Linn

Linn Products was founded in February 1973 by Ivor Tiefenbrun in Castlemilk, on the south side of Glasgow next to Linn Park — the source of the company name. Tiefenbrun had spent months trying to work out why the hi-fi he had bought shortly after getting married sounded so much less musical at home than at the dealer's. He isolated the answer by carrying his turntable out of the listening room, running the signal leads back under the door, and playing the same record. The system sounded dramatically better. The turntable, he had proved to himself, was being physically disturbed by the sound-pressure changes of the loudspeakers in the same room — and Linn's founding argument, that the source component matters most because nothing downstream can recover what it fails to retrieve, was born from that experiment.

The response was the Linn Sondek LP12, developed at his father Jack Tiefenbrun's Castle Precision Engineering with a central bearing designed by Jack himself, and released in 1973. It is the same LP12 that Linn still manufactures today at its Waterfoot facility outside Glasgow — the only building in Scotland designed by architect Richard Rogers. Ivor Tiefenbrun was appointed MBE in 1992 and remains Founder and Chairman; his son Gilad Tiefenbrun is now Managing Director. About 160 employees, and every Linn product still leaves the factory built on a single bench, start to finish, by one engineer. The Sondek has been in continuous production for over fifty years, was voted the most important hi-fi component ever sold in the UK by Hi-Fi Choice, and was ranked the second most significant turntable of all time by The Absolute Sound in 2011.

The LP12 premise, fifty years on

The LP12 is a suspended-subchassis belt-drive turntable, and it is the only high-end turntable ever brought to market whose original owners can still upgrade the deck they bought in the 1970s to the current specification without buying a new turntable. Over fifty retrofittable mechanical and electrical upgrades have been released across five decades — Karousel bearing, Bedrok plinth, Keel subchassis, Radikal motor and power supply (updated 2021), Urika II internal phono stage, Ekos SE tonearm, Ekstatik reference cartridge — and every one was engineered to drop into a deck already in service. The current LP12 is available in four factory-configured tiers: Majik LP12 (MM Adikt or MC Koil) as the entry, Selekt LP12 as the reference-tier upgrade (Trampolin, Lingo, Kore, Arko, Kendo), Klimax LP12 as the current flagship (machined Radikal, Urika II, Keel, Ekos SE, Ekstatik), plus the LP12-50 fiftieth-anniversary limited-edition deck designed in collaboration with Jony Ive's LoveFrom studio.

The Linn electronics and streaming line at LMC

Linn moved decisively into digital in 2007 as one of the first manufacturers to build a serious network music streamer, and stopped making CD players entirely in 2009 to concentrate on the streaming platform that has defined the company since. LMC carries the full current Linn range in three actively-manufactured tiers, plus service and upgrade support for the older Akurate DSM/DS platform. The Klimax tier is the reference: Klimax DSM streamer with the Organik DAC (Linn's in-house discrete DAC architecture launched 2019), Klimax System Hub integrated version, Klimax Solo 800 monoblock flagship power amplifier (built to drive any loudspeaker including sub-2-Ohm loads), Klimax Solo 500 (500W into 4 Ohms, 2 kW peak, Utopik switch-mode PSU, Adaptive Bias Control), Klimax Twin stereo amp, and Klimax Exaktbox six-channel active crossover. Selekt DSM is Linn's most configurable modular platform (Classic Hub and Edition Hub variants with dual-mono DAC and Utopik power supply options). Majik DSM is the all-in-one streamer with integrated amplification.

Loudspeakers span passive (Majik 109, Majik 140) and active configurations. The active range — Series 3 wireless, 530, Akubarik, and Klimax 350 with Organik DAC — uses Linn's Exakt technology (introduced 2013) to keep the signal in the digital domain all the way to the drive units, replacing the traditional passive crossover with a per-driver Exakt processor that also corrects for the room. Alongside Exakt, Space Optimisation measures the listening room and corrects for its predictable acoustic effects at the source. Both are more audible in a live demonstration than they sound on paper.

