Linn Space Optimisation Setup: What You Need to Know
A good Space Optimisation result depends on the information supplied to it. Accurate room dimensions, construction, speaker locations and listening position all matter. This guide explains what should be established before an optimisation is calculated and when an existing setup deserves another look.
A successful Linn Space Optimisation setup begins before the software calculates anything. The quality of the room model depends on the information you provide about the room, loudspeakers and listening position, so accurate measurements matter.
This is the practical side of Space Optimisation.
The technology itself models how compatible loudspeakers interact with the room and applies digital processing to address problematic low-frequency behaviour. But if the software is told that a wall, speaker or listening position is somewhere it is not, it is modelling a different room from the one in which you are actually listening.
Good setup therefore involves two parts: getting the physical system right first, then describing that system accurately enough for Space Optimisation to do its job.
If you are starting with a new Linn system, this is something Rococo can incorporate into professional Linn installation and setup rather than treating optimisation as an isolated software task.
Linn Space Optimisation setup: what information do you need?
Linn’s current Space Optimisation documentation identifies several important inputs.
These include:
- room dimensions
- room shape
- ceiling height and relevant ceiling features
- construction materials
- doors and windows
- loudspeaker model
- speaker locations
- speaker orientation
- listening position
- subwoofer information where applicable.
Linn explicitly recommends measuring the room accurately and correctly identifying its construction before calculating the optimisation. Its current documentation also supports non-rectangular spaces and more complex room features rather than assuming every listening room is a simple box.
That means preparation is worthwhile.
Start with the physical speaker position
Before opening the optimisation settings, establish where the speakers are actually going to live.
This sounds obvious, but there is little point carefully modelling a speaker position that changes the following weekend.
Speaker placement should first be approached as a physical setup exercise.
Consider:
- distance from the front wall
- distance from side boundaries
- distance between the speakers
- toe-in or rotation
- stability and levelling
- relationship to the main listening position
- practical restrictions from furniture, doors or walkways.
The aim is not necessarily to put the loudspeakers in a theoretically perfect location at the expense of the room becoming unusable.
It is to establish the best sensible position for the real room before asking software to account for the compromises that remain.
Ideal position and practical position are not the same thing
This is an important part of Linn’s approach.
Space Optimisation has historically distinguished between an acoustically preferred speaker position and the practical position where the speaker actually needs to sit.
That is useful because real homes contain televisions, sofas, fireplaces, children, doors and people who may have surprisingly firm opinions about two loudspeakers sitting halfway across the living room.
The concept is not to ignore physical positioning.
It is to establish where the speaker would ideally work, then accurately describe where it actually sits when practical constraints require a compromise.
Linn’s setup documentation places particular emphasis on correctly identifying speaker locations rather than simply allowing the optimisation to guess.
Measure the room properly
The next step in a Linn Space Optimisation setup is building the room model.
For a straightforward rectangular room, this means accurately establishing its dimensions.
For a more complicated space, the model may also need to account for:
- angled walls
- open sections
- alcoves
- changes in ceiling height
- doors
- windows
- different surface constructions.
The current Linn Account version of Space Optimisation supports non-rectangular room plans, variable-height ceilings and additional room features.
This is a substantial improvement over older versions that assumed a broadly rectangular room.
It also means that simply entering a rough width and length is no longer necessarily enough for a difficult space.
How accurate do the measurements need to be?
As accurate as is reasonably practical.
You do not need to turn the living room into a surveying project, but measurements should be genuine rather than guesses.
Linn’s own guide repeatedly stresses accurate measurement of room dimensions, features, speaker positions and environmental information.
A laser distance meter can be useful for larger rooms, although a conventional tape measure is perfectly adequate where it can be used reliably.
Be consistent about where measurements are being taken from.
Speaker measurements, in particular, may use a defined reference point associated with the loudspeaker model rather than simply the nearest edge of the cabinet.
Enter the correct loudspeaker model
Space Optimisation is not working with the room alone.
It also incorporates information about the loudspeaker.
