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Hard times for Linn

The likes of Linn can only milk the cow so far from the customer base they built in the 1970s and 80s.

There would be some market from the Chinese and Russians aspiring to own 'luxury western goods' to keep things afloat - how long that will last I don't know.

The younger demographic here are not interested in hifi, and Linn has shown no interest in them.
 
The likes of Linn can only milk the cow so far from the customer base they built in the 1970s and 80s.

There would be some market from the Chinese and Russians aspiring to own 'luxury western goods' to keep things afloat - how long that will last I don't know.

The younger demographic here are not interested in hifi, and Linn has shown no interest in them.
The same thing could be said about many hifi companies not only Linn.
 
The same thing could be said about many hifi companies not only Linn.

Well considering this is a thread about Linn, I put focus on Linn and not say ... Musical Fidelity or Roksan.

You only need to jump on Linn's website to see the kind of image they wish to project. But not all people aspire to become 40-plus white middle class wine drinkers.

Of course, Ivor and Gilad will blame Brexit rather than themselves.
 
Yeah, but they're not Linn (or Naim) who plenty like to put the boot into round here!

At least Naim have products under the £1k mark such as the Mu-so to open the doors to a wider demographic, but even so to many this is excessive for a bit of home audio, and that the old-duffers on the internet tried to condemn such product.
 
At least Naim have products under the £1k mark such as the Mu-so to open the doors to a wider demographic, but even so to many this is excessive for a bit of home audio, and that the old-duffers on the internet tried to condemn such product.
Dunno why Linn stopped producing the one-box Sneaky DS a couple of years ago. That was about £750 last time I looked. I use one in the kitchen / lounge with a pair of Linn bookshelf speakers and it sounds pretty good to me.

But as you suggest, probably too expensive for most folks when I expect you can buy a lot of Sonos for under a grand.
 
Well considering this is a thread about Linn, I put focus on Linn and not say ... Musical Fidelity or Roksan.

You only need to jump on Linn's website to see the kind of image they wish to project. But not all people aspire to become 40-plus white middle class wine drinkers.

Of course, Ivor and Gilad will blame Brexit rather than themselves.

I don’t think they will. I believe they are big leavers.
 
Dunno why Linn stopped producing the one-box Sneaky DS a couple of years ago. That was about £750 last time I looked. I use one in the kitchen / lounge with a pair of Linn bookshelf speakers and it sounds pretty good to me.

But as you suggest, probably too expensive for most folks when I expect you can buy a lot of Sonos for under a grand.
They haven’t, it’s still available. It was never £750, I think it was £950 on initial release, it’s £1015 now, so a pretty cheap entry to Linn streaming considering you only need to add speakers.

I think the Majik DSM is pretty solid VFM too, they reduced the price from £2995 to £2495 a little while ago, you’re effectively getting a Majik DS (currently £1990) and Majik I (about £1800 when it was discontinued) in the same case, with the added benefit of digital inputs on toslink, coax and HDMI... plus the ability to upgrade to Exakt if you so wish. It’s an often overlooked product but I bought an earlier ex dem model for my parents a few years back, it’s a great product.
 
@Anh people were posting your comments what 20 years ago? Clearly you know little of Linn’s business. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
There are plenty of people with cash to splash around the world. Why people have bitch about the cost just because they can’t afford it... perhaps I should go on a few Ferrari and Porsche forms and bitch about their price.
Frankly the Linn bashing on this forum is getting tiresome and mostly ignorant. People slagging off a successful products and company probably says more about them than it does about Linn.
 
I think the Majik DSM is pretty solid VFM too, they reduced the price from £2995 to £2495 a little while ago, you’re effectively getting a Majik DS (currently £1990) and Majik I (about £1800 when it was discontinued) in the same case, with the added benefit of digital inputs on toslink, coax and HDMI... plus the ability to upgrade to Exakt if you so wish. It’s an often overlooked product but I bought an earlier ex dem model for my parents a few years back, it’s a great product.

It's excellent. We have one with a pair of 109s at our flat.

Mick
 
Thanks for correcting me ref price.

The Linn website says it was ceased in 2017, replaced by the Sekrit DS:
https://docs.linn.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Sneaky_Music_DS

Audio Affair and Peter Tyson both have it listed as available at £1015. Linn did discontinue non DSM models but later reversed that decision and reintroduced them (I thought it was commercial suicide to discontinue them in the first place).
 
It's excellent. We have one with a pair of 109s at our flat.

Mick
Yes, cracking setup that and actually pretty affordable in the grand scheme of things. You do have to buy everything in go being an all in one setup which would have been a painful wait whilst I saved up for a 16-18 year old me (I was able to swing a Majik I at 16 and had a complete Linn setup by 18 because I was able to buy it in bits), but you are getting a comprehensively featured and great sounding system for your money.
 
Dunno why Linn stopped producing the one-box Sneaky DS a couple of years ago. That was about £750 last time I looked. I use one in the kitchen / lounge with a pair of Linn bookshelf speakers and it sounds pretty good to me.

But as you suggest, probably too expensive for most folks when I expect you can buy a lot of Sonos for under a grand.

Something at the sub £1k range while 'Made in Glasgow' would not be very profitable I don't think, and the Linn faithful would sneer at it, so I am not surprised Linn scrapped it - there's nothing in it for them?

Let's keep milking those old midlife crisis cows, until the very Klimatic end.
 
It's not wildly off the mark that Linn customers today are well into their mid 50's and 60's, when their hearing and age takes its toll, Linn and many other high-end manufacturers of niche product will suffer from drop in sales and upgrades.

OTOH, car makers have made great efforts to maintain appeal to younger demographics with sporty entry-level models coupled with attractive PCP finance. Elder more wealthy 'enthusiasts' shoot for lofty limited edition cars as investment pieces rather than drive them, a bubble that some fear will let go. Climate change politics will create challenges for the performance car market and resale values.

Ask a 20/30 something year old person/couple if they heard of Linn, or even aspire to own any of their products, I'm 99.5% certain they wont know what you are talking about. Ask them about Bose, Sonos, Beats and Sony, to them these are 'aspirational' brands and not too far off reach. For now, a Korean branded soundbar will do the job for a fraction of the price and without all the salesman/plant snob flatearth mythology to sour the experience of house audio.
 


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