SO Blog - Space Optimisation

Linn’s Space Optimisation has been around for several years now and has enjoyed considerable success. We as a shop endorse it and would like to help clarify it’s aims to our customers.

Linn say of it: “Space Optimisation is a set of tools available to all Linn DS, DSM and Exakt system owners that allow optimisation of the interaction between the loudspeakers and room”. 

But why bother with all this confusing Space Optimisation when you have a perfectly good system already? 

The simplest answer came to me in a very recent conversation with Neil Gaydon, Linn’s long time sales manager, who forged himself an illustrious career after he eventually left Linn.
Neil’s comment was simple. “In setting up speakers we always knew that if you get the bass right then the rest, the midrange & treble, would follow. So the key was always to get the bass right and as well sorted as possible”.

Space Optimisation allows you to do just this - get the bass right. Properly and precisely right. Much more so than simply moving the speakers around, the traditional method, is ever able to do.

Space Optimisation not only adjusts Linn’s active and passive speakers through a DS, but a multitude of others not made by Linn themselves. Indeed virtually any well designed passive speaker that you employ will respond. All you need is a Linn DS of some sort as source.

With careful adjustment of speaker positioning, room mode distortions, and further adjustments of bass and treble levels using Linn’s “Tune Dem” method (see below) which is as much about melody, musical structure and timing as anything else, the signal is adjusted until it sounds at its very best. 
Make no mistake, this can take some time - allow a couple of hours - and requires consistent concentration, several of cups of tea, coffee or possibly something even stronger to help sustain you!

But then, with it all completed, you can enjoy your system as never before. With a larger dynamic sound, more melodies and immaculate timing, you may well find you can listen to whole albums without jumping from track to track as perhaps you did previously. And, as an unexpected bonus, you may well find that a you have less of an urge to fiddle with the system - and just let it play music instead. A great goal in itself!

For any further enquiries or clarification please contact the shop. We would be pleased to play you a ‘before and after’ demonstration of Space Optimisation to show you what we mean, and how very effective it is.

Linn say of the Tune Dem: “If you have any problems in detecting differences in regard to the ease of following the tune, don’t panic. Just sit back, relax and try again. Ask yourself a few simple questions: 

1. Can you hear all the musicians playing all of the instruments all of the time?

2. Can you always follow the tune played by every instrument?

3. How easy is it to sing-along/follow with the melody?

The remarkable thing is that once you do hear the difference you’ll find that it’s much more apparent than you originally thought. And the more you listen the easier this method will become. With a little practice, you‘ll find that you have a listening test that is consistent, repeatable, and best of all, a very reliable indicator of the performance of any hi-fi component”.