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For over 50 years, the Scottish audio brand has stayed true to its original mission — to focus, above all else, on uncompromising performance...
If it ain’t broke, don’t rebrand it — and some iconic products get it right from the very beginning. Think Mercedes-Benz and the unmistakable G-Wagen, first rolled out in 1973. Or the Rolex Submariner, largely unchanged since 1953 — a story similar to that of Montblanc’s Meisterstück fountain pen, which was first uncapped in 1924. Even earlier came the Swiss Army knife, now well into its second century of corkscrewing, tweezing and tooth-picking.
For the more musically minded, several instruments also made pitch perfect debuts — from the Fender Stratocaster to the grand Steinway D. And these more dulcet design tones bring us neatly to Linn, the Scottish audio company for whom good music is big business. Its turntable, the Sondek LP12, has been spinning steadily and successfully since founder Ivor Tiefenbrun assembled his initial prototype in 1972.
That’s over half a century of sound, savvy design — and, in its own modular way, the LP12 is something of a Swiss Army knife itself. Thanks to more than 50 retrofittable mechanical and electrical upgrades (whether a new high-performance tonearm or updated power supply), the record player has preserved the same recognisable design and high-fidelity foundations on which it was originally built.
“It’s the benchmark in the world of audiophile turntables,” says Linn product trainer Gordon Inch, “and it has been for half a century. There’s nothing hugely tricky about the LP12 — it’s a logical, mechanical device. And there’s nothing that doesn’t need to be there. It’s a lean device.”
“It’s the benchmark in the world of audiophile turntables…”
But the LP12 has been that way since Tiefenbrun’s turntable became his company's cornerstone. In 1973, a black-and-white advert in Hi-Fi News magazine proclaimed — in suitably stripped-back lowercase type — “simplicity!”. It has remained so; future-proofed and endlessly upgradeable. No built-in obsolescence. No low-quality components. And, as a result, many customers have maintained the same LP12 for decades.
“It’s never really stood still,” says Inch of the turntable’s ever-growing range of add-ons, attachments and accessories. “It’s evolved with technology. And, as technology has improved, and machining capability has improved here at Linn, the LP12 has improved as well. And I don’t see that changing.”
Such inspired design — whether a car, a guitar or an audio system — can also transcend trends. And, while Linn has always moved with the times (the brand was the first in the world to produce a product capable of streaming studio master-quality digital files — Klimax DS — back in 2007), the company is also wise enough to recognise changing tides. Thus, in 2009, Linn made the controversial move to cease production of CD players entirely to focus on digital streaming; convinced that herein lay the future. In 2018, the world’s most configurable digital music player — the Selekt DSM — was unveiled, the company now under the stewardship of Ivor Tiefenbrun’s son, Gilad. And yet, through every change and choice, the LP12 has remained the linchpin around which Linn turns.
There are, of course, many other factors to the success of Linn’s iconic product. The components may be configurable and innovative — but the materials used to build them are just as exceptional. Whether it’s kiln-dried hardwood or ultra-dense beech, the performance plinths provide every LP12 with a solid base. There are precious metals, too. Gold pins. Aluminium-bronze inserts. The ‘Ekstatik’ cartridge even contains sapphire elements (a stiffer, and therefore more responsive materials than boron or aluminium alternatives).
There’s also little waste. Every process at Linn has been fine-tuned to minimise material byproducts — with any unavoidable offcuts recycled by local companies. The current factory headquarters, in East Renfrewshire, opened in 1987 and brings every single department including R&D, design, metalwork, and assembly together under one solar-panelled roof. It would undoubtedly be cheaper to outsource some of these departments, but as Inch notes: “Then we’d become an assembler, not a maker”.
The men and women of the workforce are also a community; a key part of Linn’s homegrown heritage. 40-year veterans of the factory today clock in alongside their grown children and young local trainees — ensuring that the brand will stay in safe, generational hands for years to come.
And those hands are particularly important. With an unswerving dedication to the audio craft, every system built by Linn is assembled by hand, and bears the name of the engineer who made it. It’s a little like Aston Martin, where the names of technicians appear on an engine’s final inspection plaque. (Linn, coincidentally, has installed its audio systems in several Astons since 2002, including the DB9. Other British institutions the company has either collaborated with or built audio systems for include: the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner, whisky distilleries Highland Park and The Macallan, and HRH King Charles III).
The people. The products. The quality — it all adds up to longevity. And Linn’s want and willingness to move forwards, while keeping a staunch hold on its heritage, is what sets the Scottish brand apart. Inch also says that the workforce is made up of “music lovers”, which perhaps explains why every product resonates with such authenticity. It’s not just about engineering precision or acoustic performance — it’s about passion; that emotional connection to music that runs through every tonearm, cartridge and circuit board.
And, in an industry where disposable tech too often takes centre stage, Linn’s enduring commitment to craftsmanship and upgradeability makes its product range — centred on the everlasting LP12 — not just sustainable, but deeply personal: a testament to the idea that great sound, like great design, should last a lifetime.
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