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Linto(唱頭放大器)
直接交連精準聲音前置擴大機。是懷念塑膠唱片的音響迷的最終音源組件選擇。為了紀念及慶祝 Linn Sondek LP12 LP唱盤 25 周年而推出的機種。
表面安裝電路減少干擾、雜訊感應、內部元件交連、顫噪聲以及無線電穿透
採用 Linn Brilliant SMPS 科技的超靜電源供應器防止電源雜訊或震動
兩種增益設定選擇，可配合低和較高輸出的動圈式唱針使用
<詳細介紹>
類型： 動圈式前置擴大機
聲音輸入： 1 對鍍金 RCA 聲音插座
聲音輸出： 2 對鍍金 RAC 聲音插座
輸入電平： 高增益設定額定 150 V，低增益設定 480 V 輸入阻抗：-150 歐姆 // 4.7 nF
增益： 高增益 64 dB @ 1kHz (x1600) - 低增益 54 dB @ 1kHz (x500)
最大輸入： 1kHz 高增益峰值 6.7mV - 1kHz
Linn Linto Phono Pre-Amplifier
Surface mount circuitry minimises interference, noise pick-up, inter component coupling, microphony & radio breakthrough
Super silent power supply with Linn Brilliant SMPS technology provides immunity to mains noise or variation
Choice of two gains settings so it can be used with both low & higher output moving coil cartridge
Type:
Moving Coil Phono Preamplifier
Audio Inputs:
1 pair of Gold Plated RCA Phono Sockets
Audio Outputs:
2 pairs of Gold Plated RCA Phono Sockets
Input Level:
150 (V Nominal on High Gain Setting 480 (V Nominal on Low Gain Setting Input Impedance: -150 Ohms // 4.7 nF
Gain:
High Gain 64 dB @ 1kHz (x1600) - Low Gain 54 dB @ 1kHz (x500)
Maximum Input:
High Gain 6.7mV peak at 1kHz -Low Gain 19mV peak at 1 kHz
Linn Linto Phono Pre-Amplifier (Top)
Detailed Image
Direct Coupled Precision Phono Preamplifier. The ultimate source component for those who have and cherish a vinyl record collection. Launched to mark and celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the Linn Sondek LP12 Transcription turntable.
$1,700.00
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唱頭前置擴大機（MC唱頭專用）
在Linn 25週年紀念中重新體驗懷舊LP唱片，Linn的Linto是Sondek LP12的最新升級機種，可以和其他的Linn高傳真組件完美配合，是為了慶祝LP12錄音唱盤二十五週年而推出。Linto是唱盤訊號源和頂級高傳真播放系統控制部分之間的重要連結。
Linto展現了Linto不斷為熱愛音樂的客戶提供新的錄音播放參考標準的承諾。Linto提升了類比音樂資訊擷取與播放標準，忠實展現以往舊式唱片上無法取代的珍貴音樂寶藏。
Linto是Linn的第三代唱盤前置擴大機，採用最先進的訊號擷取與放大方法，解析度遠高於任何的唱盤前置擴大機。輸入級完全將唱頭產生的功率直接收入Linto的放大電晶體，電晶體或訊號路徑上的唱頭網路不會損及此微弱的訊號，這是和其他唱盤前置擴大機不同的地方。
創新的電路設計和精密的表面安裝科技讓Linto輸入插座與其放大輸出之間得以直接連接，確保動圈式唱頭拾取的關鍵音樂資訊訊號的最純淨傳送。表面安裝電路配合超短的訊號路徑減少一切的外部干擾，改進元件接合的完整性、延長產品的壽命，並且提升了效能。
Linto的電源是由最新的Linn Brilliant切換模式無雜音電源供應器供應。此一獨家電源供應器科技和周密的內部遮蔽加強了訊號的完整性，也使這一款專用的專家級唱盤前置擴大機成為高傳真唱片播放的最終選擇，配合Linn Sondek LP12使用更可以將優點發揮得淋漓盡致。即使搭配其他高傳真唱片播放系統，一樣有很好的表現。
對於珍藏許多舊式唱片的幸運兒而言，Linto將是其最後的一次訊號源組件升級。Linto的線路可以調整，配合各種低輸出和高輸出動圈式唱頭的唱盤，也能匹配任何種類的線路電平放大。
Linn Linto phono preamplifier
Wes Phillips, June, 1998
Audiophiles with budget restrictions (most of us, I imagine) could be forgiven for feeling we're afterthoughts to most manufacturers. Even though we probably keep many companies in business by buying their "entry-" or mid-level products, we're always hearing about products designed "without compromise." Waiter, could you bring the reality check, please?
