 Een jaar geleden heb ik de Lindemann-Lime Tree Bridge geïnteresseerd en ik vond het leuk. Dit keer ga ik eens kijken naar de Lime Tree Network in de tweede versie geïnteresseerd. Bordelijk is het de tweede versie van de bridge, maar met integratie digitale en analoog versie. Lindemann is een German company ontwikkeld in 1993 die de technologie in een goede manier bevindt. Op een website gebruiken ze de meeste versie designtoels en meiseringen. Maar de Sonic uitgang is altijd van primair belang. Mijn ogen zijn de key measurementinstrumenten. De Lime Tree serie van producten gebruikt allemaal dezelfde compacte huizing. Bordelijk, als hij de Lindemann-Lime Tree in het Engels versie zou zijn, zou het Lime Tree Man zijn, dus de naam. Waarschijnlijk van de Lime Tree Network 2 is het een volledig fledge netwerkplayer en Roon Endpoint. Laten we kijken waar het is te worden gebruikt. De netwerk 2 is te worden connecteerd met de analoog input van een amplifier, zoals ook CD, met RCA kabels. Natuurlijk moet je een set van oudspeakers of hoofdpulver ook. De netwerkconnectie op de netwerk 2 is te worden connecteerd met je netwerk router, zodat je muziek kan streamen van sources op de internet, zoals internetradio en streaming services zoals Spotify, Tidal, Cobus en de like. Als je muziek hebt op je computer of nas, de netwerk 2 wordt connecteerd met dat over de router. En als een red remote control komt met de unit en laat je spelen, paus en skip tracks, maar selectie muziek is gedaan op een smartphone of tablet. Als een CD-ROM of DVD-ROM drive is connecteerd, kan CD's worden gesproken over de netwerk 2. Tijd om een kijkje te nemen. De compacte aluminium box is externelly voedigd door een medekeld graden meanwell switchmode power supply van de Wallward variant. De netwerk 2 maakt 120 x 120 x 40 mm en maakt 0,3 kg. Aan de vondt leeft een switch om het in- en uitstandige mode te brengen. Een LED naar rechts zorgt de status. Dan verder naar rechts een multicolore LED die de sampelegerade van de muziek speelt. Als de DSD tracks speelen, is de DSD LED verder naar rechts ligtop. Een 3,5 mm headphone jack en de infrared eye completen de toer van de front. Aan de rand zie je de 5 volt DC input, de netwerk socket, een USB 2.0 bus voor de externe storage of CD drive en de Wi-Fi antenne socket. De WPS button laat je de netwerk 2 connecten over Wi-Fi naar je netwerk waardoor je Wi-Fi access point, vaak de route, ook heeft een WPS functie. En dan zijn er de analoge links en rechts uitbeelden op RCA. Aan de rand zie je een circuitboord over de onderkant met de filtering van de 5 volt DC power. Dan een kleine motorolomlake processor die basic operation functies controleren. De reale werk is gedaan door de Stream Unlimited Stream 810 Audio streaming module. Een klaar om een streaming solution te gebruiken dat ook gebruikt is door de Lime Tree Bridge. Het is een goede en solide solution dat gebruikt van DNA-U-PNP-AV, maar ook accepteert Roon RAD-signal en heeft Bluetooth BLE 4.2. Het handelt alle netwerktraffijken en is based op de dual core IMX7 processor. Deze way audio companies kunnen focussen op wat ze best doen, audio, en leveren de netwerk tech naar de supplier. Back to the mainboard. De digis also analoge versie is gedaan hier met de ES9038 Q2M DAC chip, klokt by a MEMS Femto clock, specifiek dat 500 Femto seconds. MEMS stands for Micro-Electromechanical Systems, very tiny devices that combine mechanical and electronic functions. De ES9038 has seven filters aboard, that can be set in the Lindemann app. The volume control in the DAC chip is not used. Instead an analog volume control by JCR is used that is based on a resistor network. The output buffering is taken care of by a Texas Instrument op-amp en a two Fujitsu relays with gold over silver contacts take care of the mute functions. De headphone amp is a TI OPA1622. Sinds er are no controls on the network, apart from the standby switch and the WPS button, all controls is via the Lindemann app or from any other DLNA or UPMPAV app. When started up, it searches for DLNA renderers en when it finds the network 2, it goes to this screen. If you use more network or bridge players, they will show up and offer multi-room playback. Since I only had one network 2, I could not test that. When you select music server, it shows the music server or servers in my case, that is present in your network. Let's select the minimum server on a Synology DJ 119A 100 euro NAS dat is fitted met een 8 terabyte hard disk containing music en running the Minim Server DLNA server software. Let's go to artists en find the Académie für Alte Musik Berlin en select one of the three albums