Linn DS

What is Linn DS?

All digital music sources must first retrieve the digital data, whether directly from a CD or from network storage, then convert this into the music that you hear. It’s how this is done that affects audio quality the most. Linn DS performs the conversion of data to music more accurately than any other source.

Access to perfect source material
You’ll enjoy more music from your CDs through a Linn DS player, because what you hear is a perfect copy of the original disc content. The process of copying your CDs onto network storage (called ripping) has an unlimited time to deal with error correction and will re-read the data until it has achieved the optimum copy. This is in contrast to a CD player, which has to correct data errors from the disc as it plays, within a limited time period. If it is unable to correct all of the errors in the timescale it will mask those that remain, compromising the performance.

Superior digital to analogue conversion (DAC) process
Our extensive experience of digital to analogue conversion (the process of converting data to music) has enabled us to engineer a solution which delivers superior audio quality.

At Linn we use proprietary technology for clocking and up-sampling – two elements which greatly affect the accuracy of music reproduction. Linn DS has its own precision audio clock which ensures complete timing accuracy. This means there is no need for any timing correction which would degrade the audio performance. We also use a custom-designed up-sampling engine, which processes outwith the DAC chip, to reduce noise and signal distortion. This also helps to ensure a more accurate reproduction of your music files.

We’ve taken great care when designing our DAC architecture to ensure that the sensitive analog audio components are isolated from the noisier digital data processing components. Physical isolation, separate power supplies and differential digital signal connections all help to reduce digital interference to an absolute minimum, to reproduce your music more accurately.

Protects the delicate audio signal
Linn DS has no moving parts which add unwanted interference, so the delicate audio signal is fully protected throughout the entire retrieval and conversion process. This is in direct contrast to a CD player. The CD playing mechanism, laser and related parts add noise, heat, vibration and electrical interference which compromise the critical conversion process.

Linn DS is a range of products allowing the highest quality music replay currently available.

The DS stands for Digital Streamer. More technically speaking, it is a media renderer, and plays back files from a computer storage device at previously unattainable performance levels. Music can either be ripped from a CD, or downloaded from the internet, or sourced from the growing number of record labels that will send a disc containing the music files and artwork.

DS will play back many types of music file, including FLAC, WAV and MP3. FLAC is the format of choice, as it offers lossless compression, and also contains data listing artist, title, album, track time, with the option for notes and attributes like composer and year.

What do I need?

It is technically possible to run a DS system with just a PC and a DS player. However, this is not only cumbersome, but also means you will miss out on many of the features that are available.

The best way to set up a DS system is to have the DS, your music and a computer effectively running on their own network, with a broadband connection available. Connecting to the internet lets the ripping software look up details about the album/track you are ripping, to get things like album and track title, running time, artists and artwork.

Linn have a list of recommended hardware and software to use, and we strongly suggest that the listed equipment and software is used, because support is only available from Linn if the recommendations are followed. The list, which is regularly updated, may be found here, along with other documentation explaining more about DS and how the network should be set up.

Models available:

Linn DS - Special Musical Evening