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Linn Products Urika II phono stage

Linn Products Urika II phono stage

Recently, we looked at the Linn Lingo 4 power supply, which transforms the Akurate-level LP12 turntable. It was formed from many of the concepts used in the top Klimax-grade Linn Sondek LP12. Technically, there’s not a lot to improve on that top-of-the-tree turntable, with its Radikal DC motor, high-precision Ekos arm, Keel subchassis, Kandid cartridge, and Urika phono stage all offering substantial (and upgradable) improvements over the Akurate LP12. Or so it seemed at the start of the year…

Powered by the Radikal supply, the Urika phono stage is built into the Trampolin base board of the top version of the deck. It takes a feed straight from the arm base and outputs a line-level RCA single-ended or XLR balanced output to an amplifier. Increasingly, however, Linn is racing away from the traditional, and the matching Klimax DS vinyl replay system no longer features any form of analogue input (the DSM version does have a line-level pathway, but even here it only features one set of XLR connections). The logical move for Linn, then, is to digitise the phono stage – and so the Urika II is born.

, Linn Products Urika II phono stage

Linn has no plans to remove the original Urika from the line-up, and both the standalone Uphorik phono stage and the MM stage built into the Majik DSM show no sign of disappearing anytime soon. But when it comes to users of older Klimax systems, the move to the Uphorik II allows a touch of box liberation. Many Linn users have Klimax Kontrol preamps from the last decade, which have become increasingly vestigial as they moved into network streaming. However, very few – possibly no – Klimax Kontrol user will have bought the Klimax DSM vinyl replay system because the line-and-phono functions were handled by the Klimax Kontrol. If the turntable is the last analogue source you will ever own, the Urika II effectively signals the end of that need, and the need for the Klimax Kontrol. It’s sell or trade-in time!

Here’s why. The Urika II connects directly to that Klimax DS that you were hitherto using as a streamer. The Kinsky app you used to navigate through your music now also acts as a digital source selector and volume control. The Klimax DS now connects directly to your power amplifiers (or in the case of a full-blown DS system, Linn Klimax 350A loudspeakers), and now you have a system that is potentially all digital from the cable hanging from the arm-base to the cables leading to the drive units. Linn’s pithy ‘the source is in the speakers’ statement doesn’t quite hold here – the source remains in the record deck, but is kind of elongated throughout the whole system – but it does take some of the analogue heavy-lifting out of the equation.

The Urika II effectively makes the Linn LP12 an almost-exclusively Linn product. That’s not an oxymoron; the Urika II gets its power feed from the Radikal supply (no problem there) but the A/D process relies on the more up-scale clocking system found in the DS product to which it is connected, rather than its on-board timing board. Technically, you could skip the Linn DS product and simply use the TOSlink optical cable (which is provided as a recording digital out for those wanting to perform a few needle-drops, or archivists), but I think the nature of that output is governed by the timing accuracy of the Linn DS system. This is why the ‘sort of elongated throughout the whole system’ line is not just a throwaway. The ‘almost’ part of its Linnsclusivity is that the Urika II can be used with a number of different, extremely good, moving coil cartridges that are not in the Linn camp, most notably models from Benz, Denon, Dynavector, and Lyra. Linn’s Akiva, Kandid, Klyde, and Krystal are also included, although the classic Asaka, Karma, and Troika models are not.

 

Frankly, I think this is a good compromise. While there are many Linn users who are welded to their Troika MC cartridges, many of those cartridges are 30+ years old. More importantly, many of those Troikas sit in ‘preserved in aspic’ systems that are also 30+ years old. These listeners are often extraordinarily passionate music lovers who have their deck serviced religiously every few years, but they jumped off the upgrade path decades ago and a digital phono stage that connects to a network streamer is never going to figure in their world.

If you look to the technology in the Urika II, it’s possibly best to look at what went before first. Typically a phono stage applies an amplifier to the cartridge load, then introduces an RIAA filter network and often some form of analogue-domain rumble filter to that amplified signal before passing the line-level output to the preamplifier. The original Urika deconstructed this phono stage design into four distinct phases: gain plus the first RIAA pole, the second RIAA pole plus a zeroed RIAA reference, followed by a two stage rumble filter. This helped preserve the integrity of the original signal, but it was still compensating for the LP in the inherently noisy analogue domain, which is a problem when you have a low-output source like a moving coil cartridge.

