Linn Kisto
System Controller

Linn Kisto System Controller

Linn Kisto

Linn picks fanciful names for its products, almost all of which incorporate the letter k: Klimax, Sondek, Akurate, Ittok, Kinos, Komri, etc. To hang a Linn speaker on the wall, you use a Brakit. To integrate multiroom/multisource systems, Linn offers the Knekt.

Like the names IKEA uses for their products, Linn's are either clever plays on words or mere whimsy. However, Kisto was chosen as a tribute to one of Linn's longtime American employees, Steve D'Acquisto, who passed away a few years ago way too young. Steve once brought Linn's $20,000 CD12 CD player over for me to hear, but I can't say I knew him well. Still, there's something eerie about reviewing a product named in honor of someone you've met who's since passed on. You hope the product is worthy.

The Kisto ($12,995) is an audacious device that Linn insists on calling not merely a preamplifier-processor but a "system controller." In their attempt to present a complicated operating system with sophisticated options in a simple manner, the Linn designers were inspired by the software-driven AV-5103 (which I reviewed in the February 1999 Stereophile Guide to Home Theater). So advanced is the Kisto, it might as well have arrived from outer space for what five or six years of AV evolution demand of such a product. So much is required of a contemporary pre-pro that keeping it simple, if only on the surface, seems almost impossible.

The Linn engineers developed the software, which is easily upgraded. They also designed all of the internal circuitry, which is compactly laid out on 11 circuit boards in a modular, three-tier design and features more than 6000 individual components. Compared to the scale and weight of most state-of-the-art pre-pros, the Kisto is miraculously small and lightweight. But don't let its size, its 16.5 pounds, or its external simplicity fool you: the Kisto is packed with features, while aiming for both top-shelf AV performance and the utmost in custom-installation flexibility.

Mission Control

Though it's not much bigger than Linn's AV-5103, which had but two S-video inputs, the Kisto obliterates any notion you might have had of Linn being stingy with inputs and outputs: there are 12 composite (which can be configured as 4 component), six S-video, and one BNC-equipped RGBHV inputs as well as two SCART connectors for European use. (SCART, a combined audio/video connection standard left over Europe's distant past, is reviled by engineers and consumers alike. Unfortunately, the standard must be addressed in the European market, and it takes up a lot of valuable rear-panel real estate. Be thankful we're not stuck with it in the US.) Linn saves rear-panel space by allowing the 12 composite-video inputs to be reconfigured as up to four component-video ones, and the 10 pairs of analog audio inputs can be configured as stereo pairs or groups of 5.1 channels.

In addition, there are six optical and six coaxial digital audio inputs, for a total of 12 configurable digital inputs, and 10 pairs of configurable analog RCA inputs as well as a balanced XLR pair. There's also a Knekt interface. Behind the front panel are an additional TosLink digital input, an analog RCA stereo pair, and S-video and composite video inputs.

Analog video outputs include three composite, one component, one BNC-equipped component with H/V sync breakout, one S-video for monitoring, and a duplicate set of all for recording. Rear-panel digital outs include two TosLink and two coaxial. The front panel includes an additional TosLink output and a headphone jack. Both XLR balanced and RCA unbalanced 7.1-channel outputs are provided, along with two pairs of stereo Record Out jacks, one pair of which can be configured as subwoofer outs for use in systems with multiple subwoofers.

To meet the needs of custom installations, there are also a host of rear-panel interfaces, including an Ethernet port, RS-232 port, etc., as well as a front-panel computer-keyboard jack. The Kisto is compatible with Crestron control systems, can be used in multizone applications, and has four independent 12V triggers.

Despite the considerable connectivity, the rear panel's layout is exceptionally clean, spacious, and particularly well laid out. The front panel is surprisingly spare: there's a large, easy-to-read rectangular display, and behind the lift-up door are the aforementioned front-panel inputs and outputs, along with a large circular navigation multibutton and 10 peripheral buttons that repeat the remote control's functionality. This minimalist array is capable of performing all of the functions many other products require ranks of buttons and knobs to accomplish.

Processing Potential

The Kisto decodes Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround EX, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS, DTS ES, DTS 96/24, MPEG-2, AAC (MPEG-4), and PCM, and includes Dolby Headphone as well as Linn's Limbik Party mode, the last designed to send sound to all speakers from a 2-channel source. The Kisto is not THX-certified, so it doesn't include THX processing and the accompanying bells and whistles.