Linn across nine rooms at LMC

LMC has been a Linn dealer since 2005, and Linn appears in nine distinct rooms across the Scottsdale and Tempe showrooms — one of the deepest Linn floors of any dealer in the Southwest. In Scottsdale, the Klimax DSM streamer fronts the Suprema Room's SE system and the Alexx V Room; a Selekt LP12 with the Klimax Radikal motor upgrade is the analogue source in the Reference Room's Wilson Alexia V system; the Majik DSM fronts the Amati Supreme Room; the Selekt DSM Classic Hub handles digital duties in the Octave Room; and the Selekt DSM plus Selekt LP12 combination is the source in the brand-new MBL Room. In Tempe, an Akurate DS serves Room 1 with a McIntosh MA352 driving Sonus faber Olympica Nova V and Nova II; a Klimax Twin drives Wilson WATT/Puppy directly with no preamplifier in Room 3, a deliberately reduced two-box source-and-amp signal chain; and a Linn Klimax digital source sits alongside a Vertere DG-1 turntable in Room 4 feeding a McIntosh C49 preamplifier that switches between an MC152 solid-state amplifier and a pair of MC2301 tube monoblocks driving Sonus faber Amati G5. Between the two showrooms, LMC demonstrates every currently-manufactured Linn tier and platform simultaneously.

The LP12 setup discipline

A Sondek is only as good as its setup. The suspended subchassis, the Karousel bearing, the tonearm alignment, the cartridge geometry and the interaction of the Radikal power supply with the specific deck all interact acoustically, and a poorly-set-up LP12 will sound worse than a well-set-up entry-level deck at a fraction of the price. Setup discipline is what separates a Linn dealer from a shop that also stocks Linn. LMC has been setting up LP12s since 2005 — every configuration from a first Majik LP12 through Klimax spec with Radikal and Ekstatik — and that accumulated expertise is one of the reasons LMC is one of the few Southwest dealers to carry and demonstrate the current Klimax LP12.

Where to start

For the LP-first buyer, Majik LP12 MC is the honest entry into the platform, with an obvious upgrade path through Selekt LP12 to full Klimax specification whenever the rest of the system is ready. For the digital-first buyer building around active loudspeakers, the Selekt DSM Classic Hub is where most current Linn systems now start — modular enough to grow, capable enough to source reference-tier active speakers. For a system built without compromise on the Linn side, the current Klimax stack — Klimax DSM with Organik DAC, Klimax Solo 800 monoblocks, Klimax LP12, and Klimax 350 active loudspeakers — is the current top of Linn's own thinking.

What to listen for

Two Linn technologies reward deliberate testing. First, Space Optimisation: ask to hear the same recording with it on and then off, in the same room at the same volume. The difference is not subtle and it is not a marketing effect. Second, the LP12 against a contemporary top digital source: the same recording on Klimax LP12 with Ekstatik, and on Klimax DSM with Organik DAC, into the same amplifier and loudspeaker chain. Fifty years after the original Sondek shipped, that comparison is still what a Linn audition is really about — and the reason “the source is everything” has never gone out of use as a working principle at Linn.

Walk in during business hours to hear the Linn systems on demonstration in either showroom. Book ahead if the audition requires a specific LP12 configuration set up against your own records — LP12 setup is an unhurried process, and it is worth doing properly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Linn Sondek LP12, and why has it been in production for over 50 years?

The Sondek LP12 is a suspended-subchassis belt-drive turntable released by Linn Products in 1973 — the same LP12 Linn still manufactures today at its Waterfoot facility outside Glasgow. It is the only high-end turntable ever brought to market whose original owners can still upgrade the deck they bought in the 1970s to the current specification without buying a new turntable. Over fifty retrofittable mechanical and electrical upgrades have been released across five decades (Karousel bearing, Bedrok plinth, Keel subchassis, Radikal motor and power supply, Urika II internal phono stage, Ekos SE tonearm, Ekstatik reference cartridge), and every one was engineered to drop into a deck already in service. The Sondek was voted the most important hi-fi component ever sold in the UK by Hi-Fi Choice, and was ranked the second most significant turntable of all time by The Absolute Sound in 2011. LMC has been a Linn dealer since 2005 and carries the current Klimax LP12 as one of the few Southwest dealers to do so.

Can I upgrade my older Linn LP12, and what does the process look like?

