Interview with Linn MD, Ivor Tiefenbrun
Jan 2008
Linn's Managing Director, Ivor Tiefenbrun, was interviewed recently by Moorgate Acoustics, a specialist retailer based in Sheffield. The text of that interview follows.
Moorgate Acoustics are hosting an Akurate DS event on 24th January. Click here for details.
MA: Can you remember your first experience of hearing recorded music? What effect did it have on you?
IT: I suppose my earliest memories of recorded music were via the radio. I grew up with music. My mother sang all day, my father played the violin and my sister studied music. I had a run in with the chanter and the bagpipes before taking up classical guitar. I didn’t have my own record player and I used to listen to music occasionally on record players at the homes of friends and family. I cannot say I found it terribly involving. Upon reflection probably the quality was insufficient to make the experience as engaging as it seemed to be for others. When I was about 12 my father bought a great hi fi system from a local
MA: What inspired you to design and build the LP12?
IT: When I got married I got my own place to live and the first thing I bought was a hi fi system. I was very disappointed by all the products I tried and discovered that the turntables were all influenced by the output of the loudspeakers which severely limited the performance of all the downstream components. This observation led me to develop my own turntable and ended up shaping my future.
MA: You have been a controversial figure in the industry for over 30 years and have continued to “shake-up” firmly held beliefs. You were also single headedly responsible for the “garbage in, garbage out” philosophy which elevated the source as priority in the audio system. Where do you get your passion and energy from?
IT: I am a very logical person and it was obvious to me that if you didn’t get the information off a record no downstream component could recreate what had been lost. It also became apparent that the second and third generation audio personalities had no fundamental understanding of the supreme importance of the mechanical aspects of the recording playback process. The impact of music on the way one feels can be so powerful, especially for young people, that once I realised that there was much more information on a record groove than we could ever retrieve I was driven to see how much better I could do. The more I achieved, the more worthwhile this endeavour became, and because of the passion that this learning process supported and the enthusiasm it engendered for further learning, I was able to acquire and bring a new understanding to the industry and to the company I started.
MA: What do you still feel driven to do and what do you see in the future for Linn?
IT: When I started in the audio industry the great and the good assured me that we were already 99% of the way there to the accurate reproduction of music. I felt that we hadn’t managed 1%. The fact that there is still so much to be done and so much scope for improvement has given me the incentive to keep learning. We sell our products by demonstration so that customers can decide how good a sound they want and understand the connection between price and performance. Because we expose ourselves to competition we have to keep learning. This maintains our interest, keeps our products improving and enables us to continue to support our customers and meet their rising expectations. People only have five senses. Music is fundamental for human wellbeing. It is a universal language of feeling and emotion and a good hi fi can help people explore, discover and learn about the world of music. If we thrill our customers by exceeding their expectations and nurture our relationships then word of mouth on its own will continue to build the community of Linn customers and help build our business.
MA: How much has Linn changed since you started the company?
IT: When someone starts a company it is totally integrated. It is their idea, their vision, their work. I did the design, I made the product, I sold it, I serviced it and so on. As a company grows, more and more tasks have to be delegated to specialists but I have always tried to retain the advantages of integration through a flat, non-hierarchical structure and teamwork. Because of the understanding and skills the company has acquired over the years we can do things now that we could not have dreamt of even only a few years ago.
MA: Some Linn customers struggle to see the direction Linn have taken over the last five years. The targeting of boat owners and the super-rich seems strange for a company whose products appealed to ordinary people, many of whom heard something that changed their lives to the degree that they “had” to own it. Could you explain the reasoning behind this?
IT: Linn’s direction has been consistent since we started. Our focus is on performance rather than price. If we could make a perfect hi fi for £20 we would do so, and of course we would sell many millions of them. Linn is a precision engineering company which sells by demonstration so we equip ourselves with the understanding and skills to address pitch accurate sound reproduction at a higher standard than any other competitor. Only one individual or company can be the best at something and Linn wants to be the best at precision engineered sound reproduction. This doesn’t come cheap, but what sets our entry level product standard is not price but instead the requirement for a Linn system to be good enough to broaden the owner’s taste in music by seducing them into appreciating and enjoying music they never thought they would listen to, let alone be captivated by. Because we are a precision engineering company we set high standards and use the most advanced manufacturing methods and equipment to deliver the most advanced products. These are very flexible products that have a wider application than the standard mass produced products that people are familiar with in the High Street.
The most demanding customers or people with the most challenging applications seek the advantages that Linn alone can offer. Being very rich doesn’t make someone a Linn target customer or a Linn owner; it is about personal values. The thing that all our customers have in common is that they are discriminating people who want the most out of life, for whom music is important. They will take all the time and care necessary to choose a great music or movie system because they understand that this is one of the very few things you can spend your hard-earned money on that will make a lasting positive impact on the way you live and the way you feel. So none of our customers are ordinary but they cover the entire age, occupation and income spectrum and only 1% or 2% of our customers own a superyacht or supercar or superhome. Individual priorities are what determines whether or not someone chooses to invest in a Linn system. Some of our customers spend 20 years building their system step by step until they fulfil their dream, others are in the fortunate position that they can buy anything they want whenever they want, but unless they take the time with the consideration necessary to make the best decision and understand that before you can buy a great system you first have to find a great Linn specialist retailer, they will never be able to do justice to their aspirations.
