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.
Showing posts with label Renew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Renew. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 December 2013
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Akurately Kontrolled Klimax
One of the best sounding systems I've heard over the years was a Linn LP12 with Naim electronics (135 mono power amps in particular) driving active Linn Isobarik speakers. It must have been 25 years ago, but I still remember being stunned by the musicality of it all - although coloured in a charismatic way, the uneven tonal balance of the system became irrelevant because it just allowed the music to flow.
So what? Why am I recounting a 25 year old experience from a time when telephones had just become pretty much standard in our houses (not in our hands) and the nearest you got to an audio blog was the letters page of the monthly HiFi Answers magazine? Because an experience listening to a fellow Linn Forum member's system earlier this week had some distinct parallels. Number one - it was Linn's top of the current range (like the Isobarik was all those years ago) 350 loudspeaker. Number two - both were in rooms that, at first glance, seemed unfeasibly small for such large speakers. 25 years ago I was in a room that was about 12ft x 10ft with the speakers on the longer wall, hence they were about 7ft in front of me. Earlier this week it wasn't quite so extreme, but it did bring the 'bariks in a corrugated iron shack on the top of a moor in Kent to mind again.
After a number of interchanges on the Linn Forum, I met one of the forum members (let's call him Andrew) at the recent Scalford Hifi Show where he visited our room a couple of times to both enjoy the system, but also to provide him with a "Linn sound" reference point against which to baseline the other systems at the show. He made some very complementary comments about my system too, which was much appreciated. As it happens, through a number of coincidences of location and timing, I was in the right part of the South East of England earlier this week when Andrew had a free evening, so a listening session was set up. As a consequence, Andrew has kindly agreed to let me write a few words about the evening and my thoughts on his system. A brave man.
So let's start with a few pictures plagerised from the Linn Forum (note that the system now has a Pioneer Blu-ray on the top shelf and the Akurate DS has been replaced by a Renew DS since these pictures were taken). The centre speaker really is THAT big and really is THAT close to where you sit. In the middle picture in the bottom left hand corner you can seen the main listening seat - a reasonable distance from the main stereo speakers, but the centre speaker kind of dominates the room and is very much "in your face". Also changed since these pictures is that the centre speaker is fitted with a full frontal black grille now, which does tone down the effect a little - at least it doesn't feel like you're being stared at by this speaker. I have to say though, hats off to Andrew for not letting anything as trivial as room size from stopping him having the system he really wanted:
And a kit list:
Linn Klimax Renew DS streamer
Linn Akurate Kontrol/0/D pre-pro
Linn Klimax Twin (non D) to drive the 3K array in the 350p speakers
Linn 350p main speakers (in-built Akurate amps for the bass drivers)
Linn 340a active centre speaker (in-built Akurate amps)
Linn 345 active subwoofer
Linn Majik 2100 amp for rear speakers
Linn Akurate 212 rear speakers
Hutter rack
Linn K20 speaker cables
Linn Silver interconnects
Let's not talk too much about prices here, as that would be tasteless at this level. However, Andrew was wise enough to find many of his speakers just as Linn were ending the Maple finish, so end of line pricing helped put this system into this room, which is a great result.
Andrew is a big advocate of the opening sequence from Quantum of Solace, so that was my first experience of this system. I guess its probably also worth mentioning that I'm going to describe what I heard relative to my own Akurate / Majik active system at home, although I will try and describe what I heard in absolute terms where I can. I know its a bit of a cliche now, but I think I understand the origins of the term "shock and awe" now. My own system can go pretty loud, but once passed about 65 on the volume control with music (which is pretty loud already) you can start to tell that its working hard - normal serious listening is usually between 55 and 60 volume levels. Andrew's system is still cruising at volume levels of 71-75. It's just astonishing how loud it goes, yet somehow you're no more aware of the system working hard than you are at more sane volume levels. Even at these volumes, there is absolutely no sense of strain, distortion or any other nasties. I've also heard, but never experienced, "trouser flapping bass" before. Now I have - the lower fronts of my chinos were literally flapping in the bass - astonishing. Good job the house is well built. How you can get such steering, impact and power in such a small room without it sounding OTT is beyond me, but Andrew's system manages it with ease. And you know what? That centre speaker works really well - you don't notice it's existence in the soundfield that envelopes you - whilst it's visually right there, in terms of sound, all the speakers disappear - you're just not aware of them as point sources. We watched the last song from a live Shakira concert too - the welly available in this system made for a very realistic concert experience - that thumping you get from a PA system, but without the grittiness that you get higher up the frequency. Made Shakira's music enjoyable, which is not something I'd normally say.
