FAQ-Linn 360
Contents
FAQ - 360 "Exakt Integrated" & "Passive with Active Bass"
Linn 360 common FAQ's to both PWAB and Exakt variants
The 360 has two 8” bass drive units just like the Klimax 350. How does it produce more bass?
- The bass drivers in the 360 loudspeaker have the same surface area but are capable of greater than twice the excursion of the units deployed in the Klimax 350. This means they can move more than twice the amount of air.
- This is equivalent to the Klimax 350 with four bass drivers.
What is the Linn Power DAC?
- Linn Power DAC is a new amplifier technology specifically designed for bass systems that require high performance, high power, and high efficiency. The Linn Power DAC is a true digital amplifier combining DAC and amplifier into a single process.
- At high playback levels the Power DAC reduces distortion by over 10 dB compared to conventional designs.
Is the 360 bass system servo controlled?
- No. In 360 we have taken a feed-forward approach.
- The response of each bass drive unit is measured, and individual compensation filters are calculated. These filters are then applied in a feed-forward fashion to achieve the same result as the feed-back servo system.
- The 360 bass drive units are also far more linear than those previously used, so distortion correction is no longer required.
Linn 360 PWAB FAQ's
Why is 360 PWAB not a purely passive speaker?
- The compact size of the 360 bass system requires electronic compensation to achieve an extended bass response. This compensation cannot be implemented passively, so active amplification is required.
Why is the bass signal digitized in 360 PWAB?
- The analogue signal supplied to the 360 PWAB is digitized and fed into the new Linn Power DAC.
- The Power DAC has been designed from the ground up to drive the 360 bass system. It offers the lowest distortion and greatest efficiency of any amplifier class for this application.
Why can’t you bypass the internal lower bass amps on 360 PWAB to use Klimax Solos externally?
- The bass extension system in 360 requires an extraordinary amount of power and voltage gain, far more than even the Klimax Solo can provide, so performance would actually suffer if external amplifiers were used.
Do you still require 2x Exaktboxes for an externally Exakt 360 PWAB?
- No. The active bass system contains its own ExaktEngine, so a pair of 360 Arrays (tweeter, midrange and upper-bass) can be driven by a single 6-channel ExaktBox.
Linn 360 Exakt FAQ's
Why use different types of amplifier in 360 Integrated Exakt?
- The design of each amplifier in 360 is tailored to the requirements of its associated drive unit.
- The 360 Array is driven by all-new Linn designed Class-AB amplifiers with Adaptive Bias Control. This gives the best performance over the frequency range of these drive units. Even within the 360 array the amplifiers are tailored to each drive unit. The upper-bass is a bridged design, whereas the midrange and tweeter are single-ended, and the tweeter amplifier is further ‘tuned’ to ensure very low distortion up to the very highest audio frequencies improving the signal to noise level by around 15 dB compared to the prior art.
- The bass system uses the new Linn Power DAC architecture to achieve low distortion at high power whilst also being very efficient. This allows the bass system to play deeper and louder for longer.
What is Adaptive Bias Control
- Adaptive Bias Control technology is the control of the ideal bias current for all the amplifier output transistors. This is established dynamically and in real-time by measuring, sampling and digitising the current measurement, then using a closed loop to set the output bias voltage through a DAC and novel analogue floating bias circuit.
- A digital control loop then implements and persistently adjusts this optimum bias current for the transistors; negating crossover distortion at any temperature – regardless of volume or demanding dynamic changes in music – for the entirety of the amp’s life.
What are the integrated amplifier ratings?
- Each Linn Power DAC is easily capable of delivering 500 Watts into a four ohm load.
- The Adaptive Bias Control amplifiers for the midrange and tweeter are able to deliver 150 Watts into a four ohm load.
- The bridged Adaptive Bias Control amplifier for the upper bass is able to deliver 300 Watts into a four ohm load.
