To me, this product seems nothing less than the Platonic ideal for CD players. My CDs, when played on it, become the Platonically ideal versions of themselves. Amazingly, some recordings which I believed to be sub-standard turn out to be the best of all (especially my EMI pressing of Mahler 2/Rattle/CBSO) and I now realise that it was my previous equipment that was grossly sub-standard. In purchasing, I compared this player with the Roksan Caspian and a player from Micromega (Premium 20?). The Micromega was a decent player with no obvious faults, but not enthralling either. The Caspian is highly regarded at its price, but it soon became apparent that it had been 'engineered' to provide a sound with 'audiophile appeal' - warm and thick in the middle with tizzy detail and solid bass etc. which to me seemed totally ersatz. The Genki, on the other hand, delivers a totally natural, transparent and uncontrived sound. I continue to be amazed by it. Everything I feed it sounds better than I had imagined it would - even with my now greatly raised expectations. Everything comes out sounding more musical - what were previously weighty thumps & wallops in full orchestral passages of high intensity now have clearly defined shape and pitch, and the constituent instruments are clearly identifiable (timpani and contrabassoon, for example). Single melody lines resolve into subtle harmonies. Six piece bands become seven piece bands. Explosions of sound don't hit you, but instead burst over and around you with drenching clarity. And after you finish being amazed by all this, you don't immediately reach for the next CD, because you just want to keep on listening - even to the 'boring' or 'bad' stuff.
Outstanding.

Resolution: at least as good as the Arcam 9 and more than the Naim 3.5.

Hot Treble???
Good musicality but not as good as I would like.

System:
Linn Majik
Linn Keilidh
Linn Bi-wire cables

I had at one time the Arcam 9, Naim, and Genki in my amp/speaker system at one time in my home. My house has lots of hard tile and windows. There really are no blank walls.

The competition came down between the Naim and the Genki. The Arcam was eliminated on "foot-tapping" music. Great resolution, maybe better than the Genki, but what I heard was distinct sounds/noises but no coherence. Led Zeppelin cds sounded much better but muted/"dark" (all Led cd's have a hiss (background noise) and the Arcam eliminated this).

The Naim and Genki are very close but, between my wife and myself, the Genki sounded better a little more frequently. I could discern no difference between the players. This tells me that my living room is the limitation of my system because I believe a difference should be discernable.

Madonna's "Ray of Light", and other great songs (non-Madonna) can have a hot treble but other songs are awsome. I put my Keidlidh's on spikes an bass is much better. I live for the day I can upgrade to a LK-140.

The Genki is a good player. Compared to the Arcam and Naim in MY SYSTEM, in MY HOME and in MY ENVIRONMENT, it is the best that I listened to and was willing to pay for (the NAD silver series did not get out of the store).

I am positive it is not the best, but I am unwilling and unable to pay for the best.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha CDC-675 - This is not a fair comparison. The Yammy has a 5-disc turntable and is not near as resolute. In fact not even close. That said, it is still a good player.

Soundstage, build quality, features

The cd tray appears to be very flimsy on first observation. After using it for a while, I realize that it is better than I first thought.

Yes, the Ikemi has a better sound, but it is over twice the price of the Genki! When I got the Genki home and first listened to it, I was concerned about the sound. It wasn't what I remembered hearing when auditioning CD players. However, after 48 hours of CONSTANT playing, the sound came forth! If you get this unit, let it break in for a couple of days before judging it and don't panic like I did! It improved even more after the first week. The sound can be described as very open with a deep soundstage. I would also say that it is very neutral - not overly bright and no boomy bass. The sound has a presentation of dynamics that I am very impresed with. Its smoothe sound is almost hauntingly good on classical recordings. My wife has said, "I didn't know I was missing so much of the music until I heard this machine". It's as if I don't have to concentrate so much on the "sweet spot" to hear all the music. It seems to project the sound out into the room more than some other players.
I decided to bypass my preamp and go directly to the amp from the Genki just to see if I could hear any difference. The Genki has a volume and balance control built into it. WOW! Another level of sonic enjoyment! If you want to connect a powered subwoofer to the Genki and go directly to the amp - no problem. LINN has provided two pair of RCA outputs. One pair is 2V fixed and the other pair is adjustable from 0V to 2V output.
I must say that I am most happy with this CD Player. I know that one can obtain better but it will cost more - possibly MUCH more for similar performance.
The equipment used is as follows:
Audio Research 100.2 Amp
Adcom GFP-750 Preamp
NAD 523 CD Player
Silver Audio Hyacinth interconnects
Kimber 4TC speaker wire

Similar Products Used:

Rega Planet, Rega Planet 2000, NAD 523, NAD Silver series, Arcam Alpha 9, LINN Ikemi

Surprisingly subtle: The Genki sneaks up on you, subtly seduces you and compels you to revel in the experience of listening. It's free of the brittleness and of the harshness sometimes associated with digital audio: While not quite "warm," its sound is inescapably natural. The Genki is also a very neutral player, especially in the upper frequencies, and its soundstage is both deep *and* wide. Finally, and despite its rather inauspicious appearance, the Genki is a rugged little player, and is more than capable of taking a knock or two.

