Classik Music discontinued!

[sommerfee]

Rumor has spread that the successor will be a Classik Movie without Movie, means: Same housing etc.

So one "brick" less

[Music Lover]

And with a "DS" instead I guess

[Broccoli]

And with a "DS" instead I guess

Not according to the rumour I heard.

[ThomasOK]

We have been told by Linn that the current Classik Music will stop production within the next month or so. A critical part is no longer available so Linn can only make a limited number and have enough spare parts for repairs.

Linn knows the importance of this product and will replace it with a new Classik Music that will share cosmetics with the Classik Movie. They expect to have it ready by sometime this spring but expect that they will run out of the current stock before the new one becomes available.

There has been no word on the price of the new version but I would expect it to go up to somewhere between $2200 and $2500US although that is purely a guess on my part. I would certainly think that Linn could take the Classik Movie pull out 3 channels of amplification, Dolby and DTS processing and video and be able to knock $1000 to $1500 form the price.

Arcam has just done something similar by taking their Solo Movie and removing the processing and 3 channels of amplification to make the Solo movie 2.1. It still plays DVDs and has a subwoofer output but only handles two channels. It sells for $2499US - $1000 less than the Solo Movie 5.1. I certainly don't see any reason Linn can't do something similar.

[Ceilidh]

Thank you for the info!

Do you think this means the Classik will bump up a notch or two in performance? I've been told the Classik Music is close to the original CMS, and since then we've had the CMS Di and then the 2005 Classik Movie (which some have said incorporates some Unidisk technology) -- so perhaps the new Classik Music will be a decided step up?

All best!

-C

[ThomasOK]

I would certainly expect that the new Classik Music will perform better than the current model. The CD player in the Classik Movie 05 is superior to the Genki which is better than one in the Classik Music. I would certainly hope that the CD playback would be of the same level as the Movie 05. Since the 05 is also powered by a switch mode power supply I would think that it would likely be used rather than the transformer in the current Music giving a further performance improvement. It is also likely that the preamp and amp stages are better (I never actually tried that comparison) so the overall performance is likely to be a fair bit better.

All speculation on my part, of course. But I can't see Linn coming out with a new Classik Music (08?) that doesn't outperform the current one.

[Ceilidh]

...The CD player in the Classik Movie 05 is superior to the Genki which is better than one in the Classik Music. I would certainly hope that the CD playback would be of the same level as the Movie 05...

Thank you, Thomas(!)

Between this latest news and what you report about the Majik-I, does Linn now have a viable entry-level strategy? :D

I've heard people lament the demise of the entry-level LK line, but the latest Classik Music already sounds pretty nice (e.g., my Classik's amplifier section seems roughly on par with the LK-85 I had briefly (though the LK-140 was a different league entirely!), and I've been advised that a Kolektor wouldn't be much of an upgrade over the Classik's preamp section....). So perhaps the new Classik Music will on its own exceed the performance of the old entry-level Genki/Kolektor/LK85 combo?

As for future upgrades: with the Classik Music CD section now bumping up above the Genki, could one proceed with
1) new Classik Music first
2) then add the Majik-I
3) then replace the Classik entirely with the Majik-CD?

Or is this too much a violation of source first?

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts: is there now a reasonable entry-level Linn path; and if so, is this one that would work for your customers?

Thanks for your comments, and please have a great weekend!

-C