I have. Bach's Overture No. 2 & 4. As can be seen, this works all quick and clear, although that is partly due to the use of the free Minim server. The DLNA server that comes with the Synology NAS is a lot slower, but liniment can't be blamed for that, of course. Then internet radio. A arable radio gives access to all kind of internet radio. Let's see what's recommended. Local stations indeed leads to just that. Tidal, Deezer, Cobuse, HiRes, Oreo en Spotify are the streaming services that are supported. Let's open Tidal and search for the Beatles. This is not the quickest way to play Tidal tracks, despite the 350 megabit per second internet connection I have. Not really a problem since the Tidal app can send the audio to the network 2, as can be seen here. Then a short peek at the settings. Here the wifi settings can be set. This obviously only works when there is already a network connection over a temporary network cable. Then the language settings, that are limited to German and English. Device settings lets you choose from 7 reconstruction filters listed in the manual. The other options are self-explanatory. I tested the network 2 in my reference setup 2 where the amplifier is the Marantz KI Pearl Lite, a great class A B amplifier, tweak better legendary Kenichi water. It drives the acoustic energy radiance 1 loudspeakers, connected over Kimber 4p air loudspeaker cable. They are supported by the RLT-5 subwoofer that is connected to the loudspeaker terminals on the Marantz, using the cable that came with the sub. The network switch is the Optron Audio Ether region with the Optron Audio Ultra Caps 1.2 power supply. The equipment is housed in the target rack and my iPad Pro was used for the Lindemann and Roon app. Tidal was streamed for my iMac 27 inch. Network 2 puts down an impressive sound field that is carried by a powerful well-controlled and deep lows. A clean and open but not clinical mid-range and a refined highs that is almost fully clear of sibilance problems that often spoils the sound of digital players in this price range. The 7 reconstruction filters bring clear but subtle differences in sound quality, especially voices, the piano right hand and brass that you hear the differences, provided your ampers speakers are up to it. I like the minimum phase slow rolloff filter best. In particular, the stereo image sounded very promising, so I connected to Network 2 to my reference setup 1.2. The base of my reference setup 1 uses the Aeroacoustics AX520 amplifier that drives the PMC FAC12 signature loudspeakers over AudioQuest Robinhood 0 loudspeaker cable. The Network 2 was connected to the amp over Crystal Cable RCA interlinks. When Rune was used, it was the server part of the Grim Audio Mew1, which is functionally the same as an Intel Nokia i3. So the audio files are not passed through the FPGA scaler and reclocker board of the Grim. The connection to the SOTM S&H 10G network switch was over the Network Acoustics Mewen streaming system dat comprises van de Mewen Ethernet filter en de Mewen streaming Ethernet cable. All totally over the top, I agree. Both the switch and the Ethernet filter cost each as much as the Network 2. Here the stereo image is deep and wide, with the instruments placed free from the background and certainly free from the loudspeakers. Siebelens reproduction was even cleaner now. Compared to the Auralic RSG2 and the Mitake Brooklyn with Ferman Hipser's power supply, dat used to be placed here, resolution is of course lower, forces are less clean and so on. When the Mitake was fed from the Grim Audio Mew1 AES EBU output, the difference was even bigger. But having said that, I had no problems listening to the Network 2 for hours, something some other digital players in this price range don't manage. Don't be fooled by its appearance. It might be a small device physically, its sound qualities are impressive for its price. I've also listened using the AES boost of 5V power supply and that gave some improvement in sound quality. But already using the power supply that came with it gave a very satisfactory sound quality. Priced around €1000, it is worth every cent and more. It finds its place in my reference setup somewhere close to the top of setup 2A. See the show notes for a full description of my setups. And that brings us to the end of this video. As usual, there will be a new video next Friday at 5pm central European time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or a link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. Especially in this time when views are up while ad money is down. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.