It's more than a little ironic; Linn Products, based in Glasgow, Scotland, burst onto the audiophile scene in the early 1970s with its LP-12 turntable. The LP-12 has never gone out of production and earlier this year it received a bunch of performance-enhancing upgrades.
When the CD was introduced in the early 1980s, Linn was a massive digital basher. The company spearheaded an anti-CD movement in the audiophile community. It wasn't just Linn; a sizable percentage of audiophiles worldwide didn't buy CD players through most of the 1980s.
A Linn DS hi-fi system
(Credit: Linn Products)Linn introduced CD players at the close of that decade, while it continued to make turntables, electronics, and speakers. Now, they're calling it quits.
Quoting from Linn's Web site, here's the straight scoop, "At Linn we have always been wholly committed to making systems that push the boundaries and deliver the highest possible audio performance. When we launched our first digital stream player, the flagship Klimax DS, we did so only once we had proven comprehensively that it outperformed the iconic Sondek CD12, our former reference digital source, in every way."
Linn's LP-12 turntable, introduced in 1972, is still in production.
(Credit: Linn Products)The press release continues, "This development saw Linn DS far exceed what was possible with traditional CD playing technology, both in terms of its audio performance and the convenience. Linn DS is now firmly established as the future of music and the only way to get the very best from your CD collection and enjoy downloads of the highest possible quality."
Linn may be out of the CD player business, but it has a full line of 24-bit/192 kHz sampling Digital Stream players.
More irony, Linn's record label will continue to release music on CD and SACD as well as LP and high-resolution downloads.
Damn, it looks like it means business
(Credit: Burmester Audiosysteme)
Today in Las Vegas, Burmester Audiosysteme, Germany's legendary manufacturer of ultra high-performance electronics and speakers, is exhibiting its 069 Reference Line CD Player. This amazing machine draws oohs and aahs even before it makes a sound, it's that gorgeous.
The 069 CD Player is a cutting-edge digital playback system, created for well heeled connoisseurs of music and German industrial design. Its audiophile credentials come in the form of its proprietary belt drive motor system that spins the CDs (instead of the off-the-shelf direct-drive mechanisms other manufacturers use).
The 069 CD Player's spiked feet may be set directly on the its proprietary aluminum base (supplied as standard with the unit), and it uses special carbon-fiber spring pucks to isolate the sensitive electronics from external interference. The player also boasts newly developed and 96 and 192-kHz oscillators with minimal phase noise and high thermal stability. Burmester's 069 Reference Line CD Player is available with a silver housing with a chrome front panel at a suggested price of, whoa, $49,995!
Bryston's hand-made CD player.
(Credit: Bryston)Bryston doesn't believe automation has a place in high-end audio manufacturing. They still hand-build CD players, and their full line of preamplifier and power amplifiers at their Peterborough, Ontario factory. The BCD-1 CD player was conceived with the audiophile in mind, someone who appreciates exceptional build quality and outstanding performance.
Rather than rely on inexpensive, off-the-shelf chipsets, the Bryston player's audio circuits use "discrete" devices--individual transistors, resistors, and capacitors. Each part is hand selected and installed, every wire is cut and bent by hand, every connection is hand soldered. This strategy, while expensive to implement allows Bryston engineers to more precisely match the player's analog audio circuits with its digital-to-analog converters.
Bryston workers individually test each and every product they manufacture. Bryston claims its construction techniques are on par with military and aerospace industries. The BCD-1 is backed by a three-year parts and labor warranty and has a MSRP of $2395.
- prev
- 1
- next