Yes — that is the defining characteristic of the platform. Over fifty retrofittable upgrades have been released across the LP12's fifty-plus year production run, and every one was engineered to drop into a deck already in service rather than require a new turntable. The Karousel bearing, Bedrok plinth, Keel subchassis, Radikal motor and power supply (updated 2021), Urika II internal phono stage, Ekos SE tonearm and Ekstatik reference cartridge are all current upgrade paths for older decks. Upgrades happen at the dealer: the LP12 is disassembled on a bench, the new component is installed, and the deck is re-set up before it goes back to the customer. LMC has been setting up LP12s since 2005 — every configuration from a first Majik LP12 through full Klimax specification with Radikal and Ekstatik — and that accumulated setup expertise is one of the reasons an older LP12 sent for upgrade at LMC comes back sounding better than it left.

Which Linn LP12 tier is right for me — Majik, Selekt, or Klimax?

The current LP12 is available in four factory-configured tiers, and the honest entry depends on where the rest of your system is. Majik LP12 (with the Adikt MM or Koil MC cartridge) is the entry — a genuinely reference-grade turntable in its most approachable current form, with an obvious upgrade path through Selekt LP12 to Klimax specification whenever the rest of the system is ready. Selekt LP12 is the reference-tier upgrade (Trampolin, Lingo, Kore, Arko, Kendo) and is where most serious LP12-first systems now start. Klimax LP12 is the current flagship (machined Radikal, Urika II, Keel, Ekos SE, Ekstatik) and represents the current top of Linn's own thinking on suspended-subchassis belt-drive design. The LP12-50 is a limited-edition fiftieth-anniversary deck designed in collaboration with Jony Ive's LoveFrom studio. LMC carries all four — walk in and hear them side by side.

What is the Klimax DSM with Organik DAC?

Klimax DSM is Linn's reference-tier network music streamer, and Organik is Linn's in-house discrete DAC architecture launched in 2019. Linn moved decisively into digital in 2007 as one of the first manufacturers to build a serious network music streamer, stopped making CD players entirely in 2009, and has spent the past fifteen years defining what a reference digital source looks like on Linn's own terms. Organik replaced the off-the-shelf DAC chip Linn had used previously with a discrete implementation Linn now designs and refines in-house — the same design principle that has always separated a Linn LP12 from a stock turntable, applied to digital. Klimax DSM sits at the top of the current Linn digital range alongside the Klimax System Hub (integrated version), Klimax Solo 800 monoblock flagship power amplifier, Klimax Solo 500, Klimax Twin stereo amp, and Klimax Exaktbox six-channel active crossover. LMC has Klimax DSM in the Suprema Room's SE system and the Scottsdale Alexx V Room among nine total Linn rooms across both showrooms.

What are Space Optimisation and Exakt?

Both are proprietary Linn technologies that address the same underlying problem — the room and the loudspeaker are part of the signal chain, not the end of it — but at different points in the chain. Space Optimisation measures the listening room and corrects for its predictable acoustic effects at the source, before the signal ever reaches the amplifier. Every current Linn DSM streamer includes Space Optimisation. Exakt (introduced 2013) goes further: on Exakt-enabled active loudspeakers (Series 3 wireless, 530, Akubarik, Klimax 350 with Organik DAC), the digital signal stays in the digital domain all the way to the drive units, and the traditional passive crossover is replaced with a per-driver Exakt processor that also corrects for the room. In a live demonstration, ask to hear the same recording with Space Optimisation on and then off in the same room at the same volume — the difference is not subtle, and it is not a marketing effect.

Does LMC set up and service Linn turntables?

Yes. A Sondek is only as good as its setup — the suspended subchassis, the Karousel bearing, the tonearm alignment, the cartridge geometry and the interaction of the Radikal power supply with the specific deck all interact acoustically, and a poorly-set-up LP12 will sound worse than a well-set-up entry-level deck at a fraction of the price. Setup discipline is what separates a Linn dealer from a shop that also stocks Linn. LMC has been setting up LP12s since 2005 — every configuration from a first Majik LP12 through Klimax specification with Radikal and Ekstatik — and that accumulated expertise is one of the reasons LMC is one of the few Southwest dealers to carry and demonstrate the current Klimax LP12. Bring your existing LP12 in for a setup or upgrade consultation: the process is unhurried by design, and worth doing properly.