CEDIA 2013

Linn is celebrating nearly 40 years in business, and the original turntable the company produced – the Sondek LP12 – was designed with the philosophy that any information lost at the turntable – the source – was lost. It didn’t matter how good the amp or the speakers, if the information was lost, it was unrecoverable. To celebrate the company’s 40th Anniversary, they partnered with Highland Park to create a very limited edition Sondek LP12 that is crafted from the solid oak casks used to mature Highland Park whisky. There will only be 40 of the turntables made, and each will include a bottle of 40-year Highland Park, also limited to just 40 bottles.

Linn also displayed its new Exakt systems, a technology that turns the loudspeaker into an intelligent, connected, software upgradeable product with the tagline, “The source is in the speaker.” With Exakt, Linn feels they can now preserve the 24-bit studio master all the way to the speaker for the first time, bringing jitter down to a mere 6 picoseconds. (That’s a decimal point followed by 11 zeros.)

The technology creates a direct digital link from the studio to the speaker and is “the most direct connection ever made between you and the artist.” By using digital correction and time alignment in the speaker’s crossover, they are able to create a more faithful reproduction of the recording and push the lossless digital path all the way to the speaker.

Exakt technology also corrects for the variations in every single drive unit, ensuring that each speaker sounds exactly as it is supposed to. The technology also enables the installer to optimize each pair of speakers to every client’s individual listening room/environment.

Linn demonstrated the technology with the company’s Limited Edition Sondek LP12 and Klimax Exakt 350A loudspeakers and Klimax Exakt DSM source digital preamp. Coming soon with be a new separates system which will allow Exakt technology to work with existing Linn speakers. Sadly, no 40-year single malt was available for tasting. Even though I asked. Twice.