Linn has announced the latest iteration of their flagship turntable, Klimax LP12. Featuring new Radikal, comprising “hyper-accurate speed management technology, a whisper-quiet power supply, and state-of-the-art motor design”. Linn have also unveiled a new flagship cartridge, Ekstatik. The Klimax LP12 (£21,795) also heralds the arrival of two new components, available to order as upgrades to existing decks
33.3333333 is the magic number
Linn’s new, reference turntable claims speed accuracy that’s closer to 331⁄3rpm than any turntable. Thanks to a digitally (FPGA) managed motor control, and the latest, precision-engineered motor technology. New Radikal is said to be accurate to five times tighter tolerance than its predecessor, its persistent auto- calibration makes for more consistent and accurate speed management than ever before.
Power Supply
An all-new, 6-layer board – designed and manufactured in-house – facilitates shorter signal paths, smaller componentry, and minimal overall noise, via dedicated ground and power planes. These quieter, regulated supply rails not only provide impeccably pure power to the motor, but have the added halo effect of making Linn’s Urika phono stages sound even better. Radikal has apparently migrated to a precision reference voltage, served up by a new DAC derived from technology found in Linn’s network streamer range.
Motor
New Radikal’s cutting-edge motor design “generates negligible electromagnetic interference, effectively eliminating it as a source of distortion. To make things mechanically quieter than ever, an all-new acoustic housing decouples the motor from the deck more effectively. The motor itself features smaller, lower-noise components, making everything electrically quieter than ever too.”
Ekstatik
In order to make its best cartridge ever, Linn needed to look further afield, and at more varied materials. They conducted extensive experiments; auditioning different materials and configurations for the body, inserts, cantilever, suspension, windings and leads. The result is Ekstatik (£5,500).
Ekstatik’s “unique construction forges an harmonious synergy with the Ekos SE tonearm; wicking away more unwanted resonances along the arm, and out through the suspended sub-chassis. Linn’s experiments led them to the implementation of aluminium-bronze inserts. With a custom honeycomb cut into the cartridge body, Ekstatik is skeletonised so that overall mass is reduced to Linn’s preferred sweet spot of close to 7g. A micro-ridge stylus on a sapphire cantilever makes for an extraordinarily responsive cartridge. The sapphire cantilever is far stiffer than boron or aluminium, resulting in less loss between the stylus and the generator.
Prices: New Radikal (machined enclosure) £6,500, New Radikal (standard enclosure) £4,250, New Radikal (upgrade) £1,750