Trying to foretell the long run is inconceivable. The lack of lottery wins, flying automobiles, or dystopian post-apocalyptic hellscapes is a little bit of a giveaway. But, relating to audio, predicting the close to future is feasible, and a giant chunk of tomorrow’s audio is probably going Lindemann Musicbook Combo formed!
The Musicbook Combo addresses a niche in fashionable audio; the small, high-performance built-in amplifier with audio streamer. The audio world wants a small field to sit down on a bookshelf fairly than a devoted stand. It additionally requires a product that’s simple to put in and function. And it must sound good. The Lindemann Musicbook Combo does all these issues.
Does all of it
Lindemann’s elegant little field is a deceptively highly effective and versatile machine. Delivering a wholesome 70W into eight ohms, the amp features a community participant, DAC, MM phono stage, and two line-level analogue inputs. You can join it to A2DP-compatible Bluetooth gadgets, native networks, and on-line streaming companies by way of a router. You can play thumb drives or CDs from a CD-ROM drive inserted into the rear USB connector. There’s a good-quality headphone socket.
Everything is pushed from Lindemann’s iOS or Android app, and there’s a healthily sized yellow OLED read-out on the entrance panel. The amp’s management is minimal, only a energy button and a jog wheel, however this final double up as quantity and supply selector. There can also be a mini-remote with track-handling performance, however take into account this an adjunct to the app.
Once you go deeper, you start to see why the Musicbook Combo is so highly effective. First, it upconverts any PCM sign to DSD as customary (utilizing an AK4137 upsampler), however this may be deactivated, and any PCM alerts are saved bit-perfect to the dual AK4493 DACs and synchronised in opposition to an ultraprecise MEMS-Femtoclock. It might be run wired or wirelessly (inside 10m from a wi-fi router) into your Local Area Network. It’s fully Roon Ready and works with Tidal Connect, Qobuz, High Res Audio.com, Spotify Connect, Deezer and extra. If you just like the pitter-patter of tiny Lindemanns round the home, there may be additionally a multi-room characteristic.
Appiness is a heat iPad
While it’s notionally potential to function the Musicbook Combo with no smartphone or pill, it’s like asking a ballet dancer to bounce Swan Lake in leg irons. The absolute pleasure of the Lindemann design and why it justifies that ‘it’s the long run’ epithet is how nicely it really works with its app (and apps like Roon). This is one thing we sometimes battle to reconcile; a product just like the Musicbook Combo should dwell in that app-based ecosystem at present.
Sadly, too many audio corporations appear to be extra about ‘pivoting’ towards the place Lindemann already occupies. The trade is maybe universally responsible of being behind the curve right here; we, as audio writers, are extra wrapped up within the {hardware} than within the interplay between that {hardware} and the app. In the actual world, individuals care extra about how that app works and the way the product interacts with the app. In our defence, the app is usually nonetheless a piece in progress when the product will get into our fingers, however once more in the actual world, such a midway home is indefensible. Rant mode: disengaged.
Fortunately, the Lindemann app is a pleasure to make use of. It’s simply the appropriate steadiness of ‘informative’ with out being ‘busy’, and it responds shortly. Once arrange (no massive deal), the Combo additionally handshakes with different apps like Tidal or Roon, which means they do all of the heavy lifting, and the Combo reacts appropriately. I’d put this on a par with the higher company-made apps on the market; it’s not as intuitive as Sonos (few are), however it’s actually simple to navigate and extremely reactive.
Wired or wi-fi
I attempted connecting the Lindemann Musicbook Combo in each wired and wi-fi LAN settings, however in equity, my wi-fi router is simply about 1.5m from the Combo’s twin aerials. This means I may detect no sound high quality or latency variations between wired and wi-fi connections. If pressed, I’d go for the wired connection, however that’s extra to do with private desire than noticed variations. The Combo appears to make no distinctions both means.
Running Lindemann’s personal Streaming 4.0 platform and app, the Combo labored like a allure. The app gently guides you to constructing playlists in a extra thought-about means than monitor aggregation, however solely as a result of I discovered playlist creation is extra on reflection and made out of the last-played possibility. I favor this extra reflective strategy; it acts a bit extra like Roon. Streaming 4.0 and Roon work very properly collectively, and I discovered myself in that Roon area rather a lot right here.
