01-Sep-2014, 15:25
Oh I'll chip in! I wa a die-hard Linnie for years, culminating in Klimax DS, Klimax Kontrol pre-amp, and Lejonklou Tundra monoblock power amps (these are fabulous by the way). I've previously owned Akurate/Renew DS, Akurate Kontrol pre-amp, 4200s passive and Aktiv. Also 212 and Katan speakers, though I moved away from Linn speakers about 3-4 years ago as I heard speakers from other brands. I think Ninkas are lovely by the way!
The moment I heard a Devialet with my KDS I was blown away by it. The simplicity really appealed as well. I wasn't impressed with AIR though and felt from my initial experiments last year that AIR with iTunes or VLC was something around the quality of an Akurate DS. Then Guillaume experimented with the Simaudio Moon MiND 180D which provided the usability of the KDS - and things were getting close to Klimax sound quality. He then tested the Transparent Reference XL digital cable between the devices and that was it - better than Klimax DS in both our opinion! So the Klimax DS went to a new home...
I've heard Exakt a few times and haven't been hugely impressed, though a lot of it comes down to the 350 speakers I heard it with which I'm not a fan of. I don't like the rather hollow flappy bass in particular. I prefer Akubariks actually but again the're not perfect either. Exakt does have a wonderful precision with the microdynamics that the regular Klimax stuff doesn't. But it's oh-so expensive! Or rather it was when the Klimax Exakt stuff came out last year, and compared with a little D200 it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer to me. i felt Linn had gone the wrong way, largely due to the high pricing of the Exakt system.
I've recently tried AIR again and with different player software and been very impressed. Whether it's improved a lot over the last year or I just got it wrong initially and didn't test hard enough I don't know.
The moment I heard a Devialet with my KDS I was blown away by it. The simplicity really appealed as well. I wasn't impressed with AIR though and felt from my initial experiments last year that AIR with iTunes or VLC was something around the quality of an Akurate DS. Then Guillaume experimented with the Simaudio Moon MiND 180D which provided the usability of the KDS - and things were getting close to Klimax sound quality. He then tested the Transparent Reference XL digital cable between the devices and that was it - better than Klimax DS in both our opinion! So the Klimax DS went to a new home...
I've heard Exakt a few times and haven't been hugely impressed, though a lot of it comes down to the 350 speakers I heard it with which I'm not a fan of. I don't like the rather hollow flappy bass in particular. I prefer Akubariks actually but again the're not perfect either. Exakt does have a wonderful precision with the microdynamics that the regular Klimax stuff doesn't. But it's oh-so expensive! Or rather it was when the Klimax Exakt stuff came out last year, and compared with a little D200 it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer to me. i felt Linn had gone the wrong way, largely due to the high pricing of the Exakt system.
I've recently tried AIR again and with different player software and been very impressed. Whether it's improved a lot over the last year or I just got it wrong initially and didn't test hard enough I don't know.
