Linn Owners

Challenges Linn Have Faced This Past Year?

Paulssurround

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This has been a difficult and challenging year for everyone because of Covid, and Linn and its competitors are no exception.

‘I was thinking about all the potential issues Linn has had to face this past year, and the list is a bit daunting: 

-Covid 19 has caused a lockdown of the factory, preventing production for a few months. Some employees have been furloughed or working from home, making it difficult to produce products, repair products or continue to do research and development on new Linn products.

-Parts suppliers have stopped production for a period of time, making it hard to source everything from speaker cabinets, finishing speaker cabinets, sourcing various parts required for assembly and so on.

-AKM which supplies the Katalyst DAC’s for Linn’s Katalyst products had a major fire in Japan, and may be out of action for up to a year, while they rebuild the factory.

-Brexit has made international trade with the EU much more complicated.

‘-One of 2 main suppliers of vinyl for record production has burned down, leaving only one company supplying vinyl to the record manufacturers. This leaves one main vinyl plant in Japan.

-‘Linn personnel have not been able to travel around the world to promote their products at Linn dealers, HiFi shows or do training for the sales force that sells Linn at the stores.

-Many Linn dealers were forced to close their brick and mortar stores temporarily, while adhering to Covid restrictions, making it difficult to do in store demos.

.

-On the positive side, Linn sales have done remarkably well, as people entertain themselves while they are staying at home due to Covid restrictions. This has resulted in significant sales for Linn products as people upgrade their HIFi systems.

-Linn released the Karousel bearing for the LP-12 just before Covid restrictions were put in place, and has been a resounding success for Linn.

-Here is wishing the best for Linn, and all of us,  in the coming year, as the vaccines are rolled out to the public

‘What do you think?

 

sunbeamgls

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Mar 19, 2011
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Its a good list Paul, one that many companies have had to deal with and for far too many it has been their last year of trading, its very sad and there will be more to come, particularly with Brexit on top of Covid.  Linn have done well to keep going and I hope they can continue to achieve that.

They have also upped their presence on social media massively - Facebook, Twitter and with their online sessions either from the factory or in collaboration with dealers. Plus we've had Ripcaster in the UK delivering quite a few on line sessions - for me these have built their brand significantly.

Small point Paul, there is no such think as a Katalyst DAC. There is an AKM DAC that is part of the Katalyst circuit design ("architecture" in Linnspeak).

 

Nestor Turton

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It has been a dreadful 12 months for everybody. I definitely want Linn and other great companies to keep going. The new Series 3 is  a nice product. I can imagine buying one to improve TV sound then adding a second and then a centre and then some rears. It is a nice hassle free way to build a good sound system without the need to throw anything out (I mean trade-in, sell on). 

I wonder if Linn has thought about creating its own DAC. It already uses a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA for its digital signature processing so it has the skills on board to develop a virtual DAC within a FPGA. A possible long term solution if its preferred DAC chips are in short supply. There are technical challenges beyond programming with FPGAs though, but I’m sure Linn could address those. 

[SIZE=14.399999618530273px]Let’s hope for a better year for everybody. In the meantime I think I’ll play [/SIZE]

image.jpeg

 

Paulssurround

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Here in Belgium there are not that many Linn dealers! Although found a good one in my own town. 

I really hope that it not comes even more difficult (and €...) to buy Linn stuff.

LD
Good to hear you have a good Linn dealer nearby.

Hopefully Linn can grow their base in Belgium, Spain and other counties in Europe 

Its a good list Paul, one that many companies have had to deal with and for far too many it has been their last year of trading, its very sad and there will be more to come, particularly with Brexit on top of Covid.  Linn have done well to keep going and I hope they can continue to achieve that.

They have also upped their presence on social media massively - Facebook, Twitter and with their online sessions either from the factory or in collaboration with dealers. Plus we've had Ripcaster in the UK delivering quite a few on line sessions - for me these have built their brand significantly.

Small point Paul, there is no such think as a Katalyst DAC. There is an AKM DAC that is part of the Katalyst circuit design ("architecture" in Linnspeak).
It certainly has been a challenge on every level for companies that manufacture goods this past year.

‘Linn seems to have done a lot of the right things to sail through these rough waters.

You are right of course, but ‘I always refer to  it the Katalyst DAC because it is easier to describe than the Katalyst circuit design and integration of the power supply, which is the more complicated part of the process of design.

It has been a dreadful 12 months for everybody. I definitely want Linn and other great companies to keep going. The new Series 3 is  a nice product. I can imagine buying one to improve TV sound then adding a second and then a centre and then some rears. It is a nice hassle free way to build a good sound system without the need to throw anything out (I mean trade-in, sell on). 

I wonder if Linn has thought about creating its own DAC. It already uses a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA for its digital signature processing so it has the skills on board to develop a virtual DAC within a FPGA. A possible long term solution if its preferred DAC chips are in short supply. There are technical challenges beyond programming with FPGAs though, but I’m sure Linn could address those. 

[SIZE=14.399999618530273px]Let’s hope for a better year for everybody. In the meantime I think I’ll play [/SIZE]

C394702C-D534-4C57-B7F3-14F16F9BD7BF.jpeg
I asked Gilad about Katalyst when he visited here , and he said the wonderful thing about the AKM DAC is that FPGA is perfectly suited to Linn’s purposes for programming and it is one of the quietest DAC’s available at the time.

 

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