After recovering from the introduction, we turned the volume down somewhat and started listening to some music - the system defaulting to the 350s for L and R and the 345 sub for music. We used Yello (The Race, Otto Di Catania from Flag), Kiki Dee (Don't Go Breaking My Heart from Almost Naked), Fleetwood Mac (Go Your Own Way from Rumours 24/96) and a couple of other tracks that slip my mind. During these tracks we briefly listened to just the stereo speakers, taking the sub out of the equation. First of all lets get the musicality out of the way - this system delivers. Toe tapping is impossible to avoid, be it on music or music videos. In more "hifi" terms then clarity and effortlessness are probably reasonably good descriptions. Oh, and I'm not sure what the techie term is, but the system's ability to do starting and stopping is stunning. I think my own system is good at this, but the separation of instruments and understanding when they start and stop is in a different league altogether (but you can, of course, have my entire system for the price of the 350 speakers), and I'm pretty sure that its this aspect that makes the system so tuneful and easy to toe-tap along to. I can't really emphasise enough how easy this system is to listen to - not in the sense that its inoffensive or easy going, but that attacking cymbals attack but don't mug you, bass slams but doesn't wallow (when not using the subwoofer - goes deeper still with the subwoofer, but becomes a little too dominant for my taste) and voices are as natural as you could hope for. We listened to a Seal track from a HDTracks 24bit download (it may have been "Prayer For The Dying") in which the singer's voice had real three dimensional character and texture, in addition to being rock solid centre in the soundstage.
The only real criticism I would have is probably more down to Andrew's set up of the system than the system itsself. I really enjoyed the system for music without the subwoofer and feel that the sub becomes too dominant at times, detracting from the rest of the mix. It's great for movies, I think dialling it out altogether or experimenting with turning down its influence on the music side would bring some benefits. To be fair, Andrew did mention this and I'd encourage him to experiment a bit more with that. Along with the 350's occasionally slightly "detached" sounding bass.
Then Andrew's mate turned up - he's much more into the movies side of things with his own system, so we put my copy of Yello's Touch Virtual Concert DVD into the Pioneer's drive to give it a quick whirl. With the sofa kicked back into lounger mode, we just let the whole DVD play through - transfixed by the visuals and the music. Brilliant - there was a bit of stunned silence as the film came to an end, then Andrew's mate immediately got online and ordered 2 copies of the disc - one each for the locals. One thing that has given me food for thought for quite some time is the lack of a pre-pro in Linn's current line-up. On this evidence, it seems that the Akurate Kontrol/0/D is quite capable of holding its own in a Klimax sandwich. Good, because I just don't have the cash or the room to have separate stereo and cinema systems - it seems that the AK is well up to much further upgrading of the system around it.
So my thanks go to Andrew for his hospitality and friendly welcome (and also thanks to Andrew's wife and daughter for letting us play!). It was a most enjoyable evening. I hope Andrew will be up in my neck of the woods sometime so he can call in to hear my system in its natural habitat where it sounds a bit better than it did at Scalford.
Now, how long will it take for 350 speakers to get down to about £3k???
