Linn · Sondek LP12
Long-form notes on the Sondek LP12 from Pearl Audio's LP12 technicians: what the parts do, what they cost, and how we build and upgrade the deck in Portland.
Linn names its parts after nothing in particular and spells them its own way. Every name you will meet on an LP12, past and present, in one place, with the year it arrived.
Fifty years of verdicts from the people who review turntables for a living, in one short page: Hi-Fi Choice, The Absolute Sound, Stereophile, What Hi-Fi? and Hi-Fi News.
Linn marked the Sondek’s fiftieth year with 250 decks designed with Jony Ive’s studio. The plinth they introduced is now a part any LP12 can have, and we built one of those 250 for a customer here in Portland.
Linn makes five cartridges for the LP12, one moving magnet and four moving coils. What separates them, how long a stylus lasts, and which one belongs on which arm.
Linn makes two power supplies above the Majik: the Lingo, which keeps the AC motor and manages its speed, and the Radikal, which replaces the motor with a DC one and watches the platter directly. Which one your deck wants.
Linn does not sell the LP12 as a finished object; it sells the parts and relies on the dealer to make a turntable of them. What a setup involves, why it takes hours, and why Linn insists on it.
A suspended turntable travels badly unless it is prepared. How to move an LP12 across town or across the country without bending anything, and what to do when it arrives.
The serial number inside the plinth, and a look at the power supply and bearing, place any Sondek LP12 in its era and tell us what it needs first. Here is the map.
An LP12 does not drift out of tune on its own, but its springs, grommets, belt and oil do age. What the specialists suggest, the signs a deck is due, and what our $650 service covers.
The plate under an LP12 has gone from hardboard to a rigid aluminum board to a suspended one. What each does, how Linn got there, and how to choose, including the cases where the plain Solid Base is the better answer.
An LP12 outlives other turntables because its heart is a part. On many turntables the bearing you bought is the bearing you keep; on an LP12 it is a $1,300 part, and the current one is the best Linn has ever made.
A Klimax LP12 built five years ago is still a reference deck. Five parts have arrived since: the Bedrok plinth, the Ekstatik and Kendo cartridges, and the Klimax Radikal and Keel SE of 2025.
The deck we see most from Linn’s twentieth-anniversary years still has a fine arm and a good power supply. What the Karousel, the Kore and the Radikal add, at three budgets.
A fifty-year-old LP12 whose owner wants it playing records, not rebuilt. It is not $650 or nothing: a belt or a stylus on its own, the $650 full service we recommend for a deck this age, or the service with one upgrade.
Every Sondek LP12 since 1972 takes today’s parts. The order we fit them in, what each costs, and when a new Majik LP12 is the better buy.
A complete Sondek LP12 for $5,440, against $7,796 in parts, and what happens to that saving when you add the Lingo and the Kore.
Pearl Audio has been a Linn dealer since 2006. Call (503) 222-2599 or email sales@pearlaudio.com to hear an LP12 in our Portland showroom.
