Linn Selekt Edition Hub Integrated Amplifier with Katalyst DAC

Selekt DSM is Linn's modular network music player, introduced in 2018, and the Edition Hub of October 2022 is its premium enclosure. Where the Classic Hub is folded and powder-coated aluminum, the Edition Hub is four plates machined from solid, pinned at the corners and drawn together with four long bolts, which Linn did for rigidity and for the isolation of the electronics inside as much as for appearance. The lid is vented in a wave pattern of angled slots, only every second one cut through; the fascia is a single sheet of mirrored glass that hides the display until it is needed; the control dial turns on a turned stainless-steel bearing inside a photo-etched steel ring lit by a hundred LEDs; six extruded-aluminum smart buttons recall albums, stations or inputs. Linn's Utopik power supply, a precision-regulated switch-mode design that first appeared in the current Klimax DSM, is standard, and the Edition Hub adds a stereo subwoofer output and a 6.3 mm headphone socket that the Classic Hub does not have.

In this configuration the DAC bay carries the Stereo Katalyst module and the output slot the Stereo Power Out cartridge, which makes the Selekt an integrated amplifier. The cartridge's Class D stage is rated at 100 W per channel into 4 Ω and 50 W into 8 Ω with 20 dB of gain; volume, source selection, Space Optimisation and the subwoofer crossover run in the digital domain ahead of conversion, so the signal path from DAC to speaker terminals has no analog preamplifier stage. Katalyst is the DAC architecture Linn introduced in 2016 for the Klimax DS and DSM, and in the Selekt it sits between the Standard module and Organik. Its approach is to isolate the elements of a conventional converter that interact with each other: a precision reference voltage, data optimization ahead of the converter, a master clock with its own supply, and an independent power supply for the output driver, so that the conversion is not modulated by the circuits around it. It plays PCM to 24-bit/192 kHz and DSD, and it is the module in the Selekt that most listeners move to Organik from later.

Whatever the configuration, the platform is the same. The Selekt streams from TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer and Spotify Connect, supports AirPlay 2 and internet radio, has been Roon Ready since Linn's Davaar 106 software of early 2024, and plays files from a server or drive to 24-bit/192 kHz on every DAC and to 24-bit/384 kHz and DSD256 with Organik. There are two Toslink and two S/PDIF inputs, one of them switchable to a fixed-level S/PDIF output, an asynchronous USB-B input, HDMI with ARC, a line input with sensitivity adjustable from 1 to 4 V, and a moving-magnet and moving-coil phono stage with a 24-bit/192 kHz converter, so an LP12 can go straight in. Two Exakt Link sockets carry digital audio to Linn Exakt loudspeakers, an Exaktbox or a Urika II phono stage in an LP12, and Space Optimisation, Linn's room-correction system built on acoustic modeling of the room and a database of anechoic loudspeaker measurements, is set up by the dealer and runs on every output.

Mark Gusew reviewed the Selekt DSM with Katalyst DAC and the integrated power amplifier cartridge for StereoNET in November 2019 and found the Class D stage drove his loudspeakers to high levels with good bass control and no sign of strain, a fast, clean and detailed sound that was lean rather than warm, and silences between tracks that were "just that"; he gave it an Applause Award, with the caution that a one-box design "won't win a shoot-out" against separates at the same price. The Edition Hub itself was reviewed in Organik form by StereoNET (Craig Joyce, March 2023, 8.5 out of 10) and What Hi-Fi? (December 2022, 5 out of 5 for sound, build and features), both finding the machined enclosure and the platform convincing and both noting the cost of the top configurations.

In a system this is the Selekt for a listener who wants one box and a pair of loudspeakers, with the DAC upgrade held in reserve. We pair it with Linn's 119 standmounts and 150 floorstanders, whose 4 Ω loads draw the full 100 W, and with Sonus faber Sonetto and Lumina, Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series and Klipsch Heritage loudspeakers in small to medium rooms; a Majik LP12 goes into the phono stage and a television into HDMI ARC. Two upgrades are available later without replacing the hub: the Katalyst module can be exchanged for Stereo Organik, and the Power Out cartridge for a Line Out cartridge when separate power amplifiers arrive. Choose the Classic Hub integrated with Katalyst to spend less on the enclosure; choose this configuration for the machined hub, the subwoofer outputs and the headphone socket.