Accuracy Without Compromise

Two wrongs can never make a right. Putting together a high-end hi-fi separates system is a subjective exercise riddled with compromise. Speakers and electronics are swapped in and out until some middle ground is reached. Matching an amplifier with a flawed output to a speaker with a flawed response produces two different approximations of accuracy which, when combined, more or less get along. Two wrongs, however, can never make a right. The more ambitious the system, the more these small mismatches tend to accumulate.

With Klimax Solo 800, Linn has built a high-performance amplifier that sidesteps trial and error altogether, one that can drive any given speaker optimally, under any conditions. The aim is not to flatter a particular speaker, but to deliver the signal exactly as intended. That leaves the speaker as the only variable to choose on its merits.

Control Before Power

Klimax Solo 800 as a whole is a model of efficient, consistent and accurate circuit design. Raw wattage matters, but only when it is delivered with precision.

Linn’s distinctive blend of digital and analogue expertise has allowed every internal stage of the amplifier to be optimised and linearised, so it consistently produces exceptionally high performance. Linearity, in simple terms, means the output is a faithful, scaled-up copy of the input, with nothing added or taken away. Improving it at every stage, rather than correcting errors at the end, is what keeps the whole chain clean.

Real-Time Bias Regulation

Klimax Solo 800 features Linn’s own Adaptive Bias Control technology. With it, the ideal bias current for each of the amplifier’s sixteen output transistors is set dynamically and in real time, by measuring, sampling and digitising the current supplied to them. Bias current is the small standing current that keeps output transistors ready to conduct. Treating each transistor individually, rather than as a group, accounts for the tiny differences between components.

A digital control loop then applies and continuously adjusts this optimum bias current for each individual transistor, eliminating crossover distortion at any temperature, regardless of volume or demanding dynamic swings in the music, for the whole of the amplifier’s life. Crossover distortion occurs at the point where one half of a Class AB output stage hands over to the other, and it is especially audible at low listening levels. In a conventional design, bias is set once at the factory and drifts gradually as parts age and warm up.

Fanless Thermal Design

Klimax Solo 800 offers outstanding heat management, driving the most difficult loads without sacrificing linearity or relying on an internal fan. With no fan, there is no mechanical noise to intrude on quiet passages. This is a meaningful advantage in a listening room where the amplifier sits close to the listener.

Excellent heat transfer is achieved by mounting the amplifier and power supply circuitry directly onto highly efficient, large-surface-area heatsinks. This cool-running design is central to delivering exceptional clarity right up to 800W into 4Ω, and 1.2kW into 2Ω. The ability to deliver more power into lower impedances is a sign of a robust output stage and a capable power supply. In practice, it means demanding speakers with awkward impedance dips are kept firmly under control.

Temperature is kept low inside the amplifier, so the properties of its internal components stay consistent through even the loudest and most demanding passages. It preserves consistency, efficiency and longevity at all times. Electronic components change their behaviour slightly as they heat up, so a stable temperature translates directly into a stable sound. Lower operating temperatures also tend to extend component life.

A Reference Mono Amplifier

With Klimax Solo 800, Linn has created a mono amplifier of superior performance that can drive any given speaker optimally, under any conditions. As a monoblock, each Solo 800 drives a single channel, so a stereo system requires a pair. Dedicating a separate chassis and power supply to each channel also removes any interaction between left and right.

To achieve this, Linn’s electronic engineers went back to first principles with their sights set firmly on consistency and accuracy, because consistency and accuracy are fundamental to pure, uncoloured power amplifier performance. Rather than refining an existing design, they questioned each stage afresh. The technologies described above are the result of that approach.

It features novel, original technologies which together produce exceptionally low distortion measurements, alongside an excellent signal-to-noise ratio and remarkable efficiency. A high signal-to-noise ratio means the music emerges from a genuinely silent background. Efficiency, meanwhile, means less energy wasted as heat, which feeds back into the amplifier’s thermal stability.

In a typical system, what you hear is the sum of the interactions between speaker and amplifier, a mix of non-ideal characteristics that leave audible artefacts in the music. Linn’s relentless focus on minimising distortion within the amplifier, together with its uniformly consistent output, means Klimax Solo 800 adds negligible harmonics or background noise to the music signal. What reaches the speaker is, as closely as possible, the signal that left the preamplifier. Any remaining character in the system can therefore be traced to the speaker and the room, not the amplification.

Two wrongs can never make a right. Klimax Solo 800, though, simply does nothing wrong. It just does everything right, consistently. That consistency holds from the first day of ownership to many years later.

Utopik: Precision-Regulated Power

Linn’s all-new Utopik switch-mode power supply topology for Klimax Solo 800 features precision-regulated power rails. It offers the best of both worlds, generating 2kW of maximum power output while retaining speed, responsiveness and exceptional efficiency. A switch-mode supply converts mains power at high frequency, allowing far smaller and lighter components than a conventional transformer-based design. Done well, as here, it also responds more quickly to sudden demands from the music.

It holds an extremely steady output voltage, with rails that perform consistently in the face of dramatic changes in load. Furthermore, if the mains input fluctuates, the output does not, staying stable and exceptionally pure at all times. Mains supply quality varies from home to home and even through the day, so this independence is a practical benefit. The amplifier therefore performs the same whatever is happening on the mains.

With Utopik for Klimax Solo 800, Linn has gone a step further to reduce switching noise and improve efficiency by using a technique called soft-switching: a resonant tank circuit ensures the voltage across the switch falls to zero before the switch operates. Thanks to soft-switching, Utopik for Klimax Solo 800 is cleaner, more efficient, and stays near-silent across the full range of operating conditions. Conventional hard-switching produces sharp voltage spikes that can generate electrical noise. Soft-switching avoids those spikes at source rather than filtering them out afterwards.