Today, a turntable price of $7000, while not exactly cheap, can't be called stiff. What happened between then and now…
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In the April 2000 issue of Stereophile, I reviewed SME's Model 10, which was an attempt by that storied company to produce an "affordable" turntable. I described the Model 10's $5500 turntable-only price—about $7600 in today's dollars—as "stiff." (At the time, the Model 10 cost $5995 with SME's M10 arm, or $8250 with their IV.Vi arm.) But 16 years later, the same Model 10 costs only $5000 ($7000 with the more recent Model 10 arm, which is superior to the M10) (footnote 1).
SME 309 SPD tonearm: Problems
Though the design of the 309 SPD—and that of SME's entire line of tonearms—has been refined over the years, it remains essentially unchanged from the company's first Series 300 tonearms of the late 1980s: After the cartridge pins themselves, between the headshell's cartridge-pin clips and the cable that goes to the phono preamp, there are three breaks in the signal path: an additional set of pins, at the back of the headshell; the connection between the headshell and armtube; and the connection between the DIN socket at the base of the tonearm pillar and the…
Though the design of the 309 SPD—and that of SME's entire line of tonearms—has been refined over the years, it remains essentially unchanged from the company's first Series 300 tonearms of the late 1980s: After the cartridge pins themselves, between the headshell's cartridge-pin clips and the cable that goes to the phono preamp, there are three breaks in the signal path: an additional set of pins, at the back of the headshell; the connection between the headshell and armtube; and the connection between the DIN socket at the base of the tonearm pillar and the…
For reasons that have as much to do with why the creek does or doesn't rise as anything, almost all the UK-manufactured electronics I've reviewed over the years were from dCS of Cambridge. Through 2023, no electronics from Linn or a host of other UK-based companies have crossed the threshold of my music room.
That situation changed when, soon after New Year's, a pair of Linn's 60lb Klimax Solo 800 monoblock amplifiers ($90,000/pair) arrived from Scotland. Right away, they delighted me with their ease of maneuverability, handsome, uncluttered look, and relative compactness. Given their…
Other engineering goodies
I asked Roscoe how much power the Klimax Solo 800 outputs in class-A before switching to class-B and if the number fluctuates with the ohm rating of loudspeakers. "By controlling bias current at the optimum value, the Klimax Solo 800 suffers far lower distortion than an amp which operates in class-A up to a higher, more arbitrary power level. I would therefore say that the changeover power level from class-A to class-B is not relevant for the Solo 800 because you will simply not hear it.
"We've thought about each stage of the amplifier, paid lots of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state, class-AB, monoblock amplifier with 2kW Utopik power supply, 20A IEC connector, and Adaptive Bias Control. Inputs: one each balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA). Output: One pair Furutech 4mm FT-816(R) banana/spade binding terminals. Passthrough: One single-ended (RCA), one balanced (XLR). Rated output power: 400W into 8 ohms, 800W into 4 ohms (both equivalent to 26dBW), 1.2kW into 2 ohms (24.8dBW). Nominal gain: 26.6dB unbalanced, 22.6dB balanced. Bandwidth: 150kHz into 8 ohms, 140kHz into 4 ohms, 130kHz into 2 ohms, –3dB. Output…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock, and Rossini Transport; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC, Meitner MA3 Integrated DAC; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server; Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and sPS-500 power supply; Finisar FTLF8519P3BNL and Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 fiberoptic modules; Nordost QNet switch and QSource linear power supplies (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed a complete set of measurements on one of the Linn Klimax Solo 800s (serial number 1593390) with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I preconditioned the Solo 800 by following the CEA's recommendation of running it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the temperature of the top panel was just 81.6°F (27.6°C) and that of the side-mounted heatsinks only slightly higher, at 89.0°F (31.7°C). The Linn amplifier runs cool, especially considering its high rated power.
The Linn amplifier's balanced and…
Manufacturer's Comment
We are thrilled with Stereophile's verdict on the Klimax Solo 800. Jason's considered words acknowledge the innovation and hard work that have gone into development of this new flagship amplifier, in a new category for us at Linn.
John Atkinson's verdict based on his measurements is also graciously received. However, the charts published differ significantly from our own repeated measurements here at the factory. Linn's working assumption is that the model measured by Stereophile was not performing to the level of a current, full-production Solo 800. We have…
FollowUp, from Stereophile June 2024 (Vol.47 No.6):
When I measured the Linn Klimax Solo 800 for Jason Victor Serinus's review in the May 2024 issue of Stereophile, I was very impressed by what I found. I concluded, "The Linn Klimax Solo 800's measured performance is one of the best I have encountered, offering very high power with extremely low levels of noise and distortion. Wow!"
However, as you can read in their Manufacturer's Comment, Linn felt that, as good as the measurements were, the Solo 800 should have measured even better. They sent me some graphs that the company's…
I counted more than 40 audio products in the big MoFi Distribution display in the Schaumburg B ballroom. How to cover such a cornucopia? Making my job easier was that only eight of them were hooked up and ready to play. The others were there to be oohed and aahed over, perhaps prodded and poked, but they’d (re)produce no music at the show. Makes sense. If you value your hearing, and your sanity, you can’t have multiple systems playing in a room all at once. Plus, many of these products could be heard elsewhere at the show—just head upstairs.
So, I admired the look of the retro-…