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Imagine being the sort of company that doesn’t even need an introduction about how it needs no introduction. Linn Products Ltd, proud resident of Glasgow, is one such company - for over 50 years now, it’s been turning out analogue and digital audio products of such potency that 2002’s award of a Royal Warrant doesn’t even count as one of its most notable achievements.
And this concludes the introduction about how Linn Products Ltd needs no introduction.
Towards the end of last year, Linn announced its first new pairs of passive stereo loudspeakers in quite some time: the 119 standmounters, and the 150 floorstanders I’m testing here. At the same time, it undertook a refinement of its Selekt DSM Classic Hub modular integrated amplifier/network streamer. So it doesn’t seem like a huge leap of logic to pair these new components and find out what sort of system they comprise.
The 150 is a reasonably compact (1000 x 234 x 321mm, HxWxD) three-way floorstanding speaker with dual down-firing bass reflex ports that vent onto the fixed boundary provided by an integrated plinth. Each one is fitted with a 19.6mm soft Sonomex dome tweeter behind an electro-formed guard in the shape of the company logo, a 160mm Nextel-coated paper diaphragm midrange driver, and a 190mm Nextel-coated paper diaphragm bass driver. The drivers are mounted at the very front of the baffle (in fact, the surrounds of the two larger drivers are quite noticeably proud of the front of the cabinet) and have no grille to cover them - Linn reckons this minimises occlusion and optimises excursion. It’s an arrangement that the company reckons is good for a frequency response of 38Hz - 20kHz.
The cabinet is square-edged and sharp-cornered - so while it’s flawlessly built and finished, it’s far from remarkable in visual terms. There’s a certain amount of tactility in the real oak veneer of my review sample, mind you - satin black, satin white and walnut alternatives are available. At the rear of each cabinet there are three sets of speaker cable binding posts leading to the analogue passive crossover network - naturally enough the 150 is supplied and fitted with linking bars in case you’re not immediately going to tri-amp your new speaker.
The Selekt DSM Classic Hub, meanwhile, remains a paradigm of flexibility and modularity - in fact, thanks to its recent reworking it’s more adaptable than ever. New casework improves isolation as well as looking just a little more premium, and the main board now supports resolutions up to DSD256 and 24bit/384kHz PCM. It’s gained headphone amplification accessed via a 6.3mm socket, and has a pre-out for use with a subwoofer. As previously, it starts life as a network streamer, but the customer with the desire (and the headroom in the wallet department) can specify one of two upgrade to the digital-to-analogue conversion chipsets, can add anywhere between two and six channels of amplification, and can add a 'four in, one out' HDMI switching board. The price for the Selekt DSM as a streamer is £5650 - but my review sample also features the top-of-the-shop ‘Organik’ DAC module (£3250) and two channels of amplification (£855). £9755 is a lot to pay for an integrated amplifier with network streaming smarts, I’ll concede - but it’s worth bearing in mind that you can pay plenty more than this, whether you shop with Linn or with one of its nominal rivals.
Every Selekt DSM features Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity, has that 6.3mm headphone socket on the front and an Ethernet socket on the rear. Further physical sockets on the back panel include both moving magnet and moving coil turntable amplification inputs, an analogue stereo RCA input, a pair of digital optical inputs, two digital coaxial inputs (one of which can be configured to become an output), a USB-B socket, a pre-out for a subwoofer and an HDMI eARC input.
Sound quality
The combined price of these two components raises expectations more than somewhat where sound quality is concerned, of course - and it’s very hard indeed for me to imagine any listener being disappointed with the way the Selekt DSM Classic Hub driving 150 loudspeakers performs. No matter if it’s using a turntable, a CD player, a music streaming service app or some network-attached storage as a source of music, it’s a thrillingly complete and unequivocal listen.
But while there are similar systems, costing a similar amount of money, from alternative manufacturers about whom I know I would say the same thing, there is something about this Linn system’s sound that speaks volumes about the way the company approaches the whole business of music reproduction. If you know anything about Linn, you’ll know it has a bee in its bonnet the size of a jumbo jet about time alignment - and this preoccupation has, in the case of this set-up at least, resulted in sound quality that’s so direct, so positive and so articulate that it’s going to be a struggle not to dig out all of the ‘like the musicians are there in the room’ hi-fi cliches in the book.
As a digital-to-analogue converter it’s a step or two up from the (already pretty accomplished) DAC architecture in my reference Rega CD player - when the disc player is attached using a digital coaxial connection, the sound is more open, more robust and more detailed then when it’s attached using an analogue connection. So when playing digital audio files from any source, it seems fanciful that you’ll improve on the ‘Organik’ DAC module fitted to my review sample.
And to be honest, it doesn’t really matter if you’re using digital or analogue media as a source - the Linn system absolutely maximises it. Its tonal balance is beautifully judged, and its frequency response is as smooth as butter from top to bottom - no section is over- or understated, and Linn’s suggestion that every part of every note is perfectly time-aligned seems pretty persuasive.