So what? Why am I recounting a 25 year old experience from a time when telephones had just become pretty much standard in our houses (not in our hands) and the nearest you got to an audio blog was the letters page of the monthly HiFi Answers magazine? Because an experience listening to a fellow Linn Forum member's system earlier this week had some distinct parallels. Number one - it was Linn's top of the current range (like the Isobarik was all those years ago) 350 loudspeaker. Number two - both were in rooms that, at first glance, seemed unfeasibly small for such large speakers. 25 years ago I was in a room that was about 12ft x 10ft with the speakers on the longer wall, hence they were about 7ft in front of me. Earlier this week it wasn't quite so extreme, but it did bring the 'bariks in a corrugated iron shack on the top of a moor in Kent to mind again.
After a number of interchanges on the Linn Forum, I met one of the forum members (let's call him Andrew) at the recent Scalford Hifi Show where he visited our room a couple of times to both enjoy the system, but also to provide him with a "Linn sound" reference point against which to baseline the other systems at the show. He made some very complementary comments about my system too, which was much appreciated. As it happens, through a number of coincidences of location and timing, I was in the right part of the South East of England earlier this week when Andrew had a free evening, so a listening session was set up. As a consequence, Andrew has kindly agreed to let me write a few words about the evening and my thoughts on his system. A brave man.
So let's start with a few pictures plagerised from the Linn Forum (note that the system now has a Pioneer Blu-ray on the top shelf and the Akurate DS has been replaced by a Renew DS since these pictures were taken). The centre speaker really is THAT big and really is THAT close to where you sit. In the middle picture in the bottom left hand corner you can seen the main listening seat - a reasonable distance from the main stereo speakers, but the centre speaker kind of dominates the room and is very much "in your face". Also changed since these pictures is that the centre speaker is fitted with a full frontal black grille now, which does tone down the effect a little - at least it doesn't feel like you're being stared at by this speaker. I have to say though, hats off to Andrew for not letting anything as trivial as room size from stopping him having the system he really wanted:
And a kit list:
Linn Klimax Renew DS streamer
Linn Akurate Kontrol/0/D pre-pro
Linn Klimax Twin (non D) to drive the 3K array in the 350p speakers
Linn 350p main speakers (in-built Akurate amps for the bass drivers)
Linn 340a active centre speaker (in-built Akurate amps)
Linn 345 active subwoofer
Linn Majik 2100 amp for rear speakers
Linn Akurate 212 rear speakers
Hutter rack
Linn K20 speaker cables
Linn Silver interconnects
Let's not talk too much about prices here, as that would be tasteless at this level. However, Andrew was wise enough to find many of his speakers just as Linn were ending the Maple finish, so end of line pricing helped put this system into this room, which is a great result.
Andrew is a big advocate of the opening sequence from Quantum of Solace, so that was my first experience of this system. I guess its probably also worth mentioning that I'm going to describe what I heard relative to my own Akurate / Majik active system at home, although I will try and describe what I heard in absolute terms where I can. I know its a bit of a cliche now, but I think I understand the origins of the term "shock and awe" now. My own system can go pretty loud, but once passed about 65 on the volume control with music (which is pretty loud already) you can start to tell that its working hard - normal serious listening is usually between 55 and 60 volume levels. Andrew's system is still cruising at volume levels of 71-75. It's just astonishing how loud it goes, yet somehow you're no more aware of the system working hard than you are at more sane volume levels. Even at these volumes, there is absolutely no sense of strain, distortion or any other nasties. I've also heard, but never experienced, "trouser flapping bass" before. Now I have - the lower fronts of my chinos were literally flapping in the bass - astonishing. Good job the house is well built. How you can get such steering, impact and power in such a small room without it sounding OTT is beyond me, but Andrew's system manages it with ease. And you know what? That centre speaker works really well - you don't notice it's existence in the soundfield that envelopes you - whilst it's visually right there, in terms of sound, all the speakers disappear - you're just not aware of them as point sources. We watched the last song from a live Shakira concert too - the welly available in this system made for a very realistic concert experience - that thumping you get from a PA system, but without the grittiness that you get higher up the frequency. Made Shakira's music enjoyable, which is not something I'd normally say.
