Linn 500 Solo - Manual (Page 17)

9
At Linn because we strive for continuous improvement in everything we do
we use appropriate technologies to achieve our goals. There have been many
fine amplifier designs over the history of audio. Some use valves (tubes),
some use bipolar transistors, some MOSFETs. Some manufacturers swear
by Class A, others by Class AB, one or two by Class D, and many others are
somewhere in between. Two designs can use the same components, but achieve
completely different results. We believe, and have evidence to support, that
what you do with the parts and technology is always much more important
than the name of the technology. To illustrate this, our current power
amplifier range contains MOSFET, monolithic, discrete and bipolar designs.
Our latest monolithic designs sound better than our previous discrete bipolar
designs. Our latest bipolar designs have more power and sound better than
our earlier monolithic and bipolar designs. So what did we choose for the
Klimax?
The Klimax audio design was developed from our previous best amplifier, the
Klout, which uses completely different circuitry from any of our other
amplifiers. Like the Klout, the Klimax also uses all surface mount technology
with eight, rather than two ultralinear bipolar output power transistors. There
are many other refinements and advances over the Klout design, the result
of many years of experience, analysis, experimentation and our simple,
consistent method of judging sound quality. We use bipolar output
transistors in this design because they are the most appropriate solution.
The audio circuitry