In 1994, Linn's LP12 took top honours at the What Hi-Fi? Awards (a notable year, as it was the last time that turntables would get their own dedicated category right up until it was reinstated in 2001). “There’s no denying that the range-topping LP12 is a mighty expensive thing… Yet, in most respects it’s startlingly better than what has gone before and is still right up there with the very best at this price,” we said in our 2017 review. While virtually every part has been upgraded since the original, the LP12 is still in production today – and true to Tiefenbrun’s vision, all the important improvements are retrofittable on older decks.Ī few years ago we revisited the LP12 Klimax (the ‘best of the best’ version of the three available), which then was a £1860 package, including the Ekos SE tonearm, Kandid moving-coil cartridge, Urika phono stage, Radikal power supply and Keel sub-chassis. You aren’t surprised to see a LP12 featured in this list, are you? The original Sondek LP12 was designed in a modular, upgradeable way so that its principal design would stand the test of time even as its key elements were developed and improved in the future. In 2017, we said the Klimax DS, “was without doubt the most transparent and insightful music streamer we’ve had in our test rooms” – and that’s still the case today. And these days the network players also boast Linn’s Katalyst DAC architecture and Space Optimization room EQ. In 2011, DS players got HDMI inputs, as well as a Windows/Mac application called SongCast that allowed them to act as sound cards for computers.
#LINN EKOS SE WINDOWS#
The streaming offering was complete with the introduction of Linn’s own control app (Kinksy) for browsing music and building playlists on Windows desktop. The Klimax DS was one of the earliest high-end streamers, and Linn didn’t hang around rounding-out the product offering with Akurate DS and Majik DS variants. It was the first Linn product with such native 'hi-res' support. And not just any stream but one up to 24-bit/192kHz – Linn’s own studio master recordings. In the wake of the birth of Spotify, and arguably the music streaming world as we know it today, Linn entered the streamer market with a network player capable of playing a digital file over a home network rather than any physical format. The new Linn Axis shows that it's not." Troika MC (1986) Some may think that the LP12 turntable is a tough act for LInn to follow. It was detailed and articulate, with a dependable, solid sort of presentation. It was also easy to use (other than fitting the cartridge, the Axis required little in the way of setting up) and, as we said in our original review, delivered a "clean and tidy performance without fuss or untidiness.
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Still, the Axis had one-up on its sibling: it was more affordable, at £313. You'd have felt for the Axis when it arrived, for it was always destined to sit in the shadow of the LP12. (Ironically of course, its decks far out-lasted its own CD players, which ceased production in 2010). In amidst all of this, Linn also launched another turntable, the Axis – despite the prospect of CDs becoming the format of choice. The Ekos SE tonearm is a superb partner for any Linn cartridge and delivers a revelation in performance to your existing LP12 turntable.The rest of the ‘70s saw Linn sell its first moving-coil cartridge (Asak) and tonearm (Ittok LVII) for the LP12, and into the ‘80s Linn’s attentions spanned vinyl records (it cut its own acetate masters and started up its own independent record label), its first pre-amplifier (LK1) and power amp (LK2), and yet more upgrades to the LP12. Low-loss cable and gold connectors are used to protect the audio signal in transmission to the pre-amplifier. With ultra-low friction bearings and temperature-compensated precision-springs ensure that the exceptional performance of the Ekos SE tonearm is maintained regardless of whether you are listening to your first track of the day or after many hours of music.
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Every Ekos SE tonearm is built to last using the latest manufacturing techniques and handcrafted to the highest quality standard, so that you can continue to enjoy your vinyl collection for decades to come. These include a machined titanium arm tube to reduce resonance within the arm and a stainless steel bearing housing which helps reduce unwanted tonearm movements. Setting a new performance benchmark, Ekos SE features advanced materials carefully selected for their sound performance and low resonance properties to minimise interference, resonance and microphony, and extract even more from your vinyl collection.