ThumperComet
New member
Linn pushed Davaar 118 out and it adds native Amazon Music and Presto Music to DSM players on the newer ARM-Linux platform, starting from the Selekt DSM generation. Both show up inside the Linn app, so there is no AirPlay leg, no Bluetooth hop, no second streamer parked in the chain. Amazon covers CD quality and hi-res up to 24-bit/192kHz depending on tier and recording, and works with Free, Prime and Unlimited accounts.
Presto is the more interesting half. Classical and jazz focused, digital booklets, and search that understands composers, works, conductors and ensembles instead of treating three recordings of the same symphony as though someone uploaded one album three times. Linn is throwing in a three-month trial. Naim and Focal added Presto recently as well, so that is three high-end names in short order deciding a classical-first catalogue is worth native integration rather than another app on your phone.
Then the catch, which is where these threads always end up. The older PowerPC-based DS and DSM boxes do not get it, and Linn is putting that on processing and memory rather than licensing. They are not bricked either. You can Songcast from a compatible newer DSM into an older one, though buy a newer product and then feed the old one from it is a strange thing to call a path forward. The coverage is pointing those owners at cheap outboard streamers instead.
Counterpoint though: Linn owners have had well over a decade of free firmware on hardware they bought once. Name a TV or AV brand in this forum that manages anything past year three. A hardware wall after that long is not the same thing as being abandoned.
So where is the line for you - a decade of updates then a hard stop, or should a five-figure box get a board swap offered?
Presto is the more interesting half. Classical and jazz focused, digital booklets, and search that understands composers, works, conductors and ensembles instead of treating three recordings of the same symphony as though someone uploaded one album three times. Linn is throwing in a three-month trial. Naim and Focal added Presto recently as well, so that is three high-end names in short order deciding a classical-first catalogue is worth native integration rather than another app on your phone.
Then the catch, which is where these threads always end up. The older PowerPC-based DS and DSM boxes do not get it, and Linn is putting that on processing and memory rather than licensing. They are not bricked either. You can Songcast from a compatible newer DSM into an older one, though buy a newer product and then feed the old one from it is a strange thing to call a path forward. The coverage is pointing those owners at cheap outboard streamers instead.
Counterpoint though: Linn owners have had well over a decade of free firmware on hardware they bought once. Name a TV or AV brand in this forum that manages anything past year three. A hardware wall after that long is not the same thing as being abandoned.
So where is the line for you - a decade of updates then a hard stop, or should a five-figure box get a board swap offered?