Linn Abandons CD Players

By Paul Messenger November 20, 2009 — On November 19, Scottosh manufacturer Linn Products held a press conference in London to announce that it was forthwith ceasing the production of CD players, and effectively replacing them by its new DS-series "digital streaming" components in its product portfolio.

Such a bold and radical decision requires elaboration. As the first major specialist hi-fi brand to announce such an exit strategy, the shock value of the announcement is clearly designed attract maximum media publicity. But it's also very much a statement of intent, and represents Linn's firm belief that digital streaming represents the future of hi-fi "beyond CD." Linn certainly believes in digital home music reproduction, but considers that the streaming of flexible format digital audio material via home networks, rather than CD's rigidly fixed format, now makes much more sense.

Linn's Managing Director, Gilad Tiefenbrun, explained that when developing its first digital streaming component, the Klimax DS, the company found that its performance was actually significantly better than its equivalent top-of-the-line Sondek CD12 CD player. The elimination of the disc drive and the totally solid-state construction and operation of the DS streamer seemed to provide a positive benefit. Add to that the future flexibility an "open source" DS component should have in coping with whatever digital formats might come along in the future, and it's clear that, for computer-literate people at least, the DS approach has some obvious advantages over the CD player.
http://stereophile.com/news/linn_abandons_cd_players/