Yeah, I mean, I’ve come a long way from what I considered “reasonable” when I first began this journey, but $27k for a dac & amp seems excessive to me, no matter what they bring to the table.
Then again, I suppose some people have a LOT of money. 
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dCS does not recommend stacking their components 
But seriously, they don’t, yet with the Lina they actually recommend it.
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Well I’ve only unboxed the Lina DAC so far and have that paired with the Forge. It’s a very interesting contrast to the Mytek I had on my desk previously. Need a lot more listening time but right now the chain is iMAC —> dCS Lina DAC —> Forge 8/100 —> Utopia and it’s sounding pretty incredible.
I played with the Crossfeed a little bit but that seems like a feature I’ll probably leave off while using it.
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I’m still thinking the Lina DAC is basically a Bartök DAC in a different chassis, with a modified PSU.
We’ll see when I get to my dCS APEX Vivaldi audition (been put back a month); they should have the Lina stack on hand when that happens.
Feel free to send the stack this way for a thorough review/comparison if you want (I’ve some free time at the moment), and it’s interesting enough gear to warrant breaking my “no impressions/reviews” stance. But, also, don’t feel compelled to … no biggie either way!
Looks like I’ll be able to have the Lina stack at home while I’m auditioning the APEX stuff, so no need to spend time/money shipping one around.
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8 posts were merged into an existing topic: The Objective, Subjective & Dejected Thread
Happy to hear! Truthfully after I unboxed the thing I had no clue how I was going to get it back in the box so that makes things easier.
I’ve also superglued the DAC to my desk so we can avoid any complicated removal procedures as well 
(it sounds so good with the Forge).
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They are likely to be very brief in the current context; maybe nothing more than a good/bad, liked/didn’t, and here’s where I think it sits sort of thing.
Doing a full review seems fair in the context of having someone ship me $30K of gear, back and forth across the US. But it is not something I will do just for picking it up locally as part of a much bigger potential sale (i.e. the dCS APEX Vivaldi stack).
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I am going to move the blind-test/objective/subjective posts to the “Objective, Subjective & Dejected Thread”, as they are in no way LINA specific and are adding no useful information here.
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I got to spend a couple of hours with the LINA system on Thursday; some very brief thoughts:
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The DAC/streamer was audibly indistinguishable to me to the Bartók, when both were feeding either the Lina amplifier or an HPA4. This was true in either 2V or 6V modes. So, legitimately high-end, if not to everyone’s taste.
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The Lina amp was linear and neutral … not unlike the HPA4, though perhaps with a little more meat on the bones.
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The DAC/amp combination is punchier and more dynamic, and fared better with more challenging loads (hardest load I tried was the AB 1266 Phi TC), than the optional headphone amplifier in the Bartók, but was not quite as smooth - even with easy to drive loads (Utopia).
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There were no night/day moments switching the optional clock in and out. The best I could say is that it made an already relatively mellow and laid-back presentation somewhat more “relaxed”. Perhaps more time with it would expose other changes, but it’s not like adding the clock suddenly made the Lina sound like the Rossini.
As always, YMMV, and you should audition for yourself.
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Any standout/favorite pairings with any of the headphones you’ve tried so far from those couple of hours?
Not really; it was too short a period to assess things like specific synergies - but it did sound very compelling with the Utopia, LCD-5, AB-1266 Phi TC and Vérité.
I originally planned to bring the stack home with me for more protracted listening, but ultimately decided not to. It wasn’t something I was going to buy.
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Thanks, Ian.
I very much appreciate your thoughts on the dCS Lina, particularly your comments on the detectable differences made by the clock.
I will stay with my Bartok + HP amp.
Does anyone know if the Lina DAC supports WiFi? The spec and manual suggests not
It supports AirPlay 2. But not Wi-Fi.
IMHO on this tread:
I have had both the Lina stack and the Bartok. Bartok was great but the headphone amp in today’s world is poor. I moved to the Lina stack and had the AB 1266 tc. It was TOTL good, love the DAC and its over the Air upgradeable which I love about DCS, The clock used it with and without, its I think a nice addition but 8K +++ not a must to put you off from Lina DAC and AmP without it.
All that said the Lina AMP did not drive the Susvara well , it had volume but I did not really understand just how much more Susvara was until I tried the HE1000 HiFiman amp made for Susvara. A night and day deal all day long.
So my end game is an amp that can drive both 1266 and Susvara as I think between those two covers it all for my taste. I am now looking into a WA 33, as I see some posts and reviews that claims to run both HP’s well. It a shame and I have commented on line and directly with DCS and to their VP of Sales. The Lina stack with the Lina DAC and its upgrade path could be an end game I believe for many people if the Lina amp had more power. It’s just slightly more than Bartok internal HP amp which is not up to driving harder HP’s. If the Lina AMP was more powerful …I would have been in heaven…
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I find the Bartók HP internal amp to drive the Utopias well. But for my Raal SR1a I use an external amp. (Raal HSB-1)
I’d give it a solid B+ with the Susvara and an A with the 1266.
It drives the Susvara well. but there are amps that do that better. I’m going to list mine soon, replaced it with a Viva Egoista 845.
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I agree with this as well…haven’t tried it with the 1266.
I prefer both the WA23 and Envy with the Susvara over the WA33.