Recently in Reviews & Awards Category

Leading specialist hi-fi magazines in Germany have been raving about Linn's new Majik DS-I player and the world of Linn DS.

Stereo: 'UNIFICATION...Majik DS-I combines what the Streaming Generation has always been waiting for, a top integrated amplifier and an outstandingly musical network player...No comparable product comes close...It has to be heard to be believed...Value for Money: Sensational. 5 Stars.'

Audio: 'With gapless playback, support of even the highest sampling rates and an ever increasing number of additional functionalities and control solutions, Linn's DS platform - based on open software and interface standards - has been virtually without competition since its launch in 2007...Majik DS-I is one of the greatest...It offers a sound quality that even season reviewers rarely experience...Verdict: Outstanding. Reference Class. 5 Ears.'

stereoplay: Majik DS - 'sonic high-altitude flights guaranteed'; Akurate DS - 'without competition in its price class'; Klimax DS - 'the measure of all things digital'; 'At the end of this extensive DS group test we can say to the very best of our knowledge and belief: Linn are the definite upgradeosophs. With Cara you get more information and a bit more colour. For more musicality, expression, intonation, phrasing, power and rhythm you've got to have Dynamik'

Contact your Linn specialist to hear Majik DS-I.

Read more on the stereoplay, Audio or Stereo reviews.

...and not forgetting the world of analogue, here's a killer LP12 / Radikal / Urika review from LP magazine earlier this year.

Top German hi-fi magazines, Audio, Stereoplay and Stereo, are unanimous in naming the new LP12 SE with Radikal and Urika as the new reference standard for analogue record players.

Here's what they had to say:

Audio: '...World-class sound from a record player that actually looks like a turntable, that sports legendary reliability and will be serviced in decades to come - the LP12 is all you can wish for, and don't you pay more...Radically ingenious - it marks the very top of all turntables we have ever test...'

Stereoplay: '...The new LP12 plays in a class all of its own...There can only be one verdict: sole reference...'

Stereo: 'a sidereal hour in record playback...The Radikal/Urika LP12 literally outacts our reigning reference turntable, the 'old' LP12 SE...Simply magnificent!'

And for the Urika, some special praise from Audio: '...no doubt one of the very best pre-amps in the world...Slightly better than even our current reference, the Naim Superline + Supercap...'

Following our recent nomination, Linn are delighted to announce that we have won the Critics' Award at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards for 'Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41', recorded by Sir Charles Mackerras with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The Critics' Award, which was decided by a panel of distinguished media figures, was presented to Sir Charles by Classic FM's David Mellor. ‘Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41' beat competition from Paul Lewis' ‘Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol.4' and Gerald Finley and Julius Drake's ‘Schumann: Dichterliebe & Other Heine Settings'. Sir Charles Mackerras, pictured below, was also nominated in the Male Artist of the Year category.

This award will be added to an already-crowded mantelpiece, which features: Disc of the Year 2009 and Orchestral Award 2009 from BBC Music Awards 2009, Album of the Year 2008 from Le Monde de la Musique Choc de l'annee Awards, Orchestral Disc of the Month from BBC Music Magazine, G Star - Recommended from Gramophone and Album of the Year (Symphonic Works) from Midem Classical Awards 2009.

Listen to samples of the award-winning tracks for free, or purchase and download the full Studio Master album, from http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-mozart-symphonies.aspx.

 

 

 

Sir Charles Mackerras pictured with Linn Records' Caroline Dooley and Philip Hobbs, and with Linn Products' Ivor Tiefenbrun. 

Linn recently received fantastic coverage in the FT How to Spend it magazine, in an article about high quality downloads.

 

David Cheal writes, ‘And for audiophiles, many of whom have hitherto taken refuge in the warm glow of vinyl, there is now the prospect of music that is better than CD quality, but which, tantalisingly, has the breadth and depth and detail of a studio master tape. The superior download has arrived.’

 

‘Of course, this music must be heard on proper equipment to get the benefit of all this extra digital information...

