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linn THE LINNK mc phono preamp made by naim for linn from 1981

G

gerry fischer

pfm Member
i have this mc phono pre amp from the early linn/naim days.

anybody with experience with that preamp.

nice made, looks like a small naim, heavy metall case as the naim cases.
external powersupply.

THE LINNK
Moving coil cartridge pre-amp
Designed and made in England
by NAIM AUDIO LTD
for
LINN PRODUCTS LTD
1 9 8 1

Gain 57dB at 1kHz
Nominal input 100yV at 1kHz
Nominal output 70mV
Output is RIAA equalised to suit auxiliary inputs
Overload Margin 40dB
Z in 390 ohm // 7n5F
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It looks like it uses a similar circuit to the 323 boards, with the power supply mostly built into the case, except for the transformer - you can see a rectifier bridge and some regulators at the back.

The tantulum caps (blue beads), and the electrolytics (maroon cylinders, and big pale blue one in supply) will surely be at the end of their lives, and will want replacing by now.
 
Go to the Naim Forum and use the 'Search' facility to get a bit more info. View there, in summary, is that this was intended for LP12 owners who weren't prepared to stretch to the price of Naim's NAC12 and that it would be a waste of dosh to spend too much now on having it brought up to spec.
 
graham55 said:
Go to the Naim Forum and use the 'Search' facility to get a bit more info. View there, in summary, is that this was intended for LP12 owners who weren't prepared to stretch to the price of Naim's NAC12 and that it would be a waste of dosh to spend too much now on having it brought up to spec.
Click to expand...

i really do not see it like that. this mc phono preamp was not cheap i can tell you.

you still have phono preams produced and they are not cheap as well.

so i see it as a little fine mc amp for the lp12 if you had already an amp which you like but not ready for an mc equipped turntable. with the linnk you could link a sondek to that amp.

it´s a very rare piece of early linn naim history and apprechiated by myself.
 
It is, of course, your prerogative to disagree. And I've never heard the unit. Have you?

But the point made on the other Forum is that the cards used were a 'shoe-horned' version of the then current Naim 323MC boards, that the supporting electronics, etc, were below Naim's then standard, and that the separate power supply was way below what Naim produced then.

So, if those points are correct (and I don't know if they are), might it not just be better to pick up a cheap NAC12, or whatever, rather than spending money on bringing this back to life?

Of course, I don't know if Naim still support the Linnk these days in any event.

Graham
 
graham,

i new of the linnk´s existance - it is also listed in the linn timeline of products.
i don´t know what has to be remade, i haven´t tried it till now.
of course i will not invest a lot of money into it, i just like to have this amp as a part in my linn naim collection.


gerry
 
Gerry, I simply have no idea of what the thing is capable of. I just wanted to make you aware of what people who do know about it think where it stands in the overall scheme of things.

Spend as much, or as little, as you think fit. And I hope that it brings you joy in any event!

Graham
 
No reason why it shouldn't give a Naim Stageline a good run with some fresh caps - I'll bet the circuit is virtually identical.
 
Robert said:
No reason why it shouldn't give a Naim Stageline a good run with some fresh caps - I'll bet the circuit is virtually identical.
Click to expand...

B*llocks: the tiny power supply just isn't up to it.

Or have you heard it and are in a position to say otherwise?
 
graham55 said:
B*llocks: the tiny power supply just isn't up to it.
Click to expand...

Actually with a local regulator on each channel it may should be a step ahead of 323 cards used inside a NAC (which run of a single rail shared with the buffers etc...) ..and I woudln't be surprised if it does give the Stageline a good run for it's money.
 
graham55 said:
B*llocks: the tiny power supply just isn't up to it.

Or have you heard it and are in a position to say otherwise?
Click to expand...

Up to doing what exactly?

You can run a Stageline off anything from the inbuilt supply of some Naits, the little iSupply, a NAPSC. and go up the ladder as/if you see fit.
 
It would be interesting to see the Linnk's schematic. At a glance it looks like it only has 4paralleled transistors on the input. I think there are some good reasons to suppose 5 is too many...


Paul
 
We should be able to estimate what the supply noise is like, from the visible parts.

From memory, a 323 circuit draws about 30mA (please correct and scale answers as need be), so two channels will draw 60mA. The main reservoir cap 3300uF; this means the voltage on it will fall at I/C = 18V/s. For 100Hz (from the full wave rectifier bridge visible), this means the ripple will be 0.18V. The 317 is presumably set up to give 24V out, and should give at least 60dB of rejection - maybe 80dB if the adj pin is bypassed. This means the ripple at the regulator output is at worst 180uV, and maybe as little as 18uV.

Now, the Naim stage designs have about 40dB PSRR, so this means that contamination in the second stage will give somewhere between 1.8uV and 0.18uV; this is at worst 90dB below the nominal 70mV output level, which should be negligible.

Noise injection into the first stage is more serious, as there is so much gain, especially at low frequencies due to the RIAA boost. However, the 323 circuit incorporates a built in amplified zener regulator for the first stage, and I think I can just make out those parts on this board. If present, if should knock the residual noise down by a big enough factor to solve the problem. If not, then the PSU will be marginal.
 
It looks like it might well be very good.

It was sold as a solution for those who had quite good preamps but without one of those new fangled moving coil inputs to enable them to use the newly develpoed Linn Asak.

Looks like a standard 323 cards but with a proper pair of regulators and no decoupling cap, quite like the recommended teddyreg application to a single naim circuit stage.

No reason why it would need a large power supply really, I reckon it would sound a lot better than a pair of internal cards or a stageline without a dedicated supply if it was serviced.

They cost about 70 quid when they were available and a whole Naim 42 was only about £200 then.
 
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