The sound of the Combo is clear and clear, slicing a fragile steadiness and at all times staying on the appropriate aspect of ‘scientific’. Perhaps most noticeable is that this ‘spring water’ sound applies universally; there’s no level the place the sound warms up or blurs throughout the board. While that may sound like it might deter valve-amp customers and their seeming love of euphony, I believe they want the readability and focus of that Lindemann sound.
Go-to albums
My go-to albums for testing midrange readability and bass – Stella di Napoli by Joyce DiDonato [Erato] and The Last Resort by Trentemøller [Poker Flat] – highlighted exactly what the Lindemann Musicbook Combo does so nicely, as they delivered all of the element and perception required to make the previous album come alive and all of the precision and drive wanted to make the latter sound scary. But, in equity, what the Combo did proper, it did proper universally.
There’s a purpose we use these discs again and again. While vastly pleasant to listen to, I’m not going to extract review-grade data from a Half Man Half Biscuit album, however Achtung Bono [Probe Plus] wants one thing correct to serve up the lyrics of ‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ with out it sounding too spikey and uncooked whereas retaining the fantastic belt-fed surrealist sarcasm dripping from each line. And Lindemann’s Combo makes quick work of strains like ‘Nero fiddles whereas Gordon Burns/In his Joy Division Oven Gloves.’
Everything I performed was given a good listening to by the Lindemann Musicbook Combo, which is extraordinarily uncommon at this degree. The clear, exact sound makes the Lindemann so musically versatile. I went from operetta to electro to sarky post-punk from the Wirral after which to Bach innovations, again by way of Dylan’s Desire [Capitol], over to some basic early Nineties Acid Jazz, and so it went on.
Class act
Getting that a lot from a small field with out it going into melt-down mode can solely imply one factor – Class D energy amp operation. And it will trigger some audiophiles to press the ejector seat on precept. More idiot them; they’re lacking a exact, correct, musically targeted, detailed, articulate and extremely dynamic sound, particularly when the goal loudspeaker viewers is taken into account.
With spiralling gas payments which means the working prices of a pure Class A amplifier start to get a bit noticeable, the good sound and funky working Lindemann makes a sturdy case for itself. I really feel what’s contained in the field is functionally unimportant so long as it really works nicely; the way it sounds and operates issues.
Don’t diss
So, are there any downsides to the Musicbook Combo? Surprisingly few, except you might be within the behavior of ‘dissing’ issues for being one thing they weren’t meant to be. It’s not meant to drive £300,000 tower loudspeakers with an impedance plot that eats amplifiers, however I used the Combo with KEF’s LS50 Meta, and the 2 labored collectively so nicely, so I felt no must look additional. I need shifting coil compatibility alongside shifting magnet, however not if it sacrifices the efficiency of the MM stage because it stands. I’d additionally favor if its Bluetooth connection included aptX HD (which may help as much as 24bit, 48kHz PCM) alongside A2DP, however that is removed from a deal-breaker. And realistically, that’s about it!
The Lindemann Musicbook Combo is among the methods good audio reaches these it can not. It’s sufficiently small to be domestically acceptable. It’s highly effective sufficient to drive the loudspeakers it can almost certainly companion with and sounds good. It’s made to be app-chummy and dwell fortunately in that area, and the app works exceptionally nicely. If that is the face of audio’s future, it’s vibrant and rosy!
Technical specs
- Type streaming built-in amplifier
- Power output 2×130W into 4Ω, 2× 70W into 8Ω
- Analogue inputs MM cartridge (RCA), two line-level (RCA)
- Analogue outputs one line-level (RCA), 6.35mm headphone jack, 2× BFA speaker terminals
- MM specs 47kΩ, 150pF, 40dB acquire
- Digital inputs Coaxial and optical S/PDIF, USB 2.0, 100Mbits/s RJ45 LAN, 2× antenna (Bluetooth, WLAN)
- Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP
- DAC decision as much as 768kHz, 32bit PCM and DSD 512
- Supported codecs WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, DSD
- Network UPnP and DLNA help
- Dimensions (W×H×D) 28 × 22 × 6.3cm
- Weight 3kg
- Price £4,490
Manufacturer
Lindemann Audio
UK Distributor
Signature Audio Systems
+44(0)7738 007776
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