It is LoveFrom, the design studio of Jony Ive, former Chief Design Officer of Apple, collaborating with Linn, a world leader in cutting-edge home audio technologies based in Scotland, to create a revised and limited edition of the Sondek LP12 turntable to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

“At the start of 2022, I received a LinkedIn request from a sender I didn’t recognise for a meeting with British design guru Sir Jony Ive. Of course, I deleted it immediately believing it was spam. However, as the day continued, I had this nagging feeling building in my stomach. Suddenly the feeling crystallised into a thought: What if it actually is Sir Jony Ive? I then spent the next 15 minutes figuring out how to retrieve a message from Trash in LinkedIn, before arranging a FaceTime meeting via a personal assistant with what turned out to be the real Sir Jony Ive.” writes Gilad Tiefenbrun, Director of Engineering at Linn, on the company’s official blog, recounting the story behind the collaboration with Ive. He continues saying that the conversation took place about a week later. During it Jony Ive showed admiration for Linn and its products, particularly the latest Klimax LP12 and Klimax DSM, “which he was considering purchasing”. Ive, Tiefebrun explains, said that if Linn ever needed help with a project, LoveFrom would be happy to be involved. I replied, “Next year is the 50th anniversary of Linn and the Sondek LP12 turntable. “The next morning I received an email from Jony expressing his desire to help Linn design a special edition of the Sondek LP12 to celebrate Linn’s 50th anniversary”. 

Handcrafted with meticulous attention to detail, the Sondek LP12-50 turntable features an anodized Sideral Grey tonearm and offers the best vinyl playback performance ever achieved by the Scottish company. The sonic improvement is achieved through the new Bedrok plinth technology, which consists of layers of orthogonal beech wood that have been subjected to extreme pressure to create a new, solid and massive material. The resulting ultra-dense wood has negligible resonance and provides superior isolation for the platter mechanism.

LoveFrom has proposed a new visual and tactile interface, updating the hinges, power button and speed controls in machined aluminum to provide a pleasant interaction with the turntable.

According to the information provided on the Scottish company’s official website, this limited edition will see the production of only 250 units, which will be delivered until stocks run out, with a choice of natural or white lacquered wood finishes, from August 2023 to March 2024. Each turntable will feature an embossed aluminum plate with an identifying number. The starting price is expected to be £50,000, which is just over $58,000.