Urika II moves most of the process (second RIAA pole, rumble filtering) out into the digital domain. The gain+1st RIAA pole is still performed in the analogue domain, but essentially that first pole is all about the low-frequency boost, so it’s the least likely aspect of the equalisation process to add noise. In addition, from listening tests A/D-converting phono stages that introduce all of the RIAA curve in the digital domain seem more noise-laden than the Urika II, because there is less gain applied in the analogue domain.

, Linn Products Urika II phono stage

Installation is easy. A dealer who has been trained in the dark art of Linn setter-uppery will do it for you. And any Linn dealer who could install an Urika will be able to install an Urika II. It’s effectively a swap.

The big question is ‘does it work’? It has big shoes to fill because many Linn owners consider the Urika to be the pinnacle of phono stage development, and that model already produces an extremely low-noise performance. Naturally, at this Lofty Linn Level, it’s best auditioned in a ‘komplete’ Klimax system, with a Klimax DSM allowing you to switch between Urika and Urika II. This poses some logistics problems, in that you either need two decks (in which case, is the difference in the cartridge, or the set-up) or a deck with two baseboards and either a custom arm plug with two sets of outputs or hot-swapping arm plugs. We went for the one-deck/two-baseboards approach. You’ll probably do the same, which means roadshows and special events at dealers. Attend them!

This is an easy demonstration. Three immediate things hit you when comparing Urika with Urika II; greater accuracy, more detail, and an almost complete absence of noise. As those are the big bonuses when trading up to the Urika, it’s clear the Urika II steps up the game substantially. All the main aspects of the Urika performance are retained, and most of them are improved. But those big three hit home and hit home fast. You aren’t drawn to one of those three aspects of performance, and the others unveil themselves over time; all three hit you at once and then the rest of the more subtle improvements join in. As with the Lingo 4 tested in the last issue, ‘It’s All Right With Me’ by Marty Paich Big Band [The New York Scene,Discovery LP]was a key indicator of this performance boost. There are a lot of short rests in the music, interleaving with the dynamic percussion and brass section stabs. Those rests were better defined, more in tune and time with the music, and whisper quiet.

The ‘tl:dr’ (“too long: didn’t read”) headline here is ‘if you like the Urika, you’ll want the Urika II.’ But, not everyone likes the Linn sound. If you look for something more ‘lush’ or ‘full’ in the midrange, or more ‘rich’ in the bass, other phono stages are available. On the other hand, those who go after accuracy don’t tend to use terms like ‘lush’ and ‘rich’ and Linn – and its followers – would contend that the Urika II’s detailed and clean presentation goes for accuracy over sonic fireworks. I think the Linn sound is extremely detailed and accurate, and as a complete system it excels at temporal and timbral accuracy. Spatial and dynamic accuracy are not secondary concerns, but because of its centres of excellence in a system that actively (pun intended) tries not to impose its own character on the sound, I can see how this comes across as ‘dry’ sounding.

I’m of two minds here. Intellectually I agree with Linn, and the detail and accuracy of the Urika II (and, for that matter, the Urika) are beguiling and make you want to listen to more records. The temporal accuracy also puts the LP12 on a new level, improving it in all the ways it improved over other decks all those years ago. It kept a good beat, and keeps an even better one now. But in some respects, I also want that rich sound with a big soundstage, too; it might not be right, but it sounds so seductive that ‘right’ can take a back seat. On balance, however, the detail, the timing, and the atomic-clock like precision win.

 

If you look up the phrase ‘Urika 2’ in Google, you not only get information on the Linn phono stage, but about a Beretta semi-automatic shotgun, which is very popular among clay pigeon, skeet, and trap shooters. The urge to say something like ‘Linn’s Urika II outguns its rivals’ is too hard to resist. For good reason – the Urika II is a hard act to follow.

, Linn Products Urika II phono stage

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  • Moving coil (MC) internal phono stage for LP12
  • Connections: XLR input for power supply, 2x RJ45 Exakt link connectors, TOSlink optical digital output
  • Supported cartridges: Linn: Akiva, Kandid, Klyde, Krystal. Non-Linn: Benz Micro Ace S, Denon DL103, Dynavector DV20x, Dynavector XV1S, Dynavector XX2 Mk2, EMT JSD 5, EMT TSD 15 SFL, Lyra Argo, Lyra Delos, Sumiko Celebration Pearlwood II, Van den Hul ‘The Frog’
  • Note: Requires Exakt-enabled Linn DS or Linn DSM player and Linn Radikal turntable power supply
  • Price: £2,750

Manufactured by: Linn Products Ltd

URL: linn.co.uk

Tel: +44 141 307 7777

Tel (UK Freephone Only): 0800 001 5111

https://hifiplus.com/reviews/

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