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Linn players withstanding the rigors of time

It seems like the Linn players, Genki, Ikemi and model 12 are standing fast through the rigors time. These models still sell quickly and are worth at least half their list price. I notice that the CD-12 brings approx. $9K on the used market, and very quickly. Now you might say that that it cost $20K new but, the fact is that it must be a very good player to bring $9K today. This is especially significant when there is so much competition with all kinds of the "latest and greatest" technology included as well as being revised about every other time one visits their web sites.

Do these Linn players share a family sound characteristic? I would like to know the sonic differences between them if anyone has been able to listened to the trio. And also, for those that have a Linn player, how do you like it?
nealhood

Showing 2 responses by hepl

hepl
147 posts
 
Nealhood, I own both, an Ikemi and a Genki. As far as to the sound, the Genki will give you about 95% of the Ikemi
performance at half the price. The Ikemi will give you an
metal tray, and balanced output, if you have use for them,
and dual digital outputs. The owner's manual says that they share the same laser and converter. The Genki, in my opinion
is the best bet, read this month WHAT HIFI, it was chosen
overal winner in it's class. I heard an CD12 at my dealer,
it failed to convince me to pay the extra $16,400.00 over the Ikemi. If you have $9,000.00 for a use one, consider the
new Unidisk. The target price is $8,000.00, it will support
cd, dvd, dvd-a and sacd. My dealer told me it's superior to the Ikemi on cd, very close to the CD-12 on cd and it will
put to shame the CD-12 on sacd. Finally, I have owned a lot
of Linn gear, they have never failed to bring about 55% of the original cost after a few years of use.
hepl
147 posts
 
Jeff, I feel the difference is in the midrange, particulary
with acoustic recordings. On the other hand, you will only notice it on high quality cds, record quality is what I mean. Like Mikelavigne states, the difference in price between an Ikemi and the Unidisk is huge, more than double,
but the difference in sound is very subtle. Some friends of mine has gotten out of this "hobby" after spending fortunes,
and I mean that, because the difference in sound quality they got from systems costing about six high figures weren't
proportional to their previous systems. To round it up, if
were in the marked for a cd player with a 2k budget, I get
an used Ikemi. If my budget were 1k an used genki would make me very happy. One last note, as far as linn gear goes,
I have found that the people who own them really do take good care of them. Over the years I have bought used Kairns(2), Klouts(6), Keltiks(1), AV5150(2) and LK-240(4), never got a problem. All of them were in a 8/10 or better cosmetically and 10/10 operationally. Good luck.
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