New Linn Products Include Apps for Its Space Optimisation System

Linn bowed several new products that include applications for its Space Optimisation system, the high-end Scottish hi-fi company said at a recent London briefing for dealers and media. Since 2007, Space Optimisation has used digital signal processing techniques to match Linn speakers or those from selected other makers to the room and positioning where they are used, the company said. Linn’s new Series 5 Exakt speakers come covered with thick designer fabrics that would normally damp the sound, but Space Optimisation DSP molds the sound to compensate, Linn said. Space Optimisation now also can be used to integrate any subwoofer, or multiple subs, into a Linn active speaker system, the company said. The fabric covers slip over the speakers like a tight-fitting dress and are secured with zip and hook and loop fasteners, it said. Each cover has an ID tag with a code that the owner enters into the Space Optimisation software for promoting best use of the active speaker electronics, it said. The electronics then adjust the sound to make good the high frequencies damped by the fabric weave, it said. Linn envisions offering one-off fabric designs specified by the customer, along with new design collections, all with the required ID tag codes embedded. As for the decision to use Space Optimisation to integrate subwoofers into a Linn system, “people add a sub to get big bass, but it’s bad musically because you are also adding phase distortion,” Linn Technical Director Keith Robertson told us at the London briefing. “With live concert sound, all the tones and overtones from a musical instrument are arriving from the same source and in phase,” he said. “With a speaker system, they are coming from different speaker drivers at different places, so arrive at the listener’s ears out of phase.” Linn can now use Space Optimisation “to align the phase and time of arrival from different drivers,” all the way down to 0 Hz, Robertson said. “So the sub becomes part of the whole system, regardless of where it is placed.” Linn refuses to use a mic to measure and correct for room acoustics, and instead requires the user or dealer to enter room details in the Space Optimisation software, Robertson said: “With a microphone, you are dealing with the response of the room, the speaker and the microphone. It’s incredibly difficult to unpick them and optimize for the room only. There are too many known unknowns. It’s an intractable problem.”