■ Network streamer
■ £16,955
Linn’s Selekt DSM is a network music streamer, but look closer and you find far more sophistication and versatility than that suggests. Linn loves to use the word ecosystem when talking about the Selekt DSM, and as pompous as that sounds, it’s a pretty apt description. This is a modular design that can be specified to the performance and features the buyer wishes. As a high-end product, it costs accordingly.
There are two basic variants of the Selekt DSM: the Edition Hub (£9950) on test here and the 2018 original, now renamed the Classic Hub (£4900). We reviewed and liked a heavily optioned version of the original in 2019. The difference comes down mostly to the casework. The Edition Hub is significantly more luxurious, with beautifully machined thick aluminium panels that make the standard version feel like a biscuit tin.
This sturdy new casework provides a more stable and better-isolated foundation for the electronics to work from, so improving sound quality. The lovely looking control dial on the top has an uprated bearing for smoother and more precise operation, and the dial is photo-etched for crisper
