Linn · Glasgow since 1973 · At Pearl Audio since 2006
Linn, as a complete system.
Linn makes every link in the chain in one factory outside Glasgow: the turntable and the network player, the amplifiers, and the loudspeakers. Each can be bought on its own, and each is designed to be brought up to date rather than replaced. This is how the pieces fit together, and where to begin.
- 1973The Sondek LP12, still in production
- 2007Klimax DS, the first Linn network player
- 2013Exakt
- 2006Linn at Pearl Audio
The Linn system
Three parts, and two ways to join them.
A Linn system is a source, amplification, and a pair of loudspeakers. What sets it apart is the choice of how they are connected: by Exakt Link, where the music stays digital until it reaches the drive units, or by analog cable, the way hi-fi has always been wired. Most of what Linn makes will do either, and a system can move from one to the other later.
Exakt Link
One network cable from the player to each loudspeaker carries the music and the master clock. The crossover is done in software inside the loudspeaker, and each drive unit has a converter and an amplifier of its own. In an Exakt Integrated loudspeaker such as the 343 or 360, all of that is inside the cabinet. An LP12 joins through the Urika II phono stage, which sends the record down the same kind of link.
Analog
The player converts the music to analog and sends it to a power amplifier, which drives a passive loudspeaker through the crossover inside it. It is the familiar arrangement. It lets a Linn source play through an amplifier and loudspeakers you already own, and it is how an LP12 with a Urika or Uphorik phono stage connects to any system.
Where the music starts
Source
Linn has held since 1973 that what is lost at the source cannot be put back later. There are two: the Sondek LP12 for records, and the DSM network players, Selekt and Klimax, for streaming and every digital input. A DSM is also the system's preamplifier, and it carries Space Optimisation, which accounts for your loudspeakers, where they stand, and the room around them.
In one of three places
Amplification
Linn amplification takes three forms. A Selekt DSM can be ordered with its amplifier built in, so one component is the whole system short of loudspeakers. The Klimax Solo 500 and Solo 800 are mono power amplifiers for passive loudspeakers. And in an Exakt Integrated loudspeaker the amplifiers are inside the cabinet, one for each drive unit.
Passive, or Exakt
Loudspeakers
The 119 and the 150 are passive loudspeakers for any good amplifier. The 343 and the 360 are each offered two ways: Passive with Active Bass, where the loudspeaker powers its own bass and your amplifier drives the rest, and Exakt Integrated, where an Exakt Link cable and a power cord are all each loudspeaker needs.
Linn at Pearl Audio
Set up by the people who know it.
Pearl Audio has been a Linn dealer since 2006 and is a Linn Reference Level dealer. John Loranger and Russ Sherrell build and service the Sondek LP12 in our own workshop, and have each done so for more than a decade. Russ and Connor configure the DSM players, Space Optimisation and Exakt in your room.
Linn's way is to upgrade rather than replace, and that is how we look after a system: an LP12 from 1973 or a Klimax DS from 2007 can be brought to the current specification, usually one step at a time.
Go deeper
Linn, page by page.
SourceThe Sondek LP12
The turntable Linn began with, and the one we build most. Its history, how it works, the three complete decks, every part, and our workshop.
Explore the LP12
TechnologyExakt
What changes when the signal stays digital all the way to the loudspeaker, what it asks of the rest of the system, and how an existing system gets there.
Read
Since 1973History and technology
Fifty years in Glasgow: source first, the Klimax DS, Space Optimisation, Organik, and a company that still builds each product by one pair of hands.
Read
Pearl AudioLinn in Portland
Linn at Pearl Audio since 2006: what we carry, who sets it up, and how to arrange a listen.
Read
Hear it in Portland
Bring the music you know.
Tell us what you listen to and what you own now. We will put a Linn system together around that in one of our two listening rooms, and take the time it needs.
Or call (503) 222-2599 · sales@pearlaudio.com · 1038 NW Johnson Street, Portland