FAQ - Tune Dem

What is the Tune Dem™?

The Linn philosophy is very simple – if it sounds better, it is better. The Tune Dem™ is how we recommend that our products are demonstrated.

When carrying out an A-B demonstration, it is sometimes possible to be confused by extraneous factors such as loudness and tone. The Tune Dem™ is a way to compare the two products and decide on how easy it is to follow the tune and appreciate the musical piece as a whole on each one – this allows you to hear quite clearly which product sounds better. The method involves silent repetition of the sound from the loudspeakers, silently singing along simultaneously with the sound from the speaker. The easier this is to do, the more accurate the system performance.

Approach the Tune-Dem

The approach we suggest when doing an A/B comparison is to listen to component A, then listen to B. If one sounds better, buy it. If they both sound the same, buy the least expensive one. Anything else is folly. We have always said, “If it sounds better, then it is better.”

You will find it easier to compare components in an A/B situation if you play only a brief passage (as little as ten seconds and certainly no more than thirty seconds) on one component. Repeat this brief passage a few times on the first product then switch to the second component and play the same passage.

By keeping the passages short, you will the “tune” fresh in your mind and will be better able to judge the relative difficulties following the tune on each component.

If you should have any problems in detecting differences in the ease with which you can follow the tune when doing comparisons, don’t panic. Just sit back, relax and try again. A few simple questions can help follow the Tune:

• Can you hear all the musicians playing all of the instruments all of the time?

• Can you always follow the tune played by every instrument?

• How easy is it to sing-along with the melody?

The remarkable thing is that once you do hear the difference you will find that it is much more apparent than you originally thought. And the more you listen the easier this method will become. With a little practice, you will find that you have a listening test that is consistent, repeatable, and best of all, a very reliable indicator of the performance of any hi-fi component.

Note:
Avoid the use of comparators or switching boxes. The extra connectors will degrade the signal of both components under test, frequently bringing the level of performance down to that of the switch box, making any meaningful evaluation impossible.

For similar reasons we strongly suggest that all component evaluations be done in a demonstration room that contains only one set of loudspeakers. Additional speakers even though not being used will vibrate in sympathy with the original sound source. This added noise does make it more difficult to evaluate components. Not only does it make it harder to judge the tune, it tends to favour a component that is more aggressive sounding and unfairly penalises a good component by masking some of the low-level detailed information that only the best components are capable of reproducing.