When I read that Chris Brooks Audio in Warrington was running a Linn DS Technical Workshop I was intrigued, and decided to gatecrash:
http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=3196
The question on my mind was: Why do people with a great hi-fi dealer, who takes care of all the technical aspects of Linn DS installation, want to addle their brains with technical detail?
The answer, I discovered, is that even though those who attended were not techies, they had a number of technical concerns they wanted to address before they would be prepared to embark on the journey into digital streaming. Is my home network good enough to support a DS system? Is it worth paying for a NAS when much cheaper hard drives are available? How will I control a DS system and will it be easy?
Using a laptop connected to a giant screen, we went step-by-step through the installation and setup of a NAS, how to rip a CD, ways to install a high quality DS system without having to rip your walls apart and, finally, how to browse and select music using a simple control solution. On this last point, Linn's new KinskyDesktop was demonstrated, showing an easy way to drag and drop an album cover on-screen into the playlist to play the full album. The common desire was to make digital streaming at home as familiar as playing a CD but with more convenience.
Once this became evidently possible, the mood in the room noticeably relaxed, the tone of the questions was less anxious as people started to think about their specific requirements, and worry less about the technology itself. It reminded me how anxious I felt when I installed my own DS system at home - I think I needed to see it work consistently for a few weeks before I stopped worrying that I'd get an angry call from my wife telling me that the hi-fi had stopped working.
Since Linn DS was introduced in 2007, there have been a variety of simplifications and innovative new possibilities by Linn and others to make the transition from CD to DS a seamless and painless transition: NAS drives that automatically rip CD's to high quality digital audio files; DS control software for PC and Mac users (even in the same home) that showcase the album cover artwork and mean that any album is only a click or two away from playing; ways to control DS from handheld gadgets like the PDA or iPod Touch; the ability to use a universal remote control with DS.
Whatever the individual issues or concerns were of Chris Brooks' customers, the musical performance of Linn DS was not in doubt. Once you get comfortable with the ideas behind this groundbreaking technology, it hopefully becomes clear that you can access it simply, and enjoy the music without being bamboozled.
Chris and his team, and his customers, were delighted with the event. Because it was arranged at fairly short notice, many who would have liked to have attended couldn't make it, so Chris tells me that they will run a similar DS workshop in a month or so's time.
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