Linn Sondek CD12
Linn built the Sondek CD12 for the 25th anniversary of the compact disc. It wasn't a badged existing player. They built it on the chassis of the LP12 turntable, suspension and all. The thinking, according to the designers, was that the same isolation that protected vinyl playback from vibration would work just as well for digital circuitry. Keeping digital noise away from the analog stage reportedly drove the design so far that the unit would have needed two chassis to fully separate the sections.
Audio magazine (October 1999, p.38) listed the CD12 among the CD players of note that year, and the design choices were genuinely unconventional for the time. As Audio magazine noted in its October 1999 player survey (p.38), the CD12's listing included a hybrid conversion type. Instead of a conventional CD transport, Linn used a Panasonic CD-ROM drive mechanism, paired with separate DACs for each channel and DSP-based digital filtering. It was a limited edition from the start — Linn explicitly called it a limited quantity product — and it carried appropriately stratospheric pricing: £12,500 in the UK and $20,000 in the US, depending on market.
The Stereophile review of the period was complimentary. It described the CD12 as a beautifully engineered product that sounded clean, clear, and dynamic. That's about as far as the documented record goes. No production run figures, no measured specifications like frequency response or signal-to-noise ratio, and no servicing history have surfaced in the sources available. It was expensive, rare, and built on the bones of one of the most respected turntables ever made. Hi-fi corner notes that CD12s rarely appear on the second-hand market, which, given the limited production and the price, is not surprising.
Known specifications, such as they are documented:
- CD player, designed for the 25th anniversary of the CD
- Chassis derived from the Linn LP12, using the same suspension
- Panasonic CD-ROM drive mechanism
- Separate DACs per channel
- DSP-based digital filtering
- Limited edition production
- Original price: £12,500 (UK) / $20,000 (US)
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