The Linn Exakt system and the future of high end audio.

[DaveyF]

FWIW, I heard the Exakt system at Definitive Audio's Music Matters last year.

They used a Linn Akurate Exakt DSM and Akurate Exact-Akubarik loudspeakers. Frankly I wasn't impressed. The worst sound of the night was Devialet's Phantom presentation, but if they hadn't been there, I would have rated Linn's demonstration the worst and this is from an owner of Klimax gear (at the time). Best sound of the night was ARC gear with the new Wilson Sabrina speakers and it wasn't even close.

Here's Stereophile's report on the event http://www.stereophile.com/content/music-absolutely-matters-definitive-audio

Interesting how the sound of a system can vary so much from room to room and from dealer to dealer. Obviously the set up at Alma audio was done correctly and with some thought as to how to optimize the sound for the room.
While the system that I heard that night wouldn't be in the top ten that I have heard, nonetheless it made music and was impressive for what it accomplished with a digital feed. I have heard much much worse- and from gear that is far more expensive.
I do think that one cannot judge a system or gear from just one exposure to its sound in a specific event. Much better to take the gear home and listen at one's leisure to the music that you are used to and in your own room, IMHO.

 

[7ryder]

Interesting how the sound of a system can vary so much from room to room and from dealer to dealer. Obviously the set up at Alma audio was done correctly and with some thought as to how to optimize the sound for the room.
While the system that I heard that night wouldn't be in the top ten that I have heard, nonetheless it made music and was impressive for what it accomplished with a digital feed. I have heard much much worse- and from gear that is far more expensive.
I do think that one cannot judge a system or gear from just one exposure to its sound in a specific event. Much better to take the gear home and listen at one's leisure to the music that you are used to and in your own room, IMHO.

Well, if the selling point of the Exakt system is that it can make any room sound good, then I would certainly hope that they optimized the sound for the show using the Exakt system. Otherwise what's the point? We were in a small room & had prime seats and it didn't sound good at all. Now compare this to the ARC/Wilson room where there were probably 8-10 rows of seats and I was in the next to last row towards the wall and it sounded great. In both cases I wasn't familiar with the music, so that wasn't a limiting factor.

I agree that we probably can't judge a system or gear from just one exposure, but given what I heard, it didn't make me want to hear the Exakt system again.

 

[Newton John]

I realise this is an old thread, but I just wanted to point out that Exakt and Space Optimisation are completely different and independent things.

With regard to the previous post, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the claim that Exakt can make any room sound good - that certainly is not true.

As has already been stated, Exakt is an active crossover that keeps everything in the digital domain until the power amplifiers. This attempts to reduce interference, noise and distortion that might occur in analogue preamplifiers and crossovers. Also, in RIAA conversion with the addition of a Urika II phono stage equipped LP12 turntable. Exakt components and Urika II clearly sound better than the equivalent Linn analogue components. Also, it is possible to use Exakt with other manufacturers’ CD transports, other digital and analogue sources, power amps, loudspeakers, etc.

Space Optimisation is just a DSM based DSP that tidies up the bass modes of the room. It does not require Exakt other than in that I think the DSM has to be Exakt capable. It can be effective, but is in no way compulsory in any Linn system. Some Linn owners use it, some don’t. It’s just a matter of personal preference. Consequently, there is nothing preventing the use of acoustic room measures with a Linn based system, Exakt or otherwise. There is also nothing to stop the use of other types of DSP with a Linn system, say using Roon.