Sound is bad on Linn hifi System with Apple Music hd

Hello, i have a hifi System with Apple Music from a MacBook in hd quality. The source goes to a gustard a 26 dac and then to a Linn linto, cloud pre amplifier and then to Linn Kabel loudspeakers. The Linn stuff is about 30 years old. The Problem is, that the Sound is Not as good as it should be. Dies anyone have ideas what the reason could be? Any help is appreciated. Regards, Ralph

 

When you say 'Not as good as it should be' was it ever good, what has changed, and do you know whether the equipment is working to specification?

Whilst possible, I would expect the electronics not to be the reason, as modern electronics (I call anything made in the past 40 years modern!) generally either works or it doesn't. Faults tend to be obvious in nasty distortion, or silence, not just a feeling it's not as good as it should be.

Loudspeakers are another matter, as there are several mechanisms that could be acting:-
1) If the tweeters use ferrofluid, that could have gone hard after 30 years, reducing treble output.
2) If the crossover capacitors have changed value after 30 years, the crossover frequencies will be wrong, which will affect the frequency response. Electrolytics tend to go up in value with age, with an increase in ESR.
3) It's possible the crossover resistors have changed value, especially if the loudspeakers have been overdriven, with again a change in frequency response.
4) Is the surround on the bass drivers still intact, or is there some damage?

It's pretty near impossible to diagnose something like this remotely, but I would start with the loudspeakers, see if you can use another amplifier, and use the headphone output of the MacBook (assuming it still has one) instead of the DAC (or use another source altogether so you're only changing one thing at a time) then work back to the source.

S.

 

I reckon it's a wind up.... the DAC feeding an MC phono stage eh?

 

And what's wrong with that? Some the the most interesting sounds have come about by driving 2v into a MC phono stage!!!!

S.