Linn today officially launches to the world their all-new flagship loudspeaker – 360 – featuring new cabinet, new drive units, new electronics, new everything.
Audibly invisible. Visibly remarkable.
360 is audibly invisible. It produces a performance with unprecedented clarity and realism, that’s entirely absent of sonic colouration. Incorporating innovative drive unit and amplifier technologies, 360 turns out our lowest ever levels of audible distortion. The honed curves of its cabinet are partnered with meticulously matched drive units to deliver the cleanest possible dispersion characteristics.
All that is experienced with 360 is sound-stage; with vocals suspended in space, and true-to- life scale and depth leaving you utterly devoid of the sense you are listening to a pair of stereo speakers.
360 is visibly remarkable. Its curvaceous cabinet, intricately machined trim, and range of dynamic finishes combine to present an overall aesthetic that is familiar, yet with ultra-modern flair and contemporary class.
Gilad Tiefenbrun, Linn’s CEO, says:
“Decades ago, my father astonished a journalist when, upon being asked how – and if – music reproduction could get any better, he replied that he believed that we were only 1% along the road to making music at home as involving and impactful as live performance.
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, we have found that the differences we have been able to achieve in our products are actually getting bigger. Much bigger. Because as we reveal more of the tiny details that lend realism to the music, the listener is able to connect with its emotional content in a way that they didn’t realise was possible.
Our new 360 loudspeaker comprehensively demonstrates this step-change. It is without a doubt the finest loudspeaker we have ever made; streets ahead of our previous benchmark – and we are thrilled to share it with the world today.”
AUDIBLY INVISIBLE
Critical to 360’s sonic character, is the wholesale elimination of audible distortion brought about by the cutting-edge material science which drove development of the drive units, and their subsequent integration with our latest amplifier technologies in both the Bass System and new 360 Array.
When these acoustic and electronic innovations are deployed alongside our unique and established loudspeaker technologies – Exakt and Space Optimisation – 360 becomes audibly invisible.
TWEETER The tweeter is the first 19mm Beryllium dome seen in the audio industry. Tooled by Linn, this drive unit now has all of its inherent distortion and resonance pushed far above the range of human hearing – beyond even the range detectable by our engineers’ measurement system. The tweeter produces a startlingly clean and open sound; providing an open window to the higher frequencies.
MIDRANGE The midrange dome is crafted from thin-ply, woven carbon fibre, a cutting-edge composite originally utilised by NASA for their Mars rover. This material provides the perfect mix of stiffness and lightness. Similar to the tweeter, any inherent resonance and distortion created by the midrange drive unit is pushed almost three octaves above audible range.
BASS Both upper and lower bass drive units employ an aluminium-magnesium alloy, also selected for its more-than-ample stiffness, thus ensuring precise piston-like behaviour without deviation.
LOWER BASS The pair of lower bass drivers have greater range and more than double the excursion than our previous maximum. The bass drive units are steadfast and adept; they can be pushed loud and driven hard whilst remaining firmly under control.
DRIVE UNITS SUMMARY 360 produces exceptionally pure sound with astonishing clarity and transparency due to the hardness, great inherent strength, and low-mass of the futuristic materials deployed throughout the suite of drive units. Their diaphragms don’t colour the sound they generate in any audible, or measurable, way – you only hear the music.
360 IS BIGGER, AND BETTER, AT BASS.
The Bass System delivers lower frequency sound with more impact, efficiency and dramatically less distortion thanks to our new Power DAC technology. Built from the ground up, this new Linn technology combines DAC and amp into a single step – thus extending the digital path and reducing loss.
Power DAC is highly efficient, ultra-low-noise, and provides the perfect platform for driving the lower bass system in 360. When coupled with the prodigious excursion capability of the matched lower bass drive units, 360 produces seismic, realistic and distortion-free bass that will seriously move you.
360 ARRAY: ADAPTIVE BIAS CONTROL
Our new Adaptive Bias Control amplifier technology is critical to the superlative performance of tweeter, midrange and upper bass drive units – comprising the all-new 360 Array. Adaptive Bias Control eliminates distortion from the amplifiers using real-time, dynamic management and correction; ensuring that they behave at their absolute optimum in all scenarios – for all types of music, at all kinds of listening levels, and at all times.
DISPERSION
360 possesses extraordinary dispersion characteristics. The curvaceous front of each speaker tapers from bottom to top, with shaped radii specifically matched to each individual drive unit. The speakers’ constituent drive units are placed perfectly flush within this undulating baffle, so that they emanate sound, out and away from the speaker, entirely without obstruction. These elements result in a speaker which produces precisely the same tonality in every direction, reinforcing the sound-stage of the original recording.