For speakers that Linn has characterised for the system, the optimisation can contain information about aspects such as drive-unit and port positions.
Linn’s current interface can even display drive-unit and port positions for measured speakers to help confirm the correct placement reference.
This is why selecting a vaguely similar loudspeaker is not a good substitute for the correct model.
If your speaker is not specifically measured within Linn’s system, the setup process may require additional information about the low-frequency drive-unit position.
The listening position needs measuring too
Space Optimisation also needs to know where you listen.
Linn’s current guide states that the listening location should correspond approximately to the centre of your head during normal listening.
This sounds wonderfully precise until you remember that human beings occasionally move.
The practical goal is to define the principal listening position accurately enough to represent normal use.
If you have a dedicated listening chair, this is straightforward.
If the system lives in a family room with a large sofa, it may make more sense to choose the normal central or primary listening location rather than pretending there is one sacred spot from which nobody is permitted to move.
Speaker rotation and toe-in should match reality
Distance from the walls is only part of speaker placement.
If the loudspeakers are angled towards the listener, that orientation should also be reflected in the model where supported.
Linn’s current Space Optimisation interface allows speaker rotation to be defined relative either to the room plan or to the listening position.
Again, the principle is straightforward:
Model the system as it really exists.
If you substantially change toe-in after the optimisation has been created, the model no longer describes exactly the same installation.
Why wall and floor construction matter
Two rooms with identical dimensions do not necessarily behave identically.
A solid masonry wall and a lightweight partition do not interact with low-frequency energy in exactly the same way.
The same principle applies to other room boundaries.
Linn therefore allows construction materials to form part of the room model.
The current Space Optimisation documentation specifically instructs users to identify the construction material of room surfaces as part of obtaining the best result.
You do not need to dismantle the house to discover every hidden layer of construction.
But where you know whether a boundary is solid masonry, plasterboard, glazing or another construction, entering that information is more useful than treating every wall as identical.
Doors and windows should not be ignored
Large openings and areas of glazing can form meaningful parts of a room model.
The current Space Optimisation interface allows room features including doors and windows to be represented.
This is particularly useful in modern open-plan living spaces where one “wall” may contain a large opening into another area.
An optimisation model that treats that boundary as completely solid is describing a different acoustic space.
What about irregular and open-plan rooms?
These are precisely the rooms where careful modelling becomes more valuable.
The current Linn Account implementation expanded Space Optimisation beyond the rectangular-room assumption used by earlier versions. Linn states that non-rectangular rooms, room features and non-flat ceilings can now be modelled.
For an L-shaped room, kitchen-living area or space with an open hallway, resist the temptation to simplify the geometry aggressively simply to get the setup finished faster.
The closer the model is to the actual space, the more meaningful the calculation can be.
Do sofas, rugs and furniture need measuring?
Not every object needs to become part of an architectural model.
The primary Space Optimisation inputs concern the dimensions, construction and significant features of the room together with speaker and listening locations.
Furniture still matters acoustically, particularly at mid and high frequencies, but the optimisation should not become an exercise in digitally recreating every cushion and coffee table.
Focus first on the structural information Linn’s model actually uses.
How do you set up a subwoofer?
A subwoofer introduces another low-frequency source into the room, so its position and settings need to be considered carefully.
Linn’s current Space Optimisation interface includes support for additional subwoofers and can include information such as location and roll-off frequency where appropriate.
The important point is that the subwoofer should already be sensibly integrated with the system.
Space Optimisation is not a substitute for choosing appropriate crossover settings, level and position.
Where a subwoofer is part of the installation, it should be treated as part of the complete low-frequency setup rather than as an unrelated box in the corner.
Calculate the optimisation only after the model is right
Once the room, speakers and listening position have been entered, the optimisation can be calculated.
The current Linn Account algorithm models both the frequency and time-domain behaviour of room modes. Linn’s documentation says the later algorithm considers not only excessive energy at certain frequencies but also how long those resonances decay.
