Believe in Majik

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ACCORDING TO the corporate lore of Scottish audio manufacturer Linn, in 1973 a newly married engineer named Ivor Tiefenbrun went shopping at his wife’s direction to buy home furnishings. To his wife’s chagrin, the story goes, he instead returned with a stereo system. After setting it up, Ivor was disappointed with the sound, but soon discovered that moving the turntable from his listening room into an adjoining room improved the system’s performance since the speakers’ output no longer interacted with the turntable and distorted the audio signal. This eventually led Ivor to design the now-famous Sondek LP12 transcription turntable, which is resistant to room-based acoustical feedback.

Almost fifty years later, the company is now led by Ivor’s son, Gilad, and known not only for turntables and other analog audio components, but also for digital components and speakers. Linn’s latest product, the entry-level Majik DSM, is the most recent refresh of its Majik-DSI, a unit that was first introduced in 2009.

While Linn calls the Majik DSM ($3,835) a network music player, it could be more accurately described as a stereo integrated amplifier with a built-in digital-toanalog converter (DAC) and wired/wireless streaming capability. Aimed at freshly minted hi-fi enthusiasts or veteran ones seeking to add high-quality sound to a bedroom, office, or other small-ish space, the Majik DSM also features a headphone output and built-in phono stage