In the past few years I had lost track of the Lindemann company and their audio products. This was despite the fact that I had only the finest memories of the products from Bavaria since the early days, and whenever I passed by a Lindemann demonstration at some trade show, I was greatly impressed. But somehow, we never got together.

One reason for my distance may have been their price policy at that time, and the bulky devices which, admittedly, earned the highest accolades both nationally and internationally, but were a little out of my financial reach. Already since the end of the last millennium they were working on upsampling there, using high-res formats could be played back since 2001 on their own SACD player. This know-how in the digital domain, built up over decades, led to the introduction of the Musicbook series in 2013, which handled the music via network. The enclosures are smaller now, and so are the prices. Even smaller is their latest incarnation, the brand-new Limetree series by Lindemann. It currently comprises four devices for different applications, and more are in the pipeline. The Limetree Headphone represents a high-quality analog headphone/preamp combo; the Limetree Phono is a phono preamp with discrete inputs for moving coil and moving magnet pickups; the Limetree Bridge is a network player for local storage media and streaming services without a converter; and, the subject of my evaluation here, the Limetree Network, which is basically a Bridge with an on board converter and a preamp. All devices are housed in little aluminum boxes of merely 107 x 40 x 107 mm in size.

Well, owing to SMD technology, we are now used to see ever smaller and lighter high-quality hifi gear. But still I have to swallow, reminiscing of the massive ancestors, when unpacking the little box with its well-crafted, neatly coined standard aluminum body. One small toggle switch, three LEDs and one ⅛" jack output for a headphone embellish the front, which hardly offers any more free space. The rear panel looks equally tidy: one USB input and a LAN interface are sitting beside an RCA out, a socket for a W-LAN antenna and the power connector, including a little push button to make contact with the wireless home network. But if you take a look inside, the minimalism is soon gone. One AK4452 DAC is used per channel, an AK4137 takes care of the re-sampling, and to keep the jitter permanently low, a MEMS FemtoClock has been installed.

All common music file formats with a maximum resolution of 384 kilohertz for PCM files – via W-Lan "only" 192 kilohertz – or DSD256 respectively are supported (via W-Lan, at least DSD128). The Limetree Network is ready for the most popular streaming providers of high-res music material. Customers can choose between TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, HighResAudio, and Spotify, and also have access to countless internet radio stations and podcasts. Of course, one can also access a music server over the network via UPnP and DLNA and locally connect a USB hard disk to play back locally stored music. Owners of a Roon player can use it with the Lindemann Limetree Network. It's "Roon ready" and may be used with Roon Core and Roon software. Oh yes, streaming is also possible via Bluetooth, of course. However, the player should support the A2DP Bluetooth audio transfer protocol. The incoming signals are processed bit-perfect according to the source, a 7-color LED indicates the given resolution in each case. Pressing the on/off switch a little longer will cause the converter to switch into re-sampling mode, which is also indicated by an LED. Now the signals are converted to DSD 256. Compared to PCM, Lindemann attributes a more transparent and more natural sound in this operation mode. Did I say anything it about being small?