there's more coming through from the recording, instruments that were indistinct or not even noticable with the TST are much more obvious and finely etched.  We play Dark Day again, and we listen to the whole track in silence to the end - captivated by what we were hearing.  There is a down side - there is now, an occasional "edge" to some instruments and vocals - but get this into perspective - its a tiny criticism compared with the Tundra's compromises.  As the KCT warmed up, within 20 minutes it was doing a great job.  Tight rhythms, deep bass, clear space between instruments, the atmosphere of the venue much more obvious, sparkly cymbals.  Foot tapping?  Yep, its back - good.  Perhaps this is the best I've heard the 350p, but I can't get away from that slightly weird bass timing issue.

 

Conclusion

DVC - still more investigation to do, but no obvious issues at all tonight, unless its that edginess heard through the KCT, but not through the Lejonklou.  If it is down to the DVC, its a fairly minor issue - not enough to want to listen to something different.

Tundra vs KCT - this was not what I was expecting at all.  Soft, loose and a bit vague, the Tundra was out of its depth here.  Would still like to hear it with other, lets say, more conventional - less challenging, speakers - I'm almost sure that the 350s are not its ideal partner.  No doubt there will be some who say that it needs 6 weeks to be at its best or similar - if that's the case, then they need to play for whatever length of time is required for them to work properly before they leave for their owners. Maybe the Tundra was disadvantaged by the SPACE settings being set up with the KCT - another reason to try to find the opportunity to listen again under different circumstances. I was expecting a difficult choice - to need to swap back and forth between amps to try and fathom subtle differences in presentation or character.  Nope, in this system, in this room, this was an easy, no-contest win for the KCT in my opinion. 

What about the cost - the Tundra is very much cheaper than the KCT. And that's a very important point here, and why I would like to hear the comparison again with more normal speakers - maybe my Majik 140s, maybe some PMC Twenty.26s, or Kudos Super 20s would be a fairer load for it to deal with.  But as a giant killer against the KCT?  No, its just not close on this evidence in this system.  A secondhand KCT would be a better way to go, for me at least.

Thanks to Whizz for his hospitality and the opportunity to listen to this kit, a good way to spend an evening.

Renewed Listening Experience

Long suffering Audiophile Musings readers might remember this post when I went for a listen to another forum member's system in the South East of England:

Akurately Kontrolled Klimax

Have a quick read through to refresh yourself of the system and my thoughts from that first visit.  One of the best non-Exakt 350 systems I've heard (when the subwoofer was off), but still having that 350 bass that I don't get on with 100%.  Since then, Andrew (system owner) has been to my home to listen to my somewhat more modest system and we keep in touch regularly through the forum.

Disclaimer:  all my opinion, no double-blind testing, just some A-B-A comparisons which the reader may find informative
KRDS = Linn Klimax Renew DS - a Klimax DS/0 in a lower cost box
KDSM = Linn Klimax DS/1 with a built-in pre-amp

Contants in the system tonight:
Linn Klimax Chakra Twin (non-Dynamik) power amp
Linn K400 speaker cables
Linn Klimax 350 passive speakers

Stuff we messed about with:
Klimax Renew DS vs KDSM
With and without an Akurate Kontrol/0/D pre-amp
Without the pre-amp: unbalanced versus balanced interconnects

So I was down South again recently and got in touch with Andrew to see if he was around to listen to some choones.  Despite the short notice, everything was sorted and planned very quickly, but with knobs on!  Andrew arranged for Peter (forum member peter@57m) to meet up with us to make an evening of it.  And Peter was planning to bring his KDSM along to the party which made it that bit more interesting.  I headed out of Town late afternoon and Andrew kindly picked me up at the station.  We didn't go straight to the 350s, but diverted around to the home of another of Andrew's friends for a quick (very loud) blast on his home cinema system.  This is based around some B&O dalek speakers which can pump out some volume.  They're hidden away behind a massive screen which also doubles as a golf game screen - a real man cave!  I think this system is good for the whizz bang of movies and concerts, but it didn't feel musically engaging to me.  Great fun, but not threatening Andrew's system for and engaging listen.

We then had a tour around the rest of the house.  Underground garage and workshop with cars and motorbikes, a swimming pool, snooker room and the piece de resistance - the wine cellar.  The content of this room was beyond my limited knowledge, but its impressively laid out, including a little bar and all the wine is labelled by year of production and the range of years in which they should be drunk.  Of course, we had to sample some too...

