Linn 343 Exakt Integrated

There are many adjectives that can be used to describe Linn Products Ltd and the audio equipment it’s created over the last 50 years and more - ‘unapologetic’ is, I reckon, one of them. It’s an adjective I find myself repeatedly reaching for when considering the new 343 Exakt Integrated - and that’s before I’ve even heard them.

The company describes the 343 Exakt Integrated as ‘the compact reference loudspeaker’ - because ‘understated’ is an adjective that can sometimes be applied, too. What it actually is, as far as I can tell, is a lavishly finished pair of fully active loudspeakers with more specification highlights than you’d imagine it might be possible to fit into a cabinet standing less than 1.1m tall.

So your £65K buys a pair of elegantly curved composite cabinets that somehow manage to look dramatic yet unobtrusive at the same time. Six different finishes are available - and having seen them all I feel qualified to suggest the appearance changes just a little depending on the colour you specify (especially towards the bottom, where the cabinet swoops forwards to meet the plinth it’s standing on in a manner not unlike a ballet dancer en pointe). The price demands a flawless standard of construction and finish, and that’s exactly what you get.

On the inside, the 343 Exakt Integrated is packaging quite a number of those proprietary technologies Linn is famous for (and famously bad at spelling). Class AB amplification, with Adaptive Bias Control, powers the three-driver array. Organik DACs take care of the conversion processes. Utopik power supply, Exakt digital crossover and Power DAC architecture are also on board - and everything is housed in an integrated module inside the cowl that forms the rear section of the cabinet. The module itself is mechanically isolated from the rest of the cabinet using a three-point spring system, and sits inside an aluminium triangular-prism arrangement that’s vaguely chimney-like in shape (it’s a little wider at the bottom than it is at the top) in order to facilitate passive, and therefore silent, heat dissipation.

The 343 is the first Linn model to be fully designed around the company’s Pistonik driver technology that debuted in the flagship 360 model. There are two Pistonik bass drivers here, but only one is visible -  the 190mm upper bass driver is the biggest of the three forward-facing units. A larger (220mm) Pistonik driver, taking care of lower bass information,  fires downwards from the bottom of the cabinet, where a highly reflective fixed boundary (in conjunction with that flowing, almost-a-sine-wave shape at the cabinet’s base) allows for an omnidirectional distribution. Both Pistonik units have an aluminium diaphragm, and both exhibit the sort of control, linearity of response and extended excursion that’s basically the entire point of the technology. 

There’s a 19mm thin-ply woven carbon dome tweeter above the smaller Pistonik driver - it’s positioned behind a guard in the shape of the company logo. Above here there’s another thin-ply woven carbon dome driver - this one’s a 64mm number taking care of the midrange. 

At the rear of the cabinet is where you’ll find a socket for mains power and ‘Exakt Link’ RJ45 connection - and for this Exakt Integrated version of the 343, that’s your lot where connectivity is concerned. There’s a second 343 in the range - it’s called ‘PWAB’ (passive with active bass), and it allows the speaker (or, at least, three-quarters of the speaker) to be driven by an external amplifier while the 220mm Pistonik bass driver retains the use of Utopik and Power DAC. It’s a less expensive option than the Exakt Integrated - but that’s a review for another day. For now, it’s enough to know that the 343 Exakt Integrated must be used in conjunction with one of Linn’s DSM models (such as the Selekt DSM I reviewed a few years back) in order to enjoy gain control and all other preamplification functionality. 

sound quality

During my testing, the 343 Exakt Integrated system is connected to a Klimax DSM which serves as preamplifier and network streamer. External sources consist of a Technics SL-1300G with Goldring 1022 moving magnet cartridge, preamplified by a Chord Huei, and a Rega Apollo CD player. The Linn app has Qobuz and TIDAL music streaming services embedded, and also accesses internet radio via Airable. 

It really doesn’t make much odds to the Linn set-up the source of music you choose to deploy. It will make the qualitative differences between the same recording streamed as a FLAC file via TIDAL, when delivered by a compact disc or by a vinyl record apparent, of course - but it never shifts in its fundamental character or attitude. In each and every circumstance it’s a controlled, authoritative and dazzlingly accomplished listen.

To be honest, it’s difficult to know where to start. Maybe ‘detail’ is a good place - because if there’s detail in a recording to be revealed, rest assured the 343 Exakt Integrated will reveal it. And not in an especially analytical manner or in a show-off-y, “listen to what I can do!” sort of way, either - simply as a matter of fact. If the information is there in the first place, it will be served up with precisely the correct amount of weighting and emphasis. It may be the harmonic over- and undertones that surround the fundamental note, it may be the transient contact between drumstick and rim as contact is made with drumskin, it may be an off-mic gasp for breath before the next vocal line is delivered… if it’s recorded, it will be identified and put into convincing context. And this makes for a very strong sensation of completeness. 

The tonal balance the Linn system strikes is deserving of all the adjectives, too - it’s neutral, natural, uncoloured and entirely credible. And this means that, in conjunction with the prodigious abilities where detail is concerned, the tone and texture of an instrument (as well as the timbre of a voice) is delivered in the most plausible manner imaginable.

Frequency response is equally even-handed and confident, from the tremendously deep and fanatically controlled low end to the bright, substantial and similarly well-regulated treble. No part of the frequency range is allowed to dominate, no part is in any way understated - and Linn’s decades-long obsession with time-alignment is strongly to the fore here too. The idea of singularity, of unity and togetherness, in the way the 343 Exakt Integrated presents music is almost palpable.