Low frequencies are deep, full-bodied, rigorously controlled and enjoy an absolute stack of variation where texture and timbre is concerned - detail levels are stratospheric. The top of the frequency range has bite and shine, but is substantial enough to prevent treble response getting out of hand - and unlike some systems I could mention, there’s no change in tonality when you decide you want to listen loud. The Linn system just gets louder - and it has the dynamic headroom to make shifts in attack or intensity obvious even if it’s playing loud to begin with.
It’s in the midrange, though, that the Linn set-up makes its excellence most obvious - it’s hardly surprising, really, given that human hearing is most sensitive to this part of the frequency range. Voices as reproduced by this system sound immediate, articulate and are absolutely loaded with information regarding intangibles like character and attitude just as much as they are the specifics of technique and tone.
But perhaps what’s most enjoyable about this system is that despite its powers of resolution, its ability to create a convincing and expansive soundstage, its vaulting dynamic potency, its rhythmic certainty, and its ability to extract the finest details and put them into plausible context, it is no dry or uninvolving tool of analysis. The Linn set-up is entertaining and engaging - it is well aware that music is a source of elemental fascination, and it is just as capable of pleasing the listener on a somatic level as it is on an intellectual level.
Living with the Linn system
As far as the 150 are concerned, they’re in no way unusual when it comes to living with them. Like the overwhelming majority of loudspeakers, they would like you to be further from them than they are from each other once they’re in position, and like the overwhelming majority of loudspeakers they like a little toe-in towards your listening position. Unlike speakers with rear-firing bass ports, though, they’re not madly sensitive to their position relative to a rear surface.
Things are similarly painless when it comes to the Selekt DSM Classic Hub. Some folks may be surprised to find the fascia display is text only (it’s crisp and bright, most certainly, but the lack of album artwork (or virtual VU meters, for that matter) might count as a disappointment), but you’ll never be left in any doubt as to what your machine is up to. There’s a large-ish and logically laid out remote control handset, and a smoked cut-glass volume dial on the top panel that features the company logo and a circle of slender LEDs that indicate the amount of volume you’ve dialled in. And there are six buttons along the front edge of the chassis that can be assigned as ‘favourites’ shortcuts for playlists, streaming services, radio stations and so on.
Ultimate control, though, comes via the Linn control app that’s free for iOS and Android. In truth it’s not the fastest in operation, and it’s not the most visually interesting control app you ever used either. But when it comes to integrating your favourite streaming services, accessing music on a local network or calling up one of the planet’s stations via internet radio, it couldn’t really be any more straightforward.
I have, of course, talked about the various ways in which you can chuck extra money at the Selekt DSM Classic Hub in order to extend its performance and functionality - but, in fact, you have even more scope for expenditure. Add two more stereo ‘Organik’ DAC modules and two more amplification cartridges and you’re then providing each driver in your 150 loudspeakers with its own converted analogue signal and its own amplification - which means, in Linn-speak, you’ve upgraded to ‘Exakt’ status.
‘Exakt’ technology seeks to eradicate the timing errors inherent in speakers with more than one driver - because higher frequencies reach your ears more quickly than lower frequencies, issues in the timing of the music (or, at least, your perception of it) can be introduced. ‘Exakt’ delivers linear phase performance across the entire frequency range and ensures the sound of each driver is perfectly synchronised when it reaches you.
The cost of bringing this system up to ‘Exakt’ standard? Another £8210. Still, it can be done at any point in the future, which gives you time to a) think about it, and b) save up.
Conclusion
I’m not here to advocate spending £15000 and more on a stereo system - especially not a stereo system that has just network streaming as a source of music. If, however, you are in the happy position of being willing and able to spend this sort of money on a stereo system, then I am prepared to advocate, in the strongest possible terms, that you should hear this particular system before you make any decisions whatsoever.
Listening notes
The Congos Ark of the Covenant
The balance between warmth and attack, the limits of and the risking-taking of the production, and most of all the remarkable vocal harmonies, are all relayed faithfully by the Linn system - and the rhythm is expressed with complete confidence too.
Neutral Milk Hotel Two-Headed Boy
In the wrong hands, this strident recording can become a scrap between an unaffected voice and a relentless acoustic guitar that both seem to think they should be the star of the show. Need I say with undue emphasis that the Linn team is not in any way the wrong hands?
Young Marble Giants N.I.T.A.
There’s absolutely nowhere for a system to hide here - N.I.T.A. is almost as much about absences as it is occurrences. The Linn set-up has no discernible trouble in teasing every tiny harmonic variation out of this skeletal recording, and makes it sound somehow complete as a result.
If you’re spending this sort of money on a stereo music streaming system with extended functionality opportunities, you can be almost certain that the performance this sort of money buys will be impressive. So you buy a Selekt DSM Classic Hub with 150 loudspeakers because you like the specific approach Linn takes towards music reproduction - if you’re convinced by the company’s obsession (and it is an obsession) with accurate timing and you get to hear the result of its efforts, it’s going to be extremely difficult to unhear.