Unfortunately, Andrew's friend was too busy to join us for the rest of the evening so we moved on all too soon, but onward to the main course.  Thanks to Andrew's friend - a very friendly guy who is much more down to earth than his house!

Soon we're facing the 340 centre speaker again and comfortably settled in to the listening room.  We start with a few tracks on the Klimax Renew and switch the sub woofer on and off a couple of times to decide which way to have the system configured.  Andrew loves his bass, Peter and I preferred the system without the sub - from where I was sitting there was less bass without the sub, yet strangely it went deeper.  And I'd worn jeans this time to try and avoid trouser flapping!  The sub stayed off for the rest of the evening.  A couple of minor changes to the system since I was last there - K20 has been replaced by K400 speaker cable and some kind of Russ Andrews filter mains cable now feeds the Renew DS.

We listened to some Blues Company, Seal, and some other stuff that slips my mind (maybe Andrew or Peter will be along soon to help me out here).  Then we picked a track and listened to the first 90 seconds or so 3 times.  Then Peter got to work behind the Hutter rack with the KDSM and cables.  Konfig was spun up and the volume control disabled on the KDSM as we kept the Akurate Kontrol/0/D in the system and used unbalanced silver interconnects from both streamers.  Then we went back to the track we'd listened to three times.  It took about 3 or 4 bars for us to be convinced.  We all looked at each other with a look of surprise.  This wasn't slightly better, it was significantly better.  Using the usual hifi terms then the separation between instruments was massively better and the noise floor had fallen again, enough to hear instruments you didn't notice with the Renew.  The acoustic of the recording venue (or maybe the effect of the acoustic of the recording venue added in production) opened out - for example on the Seal track it sounded like he'd moved from a living room into a concert hall. Going back revealed the closing in of the sound stage and now we could hear those instruments we hadn't heard before, but they're in the distance and they're muffled in comparison with the KDSM.  Vocals loose some richness and texture, the bass is that bit less tuneful and more difficult to follow.

We swap back, using a different track for before and after.  We're all agreed - the difference is quite distinct and much bigger than I think all of us were expecting.  Also interesting is that the Akurate Kontrol/0/D pre-amp was clearly capable of revealing these differences which is good for those of us who like to have a Linn processor for our movies.  But how much is it hiding?

Peter leaps into action again, Konfig is booted up and the volume control is enabled again on the KDSM.  The KDSM is then connected directly to the Klimax Twin power amp using balanced silver interconnects and no pre-amp.  Yet another layer of detail is revealed, along with yet further differentiation between the instruments.  However, a touch of harshness has come into the system - perhaps a hint of graininess.  I almost feel like it there is a little more "hifi" to the sound rather than just the music.  We go back to the unbalanced cables into the Akurate Kontrol with the KDSM volume control disabled.  Sure enough, the sound is a little less distinct and there's a much warmer feel to the sound - the graininess disappears.  Its one of those changes that really is more about personal taste rather than one being distinctly better or worse.  Hmmm, interesting.

Poor old Peter was again pressed into cable swapping duty (to be honest, I'm usually the one doing all this stuff so it was good to kick back and let someone else take the strain).  What now?  Well, how about taking the pre-amp out of the system again, re-enabling the KDSM volume control and using unbalanced silvers into the power amp?  So that's what we did.  Interestingly this was, for me, the best sounding the system had been all evening - this configuration sat neatly between the system with the pre-amp (warmer, friendlier, no harshness, no grain) and the system with the KDSM connected directly to the power amp using balanced cables (more detail, more separation, some grain /  harshness).  So we get more detail and separation (but not quite as much as with the balanced connection) but some of the warmer, less challenging sound of the system with the pre-amp.

So what did we learn (and, it must be said, very much agreed upon):
KDSM is significantly ahead of the KRDS - a much bigger difference than I think any of us were expecting
The Akurate Kontrol/0/D is a decent pre-amp, it clearly shows the difference between the DS products
The Akurate Kontrol/0/D is not transparent - it adds a warmth and a little haziness to the sound
The KDSM without a pre-amp is a mixed blessing - choose your method of connection to the power amp with care

We briefly listened to the KDSM with the HDMI switched on and with it switched off.  At this point, I was sitting to one side of the room so I found it difficult to hear a major difference.  Peter was finding it easy to hear and preferred the sound with HDMI switched off, as it had been through the earlier listening comparisons.

