Linn Majik DS-I: Expensive electronics doesn’t make it any less digital

The joke goes that in the 1960s an African leader visited the Queen in London. He was witty and wise, and his English was perfect. However, he started each sentence with a series of whistles and clicks. When asked where he had learnt English, he said, “Click, click ,whistle, whistle, click The BBC World Service”. For anyone under the age of 20, I’ll explain that the BBC World Service used short-wave radio and that the quality of the sound was, invariably, poor with numerous ticks, clicks and whistles as you tuned into the programme.

It is, perhaps, insightful that I need to explain the source of this joke. Most people now know only FM radio, a part digital signal, that is now even losing market share to DAB and Internet radio, digital signals. Digital signals do not have the same attenuation as analogue signals and so do not have the clicks and whistles of analogue radio.

Last week Linn announced its move away from producing CD players to concentrate on high-end analogue hi-fi and high-end digital servers. The Linn Majik DS-I is the rework of the previous Majik DS. It offers all the functionality and software we would expect. Add it to your network and it allows you to play all your media on Linn’s high-end speakers. Linn have obviously gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that this is the last digital streaming system you need to buy (assuming that there is no major technological leap, which makes such systems obsolete).