The Linn Sondek CD12  is one of the very few players in the world that “gets it right”. Linn are extremely proud of the Sondek, indeed the word Sondek in Linn’s eyes represents something unique a once in a lifetime product, indeed only the LP12 launched back in 1972 has ever shared that title

Weighing in at well over £10,000, the Linn Sondek CD12 is far from cheap but Linn has put together a package that is so musical and accurate all round. Critics (many of whom never thought 16 bit audio could sound so good) were amazed at what information the Linn Sondek could extract from a shiny 12cm disc. One of the secrets of the Linn Sondek CD12 like the earlier and much cheaper Linn Karik, is Linn’s solution to CD jitter. Linn’s approach is to send clock timings to the transport from the DAC, something that is only possible if you manufacturer your own transport systems. Sadly the majority of companies tend to buy off the shelf and build a DAC and player to suite. The biggest problem with this is that these transports have no inward bound clock communication and so vital information and timing is lost before any digital information reaches the DAC. Yes the DAC can be synchronised with the transport via PLL in the SPDIF, but this can cause latency which is not ideal.