Even if you design a component without regard to the price tag, you still run into the compromises dictated by material science, or our collective ignorance, or even market pressures. (Although, with Asian economies in serious trouble, I'm betting we won't be hearing many manufacturers explaining "We just had to have a product that cost more than our old top-of-the-line in order to be taken seriously.'')
The $1500 Linn Linto and $1200 AcousTech PH-1 phono preamplifiers are both reasonably priced by current analog standards, but neither product comes with an attitude of "This is the best we could do for so little money." Quite the reverse: The Linn commemorates the 25th anniversary of the LP12, while the PH-1 is a love letter to analog posted by Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem and high-end designer Ron Sutherland. Both are serious high-end products that make no excuses. Or need to.
Linn Linto
No single company has had a greater impact on analog sound than Linn. In fact, it could be argued that the entire category of high-end turntables owes its existence to the LP12. But Linn has also been a force in tonearm evolution and cartridge development, and now, it could be argued, in phono preamplification. The Linto direct-coupled "Precision" phono preamp is a third-generation circuit that traces its lineage back to Linn's experiments with their own disc-cutting lathe in the early '80s. As the company improved their mastering chain, they found they could no longer measure the lathe noise on the disc—the residual noise from the phono preamplifier was greater than the cutter noise. Linn developed their own phono preamp as a measurement tool, later incorporating it into the LK-1 preamplifier.
The Linto couples the signal from the cartridge directly into the bases of the transistors rather than into resistors or loading networks—because, Linn maintains, these elements waste valuable signal power and generate more signal and noise than the cartridge.
The power supply is another area that can generate substantial amounts of noise in conventional designs. Rather than using a sizable transformer and multiple capacitors in the power supply, the Linto breaks from tradition by employing Linn's Brilliant Switch-mode Power Supply. This converts incoming power into high-voltage DC, then "chops it up at a high frequency" (to quote from the owner's manual) before routing it to a 30mm-square transformer. This transformer's output is converted back to "very smooth" DC voltage.
Open the Linto and you'll see a lot of nothing. Most of the box is empty: A board connected to the mains module carries the Brilliant PS, which is shielded; and a partially shielded circuit board stuffed with surface-mount components is crammed into the opposite diagonal corner—as far away from the supply as it can get. Other than wires connecting the Brilliant to the mains fuses and the power switch on the front, there's nothing else in there.
But Linn isn't selling packaged air; they saw the future coming a long time ago and constructed their Glasgow facility to take advantage of automation and high-quality surface-mount construction. Despite its light weight and empty real estate, there's a lot of technology packed into the Linto. Besides, as Linn points out, a square centimeter of circuit area can pick up more signal as interference than a moving-coil cartridge generates as music.
While many audiophiles swear by loading networks, Linn's reasons for avoiding them are compelling. Linn claims the switches used in most adjustable networks generate more noise voltage than the cartridge. Loading networks also increase the amount of circuitry on the input end of the amplifier, and Linn has gone to great lengths (so to speak) to keep the distance from the unit's inputs to its amplifying transistors as short as possible. The Linto's sole concession to flexibility is a single wire link, which can be cut to drop the gain by 10dB: If the overload light on the front panel flashes red while playing records, a Linn dealer can trim the wire and reduce the overall gain from 64dB to 54dB.
Since there are no other user-adjustable features, the Linto is a pretty simple box: it has two sets of gold-plated RCA outs, a single set of RCA inputs, a grounding post, an IEC mains module, and a front-mounted power switch. A green LED indicates that the unit is powered; the red LED signals input overload. And that's it.
Hush—I thought I heard it call my name
The Linto was quiet. (If this were a B-movie western, someone would chime in, "Too quiet," but I don't think that's possible in a phono section.) Crank up the gain on your line stage high enough and you'll be able to hear hiss, but there are very few amplification devices that remain silent at maximum output.
The Linto also sounded dynamic as all get-out, which, I reckon, was at least partially due to the absence of low-level noise. Notes stood out in stark relief from the silence, but differences in touch and attack were easy to distinguish. I've heard some phono sections that tried to put every ensemble into an off-the-rack suit—you could listen to small, medium, or large. But with the Linto, everything fit the performance perfectly. Differences between quiet and quieter were easy to follow, down to silence itself, and there never seemed to be any limit to how huge a group could sound—every time a new musician entered, no matter how big the soundstage had been, it got bigger. This freedom from dynamic limitation is one of the things that distinguishes live music from recorded sound, and products that have more of it tend to sound more real. The Linn has it in spades.