After recovering from the introduction, we turned the volume down somewhat and started listening to some music - the system defaulting to the 350s for L and R and the 345 sub for music. We used Yello (The Race, Otto Di Catania from Flag), Kiki Dee (Don't Go Breaking My Heart from Almost Naked), Fleetwood Mac (Go Your Own Way from Rumours 24/96) and a couple of other tracks that slip my mind. During these tracks we briefly listened to just the stereo speakers, taking the sub out of the equation. First of all lets get the musicality out of the way - this system delivers. Toe tapping is impossible to avoid, be it on music or music videos. In more "hifi" terms then clarity and effortlessness are probably reasonably good descriptions. Oh, and I'm not sure what the techie term is, but the system's ability to do starting and stopping is stunning. I think my own system is good at this, but the separation of instruments and understanding when they start and stop is in a different league altogether (but you can, of course, have my entire system for the price of the 350 speakers), and I'm pretty sure that its this aspect that makes the system so tuneful and easy to toe-tap along to. I can't really emphasise enough how easy this system is to listen to - not in the sense that its inoffensive or easy going, but that attacking cymbals attack but don't mug you, bass slams but doesn't wallow (when not using the subwoofer - goes deeper still with the subwoofer, but becomes a little too dominant for my taste) and voices are as natural as you could hope for. We listened to a Seal track from a HDTracks 24bit download (it may have been "Prayer For The Dying") in which the singer's voice had real three dimensional character and texture, in addition to being rock solid centre in the soundstage.
The only real criticism I would have is probably more down to Andrew's set up of the system than the system itsself. I really enjoyed the system for music without the subwoofer and feel that the sub becomes too dominant at times, detracting from the rest of the mix. It's great for movies, I think dialling it out altogether or experimenting with turning down its influence on the music side would bring some benefits. To be fair, Andrew did mention this and I'd encourage him to experiment a bit more with that. Along with the 350's occasionally slightly "detached" sounding bass.
Then Andrew's mate turned up - he's much more into the movies side of things with his own system, so we put my copy of Yello's Touch Virtual Concert DVD into the Pioneer's drive to give it a quick whirl. With the sofa kicked back into lounger mode, we just let the whole DVD play through - transfixed by the visuals and the music. Brilliant - there was a bit of stunned silence as the film came to an end, then Andrew's mate immediately got online and ordered 2 copies of the disc - one each for the locals. One thing that has given me food for thought for quite some time is the lack of a pre-pro in Linn's current line-up. On this evidence, it seems that the Akurate Kontrol/0/D is quite capable of holding its own in a Klimax sandwich. Good, because I just don't have the cash or the room to have separate stereo and cinema systems - it seems that the AK is well up to much further upgrading of the system around it.
So my thanks go to Andrew for his hospitality and friendly welcome (and also thanks to Andrew's wife and daughter for letting us play!). It was a most enjoyable evening. I hope Andrew will be up in my neck of the woods sometime so he can call in to hear my system in its natural habitat where it sounds a bit better than it did at Scalford.
Now, how long will it take for 350 speakers to get down to about £3k???
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Linn Akurate DS/0 Dynamik vs Akurate DS/1 Dynamik With ADS/1 Upgrade Kit
As Scott Wilkinson would say - its time to geek out!
Apologies for the title, but there isn't really an easy way to describe this. Here is the bullet point version:
Linn produced an Akurate DS - we'll call this the ADS.
It was then available with a new power supply so it was they called the ADS Dynamik.
Linn made the power supply available as an upgrade so now it is possible to have and ADS Dynamik from the factory or an ADS with a retro-fitted Dynamik. Both are called ADS Dynamik and sound the same.
Then Linn launched a significantly improved Akurate DS called the ADS/1 which is in the same chassis but has a new front panel and a slightly different display panel.
The ADS/1 comes with a Dynamik power supply as standard, but we don't mention that in the product name - its just an ADS/1.
