Absolutely! My favourite (from an aesthetic perspective) is the original Rega RB??? with the detachable headshell on a wooden framed plinth.

Delignit https://www.delignit.de/en/application ... ducts.html manufacture just one of a range of timber laminated materials used to make pinblocks for pianos.

Here’s an interesting take on the Panzerholz type materials as used for piano pinblocks

https://cooperpiano.com/all-pianos-are ... the-piano/

Steinway make theirs out of 21 layers of beech, maple and bubinga. https://steinway.co.uk/what-makes-a-st ... -pinblock/ Since the pinblocks are about 1.5” thick, the layers end up being about 1.75mm thick.


The curved sides of a grand piano are laminated too. The Yamaha plies are 5mm thick, so there’s a lot more wood than resin.

What does all this mean for sound quality, and is a laminated material a good choice for a turntable plinth? I’ll let you decide!

Spannko wrote: ↑2023-07-08 14:20 Absolutely! My favourite (from an aesthetic perspective) is the original Rega RB??? with the detachable headshell on a wooden framed plinth.
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I have one sitting in my basement that I recently repaired. It is a good look but beware that the anti-skate can break with age and I don't know of anyone who can fix it.

First off I am surprised by the $60,000 price as I was told it was going to be $50,000. That's double the current price for an interesting new plinth, power switch, hinges and a handful of cosmetic touches. I was informed that the Keel is only different cosmetically, not musically, and that from the head mechanical engineer (who is 23, not 19). As the Karousel. platters, Radikal/2, Ekos SE/1, Ekstatik, Urika (1 or 2), suspension, etc. are the same (apparently new color on the Urika) that leaves the plinth, power switch, hinges and looks as the only differences.

Yeah, I'm on the fence about the look. The front angle that you would most often view the table from doesn't look bad. From directly above, however, I am also not a fan of the rounded corners on the top plate nor on the Keel. I find the curve of the power switch and the one of the top plate to appear just enough different to be disturbing. The switch itself looks nice and I'm sure it has a nice feel but I think a square one that would fit in existing units would be just as good. However, I understand the switch is mounted to the new plinth so that might not work. At least they didn't round the corners of the Klimax Radikal nor the actual plinth. But my first impression is that the other rounded corners remove some of the iconic look the LP12 has had for 50 years. The hinges appear to be really cool though.

As to the plinth, Panzerholz is a registered trade name so technically Linn are not using Panzerholz. However, a number of companies make compressed wood products that are pretty much the same except in name. I understand that Linn experimented with the resin to wood ratio to get what they are looking for. So whatever name you want to use it is pretty much Panzerholz (which is what I was told). In some photos it looks like most Panzerholz that I have seen (Clearaurio had used it for some time in some of their cartridges and in some plinths, although the plinths normally have aluminum top and bottom). But my first impression in March was a more reddish cast to it which is what it looks like in some of the photos but not others. Another wait and see. I understand that close to half of them were pre-sold, with the rest only available by signing up through the form on the Linn website. So it seems like there is reasonable demand. I look forward to working on one and seeing what it will do.