Linn CD 12 One of the absolute best CD Player

Innovative Audio is one of New York’s leading High End Audio store. Located on Manhattan’s East Side ( 150 East 58th Street) in the A & D Building. Innovative Audio has always been dedicated to providing their clients the best sounding (and performing) audio components available.

This listing is for the Linn CD 12.

This is a watershed iconic component that is still very capable to provide an incredible
level of CD playback performance.

This CD 12 rarely comes up for sale but here is one in excellent form.

Universally acclaimed, see all the following comments:

"The CD12 is the best player I've ever heard, and the one I want to listen to every day." - Stereophile

"The Sondek is perfect in every measurable way...You'd think the musicians were in the room with you...stunning" - Audiophile

"The CD12 had such a profound impact on my system...Even my wife mourned its departure." - Ultimate Audio

"I decided I couldn't part with the Linn CD12 player after spending several months listening to it...you haven't heard what's on your CDs until you have listened to them on the CD12...the CD12 simply is the finest CD device available." - Positive Feedback

"The CD12 sings like no other CD player I've ever heard, and the next best doesn't even come close...nothing on the market can match this level of performance" - Listener Magazine

"Instrument textures have a harmonic rightness I associate with a microphone feed or analogue master tape."
- Fi Magazine

"the level of transparency was amazing...we were transfixed...the CD12 sounds fantastic, even in a very modest system" - Audiophile

"This is the best truly the best CD player in the world! The perfection of CD playback technology." - Audiophile

The Linn Sondek CD12 is the first and only CD player with a research budget of over £ 1,000,000. Just over 1,100 were sold.

Linn called the player Sondek CD12, partly because it was comparable to the high-end defining Sondek LP12 transcription turntable, partly because it plays 12 cm discs and partly because it weighs 12 kg. It also cost £12,000. This is not some average CD player wrapped up in a piece of sheet metal in order to fashion a box. The Sondek CD12 4D Transcription compact disc player is one of the most original and exquisite pieces of hifi design ever. Books could be written about all the details of this innovative design. The satin-anodized high-tensile pure aluminium ingot case took a day to machine from solid, and isolates the mechanism from vibration and electrical interference.

The CD transport is also made of aluminium (not plastic or steel).

By tapping the chrome CD tray you can perform Open, Close, Play, Stop and Next operations. The remote has all the usual other controls.

The CD12 has all sorts of advanced features. For instance, the display has five modes: track number, time into track, time to end of track, time into album, time to end of album. When in either of the 4 time display modes you can type the time you want to go to within the track, for example, go to 14 minutes and 37 seconds before the end of the album.

The most innovative feature is the jitter elimination performed by digital signal processors and software.

Plays CDs and HDCDs.

"Nothing I subsequently listened to came close...everything else you listen to will absolutely not cut it...is the Linn CD12 that good? Absolutely."

"The CD12's ability to reproduce the finest in musical subtleties is unmatched by any other player I've heard." - Audiorevolution

"a future classic...a product that will be venerated decades from now as the pinnacle of CD playback." - Absolute Sound

"magical in its ability to captivate musically...no source has been missed as much in our demo system" - Absolute Sound

"Beautifully designed and built like a tank, the CD12 distanced itself musically from all former reference CD players" - Stereoplay

"Immediately you sense greatness...a thing of beauty. So clean, so uncluttered, so perfect." - Hi Fi News

"I consider the CD12 to be one of the most remarkable 'real world' diagnostic tools for the difficult, sometimes mysterious, talk of learning about the hidden complexity of recorded sound." - StereoTimes

"amazingly at reproducing the texture and grain of individual instruments, voices and sounds...far more than any other CD player...the CD12 hangs all the elements in the mix into a wide, expansive frame with an almost architectural precision... It's awesome. It's stunning. It's incredibly lifelike." - HiFi World

"the Sondek is without peer." - Absolute Sound

"The CD12 sounds even better than top-notch SACD players" - Audiophile

"is void of the synthetic reproduced sound that CD playback has been plagued with since its inception."

"the CD12 is about communicating the expression and feeling that are somehow locked away as digital bits on pieces of plastic." - Fi Magazine

Comes with the Linn remote.

Cosmetically it is is near mint condition except for a tiny corner ding on the bottom left faceplate.

It was a traded in unit from one of our long time clients. It was sent back to Linn who completely
checked it out to spec and installed a new laser assembly. It is good to go for many years.

This will come with an Innovative Audio one year warranty.

Photo is stock.

No original box but will be well packed

Specifications

Digital outputs: one BNC with Linn "sync link"; one AES/EBU balanced XLR; one ST optical; one TosLink optical.
Analogue outputs: two pairs of unbalanced RCA; one pair of balanced XLR.
D/A conversion: four 20-bit Burr-Brown PCM 1702U-K DACs.
Digital filter: Pacific Microsonics PMD-100 (8x oversampling).
Frequency Response: 5Hz-20kHz @ +/- 0.2 dB
THD: 0.0017% @ 1kHz; 0.0017% 10 Hz - 20 kHz.
S/N: better than 108 dBFS, 22Hz-22kHz, unweighted.
Channel separation: better than 120 dB @ 1 kHz. Max. output: 2V RMS. Output impedance: 200 ohms unbalanced, 300 ohms balanced.
Dimensions: 12.5" (320mm) W by 3.125" (80mm) H [including feet] by 14" (350mm) Weight: 26.4 lbs.

Buyer pays for shipping.

We will ship only to the US. Wire Transfer and a cleared check is accepted.