So after launching the ADS/1, the orignal ADS is now called the ADS/0 or ADS/0 Dynamik if it is a later version of the ADS/0 or an ADS/0 with a retro fitted power supply.
OK? Try and keep up!
Linn have now decided that the circuit boards from the ADS/1 can be retro fitted to the ADS/0 and ADS/0 Dynamik.
You can then use old circuit boards to go into a new, fairly basic case to create the Akurate DS Renew or ADSR.
All ADSRs and ADS/0s that are upgraded to ADS/1 spec will have Dyanmik power supplies.
If you take this option of an upgrade to your ADS/0 or ADS/0 Dynamik you will effectively end up with exactly the same spec as and ADS/1, but it'll be inside an ADS/0 case.
What do we call an ADS/0 with ADS/1 circuitry inside? There doesn't seem to be a concensus, but I'm going to call it the ADS/0/1 on this blog.
So that's the history and naming nonsense out of the way. If you're still with me, now I'll write something about the sonic differences, which is waaaaay more interesting and important of course.
I heard an Akurate DS/1 in my system last week - we did ABABA comparison using the following tracks:
Blues Company - Cold Rain
Blues Company - Dark Days
Trentmoller - Evil Dub
Yello - Tangier Blue
Tom Baxter - Skybound
Found that the ADS/1 was much more organic, the treble even sweeter than my ADS/0/D and the imaging much more precise and 3 dimensional. A nice upgrade that should satisfy even analogue fans (maybe). The only thing that detracted was that the bass seems a little shy - I think that might be more control? We only spent about 20 mins so didn't get into speaker repositioning or anything.
So that's great, as far as it goes. Being a skeptic I still wanted to hear an ADS/0 that had been upgraded to an ADS/1 for myself - just to be sure that the upgrade was as effective as a completely new ADS/1. I had the chance to take my ADS/0 Dynamik to my Linn dealer just a couple of days ago to compare with an ADS/0 Dynamik that has had the ADS/1 upgraded boards.
System: Akurate Kontrol/1 pre-amp, 2 x Majik 4100 Dynamik power amps with active crossover cards and Majik Isobariks loudspeakers (in Rosewood, just in case anyone thinks the veneer affects the sound...), Linn Silver interconnects, 2 x Linn K400 speaker cables, Quadraspire racks.
Tracks used: Robben Ford "Mystic Mile" Eagle Eye Cherry "Shooting Up In Vain"
Happily, my earlier notes about the ADS/0 Dynamik vs ADS/1 apply equally to this comparison. The upgrade is not subtle. The feeling and emotions in vocals come through much stronger, the bass guitar on the Ford track seems to be playing many more intricate moves which previously didn't stand out as being something so subtle and intricate, decay is longer but doesn't blur into other instruments so much. Imaging also gets a boost - left to right images are much more stable in space and there's more front to back depth. The keyboard on the intro to Shooting Up has so much more texture to it.
In summary, its worthwhile and very enjoyable to listen to.
Funny isn't it? I was very happy with my ADS/0 Dynamik, until I heard the upgrade. When you go back from the upgrade the original sounds black & white and 2D compared to the colourful textures and 3D of the upgrade. So its just a matter of time to get the cash together now!
It is very pleasing to see that Linn is making improvements in the ADS - and that they offer this improvement as an upgrade for existing customers - reducing the normal obsolecence in our consumer society.
p.s. I didn't listen to the ADS Renew as I don't intend to buy one, but the dealer suggested that it doesn't sound as good as an ADS/0 Dynamik and not that much better than a Majik DS Dynamik. I have no view on this, just passing along the discussion.
Apologies for the title, but there isn't really an easy way to describe this. Here is the bullet point version:
Linn produced an Akurate DS - we'll call this the ADS.
It was then available with a new power supply so it was they called the ADS Dynamik.
Linn made the power supply available as an upgrade so now it is possible to have and ADS Dynamik from the factory or an ADS with a retro-fitted Dynamik. Both are called ADS Dynamik and sound the same.
