RE: Linn Classik / KAT5

[Keith Doxey]

Hi Tony,

The work done on interfacing a KAT5 unit to Linn was undertaken soley by
Nick at his risk. What he has done works for him and does not appear to
cause any problems.

Having said that I sould point out that it was NEVER my intention to
connect
to LINN or any other proprietry Multiroom system. My intention is to offer
some of the features provided such systems for an affordable price.

I do not intend to put any work into interfacing with LINN or any other
such
system for the following reasons....

1. The company concerned would most likely get VERY upset and they have the
money and muscle to make life very difficult for me :-(

2. I dont have the time for such development even if I wanted to do it.

3. It would be impossible to inteface to such a system without actually
owning one. If I could afford such systems then KAT5 would probably not
have
been born!!!

4. There would be a very limited market for such development.

WIRING.

Linn use a non standard pin assigment for the CAT5 wiring which IMHO is a
BIG mistake, it goes TOTALLY against the whole concept of structured
wiring.
Whilst the guy you refer to has Linn working over standard CAT5, this only
proves as testament to the robustness of balanced communication as it is
still rejecting interference despite being run on split pairs. The
preferred
way to do it would be to make custom CAT5 patch cords as per Nick's
instructions. Even better would have been for Linn to use a standard
pinout.

IR

The KAT5 IR upgrade will be a bidirectional control path as I need the
switcher to send signals to the receivers to control the SCART and on
higher
end models provide a visual indication of the selected source. This means I
should also be able to send IR in either direction as well. Having said
that
I dont think the Sony would work. I believe they used different carrier
frequencies in each direction otherwise it would interfere with itself.
Again it might be possible to make this work but I can only develop for
equipment that I possess or can simulate. The first ever KAT5 units
delivered were Phil Harris's 4 channel Video set that he wanted to use for
Component Video. They were fully tested using normal video signals but I
was
unable to test using component video as I dont possess any kit with
Component outputs or inputs.

DISCLAIMER

One a set of KAT5 units have been delivered there is nothing I can do to
stop people experimenting with them as they are their property, however,
any
problems with quality of image or any damage sustained either by KAT5 or
the
equipment to which it is connected, is totally down to the user and will
void the warranty.


Hope that clarifies my position and answers your questions

Keith


-----Original Message-----
From: tefxp [mailto:<a
href="/group/kat5-users/post?postID=DmDZhp2hH06wpsWQNUMds7Lge5vTNP5J0xiH5VSq1QqXqGmOwzA1wXHf4IYS83-p7HBOTxaPS6mAQRM">tony.butler@r...</a>]
Sent: 07 January 2002 13:15
To: <a
href="/group/kat5-users/post?postID=e95ChKEgmzD2Uek7KPLGBZ2sDL8ClC9OPLb_fADU6mWUaaz65zIIN0OeGQ_XuycKXc8CAeqTkLPS9KtjSaV5t7ShZKkl">kat5-users@xxxxxxx</a>
Subject: Re: [KAT5] Linn Classik / KAT5


Hi Nick/Mark/Guys 'n Gals generally,

Am new to this list (am awaiting delivery of Kat 5 as we speak), but
am very interested in Linn-KAT5 connectivity.
I'm the opposite of you Nick, in that I have a Linn multiroom system,
but with none of the sources being Linn!

The main bugbears I have are:
- No video distribution with Knekt
- No two way communications unless to other Linn kit
- very very expensive to add new rooms!!!!

The video dist at the moment is 'handled' (badly) via RF on the basis
that the quality degradation isn't a big issue when watching on the
bedroom portable, but it would be nice to have decent quality.....

The 2 way comms is a bugger for my Sony CD jukebox which sends info
back and forth to the remote (easier to use this than to select disk
198 with the Linn RCU!), but also with nin linn stuff, How do I know
which radio station I have selected for example?

The expense thing is terrible too - about 1500 per room, enough that
I was considering just buying standalone stereos for any addition
rooms I want to add in the future (have 3 separate zones + patio
linked to dining room @ the moment).

I have found Linn very unhelpful in getting technical info out of
them - presumably they are trying to protect their interests.

In theory, it should be possible to hook a PC up to the system to act
as a source so that you could have an MP3 server &amp; digital radio
even
(psion wave finder) that can tell the RCU's what track/station is
playing - should be a bit cheaper than the 12k or so Linn want for
their sound server jobbie......

It would be great if Kat5 could interface to RCU's for controlling
purposes (replacing the Line Receiver at about £400 a shot!) and/or
to the distribution system masquerading as a Linn source....

Of course, when the KAT-5 distribution unit is complete, no need for
the linn direktor to distribute!!
Although, you will need some handy way to control the Kat-5 dist
unit, so perhaps keith is considering (hint hint!) that it could
interface to Linn RCU's. You could then have a cheap-ish system
based around Kat-5 modeules &amp; dist unit, with Linn RCU's in each
room
for control purposes - the RCU's are, after all, a relative snip @
399 :-) At least you wouldn't need the direkor + linn line amps for
each room!


If you get any info from linn about wiring etc, please share with the
group! It might be useful. I can't even get them to send me the
latest knekt software:( They will only send it to dealers, but I
fell out with my local dealer due to their incompetence &amp; nobody
else
locally does knekt, so I'm stuffed for reconfiguring my kit
unless/until I decide to add another knekt room :[

On the wiring front, for a while I was in touch (online) with a guy
who had knekt _everywhere_ - in the pool too, so serious money thrown
at it! His house was flood wired for Cat-5 and he just used standard
wiring everywhere on the basis that an RCU doesn't know if a wire is
red or green, so why not just follow the standard CAT-5 wiring system?
It worked for him - no loss of sound quality (guy pays 8 grand a
speaker so quality is everything!) and the convenience that a socket
is only a Linn socket by virtue of the fact that it is patched that
way @ Node 0, not that it is specifically wired as such.....

I wan't aware the classik interfaced to knekt - that being the case,
could be a cheap way to knekt up another room! Do you know if it can
behave as an RCU, or just a source into the line receiver?

thanks &amp; sorry if this is boring to the non knekt users!

Tony.