 

‘…a demonstration of Linn’s Klimax digital streamer…was similarly stunning. I heard a song by jazz singer Claire Martin in three formats: MP3, CD and Studio Master. Each was a huge step forward but the Studio Master version was sensational…I wasn’t listening to a hi-fi system, I was listening to pure music. Breathtaking.’

 

‘…what’s certainly true is that this is not just another niche area being colonised by equipment-fetishists and knob-twiddlers: it’s about hearing the music as it was meant to be heard, in all its detail and warmth, as naked as the day it was born.’

 

FT How to Spend It, UK, 8^th May 2009.

Linn were recognised in the WEKA (formerly Motorpresse) Awards Ceremony in Munich this year with Product of the Year Awards for Sneaky Music DS and Classik Movie.

Sneaky Music DS picked up the Most Innovative Product of the Year (Audio) and Classik Movie won 1st prize in the integrated cd/dvd player category (Stereoplay).

These awards were voted for by readers of German specialist magazines Audio, Stereoplay and Video/HomeVision, with over 40,000 votes received in total.

Thanks to everyone who voted for their favourite Linn products.

Respected Specialist Audio publication, US-based Stereophile, is the latest audience to be stunned by the musical, room-filling sound of our Majik 109 bookshelf loudspeaker.

Robert J. Reina declared, ‘I first cranked up the Majik 109s during my annual Christmas Eve seafood and wine feast…the medieval carols…were reproduced by the Linns in organic, silky, holographic, and uncolored verisimilitude.

'I found myself staring at the speakers, awestruck at their realism, which forced me to pay attention.'

‘One of the 109’s strongest qualities was that music emerged from the speakers in an effortless, linear, organic fashion at all frequencies.

‘With a bookshelf speaker this small, one concern is always the quality of the bass reproduction. Not a problem with the Majik 109…Through the Linn, Warren’s [Dejohnette] bass had the ideal blend of wood, warmth, snap, and sustain, and every note sounded complete: rounded, unblunted, and uncolored, with plenty of heft in the bottom register.

‘In all my 25-plus years of reviewing, I have never heard any other speaker at any price whose high frequencies sounded more natural than those of the Linn Majik 109. With every recording I played, the highs were detailed, pure, uncolored, and extended, with plenty of top-octave air. That purity was so far beyond what I’ve heard from other speakers anywhere near the Linn’s price that it seemed as if I were listening to master tapes through the Majik 109s, but hearing only second-generation dubs through all those other speakers.

‘The Majik 109 was a wonderful speaker for comparing the techniques of different jazz drummers…The reproduction of every thwack of Nelson’s mallets had just the right amount of hardness and thunk, along with gorgeous shimmering decay.

‘My percussive obsession with the Majik 109 was driven by its flawless reproduction of high-frequency transients.  Each was lightning-fast, with no trace of overshoot or hardness, and the 109 paradoxically revealed tons of HF detail in the hairier transient passages while simultaneously retaining the laid-back “background” quality of the highs.

‘I was thrilled with every minute I spent with the Linn Majik 109. It’s an attractive, affordable, well-made bookshelf speaker with a level of high-frequency reproduction that far exceeds everything near its price.'

Read the full review here or see the May 2009 issue of Stereophile, available to buy now.

Linn Records’ 'Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41' by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, has received two nominations from the prestigious Classical Brit Awards.

 

Sir Charles Mackerras has been nominated in the Male Artist of the Year category as well as for the Critics' Award, along with the SCO, for this highly-acclaimed recording.

 

The results will be announced in a dazzling ceremony on Thursday the 14th May at the Royal Albert Hall and will be broadcast the following week on ITV1.

 

Read full article on Linn Records website

 

Linn Records’ ‘Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41’ by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras has won the Orchestral Award and the Disc of the Year Award at the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Awards.

 

The Orchestral Award was decided by a public vote whilst the recording was selected Disc of the Year from the final 18 nominations by the BBC Music Magazine Jury.

 

Read full article on Linn Records website.