The specific context I want to talk about in this regard is that of integrated systems vs separates. Traditionally separates have been the path to high sonic quality. And yet for a long time, designers have known that separate components, designed for generic interfaces, impose limitations or costs on the products these designers build. A classic example of this is the choice of crossover slopes for a speaker. Realistically, most designers won’t do a 24 db/octave crossover slope with passive components. This, or some other crossover curve, might be trivially easy with an electronic crossover. In turn, this might allow superior power handling and more flexible management of radiation patterns. Other design parameters that can be hard (i.e. expensive) or impossible to do passively include:

• driver time domain correction

• removal of power losses in the crossover

• correction of room modes

• tuning for room materials

• adjustment for frequency balance preferences

• automatic adjustment for listening levels

• adjustments for the individual measured component values of each serial numbered product

So, the semi-technical point of interest is to catalog another example of how addressing these variables impacts sound quality. There is no doubt there are known technical issues here, but how is the state of the art succeeding or not succeeding at addressing them?

Addressing these issues raises another aspect of context that matters for understanding just about anything, and that certainly is the case with this system. Most of us consumers have some rules of thumb for simplifying what works in audio. The problem is that the rules don’t always work because the total system “from guitar to the brain” can easily defy our simplifications. 

An especially problematic example of this, IMHO, is the use of DSP, which is often the means for dealing with some of the list of design issues I just rattled off. I don’t say that DSP is always wonderful, anything but, so I can see why there are doubters. And yet my experience is that DSP can be extremely powerful. It has, it is true, taken several decades to get the underlying models to match the sophistication of the hardware (which has grown dramatically during that period). But the same thing was true of solid-state amplification. Or D/A conversion (which could be viewed as a form of DSP). DSP is especially problematic because it opens up the world of computational audio, which is largely the realm of software engineering and psychoacoustics. These are domains outside the normal zone of electro-mechanical engineering. So, we don’t have as many examples to form our rules of thumb. Therefore, I encourage an open mind.

That’s relevant because high-end integrated systems like the Linn Kilmax System or the Focal Diva, and others, endeavor to take advantage of the possibilities of electronic crossovers, direct-to-driver amplification, and DSP. In the case of the 360 Integrated, Linn has used the electronics to correct for driver and digital distortions and also to address the real-world room environment that most speakers radiate into, a process they call “Space Optimization”. This is done less as a DIY tuning exercise for the consumer and more as a set of parameters (speaker position, room dimensions, room materials) that are then used by Linn’s cloud system to set a bevy of parameters to lower the system’s inevitable time domain room issues as heard by your ears. This concept may be why the Linn system works well – it aims for a detailed if complex recipe for natural sound quality, rather than tossing the consumer a set of ingredients and saying “good luck making dinner”. The consumer can make some adjustments to the bass profile, via a slider control that adjusts the software.

The basic elements of the system are quite sophisticated as well. The 360 is a 4-way system, with a very small 19mm or 0.8 inch tweeter, which then crosses over to a 64mm or 2.5” dome carbon fiber midrange. These are driven by special adaptive bias amplifiers to minimize amplifier crossover distortion. An aluminum upper bass driver is used, followed by two larger high-excursion aluminum cone low bass drivers. These bass drivers are driven directly by power DACs.

Part of the effort in making a 4-way system with impressively small upper-range drivers is to get off-axis response that mirrors the response on axis. To execute this well, the crossover design and the compound-curve cabinet design are necessarily complex.

Sound Quality

I had the opportunity to do extended and uninterrupted listening to the Linn 360 system at Audio Concepts, a dealer in Dallas with an excellent set of listening rooms. The room I used at Audio Concepts was very similar in dimensions to both my dedicated listening room and to many living rooms, at 18 x 26 feet. I imagine that the attraction of a 3-box system like the Linn Klimax (two speaker modules and a small electronic hub for streaming) is the minimal disruption of the living environment. Assuming a living room as the target space, I think it is likely that room treatment will be minimal as indeed it was at Audio Concepts. The speakers were also relatively close to the wall (about 3’ out into the room), which again mirrors real domestic use. So, I think what I heard might be a good indication of what a consumer might hear. 

Okay, enough preamble. What did I hear? 