So a very revealing and entertaining evening (I know, some will find this a bit sad!) with excellent hospitality from Andrew (and his friend earlier in the evening), and generous support from Peter - great of him to bring over his KDSM, doing all the cable work and dropping me back at the station.

p.s. received a note from Peter the following day - his Klimax Twin Dynamik and Wilson Benesch standmounts and a sub is a very different system to Andrew's set up.  He doesn't use a pre-amp and had spent a little while the following day re-checking balanced vs unbalanced cables in his own system.  This allowed him to confirm that he still prefers the balanced cables in his own system.  The previous evening must've created some doubt in his mind, so good to hear that he's confirmed his original choice as working well in that system.

First UK Dealer Exakt Demo

See below about the date and location of the first dealer Exakt demo evening:

http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/house-of-linn-demo-of-exakt-will-there.html

And here's the report on activities.  How exact is Exakt?  I deliberately didn't comment on the sound of Exakt heard at the 40th Anniversary event at the factory as the conditions just weren't suitable to make a sensible evaluation.  Tonight's event wasn't perfect as most of us won't be listening to a system with 18 other people, but it was much more realistic than the factory event, and later in the evening when the room emptied out, even better conditions were experienced.

As usual, Brian and Trevor were excellent hosts - drinks (including an excellent Malbec from Morissons, a bottle was seen in the hands of one Managing Director on his way out at the end of the evening...) and snacks made available and a relaxed atmosphere as the gathering built momentum from about 19:45 onwards.  For those who don't know House of Linn, it is just that - a very large substantially built end terrace house.  So the rooms are much more "domestic" than most dealers, including the kitchen / diner at the back of the house where we gathered - in the case of HoL the party starts in the kitchen, but usually ends with ears glued to the music in the large listening room at the ground floor front of the house.

Gilad Tiefenbrun, Susan and Andy represented Linn this time around and they were running the first dealer version of the Exakt demo for the UK, being an evolution of some demos done during the 40th Anniversary weekend at the factory.

Gilad kicked off the evening with about 18 customers in attendance (many happily making the best of the Malbec) explaining the basics of the Exakt technology (see here: http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/more-exakt-info.html  and here: http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/exakt-photos.html  for the salient points) and introducing some nicely produced animated videos to help with the explanation.  If anyone was still confused about what the technology is, the Q&A session didn't reveal any fundamental mis-understandings.

Andy from Linn (standing) and Gilad Tiefenbrun (sitting) and Some Abstract Art (hanging). Note the Dark Wood  Non-Exakt 350a Speakers in Place At This Point

 
Disclaimer:  I'm not the biggest fan of Linn's 350 speakers.  So please bear that in mind here - I prefer the Akubariks and Komris.  Having heard 350s in a number of different system configs and locations, I've never really got on with them.  However, its also worth saying that they sound much better at HoL than the did in the Linn Home dem rooms at the factory...  I mention this as I won't be able to say that what I heard was the best system I've ever heard (which I would expect Linn to be hoping customers to be saying), as there are compromises with these speakers that don't suit me, whereas the compromises in the Akubariks (for example) are easier for me to put to one side given how well they do pretty much everything else - particularly their ability to be difficult to listen to as a hifi component, because there's just so much music to listen to.  Anyway, I digress - so back to the 350 speakers used tonight - I'll not describe what I heard in absolute terms (other than setting a baseline from the non-Exakt system), but just in terms of the way they changed as the demos progressed.  Hope that makes some sense - trying to evaluate the effect of Exakt, rather than the basics of the system.   As usual, these notes are only my opinion and thoughts, based on the experience of the evening - its not definitive!

With the system feeding from PS Audio power re-generation products all evening, Andy then stepped us through the demo process as follows:

Starting System: KDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, 350a in "tune-dem" determined position
2 x 30-45 seconds of track 1 - 24 bit FLAC
2 x 30-45 seconds of track 2 - vinyl

Audiophile Musings thoughts: the usual sound here - very tuneful, bags of detail in the treble and mid, sparkling smooth top end, something not quite right about imaging and the integration of the upper mid and lower mid drivers (exhibited, for me, as the vocals being clear, but strangely recessed in the mix, but moving forward and back in the mix, depending on the singer and even which part of the tune is being sung) and deep, powerful, but somewhat (struggling for the right phrase here) less than detailed bass.  I know this is not the KDSM electronics as it sounds great with other speakers in the Linn range.  So a very good sound, but not the ultimate sound, for me at least - but remember this is in context of a very expensive system - I suppose I just expect a bit more at this level of spend, but in terms of the complete hifi spectrum, this is still a very good sounding system.


