Except they apply up through the ranges and have done since Linn’s first amp the LK1/LK2. I once auditioned the Klimax when obsessing about reduced box count and preferred the NDX for cohesion and fidelity to instrumental texture.
Since the Naim sound was around before the digital streamers existed, then perhaps it would make sense if this effect lies in the amplifier implementation and not in the source?
Neither of them is technically better. Naim and Linn are word class brands.
The most important is how they sound. I doesn’t figure the perceived sound as brain bias effect. It’s a non sense. If people find generally Naim more involving, then the truth is that is just more involving.
But Linn has other strengths. The sound is a bit more refined.
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I’ve got both, sort of, I have an NDX2 as a source to my SN3 and have a Linn Selekt DSM which is configured with internal amp modules and enabled for 5.1 surround. I’m using it in my office at the moment as a 2 channel all in one. I did consider it alongside the Uniti Nova but ultimately chose the Selekt DSM because it did the things I wanted that a Nova couldn’t and it’s modular so I can change it over time and have done just that.
They sound quite different and the comments about slam and accuracy when comparing a Nova to a DSM do probably stand true. I would say I listen to the DSM probably more than any kit I have at home as it’s in my office and is playing through the day. I’d say both do a good job, which you prefer will come down to what you like the sound of ultimately, I enjoy the DSM and the NDX 2 + SN3 despite the fact they sound quite different.
How they stack up to speaker matching, I’ve used both of my setups with floor standing PMC’s and Dali’s and they both sound good to me. The DSM is more accurate but less forward.
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Or it’s both. One way or another it has nothing to do with digital vs. analogue
Harmonic distortion is not a brain bias effect, it’s just a different technical reproduction similar to how vinyl can sound different to digital. And the effect is very real not imagined!
Harmonic distortion does have something to do with digital vs. analogue, since the type of distortion we are talking about (2nd/3rd order) are analogue types of distortion, so they would not be introduced in the digital stage.
It’s not some kind of bias?
And then I am not sure a lot will agree with your statement about Naim distortion and its subjective effect on perceived sound.
The way you have conflated our replies suggests you may be missing the point, but perhaps that’s because both FR and myself have commented on Naim “sound” in areas that extend beyond HD, considering timing and dynamics as well as tonal/textural detail, while also noting that the different reproduction priorities involved have to do with front end as well as amplification and likewise have commonalities that precede any analogue/digital technology differences.
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What is HD?
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Just short for Harmonic Distortion!
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I have recently had the Linn Selekt (with amp module) at home for over a week and I did not like it. Yes, a very clever box of tricks and lovely aesthetics/engineering but really lacked engagement and ‘boogie’ factor when compared with my Nait 2. Sort of gave me a headache. It went back.
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are your selekt experiences with or without katalyst?
It was without. Not sure that the improved DAC (Katalyst) would change the fundamental Linn sound.
I get where you’re coming from on this, and I own one!
It’s a very different presentation to a Naim system, it keeps track of what’s going on quite nicely but lacks that drive and realism that you know and love from a Naim based equivalent, not neccessarily better or worse but different and something not everyone would want to grow to live with.
The higher spec Katalyst DAC is a meaningful addition but the primary characteristics remain fundamentally.
If I didn’t want or need a 5.1 one box streaming amp I’d almost certainly have a Nova instead 
This is true… I think some people get hung up about words like distortion and colouration and automatically assume it’s a bad thing… where it can so often be a very required thing when it’s controlled in a Hi-Fi or audio entertainment system.
In a world I have be getting more involved in recently, music production, it’s opened up to me in a more formal way how things like various types of colouration added to a recording or track can make the recording feel it times better, feel more emotional, has more groove etc… Play it clean and un altered it can sound quite flat… or unengaging.
The same therefore obviously applied to sound reproduction. I even use a processor called a vinyl simulator that adds frequency dependent distortion amongst other things, and can make an accurately recorded or generated source come alive.
As an experiment have tried to emulate the notable traits as far as I am concerned of a Naim Nait XS2 I borrowed feeding ATC speakers … and yes it made my track feel and time/groove better in terms of how I hear and enjoy music…
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…I can vouch for the fact that katalyst results in a major improvement.
Do you think this is why there is still a burgeoning demand for valves?
I do actually 
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I’ve had exactly the same experience. It was even the Katalyst.
I preferred the Nova and eventually ended up with Ndx2/Supernait2.
I have owned both Selekt and Nova.
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