Then Linn launched a significantly improved Akurate DS called the ADS/1 which is in the same chassis but has a new front panel and a slightly different display panel.
The ADS/1 comes with a Dynamik power supply as standard, but we don't mention that in the product name - its just an ADS/1.
So after launching the ADS/1, the orignal ADS is now called the ADS/0 or ADS/0 Dynamik if it is a later version of the ADS/0 or an ADS/0 with a retro fitted power supply.
OK? Try and keep up!
Linn have now decided that the circuit boards from the ADS/1 can be retro fitted to the ADS/0 and ADS/0 Dynamik.
You can then use old circuit boards to go into a new, fairly basic case to create the Akurate DS Renew or ADSR.
All ADSRs and ADS/0s that are upgraded to ADS/1 spec will have Dyanmik power supplies.
If you take this option of an upgrade to your ADS/0 or ADS/0 Dynamik you will effectively end up with exactly the same spec as and ADS/1, but it'll be inside an ADS/0 case.
What do we call an ADS/0 with ADS/1 circuitry inside? There doesn't seem to be a concensus, but I'm going to call it the ADS/0/1 on this blog.
So that's the history and naming nonsense out of the way. If you're still with me, now I'll write something about the sonic differences, which is waaaaay more interesting and important of course.
I heard an Akurate DS/1 in my system last week - we did ABABA comparison using the following tracks:
Blues Company - Cold Rain
Blues Company - Dark Days
Trentmoller - Evil Dub
Yello - Tangier Blue
Tom Baxter - Skybound
Found that the ADS/1 was much more organic, the treble even sweeter than my ADS/0/D and the imaging much more precise and 3 dimensional. A nice upgrade that should satisfy even analogue fans (maybe). The only thing that detracted was that the bass seems a little shy - I think that might be more control? We only spent about 20 mins so didn't get into speaker repositioning or anything.
So that's great, as far as it goes. Being a skeptic I still wanted to hear an ADS/0 that had been upgraded to an ADS/1 for myself - just to be sure that the upgrade was as effective as a completely new ADS/1. I had the chance to take my ADS/0 Dynamik to my Linn dealer just a couple of days ago to compare with an ADS/0 Dynamik that has had the ADS/1 upgraded boards.
System: Akurate Kontrol/1 pre-amp, 2 x Majik 4100 Dynamik power amps with active crossover cards and Majik Isobariks loudspeakers (in Rosewood, just in case anyone thinks the veneer affects the sound...), Linn Silver interconnects, 2 x Linn K400 speaker cables, Quadraspire racks.
Tracks used: Robben Ford "Mystic Mile" Eagle Eye Cherry "Shooting Up In Vain"
Happily, my earlier notes about the ADS/0 Dynamik vs ADS/1 apply equally to this comparison. The upgrade is not subtle. The feeling and emotions in vocals come through much stronger, the bass guitar on the Ford track seems to be playing many more intricate moves which previously didn't stand out as being something so subtle and intricate, decay is longer but doesn't blur into other instruments so much. Imaging also gets a boost - left to right images are much more stable in space and there's more front to back depth. The keyboard on the intro to Shooting Up has so much more texture to it.
In summary, its worthwhile and very enjoyable to listen to.
Funny isn't it? I was very happy with my ADS/0 Dynamik, until I heard the upgrade. When you go back from the upgrade the original sounds black & white and 2D compared to the colourful textures and 3D of the upgrade. So its just a matter of time to get the cash together now!
It is very pleasing to see that Linn is making improvements in the ADS - and that they offer this improvement as an upgrade for existing customers - reducing the normal obsolecence in our consumer society.
p.s. I didn't listen to the ADS Renew as I don't intend to buy one, but the dealer suggested that it doesn't sound as good as an ADS/0 Dynamik and not that much better than a Majik DS Dynamik. I have no view on this, just passing along the discussion.
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