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Linn Selekt LP12 turntable

Linn Selekt LP12

Few high-end products are quite as iconic – or should that be ikonik? – as the Sondek LP12 turntable, seen here in its Linn Selekt LP12 guise. First launched in 1973, Linn pushed the then-crazy notion of ‘auditioning’ audio equipment. There have been myriad upgrades to the LP12 in the last 49 years. This keeps the turntable at the pinnacle of performance.

Today, there are 25 different components to pick from in building or upgrading your LP12. Linn also provides curated turntables three configurations. Think ‘good’ (Majik), ‘better’ (Selekt, replacing Akurate) and ‘best’ (Klimax). Two of the most significant improvements to these turnkey solutions centre around the Linn Selekt LP12. This now features a wholly new Arko arm and Kendo cartridge.

Linn Selekt LP12: Major Steps Forward

The Arko is a major step forward. While updated numerous times, the Akito arm it replaces is a child of the 1990s. Which makes the original Akito arm older than the designer of the Arko, Linn’s new armfant terrible, Frank Murray. Having been under the wing of former Senior Product Design Engineer David Williamson, the Arko is Murray’s first solo project. And Linn let him run free! This gimballed arm is the tonearm stripped to its very basics and built from scratch. It can do that because we can machine aluminium to tolerances unknown just a few years ago.

Linn Selekt LP12 close-up Arko arm

Arko is a simple design, with a single-piece tapered aluminium armtube and integrated headshell. The gimbal bearing sits across a U-shaped bearing housing. The user’s interaction with the arm is limited to setting the counterweight and the correct amount of anti-skate. The Arko uses a dial like the Akito, which doubles as the armrest. Automation consists of a lift-lower arm. Simple can be a polite way of saying ‘cost reduction’. In this case, it’s more like Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

The art of Kendo

This arm is also optimally designed for the two new cartridges in the Linn Selekt LP12 line, and in particular, the Kendo moving coil. Clearly named after the 1970s British Professional Wrestling star Kendo Nagasaki (real name, Peter Thornley), the Linn Kendo is a nude moving coil cartridge with a boron cantilever and a super fine-line diamond tip. This is a very different prospect from previous Linn moving coils, with a balance less pitched toward the bass and more neutral than what we are used to from the Glasgow-based company. The cartridge comes with a stylus guard, but don’t use it; instead fit the lid and remove it when you want to play music. That way, you are less likely to trash the cartridge while trying to fit the stylus guard.

Modern Classic

The rest of the turntable is modern classic mid-point LP12. The Linn Selekt LP12 uses the latest iteration of the Lingo power supply, which is now a foot-long rectangular power supply feeding an on-board speed control for the AC motor. It uses the Kore machined subchassis and armboard, the Karousel bearing (found in all new LP12s) and the Trampolin surface-ignoring baseboard. All of these are upgradable to Klimax standards, either in one big hit (Radikal and DC motor in place of the Lingo, a Keel instead of a Kore, Urika II and its phono stage for Trampolin, and of course the Ekos SE arm and new Ekstatik cartridge) or in stages. These upgrades more than double the cost of the Selekt LP12.

Linn Selekt LP12

Set-up and installation are absurdly easy with a Linn Selekt LP12 because you don’t do any of it! Part of the deal is that a trained Linn dealer will build or rebuild the turntable in their workshop, then install it in the listener’s room. The dealer will show you how to remove the outer platter and support the bearing and arm for travel. A good dealer will also pride themselves on the quality of the bounce; one finger on the platter mid-way between spindle and arm bearing and everything connected to the Kore will happily bob up and down for a few seconds with no play or being out of true. They will also teach you the series of button pushes and presses needed to move from 33 to 45 rpm and back again.

The A-Team

In talking to enthusiasts about the Linn LP12, everyone has an opinion on its sound. And every one of those opinions was forged when The A-Team was the most popular thing on TV. Things have moved on and although the LP12 has been in production for the last 49 years, that was then, and this is now. This is not your dad’s ‘Fruit Box’.

This is a very crisp, fast and precise sound, retaining all of the ‘bounce’ and ‘timing’ that made the Linn LP12 so hugely popular a few decades ago. However, with that precise timing comes a clean and dry sound that echoes the performance of the Selekt DSM streamer. That this sound only has a passing similarity to what went before is a bonus today. We’ve moved on from that cosy familiarity and want a sound that is detailed as it is fun. The Linn Selekt LP12 does ‘detailed’ and ‘fun’ like they were going out of fashion.