Transport and, specifically, tray. The Genki's CD tray is probably the cheapest such device I've seen on any mid- to high-end CD player, and looks fragile to the point of delicacy. The Genki's transport itself is very noisy, is far from graceful (almost shuddering to a stop when ejected), and simply doesn't seem up to par for an upper-tier player. That said, the Genki is pretty much shock proof: A rap to its top or to its side is not sufficient to cause the player to mistrack or otherwise stop playing. OTHER WEAKNESSES: The Genki's variable output seems to be altogether superflous, as its output stages simply don't seem potent enough to adequately drive most power amplifiers.

I wasn't too thrilled with the Linn when I first purchased it. I was put off by its shoddy transport, by its light weight and by its inauspicious aesthetic. I also made the mistake of trying to drive my Aragon 8008BB (and highly inefficient Infinity Renaissance 90s) directly by virtue of one of its *two* variable outputs.

The Genki's sound -- and, consequently, its charm -- are each very subtle, and either is liable to sneak up on you before you know quite what's happening. I found myself not liking the Genki's sound initially, even after I patched it through my pre-amplifier (I've got three pre-amps -- one of which is currently being repaired -- but auditioned it through my Counterpoint SA-1000 hybrid).

After a few hours of letting it play softly in the background, I came back for a second session, so to speak. I was wowed, to put it mildly.

The Genki's sound is without brittleness, without stridence, without graininess; in short, the Genki's sound is without any of the much belabored artifacts of digital audio or of so-called "digititis." I won't call its sound warm, but I will call it neutral: It had a solid, but by no means overwhelming bottom-end, and its top-end seemed as neutral as I've ever heard in a 20- or 24-bit player. I've read reviews here in which other Genki owners have suggested that its soundstage is somewhat compressed, or simply isn't deep enough. I'll have to disagree on this account. Imaged through the planar tweeters and planar midranges of my Infinity Renaissance 90s, the Genki's soundstage was deceptively deep and noggin'-scratchin'-wide ("Is it really that wide," you'll say, scratching your head. "It can't be quite *that* wide!").

The Genki isn't quite a 4-star player, just as it's obviously not a 5-star player. Its bass may be a bit *too* lean (it's not punchy enough in places); its variable outputs are not only redundant (there's two of them, after all), but redundantly *useless*; and its operation (damn that noisy, flimsy tray!) leaves several things to be desired. Its sound is compelling, subtle and downright beautiful, but it's also not quite as good as is that of many players retailing for several times more than its $1,700 fetching price.

For the purposes of this review, however, I'm going to give the Genki 5 stars, if only to lift it's cummulative rating a bit higher (I'd give it a 4.5 rating, were such a mark selectable). Anything close to a 4 simply doesn't do this player justice.

Associated Equipment:

Aragon 8008BB dual-mono power amplifier
Infinity Renaissance 90 loudspeakers (w/high-gloss black lacquer finish)
Counterpoint SA-1000 pre-amplifier
Linn Genki CDP
Sony SCD-777ES SACD player
Goertz Alpha-Core MI3 Divinity speaker cables (bi-wired)
Linn RCA interconnects
AudioQuest Ruby RCA interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 9, Adcom GCD-750, Sony SCD-777ES, YBA CD-3, Resolution Audio CD-55

Natural,unforced delivery

Flimsy drawer,supplied interconnects

I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with the sound of this CD player when I first fired it up at home. However, I didn't panic and allowed it to run in over a couple of days. It's sound definately became more open and dynamic but still not to the extent I had expected. Then, I decided to experiment with interconnects. I substituted the supplied Linn interconnect with an old Ixos 103 lead. This brought about improvements in detail, bass depth and imagery but it still sounded overbright.I then tried an Ecosse Reference CA1 purchased for £50. WOW!!! This really got things rockin'. The soundstage grew bigger,instruments sounded lifelike and the bass was just awesome. It's unbelievable just how much improvement can be made just by changing leads. For all of you out there who have bought a Genki and are still using the supplied leads, do yourself a favour, you'll be surprised!

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 5+