VISIBLY REMARKABLE
Sumptuous form conscientiously follows function in a visibly remarkable aesthetic that’s lightyears ahead of traditional cabinet design.
The shapely and extremely robust cabinet is built up from scrupulously folded and formed 3D laminates – pushing and exceeding the limitations of ply engineering to construct a fluid front baffle which reaches right around either side of the speaker.
Machined into the 360 Array trim piece are a series of concentric arcs – themselves redolent of the grooves of a vinyl record in a conscientious nod to our origins and the Sondek LP12 turntable
upon which Linn was founded. These grooves are set adjacent to a tweeter protector, which draws the eye in with its chrome-plated Linn icon feature. The engineered trim is machined in- house from 5754-grade aluminium, and incorporates ingenious and subtle waveguides to help facilitate optimum performance from the drive units which they surround.
FINISHES
Designed expressly for 360, The Glasgow Collection is a range of curated cabinet finishes, that demonstrate pride in our origins and celebrate our Scottish home. These three special finishes are dynamic and complex; colour and texture play off the curves of the 360 cabinet under different lighting conditions and when viewed from different angles. The Classic Collection offers a more subtle, monochrome palette: the timeless elegance of Piano Black, and the minimalist chic of Alpine White.
Pricing, Availability and Variants
360 is available in an Exakt Integrated variant (for use in conjunction with a Linn DSM Network Music Player), with all crossover, amplification and digital-to-analogue conversion circuitry located within in the speaker itself utilising our groundbreaking Exakt technology throughout.
360 is also available in a Passive with Aktiv Bass (PWAB) variant, allowing use in conjunction with 3rd-party amplification or an all-external Linn Exakt system using Exaktbox.
The new SU-GX70 will extend the Technics Grand Class portfolio with a high-spec streaming amplifier, combining the sonic genes of the acclaimed components collection with a wealth of connectivity options, including HDMI ARC for the first time.
The new SU-GX70 streaming amplifier opens a new chapter for Technics, being the first Technics product to host a HDMI ARC port since the brand’s revitalization in 2014.
Designed to deliver reliably crisp, clear, and sparkling audio, the new amplifier draws on Panasonic’s comprehensive expertise in video signal treatment and Technics’ proprietary full-digital amplification technology to ensure noise and distortion-free playback.
A new Twin Power Supply means the SU-GX70 delivers a high signal-to-noise ratio for superbly detailed sound, while the Clean Power Clock Generator technology taken from Technics’ Reference Class components enables high-precision digital signal processing for supreme audio accuracy.
For a truly flexible music listening experience, the SU-GX70 is designed around the Chromecast platform for Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Qobuz, and Amazon Music HD* integration, with support for MQA hi-res audio streaming for the stunning accuracy. Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, and Bluetooth connectivity allow for seamless wireless network communication, while FM, DAB+, and Internet radio support means you can tune into your favourite shows, hassle-free.
Physical connectivity options include two line inputs, three digital inputs, USB-A, and USB-B. And – as to be expected from a company at the forefront of turntable performance – a high-grade low-noise phono EQ allows you to hook up a record player with a moving magnet pickup cartridge for a sublime audiophile performance with all the authentic warmth of vinyl. Built to look beautiful in any home, the SU-GX70 comes in an elegant, minimalist design in both silver and black finishes. It will be available at authorized Technics retailers from June 2023.
CH Precision has released an upgraded clock synchronization board for their digital products – the D1.5 CD/SACD Player/Transport, the C1.2 DAC Controller and the I1 Integrated Amplifier (with its internal DAC). The units’ card-cage construction means that the new Clock Sync board is a simple addition to an existing product or replacement for the previous Sync I/O board.
Principal features include:
New Clock Sync Board compatible with all current CH Precision digital components.
Significant reduction in radiated noise, due to:
Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS) internal output to the unit in which the Clock Sync board is mounted.
New, four-layer circuit board that allows the use of complete ground planes on either side of the clock circuitry.
The option to defeat unused 75Ω clock outputs.
A choice of 75Ω or 50Ω connection (no High Z connection).
Same price as previous Sync I/O board, with generous trade-in for existing boards.
The Clock Sync board allows optimized clock synchronization between CH Precision digital units, or the use of an external clock such as the T1 Time Reference. Despite offering the same sockets and looking almost identical to the previous version, the new board introduces a number of important new features and facilities and delivers a significant reduction in radiated noise, better preserves the low jitter levels of the incoming clock signal and improves compatibility with third party master clocks. The result is significantly improved performance, with easily demonstrable sonic advantages and musical benefits.