Changed system to: KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, Exakt 350 in the same location as the 350a - room optimization settings off, speaker position optimzation settings off
2 x 30-45 seconds of track 1 - 24 bit FLAC
2 x 30-45 seconds of track 2 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts:  The tune is just as easy, if not easier to follow.  Timing of the bass lines improves dramatically, snapping into line with the rest of the music.  Instruments much more separated, much more stability in the vocals in terms of front to back in the mix and in terms of left to right image stability.  350s much easier to listen to.  Generally the room agrees it can here a significant difference but not all are fully convinced that everything is unequivocally better.  There is no disagreement about the effects being just as dramatic on vinyl as it is on the digital source.


Changed system back to KDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, 350a in "tune-dem" determined position
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 1 - 24 bit FLAC
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 2 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts: Going backwards in the upgrade path for me is usually easier to hear than an upgrade.  And so it proves here.  In the upgrade, what I've described above as much greater separation of instruments, in the step back, is much more discernible muddling (remember, this is all relative and the system is still very good in absolute terms - I think the reference point has been moved by Exakt, up a couple of steps on the ladder).  The vocals are much easier to identify as changing position over the pitch range to the point where its now clear that they are wandering around quite distinctly.  That lack of detail in the bass is back too.


2 x 30-45 seconds of track 3 - 24 bit FLAC
2 x 30-45 seconds of track 4 - vinyl

Changed system back to: KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, Exakt 350 in the same location as the 350a - room optimization settings off, speaker position optimization settings off

1 x 30-45 seconds of track 3 - 24 bit FLAC
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 4 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts: unsuprisingly all the Exakt changes are back.

Changed system to: KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, Exakt 350 in the same location as the 350a - with room optimization settings on (determined earlier in the day), speaker position optimization settings off

1 x 30-45 seconds of track 3 - 24 bit FLAC
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 4 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts: Bass much more tuneful.  At first it sounded less extended, but this is often the effect heard when bass is brought under greater control.  This also freed up the mid-range somewhat to let vocals be rock solid in the image now, and to really breath freely and flow in a very natural and fluid way.  Given that this software works based on the physical measurements of the room, I found the effect more profound than expected.  Was it a complete success?  May be not - I thought the music lost a touch of liveliness or impact, so its a different set of compromises.  On balance on the evidence of the evening, I preferred the music with the optimisation on, but I think its something that would have to go through a more thorough comparison in your own home to be absolutely sure.

Changed system to: KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, Exakt 350 moved back into either side of the large bay window - with room optimization settings on, speaker position optimization settings off

1 x 30-45 seconds of track 3 - 24 bit FLAC
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 4 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts:  Disastrously bad positioning of the speakers in this room.  Image collapsed and the tune was dragging its feet through mud.  A clearer demonstration of the benefits of placing speakers in the correct place in a room as I've ever heard.  And its amazing how you can pick this out in the first 3 or 4 bars of a very simply constructed acoustic track such as Emily Barker.   The idea here is that the speaker placement optimisation software is supposed to allow for a more "domestically acceptable" positioning of speakers, but only when the ideal position is not tenable.  To configure the speaker optimisation software, first the dealer will identify the best place for the speakers in the room using "tune dem" and record the measurements (from back and side walls), then tell the software the domestically acceptable position in the room and the optimisation is then applied to the signal by the Exakt engine in each speaker.  Interestingly, the distance to the side walls became the distance to the edges of the bay window, not to the edge of the room.

Changed system to: KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12, Exakt 350 moved back into either side of the large bay window - with room optimization settings on, speaker position optimization settings on (determined earlier in the day)

1 x 30-45 seconds of track 3 - 24 bit FLAC
1 x 30-45 seconds of track 4 - vinyl

Discussion on the differences
Audiophile Musings thoughts: The tune comes back, imaging somewhat improved, but its not a complete success - having the speakers in the correct position in the room is still clearly better.  But its an impressive result.  If 350s are too big for the room and you would need to apply speaker position optimisation, I think it would be worth trying some smaller speakers in the correct room position before making a decision.


Throughout, the TV in the room displayed the configuration in use and the track being played, to help us remember what was going on!  Also worth noting is that the speakers not in use were wheeled out of the room, so Brian and Trevor had a good deal of (heavy) box shifting to do through the evening.  So particular thanks to them for the hard work on this.

