Linn Klimax LP12

Audio Genesis - Sondek LP12 Specialist

At Audio Genesis, we have been on the hi-fi journey with countless music lovers that have listened to and chosen to invest in the Linn Sondek LP12. In a similar position to you, they have found the LP12 to bring the most 'musical enjoyment' from their record collection. For a few, this has been a journey of 40 years and counting.

The best and foolproof way to judge if a hi-fi component is right for you is to 'Just Listen'. Can you hear the difference between Component A, and Component B? Does Turntable X make the artist sound more engaging? If the answer is yes, it could be time to invest in what you hear is right for you - we go into more detail in this here.

• LP12’s Modular Design: Linn's LP12s are designed to be upgraded at any point in time. Each upgrade lets you rediscover your music collection and the greater detail that is extracted from the vinyl. This goes beyond the standard cartridge or tonearm changes to the motor, bearing housing, sub-chassis, suspension and phono stage. Even the very first Sondek LP12s from over 50 years ago can be brought up to current specification and Linn innovations.

• 'Source First' Philosophy: Bigger, better speakers or amplifiers alone cannot improve a hi-fi system's performance. One of Linn's founding principles is 'source first', the more musical information you retrieve from the source (i.e. vinyl record), the better the sound.

• Legacy of Innovation: For over 50 years, Linn has invested in technologies and R&D to extract more musical detail from the record grooves. One example is the Karousel bearing, its introduction has brought significant improvement in smoother platter rotation and greater stability for a more pitch-accurate musical reproduction. The Karousel is fitted as standard on all LP12s.

We invite you to hear the difference for yourself. Linn's Sondek LP12s are on permanent display in our listening rooms.

From Linn:

With Klimax LP12, you’ll experience your favourite albums – both cherished classics and those freshly unwrapped – as if it were for the first time.

The latest iteration of Linn’s reference turntable, Klimax LP12, produces an even more musical, pitch-perfect performance.

This is thanks to Linn’s latest, hyper-accurate speed management technology, whisper-quiet power supply, and cutting-edge motor design; and also to the level of fidelity achieved following extensive experiments in material science – culminating in the breakthrough that is Linn’s all-new flagship cartridge.

Klimax LP12 comprises:

• Sondek LP12 turntable with Karousel bearing

• Keel machined sub-chassis and armboard

• Radikal motor control, motor & power supply

• Brushed DC motor in acoustically isolated housing

• Ekos SE precision tonearm

• Ekstatik flagship moving coil (MC) cartridge

• Urika II moving coil phono stage built-in to suspended base

Karousel Bearing

Karousel, Linn’s new precision-engineered single-point bearing, offers smoother rotation and greater stability for even better sound from your Sondek LP12.

This innovative new take on our original bearing design has been made possible by technological developments in material science, machining capabilities and mechanical engineering expertise gained from almost half a century of designing and manufacturing the world’s best turntable.

That vital union between the platter, spindle, bearing and sub-chassis is now the strongest we’ve ever achieved. The substantial lock-nut fastening on the stainless steel housing increases rigidity at the critical point where bearing and sub-chassis come together.

Enhancements to the base of the bearing include a stronger housing for the thrust pad, and combined with a smaller, stiffer form improves the critical area that supports the platter rotation and mass, meaning your vinyl reproduction is more accurate and detailed than ever before.

Keel SE

Top-performing machined sub-chassis and armboard

Keel SE is the highest-performance LP12 sub-chassis available, with superior stiffness, optimised resonant behaviour and ideal distribution of mass.

The intricate bracing structure machined into the underside of Keel SE – designed using a mixture of manual and computer-aided optimisations – has helped us to achieve our number one goal of increasing sub-chassis stiffness as much as possible. This significant 300% increase versus our previous designs means that any vibrations travelling through Keel SE have their frequencies forced higher, and their energy substantially lowered.

Optimised resonant behaviour allows Keel SE to better break-up and dissipate problematic acoustic energy, reducing its potential impact on the delicate music signal.

By machining aluminium from calculated areas beneath the armboard, Keel SE has its centre of mass balanced more evenly on its suspension compared to other sub-chassis models. This improves weight distribution between the springs, and reduces inertia, improving the critical acoustic isolation properties of any LP12.

Radikal SE

Reference motor control, motor and power supply

33.333333 is the magic number.

Klimax Radikal features hyper-accurate speed management technology; generating sustained, uniform rotation closer to 33⅓rpm than any turntable.