The new Clock Sync upgrade maintains CH Precision’s policy of protecting their customer’s investment by allowing products already in the field to be updated and kept fully current. The revised board ensures that the D1.5, C1.2 and I1 remain at the very peak of digital audio performance.
Product Compatibility
Please note that the new Clock Sync board is not operationally compatible with the earlier D1 and C1. However, Sync I/O and Clock Sync boards will communicate properly between units. So, for example, a D1 fitted with a Sync I/O board will still work perfectly, either directly linked to a C1.2 equipped with a Clock Sync board, or if connected to a T1 Time Reference Master Clock.
Price and Availability
At $1,500 USD (local prices apply) the price of the upgraded Clock Sync board remains the same as the Sync I/O board. Availability of the new Clock Sync boards is as of now.
Trade-in Scheme
Owners who return existing Sync I/O boards can take advantage of a 50% trade-in scheme, an offer that will run until May 31st 2024. The existing boards must be returned to CH Precision in order to qualify for the discount. This discount also applies to boards exchanged as part of a D1 to D1.5 or C1 to C1.2 upgrade.
In my early years of working in hi-fi retail, I decided on the ideal scenario: if I ever became wealthy, I would employ an Audio Butler. The thinking was that, on some days, I fancied listening to the visceral dynamic full-on delivery of a large JBL-based system, but there were other days when the cerebral performance of a pair of Quads would feel right. My thinking? I’d just say, “James, let’s go with the JBL system today,” and James would set up the system accordingly. A sort of ‘best of both worlds’ situation but, of course, at a vast expense and requiring extra storage space.
Stratton Acoustics Elypsis1512 Loudspeaker However, there is a solution, even though it’s simple but amazingly rare. It requires a loudspeaker system with high efficiency and wide bandwidth, very low colouration and distortion, and the ability to paint solid aural images. The Stratton Acoustics Elypsis1512 is such a speaker. Stratton Acoustics sometimes feel that the rarefied world of high-end audio has tended to focus on the cerebral aspect of music playback and lost sight of the absolute emotional joy of recorded music. Examples, perhaps, would be Hotel California played on a 1970s large JBL – west coast rock played on a west coast loudspeaker or The Four Seasons played on an old pair of Quads – European music played on a European loudspeaker. Try both on an Elypsis1512 and experience the combination of accuracy and fun with music. This will not be notes on pitch and in the correct order. This will be heart-tugging music.
Background Stratton Acoustics, the new UK-based high-end loudspeaker manufacturer, takes inspiration for its products from the iconic, large-scale studio monitors that shaped recording in the 1970s and 1980s. Products such as the legendary JBL 4350 and the extraordinary Tannoy Buckingham provided the effortless dynamics and massive soundstage that only large-diameter bass and midrange drivers housed in a substantial cabinet can provide. While the inspiration is that of vintage giants, Stratton Acoustics’ goal is to produce thoroughly contemporary high-end loudspeakers, so it employs only the best materials, processes and construction techniques. Vintage studio monitors were tools built to do a job; exposed fasteners, chipboard cabinets, hook-and-loop grill fixing pads, blanked-off driver apertures and industrial finishes were all acceptable. Stratton Acoustics’ loudspeakers, however, are intended as fine objects of furniture as much as they are high-performance music transducers, so elegance, style, finesse and refinement replace the old functional palette of materials and finishes. Amy Richards, one of Stratton’s founding partners, defined the company philosophy: “While our products always have to create an exhilarating musical performance, they also have to provide excitement through all aspects of their ownership. When not making music, they must be stunning pieces of fine furniture capable of complementing and defining any interior design. After years of development, we can fulfil this goal with various materials and finishes limited by the customer’s tastes and daring. I can’t wait to see how our customers will challenge us and what wonderfully unique, bespoke pieces we will be lucky enough to produce.” Stratton Acoustics also takes a no-compromise approach to cabinet design through engineering complex, comprehensively braced birch plywood enclosures finished to the finest bespoke furniture standards. The team works with suppliers to conceive unique finishes, which they can manufacture to the highest standards, with all aspects designed and engineered in-house using advanced technologies and materials. Stratton Acoustics designs our loudspeaker models driven by the philosophy that combines the innocent joy of recorded music with artisanal design and craft in manufacturing. And we won’t shy away from stepping well off the beaten track with detail and finish. Bespoke design and custom manufacture mean Stratton can indulge almost any aesthetic desire. Stratton Acoustics’ manufacturing processes are equally fastidious, exclusively employing a combination of high-accuracy computer-controlled production techniques allied to the finest artisanal, hand-finished, low-volume manufacture.