The dynamism of the presentation is striking too - although to be fair, there is nothing of note about the way this system performs that isn’t striking to a lesser or greater degree. There’s a seemingly limitless amount of headroom available to the Linn system, so it can put a major amount of distance between the quietest and the loudest occurrences in a recording - and it can do so instantaneously if the recording demands it, and without the slightest hint of stress or even effort. ‘Responsive’ doesn’t really begin to cover it.

The soundstage the 343 establishes is expansive, almost three-dimensional thanks to the sensation of ‘front/back’ as well as ‘left/right’, and so strictly laid out that it’s easy to individualise elements of even the most involved and complex recordings. The spaces between participants are obvious, and are kept as quiet and dark as is ideal - but despite the almost overt separation, stereo focus is unarguable and, again, the unified nature of the presentation, the sense of wholeness, is extremely strong.

Here’s where I generally offer a “yes, but…”, a demerit of some kind to let you know that I’m difficult to please and generally a very discerning individual. In all honesty, though, I’ve got nothing. When my 343 Exakt Integrated review sample first arrived, I thought I detected a hint of upper-frequency aggression, a tendency to hit the plosives with a little more zeal than might be considered optimal - but that didn’t last long. Either I was mistaken in the first place, or a few hours of activity calmed the high-frequency response a little, to the point it’s just as agreeable as the rest of the frequency range. And so I can’t really raise a note of dissent where outright sound quality is concerned. 

living with the linn exakt integrated

Each Exakt Integrated loudspeaker weighs over 51kg, so it’s probably just as well that the plinth on which the speaker stands can have its floor spikes adjusted from above. The speakers themselves are content with just the slightest hint of toe-in towards your listening position - but it seems certain that Linn (or one of its trusted partners) will adjust your system to suit the specifics of your environment as part of your purchase.

Your purchase will also buy you access to Linn’s ‘Space Optimisation+’ room correction algorithm, again operated by the company or its contractor. It’s a remarkably thorough system that creates a 3D map of your room, learns about its temperature, humidity, materials and plenty more besides - from here, not only can it suggest the ideal response from the system but it also offers some user-definable settings focused around a sliding scale with ‘flatter frequency response’ at one end and ‘shorter decay time’ at the other.

Once all of the above is taken care of, control of the system means control of the Linn DSM - and there are two options. The remote control handset that’s supplied is well laid-out, logical in operation, covers every operational eventuality, and doesn’t have a hope of having the sort of perceived value that suggests it’s in charge of a system that costs comfortably more than a brand new, fully loaded premium German saloon car. There’s also the Linn control app, which has come in in leaps and bounds since I first encountered it - it’s a clean, stable interface. And the physical controls - the glass control dial and the half-a-dozen buttons, each of which can have a favourite playlist, internet radio station or what-have-you ‘pinned’ to it - are immaculately integrated.

Linn is not kidding when it refers to the 343 as ‘the compact reference speaker’ - both of the adjectives apply. ‘Reference’ is covered in the ‘sound quality’ section, of course; ‘compact’ refers to each speaker’s tidy 1091 x 338 x 466mm (HxWxD) dimensions. The room in which I conduct all my testing is of unremarkable proportions, but the 343 Exakt Integrated in no way dominate - not physically, anyway. By the same token, I have heard these speakers in a space that’s far larger in every direction, and the speakers are more than capable of filling it with sound.

conclusion

Some well-off folk like to indulge in property, or travel, or jewellery, or art, or vintage cars… and some well-off folk like to spend their money on audio equipment. You don’t need me to tell you that £65000 (without the outlay on a DSM preamplifier) puts the Linn 343 Exakt Integrated beyond the realistic reach of the well-off - really, it’s only for the very well-off indeed. But if you’re fortunate enough to have this sort of money for an audio system, you absolutely, positively must listen, long and hard, to this set-up before you even think about spending it. 

‍listening notes

Phoebe Bridgers Motion Sickness
The absolute mastery of tone, timbre and texture the 343 demonstrate throughout this deceptively simple recording makes every element of it sound immediate and naturalistic. It also allows the Linn to show off the by-no-means easy trick of making an open and spacious sound seem unified and intimate at the same time.

Talk Talk Life’s What You Make It
In terms of rhythm and tempo, this superior slice of 80s pop music contrives to be upright and square, as well as fluid and sinuous, all at the same time. The 343 wastes no time in showing off its low-frequency authority and control - and the results are almost instinctively correct.

‍Patty Waters Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair
This traditional (Scottish?) folk ballad has undergone any number of interpretations, but none as extreme, as unsettling, or as off-brand as this 1965 recording. The thrilling powers of midrange resolution the 343 are capable of are to the fore as the vocal - as innovative and as profoundly unnerving as these things ever get - takes all the attention.

You buy the Linn 343 Exakt Integrated because you’re the proud owner of a Linn DSM (or soon will be), because you want to hear the last scintilla of information in your recordings as a part of an overall presentation that’s almost humbling in its fidelity, and because you don’t want all of this remarkable and endlessly rewarding sound quality to come from overbearing and/or oversized loudspeakers. Oh, and because you’re spectacularly wealthy with a good idea of how best to spend it.

The way the 343 Exakt Integrated is configured insists on it being paired with other Linn devices - fortunately, the company's 'DSM' range of products can easily be specified to cover most requirements. So consider something like the Selekt DSM, specc'd to operate purely as a pre-amp and a network streamer, as a reasonable jumping-off point.