The sound of this unit is much different than previous linn preamps. More forward and less detail than Wakonda yet sound is smoother, some say more musical. Sounds like a wall of music coming at you rather than a multilayered sound stage that the better preamps provide. Sounds very similar to the classik. OK for a budget setup, but the lack of depth is annoying. Doesn't come with an interconnect cable like the other preamps do and the remote is a f((*&(^ joke...probably designed by some math wiz with coke bottle glasses and with a fixation for statistical calculators. Sounds better with the newer Linn gear. Good value for basic features, but for the price of this + LK85 there are some mighty good integrated amps out there that are far better.

Linn products are generally of high quality, and this new per-amp is more than just a step ahead. Not only does it complement the new LK85 and LK140 power amps from Linn, but it also sports more inputs than you could use at the moment. In this regard it is future proof.
The best of this new pre-amp is the way it sounds. I bought it with the LK85 power amp, Linn Genki CD and Sonus Faber Cencerto speakers, and I am overjoyed at the soundstage and absolute crisp sound and precise control.

At £500 it's an absolute bargain!

Uncoloured sound, great bass control, great value

Noisy electronic buzz at startup

When I was looking to update my 10 year old electronics, I decided that whichever preamp that I buy, it will need to have tone controls (to tame those remastered CDs from analog sources)and a good phono preamp (to allow continued enjoyment of my 600+ LPs). As you can imagine, my choices these days are severely limited. While in principle I am in agreement that the shortest signal path and minimal (or none) signal interference should be the ultimate design goal of any amplification equipment, real life situations demand the availability of some form of tone controls to render some CDs listenable. A great example is Kleiber's Beethoven's 5th Symphony-the best musical performance ever recorded (by my book) but remastered by DG onto a CD with VERY harsh trebles. Dropping the treble control by 2 digital units (down 3-4 dB at 20 kHz) on the Kolector make listening enjoyable again. I pair this preamp with a Bryston 4B, and needless to say, the bass control and accuracy was astounding. Highly recommend this combination to those with speakers that can go down to the low 20s. A great product. I would have given a 5-star overall if not for the electronic buzz upon power up._

Similar Products Used:

Classe, Krell, Levinson, Accurus

open sound, tight grip , bass is punchy

not any so far

Ive had this for a yr and got this to replace the built in pre-amp in the nad 319 ( i now use it as a power amp only ).
foudn this sound a little compressed.

The sound is brilliant from the Linn.
It lets through all the details of the source.

I found that the integrated map was giving flabby bass and couldnt handle complex bass lines that well - otherwise the nad was ok.
Thinking of replacing the power-amp with a Rotel 1095.

takes 10 inputs to future proof in that respect.Also has facilites that help with home-cinema . I plug my main channel pre-out into the Linn Kolektor and thus I can use the same front speakers for hi-fi as well as home -cinema.
Its lets the signal go through untouched by the pre-amp ie it wont preamp the signal like it would for any other source connected. The manual describes how to do this very clearly.

handy remote which actually replaced my CD remote ( marantz mk sig)

Overall id say this makes a fine buy and improvement to my system.

system is :-
Kef ref one speakers.
QED Silver genesis spkr cable.
van del hul III interconnect
Linn Kolektor pre-amp
NAD 319 (used as poweramp - supposed to behave like a NAD216 THX poweramp when used in this way )
Transparent Audio interconnect ( this is good as it makes the sound more upfront than other cables I tried )
Music fidelity X-Dac
marantz mk III cd player ( used as a transport )

addign a rotel 1095 soon as the power-amp.
will send one more review of how the kit sounds after this.
will also try Qed Silver Spiral interconnect cable for this power amp.