Audio Engineering If you are familiar with the history of high-performance speaker design, you’ll perhaps see in the Elypsis1512 the influence of a particular style of 1970s studio monitor. That’s no accident. Part of the inspiration for the Elypsis1512 is products such as the JBL 4350, the Tannoy Buckingham and the Urei 815a. These are speakers that, above all else, play loud, with, for their time, absolutely minimal distortion and compression, and do so with an intense sense of musical involvement and communication – something that some audio folk talk of as being somehow lost in the rarefied contemporary world of high-end speakers. The Elypsis1512 partly constitutes an effort to push back against that feeling. But along with glancing reverently back at vintage speakers and their qualities, the Elypsis1512 is also an entirely contemporary design that employs the best of modern driver technology and electro-acoustics and the most up-to-date design and manufacturing techniques.
System Concept The Elypsis1512 is a three-way passive speaker built around a driver complement of twin 380mm bass drivers, a single 300mm midrange driver and a mechanically decoupled, 29mm soft dome tweeter with a precision waveguide. The drivers on the enclosure front panel are in an asymmetric array, which results in similarly asymmetric horizontal dispersion. Pairs of Elypsis1512 speakers are built in mirror image format in front panel component arrangement. The phase relationship through the crossover region between the midrange driver and tweeter ensures that the off-axis frequency response on the midrange side of the speaker remains linear. In most installations, position a pair of Elypsis1512 so that the tweeters are positioned outermost.
Bass Driver The Elypsis1512 incorporates twin 350mm (15 inch) reinforced paper diaphragm drivers, each rated at 800 Watts power handling. The driver features a 113mm (4.5 inch) voice coil, an aluminium demodulation ring and a twin spider suspension system. It is capable of ±14mm linear excursion. The Elypsis1512 enclosure provides a 230-litre internal volume for the bass drivers. Reflex loading utilises four large-diameter laminar flow internally and externally flared ports tuned to 34Hz. Elypsis1512 low-frequency bandwidth extends to -6dB at 28Hz.
Midrange Driver The Elypsis1512 midrange driver incorporates a 300mm (12 inch) reinforced paper diaphragm with a 75.6 mm (3 inch) voice-coil, a neodymium-iron-boron magnet system and a copper sleeved pole-piece. The drive unit is carefully hand-doped to fine-tune its response characteristics when torqued into a sealed enclosure filled with an optimal selection of damping materials.
Tweeter with Patented decoupling system The Elypsis1512 tweeter is a 29mm diameter soft dome device fitted with a CNC machined aluminium waveguide that defines its dispersion characteristic and provides some increased efficiency through acoustic impedance matching. The tweeter mounts within the Elypsis1512 enclosure via a Stratton Acoustics patented (GB2606586) decoupling arrangement that ensures its isolation from mechanical vibration. The tweeter features a neodymium-iron-boron magnet system with a double copper capped, T–shaped pole piece and a flow-optimised rear enclosure.
Crossover and System Characteristics The Elypsis1512 passive crossover integrates the drivers at 350Hz and 2.5kHz via asymmetric 2nd and 3rd-order filter slopes. Targeted impedance compensation is employed to linearise the system impedance and to enable close control of filter slopes. Crossover components are all audiophile grade and comprise predominantly plastic film capacitors and air-cored inductors. EQ controls on the front baffle offer ±2dB adjustment on the midrange and tweeter drivers.
The system impedance that results from the combination of drivers and crossover remains above 8Ω between 100Hz and 10kHz. The electrical phase remains within ±20° over the same frequency range. System sensitivity for 2.83V at 1m is between approximately 94dB and 98dB, depending on the midrange and tweeter EQ settings. The Elypsis1512 can be partnered successfully with almost any amplifier – from the least to the most powerful. Levels of odd-order harmonic distortion above 100Hz are generally below 0.3% for 90dB at 1m.
Enclosure Manufactured from a combination of 24mm and 18mm precision CNC routed birch ply panels, the Elypsis1512 enclosure also includes a 46mm Front Baffle capped with a solid CNC machined acrylic outer baffle. Complex and comprehensive internal bracing ensures that the construction is effectively inert, and the internally divided midrange enclosure volume incorporates non-parallel panels to help suppress internal resonance.
