Late last year we went to the local audio pusher for a demo of Linn's new active speakers - they had flown in a rep from Scotland who did the demo, and these speakers were fantastic...
But out of my price range certainly! One of the songs they used in the demo was this:
Not necessarily my taste in music (although it's got a good groove to it), but it is a challenging song for a system to play well and not be very tiring at a decent volume. When we arrived home, I played it on my speakers (about 5 times less money than the Linns we had just heard it on) and it was tough to listen to at any volume. The issue with transparency is that it can become harsh. The Linns were smooth - that was the word that kept going through my head as we heard the demo.
While we were there, they mentioned that Linn has a deal on for upgrades and trade ins. Linn came out with their own Organik DAC architecture a few years ago, and since they are always making their equipment upgradable, there was an opportunity to upgrade my Klimax streamer, but the upgrade was pricey. Convincing "she who must be convinced" would be a tall order.
The rep said that as a bonus, if you upgrade within a certain time frame, you get a free Utopik power supply upgrade, that would normally be $2500. In addition, post upgrade you get a new 5 year warranty. That last bit did the trick, so a down payment was made, and new parts ordered.
The audio pusher arrived yesterday to install the new parts...here is the steamer opened up:
Out with the old:
Underside of the bottom cover...
New power supply is in...
New DAC in...
The only thing that didn't get changed really is the small board for the display. We did a "before" listen, and then an "after" - the difference was huge. I'm used to very small incremental differences, but this was massive. Much cleaner sound, fuller bass, less straining on the high end. Even my wife reluctantly thought it was worth the money.
😉
I realized that a large part of what made that demo system sound so much better than mine, was the streamer and not really the speakers. So in reality, we this upgrade really saved about 80k here...I haven't yet tried that argument with my wife - I should probably just quit while I'm ahead.
😁
