Sir Jony Ive, whose work at Apple revived its reputation in the 1990s and its fortunes in the 2000s, has turned his eye to an elegant weapon from a more civilized age: the turntable. His design for legendary Scottish company Linn is also very expensive: the limited edition Sondek LP12 50 is tagged "From $60,000" and you must prepurchase one of the 250 in the run. The press release follows.
Sondek LP12-50 produces the best vinyl playback performance Linn has ever achieved, alongside the immediately recognisable and iconic design language of Sir Jony Ive and his team at LoveFrom, applied in key visual and tactile interfaces.
The sonic improvement comes by way of Linn's all-new Bedrok™ plinth technology; formed of orthogonal layers of beech placed under extreme pressure to create an entirely new, solid and massive material. The consequent ultra-dense wood has negligible resonance and offers a superior isolating housing for the turntable's mechanism.
LoveFrom has applied their design expertise to the new, precision-machined power/speed control button and hinges – providing delightful and precise interaction with the turntable. Further aesthetic refinements to the classic Sondek LP12 form have been made with deep respect for the quality and integrity of the product.
The combination of performance, usability, and aesthetic improvements result in an historic piece with unrivalled sonic quality and beauty. Only 250 of these limited edition Sondek LP12-50s will ever be produced – with each bearing an embossed aluminium plaque celebrating this landmark collaboration with individual numbering.
In a blog post, Linn CEO Gilad Tiefenbrun describes how the collab came about.
At the start of 2022, I received a LinkedIn request from a sender I didn't recognise for a meeting with British design guru Sir Jony Ive. Of course, I deleted it immediately believing it was spam. However, as the day continued, I had this nagging feeling building in my stomach.
Suddenly the feeling crystallised into a thought: What if it actually is Sir Jony Ive?
Turns out, it was Sir Jony Ive.
But are the cables danceable?