Audio Engineering Conclusion The Elypsis1512 demonstrates what is possible when, in parallel with a philosophy of maximising musical impact and communication, design restrictions of cost, size and weight are almost entirely disregarded. The result is an electro-acoustic performance unlike almost any other contemporary hi-fi speaker: half-power (-6dB) bandwidth from 28Hz to over 20kHz, sensitivity of 96dB for 2.83V at 1m, and impedance that doesn’t drop below 8Ω between 100Hz and 10kHz. The Elypsis1512 also displays group delay of less than 12ms down to 40Hz and, at normal listening volume, has distortion levels closer to amplifier values than typical speakers. It is also pretty much immune to thermal compression and, thanks to its hugely rigid and inert braced birch ply cabinet, displays effectively no panel resonance. Its high sensitivity (more than 8dB above a typical hi-fi speaker) and easy load means it can be driven by almost any amplifier – from a 5-Watt valve amp to a 1kW high-end monster. In the latter case, you might want to stand back.
My Reel Club presents a unique music recording process: two alternative versions of live studio performances using the same recording chain in parallel.
The comparative listening of the two versions is an exciting and thrilling experience. It allows audiences to transparently analyse the results of the two recordings with different technologies. By comparing the two versions, the listener can evaluate the capabilities of the device chain and loudspeakers at home, the accuracy of the spatial placement, the natural timbres and the quality of the sound field. Listeners will be able to understand how modern music production processes alter live sound.
Recording the Planets
The first variation is the digital DXD version mixed live to stereo on an analogue desk and recorded with 352.8 kHz sampling, processed without editing, post-production or mastering. The chain includes one of the top A/D converters (Merging Anubis ADC with external linear power supply, Pyramix recording software).
The first variation analogue stereo feed was also recorded on analogue tape at 38 cm/s speed using a Nagra IVS recorder. The average dynamic range of these recordings is higher than the current commercial recordings.
In the second variation, a simultaneous microphone feed was transferred to a Pro Tools system using the same analogue chain in a typical multi-track configuration with 192 kHz 24-bit sampling, then enhanced in post-production by mastering engineer Istvan Matok.
These unique audiophile recordings are made available by My Reel Club, whose purpose is to produce recordings that capture the true live concert experience.
The history of lifelike stereo recordings goes back to the 1950s when pioneers of modern music recordings used very few microphones and a maximum of three reel-to-reel recording tracks. Since all the musicians would perform live simultaneously at these sessions, the recordings go beyond individual performances.
As post- production technology was not yet available, the final performances show how the artists influenced each other.
My Reel Club
My Reel Club shows these recordings in the raw, letting the artists and their talent shine to offer the purest possible rendering of these captivating performances.
The audience of this unique performance consists of club members who initiate and co-finance recordings.
My Reel Club’s mission is to bring listeners closer to the art of music recordings and introduce worldwide audiences to the most sophisticated Central and Eastern European (primarily Hungarian) music.
The initiative started with guided studio visits and continued with high-quality live studio recordings, as founder Ferenc Koscsó sought to connect excellent performers with dedicated audiences directly.
My Reel Club projects bring together personal music experience and crowdfunding. Members can initiate music recording productions, contact artists and other supporters, and play a role as funders.
My Reel Club aims to share revenues from the productions with the performers as well. Returns are shared proportionally between performers and community members in a transparent way.
The cornerstone of My Reel Club recordings lies in a community funding concept that involves audiences, performers, investors, and producers.
My Reel Club is the first high-end audio label funded by a community dedicated to producing the highest possible quality artisan recordings for all platforms and formats, aiming to introduce music lovers to the basics of sophisticated music listening.
The first My Reel Club Project
For the first project, My Reel Club had the privilege of recording the world premiere of a unique album composed and performed by internationally renowned Hungarian jazz musicians.
The works on the Planets album, written by composer/jazz guitarist Gábor Juhász, were inspired by long stargazing evenings during the Pandemic. His compositions reflect the ethereal, mystical and distant world of the planets and, simultaneously, the lonely genius of Copernicus: humanity’s restless, constant striving for further discovery.
Gábor Juhász said that playing his new compositions in the studio, knowing that the music would be available to a broader audience without any editing or post-production, was an exciting task with a high level of responsibility. This recording was also a unique experience for world-famous saxophonist Tony Lakatos, who also highlighted the talent of Júlia Karosi and the “fantastic musicians of the trio”. According to Tony, the enchanting female voice represents the Venusian character of the planets.
The singer added that the studio recording was born from a collective experience, “breathing in, flowing, and embracing the sounds of the music was soul- touching”. The different versions of the Planets album, recorded in two different ways and released in various formats, also offer listeners an excellent opportunity to educate themselves and gain a better appreciation of the losses in the subtle nuances of sound in the search for the perfect commercial product.
The Planets album is available on the My Reel Club website.
