1. Introduct on
aqua LinQ is a Long-life Network Audio Interface, with special features that make it unique and
highly performing.
Connected to your Local Area Network (LAN) Ethernet, the LinQ will allow you to obtain the best
sound quality of digital music files in your NAS, server or computer, and from all the main
streaming services. Its concept guarantees the possibility of keeping up with the fast evolution
of the sector.
2. Descr pt on
The objective pursued by aqua during the LinQ development is the best possible sound quality,
combined with an e treme modularity and fle ibility of the architecture.
LinQ is a highly modular device, based on a series of completely independent units.
Each module performs a particular function, for which it is optimized.
Each module has its own dedicated power supply and plugs into a connector on the base
platform of the device. In addition to the optimization on the particular function, this
architecture guarantees an e ceptional possibility of future upgrades.
Every module has its own processor and memory, and also a clock system consisting on two
high quality quartz crystal oscillators. This clock is the ‘master’ clock: due to the fact that network
audio is transmitted as data ‘packets’ that are buffered on the receiver, all the well-known jitter
problematics related to the transmission medium are absent. An FPGA is also present on the
module board: one of its functions is to make some system optimizations depending on the
particular streaming service implemented on the module.
The base platform can accommodate up to four streaming service (protocol) modules, named
M1, M2, M3, M4.
Any of them can be positioned in every one of 4 slots.
Two other cards – with a dedicated slot - are always present:
- the unit supervision processor (with a 32- bit ARM microcontroller), that takes care of system
operation.
- the LAN switch board, which acts as an internal Ethernet switch resident inside the LinQ.
The LAN switch module, developed ad-hoc, represents a distinctive feature of the unit, and
guarantees the best performance in respect of the audio reproduction. All the digital
input/output connections on this module are galvanically isolated.
In order to provide the best power supply to each board and to avoid any interference, each
module has his own dedicated power-supply circuit.
Outside the base platform, another board has the function to generate the output signals. Here,
all the output signals are generated by proprietary circuitry resident into an FPGA (Field
Programmable Gate Array). This solution allows high performance and possibility of future
upgrade.
Available outputs are: S/PDIF, AES, Dual-AES, and AQlink (I2S) - They are all galvanically isolated
from the internal circuitry.