Spatial Presentation

Stand out quality #1 is the very spacious presentation. The images with the Klimax system are almost never locked on the speakers, and the image coherence was quite good. The image size is realistically large in width and depth and height on good recordings. The sense of the ambient environment is also genuinely excellent, with the hall or club sounding big, but well-proportioned vis a vis the soundstage. Those of you who like precision performer placement may find the 360 isn’t quite your cup of tea, but those familiar with live music will be amazed. 

The Christian McBride Big Band album, Without Further Ado, demonstrated these qualities nicely, with very good depth and a large soundspace reminiscent of a small concert hall. I also tried Maria Milstein’s Prokofiev Violin Concerto #2 and found the hall sound to be impressive (I had heard this piece in concert about 36 hours earlier). 

The Prokofiev also provided a chance to check something that seems important for a usage scenario I imagine for these speakers. Sitting about 4’ away from the sweet spot to the right, I was surprised by the quality of the soundstage and the preservation of performer positioning. I checked this on several other albums, like The Hadouk Trio’s Air Hadouk, and got the same result. I do note that standing up still yields a good image, but the height is lowered more than would happen in a concert venue. 

I also found that the Klimax system easily presented an image wider than the speaker locations. On Thomas Stronen’s album Relations, the image extended about 3 feet outside the speaker locations on each side. 

Rhythm and Scale

Standout Quality #2 is the 360’s lifelike handling of punch, drive and scale. On many tracks, I noticed that the sense of rhythm was excellent, with punchy percussion and bass lines. But even better, the overall sense of bounce and pace was a cut above. On Rhiannon Giddens “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad”, the whole band seems to be propelled forward in a wonderfully synced way. The Joe Policastro Trio’s album Pops provides another example where the pace of the band never drags. It is like the metronome was set to “exciting” and then wired directly to each performer’s brain. This effect seemed to encompass the full frequency range, which is unusual.

That said, I think the way the 360 system handles rock, blues and jazz scale might be the big summary point here. On “Crawling Kingsnake” from the Black Keys album Delta Kreme, the 360 system simply sounds epic. The spaciousness I described earlier, plus the rhythmic drive and the excellent instrumental separation add up to a huge win for fans of amplified music. Headroom doesn’t seem compressed at reasonable but loud levels (about 85 db average), it is easy to follow each player, and the size of the presentation is impressive and stable. 

Bass

Standout Quality #3 is the delivery of deep bass. The 360 seems to do bass into the 30 Hz or below range effortlessly. Those low notes are surprisingly impactful when it comes to spatial presentation. I had the feeling that the below 50 Hz range might be slightly elevated, which is what some research shows is desired by many people. It is certainly impressive and nicely judged rather than overbearing. If you’ve heard a large bass drum in a classical concert hall, you will know that it is memorable. Ditto with the low bass here. 

Now, DSP can’t correct for the lateral room null or the speaker boundary interference dip, so any room will impose some unevenness on the proceedings. And you hear this here as you do with other two box systems. 

Voicing

Since my bass balance comments raise the issue of voicing, we should discuss this more broadly. In summary, I would say the Klimax System is evenly balanced from the mid-bass up to the middle of the midrange. With reference to the absolute sound, I would say there is a very shallow rise in response in the approximately 2-4 kHz region. This rise may be broader than that; importantly, it does not sound like a peak but is rather a matter of emphasis if you pay close attention. And, since many recordings are a little too hot here, based on some measurements I have seen, it may simply be that the 360 system continues its even balance rather than offering a small dip or roll off in this area. Regardless, the 360 emphasizes clarity and impact to a degree. This is well judged so that, with some recordings, like the Prokofiev mentioned earlier, string tone is quite beautiful. As a voicing summary, I might say that the midrange of the 360 system is vivid rather than soft, and that the upper bass and lower midrange are neutral rather than warm. 

A related factor is that I felt the Klimax emphasized and performed superbly in terms of instrumental clarity. At the same time, it didn’t give the feeling of infinite low-level resolution than some systems, mostly above this price point, can give. The sense of subtle, fine-grained, micro-dynamic resolution and low noise effect is not bad with the 360, but it isn’t the win here. Some listeners who have been exploring the high-end for years with a focus on audio quality will miss this. Many listeners, perhaps more focused on musical involvement, are likely to find the 360 system gets to the heart of what matters. 

Summary

The Linn Klimax 360 Integrated Exakt System shows the sonic merits of a technological approach that few manufacturers can follow. This comes across as a big, bold, impactful but essentially well-balanced sound. That combination is rare and is especially impressive because it can be delivered in real living rooms.