Brian Installing the Exakt 350 (again!) in Oak Finish

A Q&A session followed with Gilad which covered a number of topics.
Will there be an Akurate Exakt DSM? Nothing definite yet, but probably.
Will there be a Majik Exakt DSM?  Highly unlikely.
Will there be an Akurate Exakt Tunebox - probably and like the Klimax Exakt Tunebox it will eventually cover most, if not all, of Linn's current and previous speakers.
Including the Keilidh?  Yes, as there are around 27k Keilidhs out there, it would seem to make sense to do so, but it might not be an economically sensible way to spend a system upgrade budget, particularly with the Klimax Exakt Tunebox.
Akubarik the next to have an Exakt module?  Very likely, given that it was developed in parallel with Exakt and it has the ideal amp module format. As an aside, Gilad shared that there is no such thing as an "Aktiv Akubarik".  There is only "Akubarik" and "Akubarik Passive" as Linn now see active as the norm at Akurate and above, not the exception.
Will there be Exakt modules for the rear of Majik speakers and older Akurates such as the 242?  No, Exakt Tunebox will be the approach for these - the speaker cabinets are not designed for a built-in or built-on module.
Gilad confirmed that the Klimax (and Akurate, should there be one) Tunebox will be the same for all Linn speakers, with only the software for the digital crossovers being different for each speaker model - these will be downloadable from "the cloud" as the Internet seems to be referred to these days.
Confirmation that Exakt Tunebox and the relevant settings for Komri and Keltik will be next and soon.
Will there be a Urika Exakt version?  Unlikely.
Which is Linn's top system - is it KEDSM and Exakt 350a, or is it KEDSM, Exakt Tunebox, lots of Solos and 350p?  Gilad's answer was very revealling of Linn's thinking - they're both seen as the Linn reference system.  With KEDSM and Exakt 350 being the reference simple solution and the KEDSM / Tunebox / Solos / 350p being the reference enthusiast system.  They meet different demands and exhibit different compromises so are different references. So Audiophile Musing's take on this is that there is a "tidy reference" and a "geek reference".
Questions about pricing - no change here.  KEDSM with Exakt 350 is £50k.  KEDSM and Exakt upgrade for 350a / 350p / Artikulat priced at £25k (in this case you retain your KDS or KDSM to re-use elsewhere or sell on.
Will the optimisation software improve over time?  Yes, as more and more data is collected from installations, then the algorithms will be amended to improve the capability of the optimisation software - and these will be downloadable to be applied to their systems.

We then went back to KEDSM, maxed out Klimax LP12 (interestingly, not used for the rest of the evening), Exakt 350 in the same location as the 350a - with room optimization settings on (determined earlier in the day), speaker position optimization settings off and some really great tracks (I have to say this, they were from my own playlist!) were enjoyed as folks came and went - music in the demo room, chatter in the kitchen.  As usual, I came away with an introduction to some new music that I'll be buying.  In this instance it was Rachelle Ferrell's Individuality album.  Give it a try on Spotify - particularly the track "Sista".  Incredible voice.  Stayed until after midnight, just to be sure I'd given the system a good listen in a quiet room and with some very familiar music.  Overall the system at the end of the evening (I wasn't on the Malbec by the way, so I hadn't mellowed through the evening!) was significantly better in pure hifi terms and in sheer musicality - but my prejudices about the 350 remain - I just don't get lost in the music the way some systems can take me. 

Came away with a positive impression of Exakt - can't wait to hear KEDSM / Exakt Akubarik!  Best start saving, or buy a lottery ticket.  Probably both.

Exakt Photos

Klimax Exakt DSM Front Panel

Klimax Exakt DSM Rear Panel

Top row from left to right:
- L & R unbalanced inputs
- L & R balance inputs
- 4 x Exakt link RJ45 outputs (with 2 x Cat5e cables plugged in - one going to each Exakt speaker)
- 2 x SPDIF inputs
- 1 x Ethernet RJ45 network
- 2 x optical inputs (I think, but not 100% sure)
- Mains power input

Bottom row from left to right:
- Earth post
- 4 x HDMI digital inputs (not sure, but being HDMI, digital output may be possible here - I expect these behave in the same way as a KDSM)

So no analogue outputs. At all.

Exakt 350 Loudspeaker Back Panel.  From the top: Exakt Link connection, another Exakt Link connetion, power switch, mains input.

 

Inside the Exakt 350 Module (photo courtesy of musiikin.com)