This calculation may take longer in larger or more complicated systems because more information has to be modelled.
The sensible response is not to simplify the room purely to make the calculation faster.
Accuracy is more useful than speed.
Should you immediately adjust the calculated result?
Not necessarily.
Linn’s current documentation says that when the room, speaker locations and other relevant information are entered accurately, the resulting optimisation should not normally require arbitrary manual correction.
That is a useful starting principle.
Listen first.
If something then needs refinement, look at whether the model itself is correct before reaching for advanced preference controls.
A wrong speaker measurement corrected at source is more useful than compensating for it later with another adjustment.
When should Space Optimisation be recalculated?
Any meaningful physical change to the system or room can justify revisiting the setup.
Examples include:
- moving the loudspeakers
- changing loudspeaker model
- moving the principal listening position
- adding or relocating a subwoofer
- moving the system into another room
- major structural room changes
- changing an Exakt speaker configuration where the optimisation depends on that system architecture.
Moving a vase does not require a fresh optimisation.
Moving both speakers half a metre does.
What if you already have an old Konfig optimisation?
This is relevant to long-term Linn owners.
Older versions of Space Optimisation were managed through Linn Konfig. Linn subsequently moved the newer optimisation workflow into the user’s Linn Account.
The current documentation provides a process for importing an existing optimisation from a compatible system. However, Linn notes that a basic imported result may contain the resulting optimisation data without all the original room and positioning inputs.
If an older optimisation has been working well, there is no reason to treat it as defective merely because the interface has changed.
But if the room or system is being substantially reconfigured, rebuilding the model accurately in the current environment may be more useful than preserving assumptions from years ago.
Can you set up Space Optimisation yourself?
Yes. Linn provides the tools to system owners through its account-based system management.
For a simple rectangular room, accurately positioned speakers and a single listening position, a careful owner can enter the required information.
Professional help becomes more valuable where:
- the room geometry is complicated
- speaker positioning has not yet been established
- an Exakt system is involved
- multiple subwoofers or channels are being integrated
- the owner is unsure how the room is constructed
- the existing optimisation does not seem to match the room
- the entire system is being installed at the same time.
The benefit is not simply having somebody else type measurements into a browser.
It is treating speaker placement, installation and optimisation as one process.
A practical Linn Space Optimisation setup checklist
Before creating or revising an optimisation, work through the following:
- Confirm the system. Make sure the correct DSM and loudspeakers are identified.
- Set the speakers up physically. Position, level and orient them sensibly first.
- Measure the room. Record dimensions, shape and meaningful structural features.
- Identify construction. Enter appropriate information for walls and other relevant boundaries.
- Measure speaker positions. Use the correct reference points rather than estimating from photographs.
- Set the listening position. Use the normal location of the listener’s head.
- Add subwoofer information. Where applicable, include its actual position and relevant settings.
- Check the model. Make sure the digital room resembles the physical one before calculating.
- Calculate and apply. Let the system produce the initial optimisation.
- Listen before changing anything. Refine only where there is a reason to do so.
Why professional installation can make Space Optimisation easier
The best Linn Space Optimisation setup is usually the result of accurate information rather than aggressive DSP.
That is why it belongs naturally within system installation.
A specialist can establish sensible speaker positions, measure the room, identify the correct equipment and configure the optimisation from a known starting point.
Current Linn specialists follow this same broad workflow. For example, Audio T describes entering room dimensions, wall construction, speaker positions and listening location before creating and refining an optimisation profile.
Rococo Systems can incorporate Space Optimisation into a new installation or review an existing Linn system through our London Showroom and Epping Demonstration Facility, located between Ongar and Epping.
Learn more about Linn installation and setup, explore compatible Linn network music players or speak to a specialist if you want an existing optimisation checked.
Space Optimisation is powerful precisely because it can model a real room in considerable detail. The trick is simple: make sure the room you describe to it is the room you actually have.
Written by Rococo Systems
Our team shares expert Linn advice, product guidance and practical insight for getting more from your music system.
