From Microphone to Ear: LINKWITZ Captivates High End Vienna 2026
Following the success at AXPONA, the LINKWITZ team brought the magic of absolute audio truth to High End Vienna.
The reception was nothing short of spectacular.
For us, a hifi show isn’t just about showcasing speakers; it is about demonstrating a holistic philosophy.
The Complete Signal Path: Musician to Ear
At LINKWITZ, we don’t just build loudspeakers—we look at the complete signal path.
We believe that true high fidelity begins with the musician, is captured purely during the recording process, and must be preserved all the way to the listener’s ears.
Every single link in this chain matters.
This philosophy was the beating heart of our LINKWITZ Parlor Talks in Vienna. In these intimate, engaging sessions, we sat down with attendees to discuss the art of minimal microphoning, the pure translation of acoustic events, and how our holographic speaker designs remove the listening room from the equation, bridging the gap between the recording venue and your mind.
Frans de Rond (Soundliaison, one-mic expert and pureDSD256 sound engineer)
UNBOXING THE PERFORMANCE: FROM MINIMAL MIC TO DIPOLE REALITY
Why Purist Recordings Demand Dipole Replay
Video coming soon
Jussi Laako (DSD expert and developer of HQPlayer)
ANALOG SOUL ON A DIGITAL MEDIUM: UNVEILING THE TRUTH ABOUT AD/DA CONVERSION
Healing the Digital Audio Chain with Pure DSD by Avoiding the Decimation Trap
Video coming soon.
Find his slides here
A Special Honor: Goosebumps with Paloma
Speaking of the recording venue, it was an absolute honor to welcome performing artists among our listeners in Vienna.
A true highlight of the weekend was playing Paloma’s stunning album MEMORY.
Hearing her breathtaking, soulful vocals emerge from the completely detached, holographic soundstage gave absolutely everyone in the room goosebumps.
Lifelike reproduction of her own art wasn’t just a demonstration—it was pure magic.
It brought our ‚Musician to Ear‘ philosophy to life in the most breathtaking, emotional way imaginable!
Beyond AXPONA: The Ultimate Signal Path Refinement
While the physics of our speakers remain untouched in their perfection, we pushed the upstream electronics to the absolute limit in Vienna.
We introduced a rigorously improved signal path with relentless noise isolation for our directDSD DAC setup.
Furthermore, for HQPlayer control, we mostly used the Jplay App.
- Galvanic Isolation & Battery Power: From Laptop with HQPlayer embedded 6.0.1 , incl new DAC correction feature for Topping D-900, we transferred the DSD256 stream via 5G wireless to a receiver: TP-Link WR902 (30US$) running low noise OpenWRT (a huge shoutout and thanks to Eric at ethernet-sound.com). This achieves total galvanic isolation as it is powered entirely by a dedicated battery supply.
- Galvanic Isolation for NAA Endpoint (DietPi OS on NanoPI neo3 plus, 60US$) was running on yet another separate battery supply, completely detaching the digital stream from any grid noise.
- The Blackest Background: The Topping D-900, discrete 1-bit DAC was fed via a custom noise-suppressing, ferrite-loaded power cable. Noise suppression on the connected XLR cable shields prevented „backward injection“ of noise into the DAC.
- The Premium: To transfer this pristine, ultra-low-noise analog signal to our amplifiers, we utilized the remarkable, noise-suppressing Refine „Ultima Musica XLR 256“ interconnects. Yes, this is a premium investment, but in a system so ruthlessly revealing and perfectly isolated, it acts as the ultimate catalyst, letting the pure analog magic flow unhindered.
A silence between the notes so profound that the musicians seemingly stepped right into the room with us.
SOUNDSCLEVER: The Unbeatable LXmini
Proving once again that absolute high-end sound doesn’t require a millionaire’s budget, we proudly presented our LXmini system under the High End Society’s „SOUNDSCLEVER“ initiative.
Recognized universally as the ultimate „best bang for the buck“ system, the LXmini delivered a staggering holographic performance that left visitors searching the room for hidden subwoofers.
It is the definitive proof that brilliant physics will always triumph over heavy wallets.
Find our SOUNDSCLEVER configurations here.
Special thanks go to Audiophonics/France and to Topping for providing frontend demo units.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Vienna, engaged in our Parlor Talks, and shared in our passion for the pure signal path.
See you at the next event!