Linn Organic DAC Upgrade
Linn’s first-ever, entirely homegrown DAC
“Is this better than what’s available elsewhere?” At Linn, nothing progresses beyond the prototype stage if it can’t answer this question with a resounding ‘Yes!’.
Designing and building their own DAC, completely from scratch, was no exception. It was only worth doing if the result would be significantly better than their previous designs utilising meticulously optimised 3rd-party chips.
Designed without compromise, and engineered entirely in-house, Organik is the embodiment of over thirty years of digital technology innovation and expertise.
Linn pioneered high-performance digital streaming in the hi-fi industry; they’re raising the bar further, thanks to this paradigm shift in digital-to-analogue conversion technology.
- How does it sound? That’s not for us to say. Though rest assured, Linn doesn’t do anything unless they can do it better than what’s available elsewhere.
With this novel DAC architecture, implementation, and realisation, Linn has finally completed the puzzle: they have achieved complete control over the entire music signal chain — an ambition fifty years in the making.
- Organik forms the beating heart of next-generation Klimax DSM (2021), and you can now experience Organik performance across the established Klimax range; whether as part of a new system or through upgrading your existing Klimax products.
Organik is fitted as standard to all new Klimax DSM, Klimax Exaktbox and Klimax 350 integrated loudspeakers. All Klimax DS and DSM variants — even the very first model manufactured in 2007 – can now be retrofitted with an Organik DAC architecture upgrade. This upgrade has the added benefit of adding DSD256 and 24-bit/384kHz streaming capability to older Klimax streamers, bringing it right up to date with Linn’s current flagship platform.
Technical Detail
There are many different types of ‘discrete’ DAC. Although simply making something ‘discrete’ does not necessarily result in high performance. The performance advantage of Organik comes from its unique combination of:
- Modulation Method - Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Delta-Sigma
- Conversion Stage - Discrete Analog Finite Impulse Response (AFIR)
- Implementation - Ultra-Stable Power, precision clocking and expert PCB design
When employed together, the PWM modulator and AFIR conversion stage are immune to many of the problems that affect other discrete designs — where small errors in switching times or resistor values can generate distortion.
However, in order to realise the full potential of this conversion method, great attention must also be paid to other factors such as power supply, clocking, and perhaps most importantly, the physical layout of the circuit board.
Organik uses an 8-layer circuit board, facilitating optimal delivery of power and clocks to the DAC. Power for the conversion stage is generated by a discrete regulator, and delivered using multiple internal power planes.
Clock traces are matched to within fractions of a millimetre, to ensure that every part of the DAC receives its clock at precisely the same time. All these elements work in harmony to create an analog signal with incredibly low levels of noise and distortion — far lower than anything we’ve ever achieved before. Modulation method – Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Delta-Sigma Conversion stage – Discrete Analog Finite Impulse Response (AFIR) Implementation – Ultra-stable power, precision clocking, and expert PCB design