Linn LP12-50 at Martins Hi-Fi

Here at Martins Hi-Fi our goal is to bring joy, our endeavours we hope, elevate your experiences with your music, films and radio. Accommodating such joys requires us to service all kinds of customers with a huge variation of musical taste, equipment, rooms to listen in and, of course, expectations.  

This week marks a highly anticipated moment, an installation of the new LP12 50th Edition for a dedicated music lover. Our client treated himself to this pinnacle turntable after a brilliant experience with his previous LP12 and a burgeoning record collection to warrant the investment!

Getting to the point of installation is of course the moment we have all been looking forward to. However, procuring such a specialist item (even from one of our closest suppliers) was an interesting challenge.  This deck is only being made in very short number (a total of 250 worldwide) and securing our order and in the desired finish was our first success.

As with all Linn LP12’s, the deck was delivered to us in component pieces, our responsibilities then fall to our experienced technicians to build and temper the deck so that it performs exquisitely. 

This turntable is undeniably an LP12, as was the intention of its redesign by the much-lauded Sir Jony Ive and his ‘Lovefrom’ design house. Yes, many of its lines and details have been smartened, rounded and are altogether more ergonomic, and yes, the experience of using the 50th edition has slightly changed. The Lid for example, certainly moves with more authority and the re-designed power button has that tactility we would expect from a legend of Apple design.

You would be forgiven then, for thinking that this turntables update is purely aesthetic moreover ergonomic. Yet upon the opening of its redesigned packaging (are we sad for finding even more Joy in this?), we became acutely aware of its major component redesign – The Bedrok plinth. It is substantial, with its orthogonal layers of beech, which create a massively dense and inert housing for the LP12 mechanics. It is heavy, far heavier than an original LP12 Plinth and it accommodates mountings for the components in new ways. Partnered with existing but proven technologies (Keel, Ekos SE, Ekstatik, Radikal - to name a few) the Bedrok promises an audio upgrade Linn has been working on for a while, but how does it sound?

Well, upon firing the turntable up for the first time in our demo room; brand new cartridge, cold electronics, what was presented to us was an incredibly coherent and subtle presentation. To our relief it didn’t wow but soothed, was unrushed and unflustered - something that we are always looking for in very high end musical playback... But then we love the ‘Klimax LP12’, already a supremely capable deck, we would probably describe it in very similar ways. The really interesting part was when we finally installed the turntable in situ within the customers system. 

Bearing in mind that our client had been thoroughly enjoying his Klimax LP12 and using it daily - You could argue he understood its abilities with his record collection far better than we ever could. Thus, once the installation was complete and we were back off to the shop, we very quickly  started recieving feedback of disbelief, at the additional level of detail and refinement in an ever widening soundstage -of records he knew intimately being shown in a brand new light atop the LP12/50. He described the performance of the turntable as 'freight train better' than the Klimax - some high praise. So the rediscovery of his records begins again as more and more information and performance is retreived, we hope it brings many hours of listening joy!

View the LP12-50 online at Martins Hi-Fi