You’ll experience even more of your music, in perfect pitch, thanks to Klimax Radikal's digitally managed motor control, bespoke Utopik power supply, and machined aluminium chassis with exceptional electrical and mechanical isolation.

The Utopik power supply is critical to performance, as it possesses separate, dedicated output voltage rails for each of Klimax Radikal's two specialised tasks: controlling the motor and providing power to Urika internal phono stages. These output rails are separately self-regulating; any sudden, significant draws in power from the motor or controller don't affect the rails supplying Urika, and vice versa. The independence of these rails ensures consistency and quality of power supplied to both the motor and phono stage, improving the performance of each.

Also critical to performance is Klimax Radikal's enhanced mechanical isolation. Weighing in at nearly 14kg, machined from three pieces of solid aluminium, and mounted on high-mass stainless-steel feet with rubber ring inserts, its beautifully machined casework is reassuringly robust in the face of external influences.

Ekos SE

Ekos SE sets a new performance benchmark. Advanced materials have been carefully selected for their sound performance and low resonance properties. These minimise interference, resonance and microphony, meaning you hear every note from your vinyl collection in the way it was meant to be heard.

The arm tube is machined from titanium to reduce resonance, while a stainless steel bearing housing ensures precision of movement.

Whether you are listening to the first track of the day or have been spinning records for hours, the ultra-low friction bearings and temperature-compensated precision-springs ensure exceptional performance from the Ekos SE tonearm is maintained.

Each Ekos SE tonearm is precision-engineered to last and is hand-built to the highest quality standard to ensure you can continue to enjoy your vinyl collection for decades to come.

Ekstatik

All-new, flagship moving coil cartridge

In order to make our best cartridge ever, we needed to look further afield, and at more varied materials. We conducted extensive experiments; auditioning different materials and configurations for the body, inserts, cantilever, suspension, windings and leads. The result is Ekstatik – the new jewel in the crown of the Linn cartridge range.

Our all-new, flagship cartridge, Ekstatik, sets a new bar for arm/cartridge synergy; its unique construction forges an harmonious synergy with Ekos SE; wicking away more unwanted resonances along the arm, and out through the sub-chassis.

In our search for ever better materials, our experiments led us to the implementation of aluminium-bronze inserts. Now a feature of Ekstatik, these inserts allow us to reap the sonic benefits we found this alloy to possess.

With a bespoke, honeycomb cut into the cartridge body, we have skeletonised Ekstatik so that overall mass is reduced to our 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.

The overall result is an agile, responsive cartridge with the added performance yielded from specifying these materials; masterfully matched in unique configurations.

Urika II

A breakthrough in phono stage design, Urika II uses our cutting-edge digital signal processing technology to implement the RIAA curve in the digital domain. This brings you lower distortion, lower noise and more music.

Transported over Exakt Link, the musical information that Urika II delivers is perfectly preserved until the moment it reaches your ears, delivering a musical experience like never before.

That’s not all. We take the same approach with Urika II that we do with our Exakt-enabled loudspeakers. This means we can optimise each and every individual device, correcting the variations inherent in the analogue stage to ensure outstanding performance every time.

Urika II can be optimised to work with your preferred cartridge load values. Simply choose from our list of popular cartridges or enter your own, and easily change when you next upgrade your cartridge.

Urika II is powered by our extraordinary Radikal power supply and is mounted on the integrated Trampolin base board within the plinth of your Sondek LP12 to maintain phono stage isolation and improve deck suspension.

The perfect upgrade from Urika, we’ve tested Urika II in incredible detail to measure the difference it makes, and most importantly of all we used our ears to listen.

Bedrok Plinth

Bedrok™ for LP12 is the first-ever, plinth performance upgrade from Linn. Formed of orthogonal layers of beech placed under extreme pressure and heat to create an entirely new, solid and massive material, this engineered, ultra-dense wood has negligible resonance and superior acoustic isolation.

Pitch Perfect Performance

When you hear it, you’ll understand why we struggled to find a word for better-than-best. The greatest ensembles rely on the power of the collective. Klimax LP12 is enhanced by the very best Sondek LP12 components – the fruits of five decades’ worth of innovation.

Plinth Options

• Style: Standard or fluted (special)

• Standard Finishes: Oak, Cherry, Black Ash, Rosenut, Walnut

• Special Finishes: Piano Black, Alpine White or match any colour of your choice (high gloss)