Compared to some other pre-pros, its flexibility is limited-but not in areas of concern to most end users. For instance, the Kisto won't upconvert video, and it doesn't include any kind of sophisticated graphic equalization or microphone-driven auto-calibration, but it does offer lip-sync delay and 5.1-channel analog passthrough, as well as up to 24-bit/96kHz record-out capabilities.

Setup and Use

The Kisto's instruction manual is minimalist, which is fine-when you buy a Kisto, you'll never walk alone. Linn's dealers are all factory-trained, and will set up and install your unit as part of the price. I watched Linn's public relations manager, Brian Morris, set up mine using Linn's woefully inadequate, unbacklit remote control, which features row after row of tiny buttons that are difficult to read even in a moderately lit room. But most users will likely end up with a touchscreen controller from likes of Crestron. If you're thinking of using the Kisto as a standalone unit, you can make peace with Linn's universal remote or replace it with the universal remote of your choice.

There are two setup menus: one for installers, and a simpler one with options more likely to be used by consumers to add new sources or reconfigure old ones. Within the installer menu system are the options of setting up to four user profiles, which can be used to customize inputs and source configurations for different members of the family, or in the unlikely case that the Kisto will be used in more than one location. The installer menu is also where you set speaker configuration, distance, and bass-management functions. These are straightforward and basic, with few of the mind-numbing options offered on some enthusiast pre-pros, such as separate graphic equalization for each channel. In fact, true to its high-end audio heritage, the Kisto offers no tone controls whatsoever.

The setup menu is reasonably straightforward, using the usual scroll, highlight, and select functions that let you assign digital and video inputs to particular sources, which you can give custom labels. The menu is available onscreen (even from the component output) and on the Kisto's display panel. One handy feature lets you temporarily split a source if you want to, say, watch a football game while listening to a CD.

The remote control offers four input buttons-CD, Aux, Tuner, and DVD-but of course the Kisto includes many more input choices, and it doesn't have a built-in tuner. If you use other sources, you select which ones to associate with each of the four source-select buttons; when you push one of the buttons, a scroll menu lets you easily select one of the associated sources.

Once the system is configured, it's easier to use than most; it left me wondering why so many other pre-pros are so damn complex. If you add one of Linn's Unidisk universal players, a short length of supplied flat cable allows the player to be slaved to the Kisto, which increases the ease of use.

The surround mode is preconfigured for each source during setup. You can change from Dolby Digital to DTS by pushing the Audio Adj remote button and scrolling through the options, and from 7.1 to mono by pushing Surr.

But, like most high-end audio products, the Kisto is more about high-quality sonic (and visual) performance than giving you godlike control over 101 operating parameters. Once the system was configured, Brian Morris and I found it wouldn't pass a high-definition video signal, which was surprising and disappointing. A call to the factory led us to an obscure menu setting (called Hidef pass through) that allowed it. Linn reports that since this occurred some high definition has become available in the UK.

Stop! Look! Listen!

Using the Kisto-Unidisk combo couldn't have been easier, though at first, being accustomed to façades full of lights and buttons, I couldn't imagine how I would retain control of my home theater with so few. But I did, thanks to Linn's software design, which keeps the system flexible yet simple and direct. If you do run into operational problems, you push the remote's Help button to call up a comprehensive onscreen tutorial similar to those that accompany computer programs such as Microsoft Word.

I ran into a few serious problems shortly into the review. Occasionally, the Kisto locked up like a computer crash; only shutting it down, then unplugging and restarting it got the system operating normally again. Worse, on occasion the left, right, or center channel would drop out; only a reboot would return it to normal. A number of software updates had been released since the delivery of my review sample, so it was decided that sending the unit back would be the best course of action; in the field, a dealer would upgrade the Kisto using a CD-ROM or PC.

The returned unit never froze or malfunctioned in any way but one: While I watched satellite and surfed channels, Dolby Digital often lost sync and the sound dropped out until the Kisto was shut down and rebooted. This is not acceptable performance.

Because broadcast and satellite DD sound is not common in the UK, the developers never had an opportunity to run the Kisto fed by a constantly changing Dolby Digital signal, as a US end user would be likely to do. Linn was able to duplicate the problem in their R&D facilities and claims that a software revision has solved the problem, but I wasn't able to confirm this personally. But the Kisto is a software-driven product; upgrades are relatively easy to implement.