I played a powerful piano work: Alexander Toradze playing Stravinsky’s ‘Shrovetide Fair’ from Petrushka [EMI]. When people say ‘piano is difficult to render on good audio’, this is the sort of music they are thinking of. It’s a powerful composition that needs a pianist of great skill and dexterity. And any weaknesses in the signal chain are easy to hear as a result. This shows the difference between that impression of the Linn sound and the sound of the Linn Selekt LP12; the former would make this a little woody, a little soft around the edges and pull out the rhythmic aspects of the piece. While a good approach in itself, there’s a lot more to this work.

Linn Selekt LP12: Just A Bit More

In reality, this was a hard listen, as it should be; dynamic, complicated, pushing everything to the limits, and exciting enough to make you want to play it again. The softening, warming and rhythmic strengths we expect from the LP12 were still there, and the Selekt is still the same musically insightful deck it has always been. Just a bit more, and making it more in line with today’s audio equipment.

Linn Selekt LP12 Kendo close-up

There’s something in the top-end Klimax DSM streamer that filters down to the Linn Selekt LP12. It’s a sense of blood-pressure lowering refinement. We are so often forcing a demonstration with discs that are either demanding or impressive; the Linn Selekt LP12 plays left and right-brain music with equal energy. Play something a little more ‘chill’ (I went right back to ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ from The Orb’s U.F.Orb [Big Life]) and your heart rate slows and you effortlessly drop into a sort of alpha wave/mindfulness state. This is the precise reason the album exists, and achieving that state of ‘chillax’ faster is a sign of something good.

Because of the way the LP12 comes pre-installed, teasing out individual aspects of the upgrades are difficult.. It’s easier to think of comparing this as a complete unit to other complete turntable-playing devices. However, the great thing about the Linn Selekt LP12 changes (as a unit) is that while they are a force for good, they don’t change the fundamentals.. Instead, they just improve the middle-range LP12 perfomance in every respect. It’s a cleaner, clearer, faster, detailed, accurate sound that’s also a lot of fun to hear, with no downsides unless you want to just keep replaying 1985.

Hypnotik

I made a joke earlier about the Linn Kendo being named after Kendo Nagasaki. But the wrestling star was claimed to have supernatural powers. They included hypnosis. So does the Linn Selekt LP12. When armed with a Kendo cartridge, it does act hypnotically. You are drawn ever deeper into the music and put in its thrall. That’s the key point of the Selekt LP12; whatever you listen to, you listen deep and captivated. Yes it can play in the background but you will find yourself bringing that music to the foreground instead.

Adding new parts to an old turntable could be a mistake. They could show up the limits of the deck, they could upset the balance, or they could just fail to gel. In this case, the Selekt LP12 shows there’s still a lot of potential performance in the LP12. It’s still an insightful, enjoyable and most of all relevant turntable in today’s high-end systems. And it also works perfectly in the context of a Linn system too! If you had an LP12 back in the day, you owe it to your records to hear what it can do now. And if this is your first Linn Sondek rodeo, there’s no better place to start!

Linn Selekt LP12: Technical specifications

  • Type Suspended turntable with 12v asynchronous AC motor, external power supply, supplied with arm and cartridge
  • Turntable body Sondek LP12 turntable with Karousel bearing
  • Sub-chassis Kore aluminium sub-chassis bonded to a machined-from-solid armboard
  • Baseboard Trampolin suspended aluminium base
  • Power supply Lingo hybrid internal/external PSU
  • Arm Arko 7075-grade aluminium gimballed tonearm
  • Cartridge Kendo nude MC cartridge
  • Plinth standard or fluted
  • Finish Oak, Cherry, Black Ash, Rosenut, Walnut (as standard), Piano Black, High Gloss White or match any colour of your choice (high gloss) to special order
  • Dimensions (W×H×D) 44.5 × 14 × 35.6cm
  • Weight 13kg
  • Price £10,570 standard finish including Arko arm (£3,000) and Kendo cartridge (£2,800)

Manufacturer

Linn

www.linn.co.uk

+44(0)141 307 7777

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Tags: LINN LINN ARKO LINN KENDO LINN SELEKT LP12 LP12 MOVING COIL CARTRIDGE SELEKT SONDEK TONEARM TURNTABLE

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