croak
R.I.P. 28 June 2021
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2007
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I have had the new Musicbook ?Source? from Lindemann Audio Technik installed for a while now and thought I would write a bit about my impressions so far.
What is the The Musicbook Source? Like Musicbooks before it, its a dac and analogue pre amp with network connectivity. There is isn?t a none network version in the latest guise of Musicbook.
There is a version that includes a CD drive like before.
The Source casework is milled from a solid piece of aluminium, it looks and feels beautiful and I have no doubt the low resonance and solid shielding as a result will help sonics.
Inputs are RCA analogue incl MM phono and digital via optical, co ax and network as well as Bluetooth. (A feature I never saw the value of but it?s actually rather neat to check out YouTube music recommendations. )
Outputs are single ended RCA and Balanced XLR with a top class headphone output as well.
The Lindemann Musicbook Source is also a Roon end point.
The whole device is app controlled. Input switching, volume, music selection as a renderer / streamer all from one platform. Being a Roon endpoint with analogue pre amp has the bonus of the Roon app volume actually controlling the precision analogue volume control. A feature that seems minor but is bliss if you have been using the app for music selection on Roon and a separate remote to do proper analoge volume control on a pre amp.
Analogue input gain can be customised per input (incl phono) with 3 levels to keep volume levels similar when changing inputs.
The Lindemann control app is clean and intuitive. Lindemann have been advocates of computer audio since the early days (20 years I think) with one of the first USB DACs as well as USB to spdif converters in their 25 year history. They have their own developers for their app and don?t outsource this. Imo the downfall of many streamer rendered products are clunky app controllers.
Headphone output level can also be customised to have good use of the precision volume control for headphones with different sensitivities.
In my opinion an absolute stroke of genius is the USB port. This can be used for a USB drive with music but the smart part is its ability to control a USB CD Rom drive. So the ?CD Player/Transport? I have been using is an Apple Super Drive. With the uncertainties regarding availability of specific cd drives for high end players and their associated ?stock piled by manufacturer cost? this is so clever. Should the SuperDrive fail one day I don?t need a technician or hard to find part. I can just buy a reasonably priced USB optical drive.
Ahhh, but the quality I hear some say. Well, the Lindemann controls the optical drive at greater than 1x speed and buffers the digital code. This makes mechanical integrity for accurate ?time/jitter? totally moot as its not dependent on the rotation, just accurate optical reading.
CDs sound great. CD Text is also decoded and displayed in the track list on the app.
I will get to DAC features next.
What is the The Musicbook Source? Like Musicbooks before it, its a dac and analogue pre amp with network connectivity. There is isn?t a none network version in the latest guise of Musicbook.
There is a version that includes a CD drive like before.
The Source casework is milled from a solid piece of aluminium, it looks and feels beautiful and I have no doubt the low resonance and solid shielding as a result will help sonics.
Inputs are RCA analogue incl MM phono and digital via optical, co ax and network as well as Bluetooth. (A feature I never saw the value of but it?s actually rather neat to check out YouTube music recommendations. )
Outputs are single ended RCA and Balanced XLR with a top class headphone output as well.
The Lindemann Musicbook Source is also a Roon end point.
The whole device is app controlled. Input switching, volume, music selection as a renderer / streamer all from one platform. Being a Roon endpoint with analogue pre amp has the bonus of the Roon app volume actually controlling the precision analogue volume control. A feature that seems minor but is bliss if you have been using the app for music selection on Roon and a separate remote to do proper analoge volume control on a pre amp.
Analogue input gain can be customised per input (incl phono) with 3 levels to keep volume levels similar when changing inputs.
The Lindemann control app is clean and intuitive. Lindemann have been advocates of computer audio since the early days (20 years I think) with one of the first USB DACs as well as USB to spdif converters in their 25 year history. They have their own developers for their app and don?t outsource this. Imo the downfall of many streamer rendered products are clunky app controllers.
Headphone output level can also be customised to have good use of the precision volume control for headphones with different sensitivities.
In my opinion an absolute stroke of genius is the USB port. This can be used for a USB drive with music but the smart part is its ability to control a USB CD Rom drive. So the ?CD Player/Transport? I have been using is an Apple Super Drive. With the uncertainties regarding availability of specific cd drives for high end players and their associated ?stock piled by manufacturer cost? this is so clever. Should the SuperDrive fail one day I don?t need a technician or hard to find part. I can just buy a reasonably priced USB optical drive.
Ahhh, but the quality I hear some say. Well, the Lindemann controls the optical drive at greater than 1x speed and buffers the digital code. This makes mechanical integrity for accurate ?time/jitter? totally moot as its not dependent on the rotation, just accurate optical reading.
CDs sound great. CD Text is also decoded and displayed in the track list on the app.
I will get to DAC features next.
