Sondek LP12

Linn Sondek LP12

Linn Sondek LP12 with Ekos arm and Troika cartridge
Inception	1972
Manufacturer	Linn Products
Website	Official product page

The Linn Sondek LP12 (often shortened to Sondek or LP12) is a highly regarded transcription turntable produced by Glasgow-based Linn Products, manufacturers of hi-fi, home theatre, and multi-room audio systems. Its name is derived from the 12" vinyl LP (long play gramophone record).

Hi-Fi Choice reviewers voted the LP12 "the most important hi-fi component ever sold in the UK" and The Absolute Sound ranked it the second most significant turntable of all time in 2011. With its iconic success, Linn named their flagship CD player the Sondek CD12.

The Sondek LP12 turntable, introduced in 1972, utilises a suspended sub-chassis design and a patented tightly-toleranced single-point bearing. The LP12 has evolved since its introduction, but its basic suspended sub-chassis design has remained. At the time, the design was identical to the Ariston RD11 and similar to the Thorens TD150, both in turn based on the Acoustic Research XA turntable that was launched in 1961. The XA was created by renowned audio pioneer Edgar Villchur. The three-point "suspended sub-chassis" of the XA, using a compression spring system, was much improved upon and popularised in the LP12.

The similarities between the LP12 and the Ariston RD11 resulted in a patent case: Ariston vs. Linn, or more correctly, Fergus Fons Ltd, Hamish Robertson vs. Ivor Tiefenbrun. In 1972, the late Jack Yan Tiefenbrun filed a pair of provisional patent specifications for a simple point-contact bearing, and followed them up in June 1973 with a complete specification claiming 'improvements in, or relating to, gramophone record playing apparatus'. The application was accepted by the British Patent Office and published as BP1394611. In May 1975, following the publication of the Tiefenbrun patent, an opposition was lodged by turntable manufacturer Fergus Fons Ltd and the late William James Hamish Robertson. The patent was opposed on various grounds, including that 'what was being claimed as new, was in fact old', and that the idea was 'lacking in inventive step' over what was already known. A further ground of opposition was that the invention had been 'obtained' from Hamish Robertson, and was his original idea rather than that of Jack Tiefenbrun. Jack Tiefenbrun had formed Castle Precision Engineering (Glasgow) Ltd some 15 years earlier. Hamish Robertson had a company called Thermac in 1967, which became Ariston in 1970, and Ariston Audio in 1973. In 1970 Jack's son Ivor formed a friendship with Hamish. In 1971 Ivor made a prototype turntable with a ball bearing, and then went to Israel. While Ivor was away, Jack and Hamish changed the ball bearing to a single point bearing. Robertson's company Thermac then ordered forty of the turntables from Castle Precision Engineering Ltd. In 1971, and now operating as Ariston, Hamish showed the turntable under the model name RD11 at the Harrogate show, and set up a distribution network with C. J. Walker and Company. By the end of 1972 relations between Robertson and the Tiefenbruns had broken down. This allegedly led to a threat to Robertson that a copyright action would be brought against him if he had the RD11 turntable made elsewhere than at Castle Precision Engineering. In February 1973 Linn Products Ltd was formed to sell turntables made by Castle Precision Engineering. Robertson left Ariston, which by now had been taken over by Dunlop Westayr Ltd, and became director Fergus Fons Ltd. In the end The Robertsons’ opposition to the Tiefenbrun patent was rejected.