This was brought home to me when listening to Johnny Cash's "In Your Mind," from Classic Records' three-LP set of Dead Man Walking: The Soundtrack & The Score (C3-67989). The song starts with Cash singing and playing acoustic guitar, backed by a sparse-sounding band. As the song builds, Steve Earle's electric rhythm guitar, Roy Husky's bass, Jim Dickinson's piano, and Joachim Cooder's drums are augmented by Ry Cooder's electric slide and Roland White's mandolin; through the Linto, with each addition, the soundstage became broader, more fully populated. On the choruses, Cash's spooky vocals are fleshed out by six harmony vocalists. These folks are grouped around Cash himself, and while they don't expand the boundaries of the soundstage, they fill it—defining the space, inhabiting it fully. The Linto handled this naturally, without adding any signature of its own.
Instrumental timbre was delineated with a naturalness that would have been unheard of in a solid-state product five years ago—and, perhaps, is rare in any component, no matter what the technology.
The Linto was also a pacing king. Cash's guitar just kind of lopes along, but when Earle, Husky, and J. Cooder lock in, the character of the piece changes, becoming far more insistent. Three cuts later, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder duet on "The Face of Love," a song that mingles qwaali and rock in a sophisticated way—and succeeds only because of the subtle inflections of the rhythm section as they support the dreamily insistent vocals. Timing is all, they say; I've never heard "The Face of Love" fleshed out in its rhythmic subtlety better than through the Linto.
The Linn was also superlative in its re-creation of bass. It had remarkable extension and definition. If you believe the bass region is the foundation upon which musical cathedrals are built, then the Linto is your meat. I've never heard Ron Carter's tone possess more heft and character than it did when I played Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage (Blue Note ST-46339) through the Linto. He isn't playing a really mellow-sounding instrument on the album—with some phono sections, I would have wondered whether this perception was colored by the preamp's limitations or whether I was hearing the sound of the instrument itself—but the Linto defined the notes so cleanly and so well that I believed my ears. And when Carter bore down hard, or drummer Anthony Williams attacked the bass drum, the Linn had the guts to reproduce it without softening the transient force.
Was the Linn as good as it gets? Not quite. Audio Research's PH3 (reviewed in Vol.19 No.9) has a greater degree of harmonic richness overall—although I'm not sure it matches the Linn's bass extension or definition. And the Sutherland PH-2000 (reviewed in Vol.20 No.12), despite its higher noise level is wicked-good, permitting me to see so far into the music that, to paraphrase Carlyle, I could see musicality itself. But the Linto belongs in any discussion of superior phono sections, ceding little to any single competitor. Factor in its price and it rockets to the top as a special value.
Two lovers
Naturally, I compared the Linn and the AcousTech. Those of you who like a bloody knockdown, drag-out fight will be disappointed to learn that they really did sound remarkably alike. But those of you who believe in choices, even at relatively modest price-points, will be delighted to learn that the differences were mainly of degree.
The AcousTech was quiet enough to satisfy most analog lovers, but did exhibit more steady-state roar than the Linn. The difference was small, but for those sensitive to such things, perhaps significant. I was not bothered by it.
The Linn threw a wider soundstage, which I liked. The AcousTech's soundstage was tighter and more focused. This was very noticeable on "In Your Mind," where the Linn had musicians placed to the outsides of my speakers. On the other hand, the way they were bunched together with the AcousTech gave the performers a palpability that was very convincing. It was really just a matter of degree; different ears will prefer one over the other.
The two were tightly matched tonally, but the AcousTech had a slightly richer, warmer lower midrange, especially noticeable on massed male vocals, such as on the Karajan Aïda with the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Decca/Speaker's Corner reissue SXL 2167/8/9, 3 LPs). With the PH-1, the moody atmosphere seemed particularly ripe, and the men's voices had a texture and opulence that the Linto just missed creating.
There certainly were other differences, but most of them were too close to call. I don't doubt that everyone comparing the two will have a favorite; I just couldn't for the life of me predict which might appeal more to another pair of ears.
As for myself? I'm probably going to buy the Linn, but when I listen to that Verdi, I start to waver. I'll probably go back and forth a few more times before I decide for sure.
People get ready
Both the Linn Linto phono preamplifier and the AcousTech Electronics PH-1 phono preamplifier personify what the High End is all about. Both offer superior engineering in the service of music reproduction, and both provide sound quality that would have been inconceivable at any price a scant five years ago.
No one could call them cheap, but you can spend a lot more than either one costs and not achieve better sound quality. Of course, there are more expensive units out there that do offer better sound, but you'd have to spend considerably more to obtain a musically significant improvement.
I like 'em both, and recommend both without reservation. Technology serving art is what the High End is all about. If you're looking to improve the sound of your record-playing system, you should listen to these two units first. It could be a while before you'll need to look any further.
