Jony Ive Linn turntable design debuts, replacing plastic with aluminum… for $60K

An email initially rejected as spam led to a partnership that has seen a new Jony Ive Linn turntable design, as part of the high-end British audio company’s 50th anniversary celebrations …

Linn has long been considered a somewhat polarizing audio company, for two reasons.

First, the company has a reputation for dogmatism, insisting that there are only two ways of doing things: the Linn way, or the wrong way. (Remind you of anyone?)

Second, during a time when hifi reviewers and audiophiles were increasingly relying on objective measurements to compare audio systems, Linn argued that the only equipment capable of judging which system is better is a set of Mk I human ears.

The approach we suggest when doing an A/B comparison is to listen to component A, then listen to B. If one sounds better, buy it. We have always said, “If it sounds better, then it is better.”

Jony Ive Linn turntable design

The company’s first-ever product was the hand-built Sondek LP12, a turntable it still sells today, with prices ranging between £3,700 ($4,750) and £25,000 ($31,000).

Jony Ive’s LoveFrom design consultancy has designed a special edition of this, the LP12-50.

Linn CEO Gilad Tiefenbrun said that the project almost didn’t happen, as he assumed that the email from one of Ive’s team was spam.

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?

I then spent the next 15 minutes figuring out how to retrieve a message from Trash in LinkedIn, before arranging a FaceTime meeting via a personal assistant with what turned out to be the real Sir Jony Ive.

Ive was unhappy with two plastic components, and swapped these out for aluminum ones.

Jony called me to discuss their suggestions, initially focussing on improvements to the plastic hinges and speed control / power switch […]

Over a series of meetings, we worked through a range of design options for new, precision-machined metal hinges that would make the dust cover ultra-responsive to the user, and for a new, circular, machined-from-solid aluminium power switch.

The design proposal also included curved edges on the top plate and arm board to mirror the new power switch’s curves, as well as a new lid badge.

The result was the Sondek LP12-50, in a limited edition of 250, and a doubling of the price to a cool £50,000 ($60,000 plus tax).