After spending a few months with the Kisto, I sheepishly admit to finally learning why people are willing to spend big bucks on a preamp-processor. I really learned it when the Kisto went back for upgrading and I used my reference Integra DTR 9.1 receiver as a pre-pro. The Integra is a nice receiver, and I thought its video switching was sufficiently transparent that it wouldn't degrade DVD or HD signals-but compared to the Kisto, it did. When the Kisto was first installed, I immediately noticed an increase in picture clarity, focus, transparency, and apparent brightness. It was as if a thin scrim had been removed from the screen. Edges were rendered more cleanly and naturally than I was used to seeing through the Integra's video-switching facilities. The picture seemed "faster"-the video equivalent of a speaker with quicker transient response. Whether this was due to less noise or to something else, the picture seemed more solid and stable.

When the Kisto was originally installed, along with it came a complete Linn Akurate 5.1-channel speaker system (to be reviewed soon) and two Linn 5125 power amplifiers. While this system had a particular sound, it was difficult to determine the Kisto's contribution-until I removed it and sent it back for the update.

The Integra DTR 9.1's preamp and decoding circuitry revealed just how fast, clean, and tight the Kisto's sonic performance was, and how much it contributed to my home theater system's overall sound. I ran through a series of surround-sound music discs with the Kisto in place, including DTS's superb-sounding Toy Matinee and the demo-quality AIX DVD-Audio of Cheryl Bentyne's Among Friends. The musical presentation had a remarkable effervescence and rhythmic integrity, everything just "popping" with an addictive top-to-bottom coherence and buoyancy. It was a "tight" sound, but it wasn't mechanical on bottom or etched on top.

When I then played the same selections through the Integra, it was easy to hear how accomplished the Kisto had been as a passthrough preamp. Transparency diminished, leading edges of transients were softened, bass notes seemed to slow down and move somewhat against, not with, the rest of the music, and a subtle thickness enveloped everything. Dynamics seemed limited. The rhythmic thrust of the music literally lost its purpose.

Whether because of the Kisto's preamp section or the quality of its decoding (Linn doesn't specify the chipsets used), the same differences were easily noted when comparing specific movie scenes, most noticeably with dialog, where the fullness and coherence of voices gave them far greater 3-dimensionality and believability and less of a mechanical, reproduced quality.

James Horner's orchestral score for Glory, recorded by Shawn Murphy, is among the finest-sounding contemporary soundtracks. (Murphy also recorded John Barry's music for Dances With Wolves.) Through the Kisto, "A Call to Arms" sounded better than I've ever heard it from DVD. This track is a complex mix of deep bass, snares, a boy's choir, strings, tubular bells, and brass. To my ears it's always sounded best on vinyl, but the Kisto managed to deliver a coherent, explosive musical picture from the DVD, layering the various elements cleanly, especially during the complex crescendo, where all hell breaks loose and overloads the analog recording tape. If you could hear that piece of music through the Kisto and then through a lesser pre-pro, you'd immediately understand the Kisto's musical strengths.

As for the Kisto's 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS decoding performance, I can't say the aural bubble it produced was noticeably more 3-dimensional than what I'm used to, but it was definitely a better-sounding bubble!

Conclusions

Though designed to be ultraflexible and compatible with the needs of custom installers, Linn's Kisto is more an audiophile product than a typical home theater component. For the videophile with a dedicated home theater room, the Kisto is a simple, elegant, easy-to-use product that does away with all of the unnecessary clutter of knobs, switches, buttons, and lights typical of so much HT hardware. It's the kind of product an audiophile wishing to get into home theater or surround sound will be comfortable with, while offering to the experienced home-theater enthusiast first-class performance and the most important features in a surprisingly compact, simple package.

The Kisto is more about maximizing overall picture and sound quality, less about obsessing over the less critical minutiae of cinema and surround sound. If you need graphic equalization of every channel, video upconversion, THX processing, and other features at the periphery of what makes home theater and surround sound exciting and compelling experiences, there are many products that will do that-loading you up with an array of adjustments you could spend a lifetime playing with, as, no doubt, many people do.

But Linn's goal was to provide the best picture and sound quality by simplifying signal paths as much as possible while providing enough functionality, flexibility, and adjustability to satisfy, without compromising the requirements of any conceivable system. The Kisto may come as a shock when you see and touch it, especially if you're used to button-packed heavyweights, but don't be fooled. Just below the surface of what appears to be a simple, lightweight box is a sophisticated system controller-processor that sets a high standard for sonic and visual excellence. It also costs $12,995, which is more than I can afford-but now I know what to shoot for.