MA: Linn have embraced downloaded media recently and yet many people who use music this way don’t value quality. Why will they value what Linn bring to the table?
IT: I always used to say that no one made roads for Ferraris, they built them for Fords and Toyotas. No one ever made records for a Linn Sondek LP12. They were built for BSRs and Garrards. Downloaded music has mass appeal. Young people who have grown up in the digital era embrace the universal access to music, the convenience and the attractiveness of being able to construct their own playlists and configure their music the way they want. Some of them, and others who are not so young, will discover that Linn can reproduce digital music to a higher standard than is possible from CD or even Super Audio CD. Indeed they can enjoy music with, for example, the 24 bit 96 kHz studio quality master downloads that Linn Records now offer. Linn’s digital streaming technology as recently introduced in a Klimax DS, and now with an Akurate DS, gives people universal access to music at the highest possible quality with format independence and it also takes advantage of open systems, networks and standard interfaces.
People who love and value the highest quality sound reproduction at home fear for the future of high fidelity sound reproduction and mourn the loss of the universal high performance that was available from long playing records. What Linn has shown is that hi fi can have a bright future, that music lovers have nothing to fear and indeed we now have the opportunity to enjoy better quality sound reproduction at home than we could ever have dreamt was possible.
When we developed the LP12, which improved any system, people always wanted to know what its secret was and I told them that the secret was that there was no secret. Every part of the product had to operate in concert to achieve the highest possible performance. What the LP12 brought to the table was not a new technology or a new material or a secret ingredient; it was a new understanding and the skills to execute that understanding at a higher standard. We have continued this approach for over 35 years. What we bring to digital media is also a new understanding and the skills to precision engineer our products to a higher standard to offer people unprecedented value and transforms expectations. It is not about a new technology or a new material or a secret ingredient. In short, it is about engineering. Engineering is the application of measurement and making things work. Most people don’t understand this process or value the years of effort and passion that constitute engineering value.
MA: In terms of new technologies, we think it is for the Japanese to develop them and for the British to “sort them out”. Do you agree?
IT: I certainly appreciate the contribution Japanese companies have brought to our industry but living in Glasgow, the home of the first faculty of electrical engineering in the world, I am conscious of the unique contribution that Britain and especially Scotland made to the modern world and so I am also confident that we can continue to participate as long as government policy supports our indigenous manufacturing companies.
MA: As retailers we are concerned that Linn have not offered (relative) entry level products. If we don’t expose people to the Linn sound when they purchase their first decent system, we can’t take them along the upgrade path to something truly special. Do you share this concern and plan to address it?
IT: I don’t understand why anyone should be concerned that Linn don’t offer entry level products. Retailers are faced with increasing costs and neither they nor their customers can expect them to keep selling £100 amplifiers forever. The fact that a £100 amplifier 30 years ago sounded brilliant and that technology has moved on means that today with vastly improved earning power an equivalent purchase would be £1,000 or £2,000 and should offer incomparably superior performance. People also soon spend much more on their software than their equipment so it makes sense to get the most from their investment in a music collection.
A good hi fi has always cost the price of a good car. A super hi fi costs the price of a supercar. The equivalent of a £1,000 Linn system offered 20 years ago would be something that costs much more today but it would offer infinitely superior performance. However your customers should be aware that the alternative to buying a new Linn system is not only to buy an inferior system but to buy used Linn components from authorised retailers who can give them good advice and service. Linn’s components have longer model lives, last longer, are supported for longer, retain more value and offer competitive performance in a way that no other company can equal. This creates a wide range of opportunities for everyone, whatever their resources, to participate. We will continue to improve performance and value. But when a garage charges £150 or £200 an hour for a service, people should understand that if they buy a hi fi system which requires to be installed in their home for £500 or £1,000 this is only possible if they are buying products with little or no intrinsic value and limited or poor performance. The fact that some of these products don’t sound too bad should not blind people to the obvious fact that for a bit more money you should be able to achieve much better or even extraordinarily superior performance. But this understanding depends on customers shopping around for a Linn specialist retailer committed to performance who sells by demonstration. Because Linn only deals with independent specialist retailers and they are all different it makes sense for customers, even if they want to buy Linn, to visit a few Linn retailers. The first rule of life is let the buyer beware. It always makes sense to shop around, especially with such an important and long-lasting purchase.
Most people only have one chance in a lifetime to buy a great hi fi system. Typically they buy their first system as a student when they have no money, their second system as young married parents with no money and then their last system when the kids leave home and they move towards retirement and still claim to have no money, yet over that period they have changed their home, carpets, curtains, bathroom and kitchen at vast expense many times over. People who wisely bought Linn components as youngsters will probably still have a Linn system 30 or 40 years down the road and will tell you that it is the most rewarding, influential, long lasting and best value purchase they ever made.
MA: People talk about the electronics industry being in recession and yet music has never been more important to our customers. We’ve long believed that many companies forget that listening to music is all about relaxing and having fun and yet going into many shops is a sober, sometimes stressful experience. As an industry what do you perceive we are doing wrong if we are not harnessing this passion?
IT: The electronics industry is a tough business. Consumer electronics is a winner takes all business. Price competition is remorseless as technology facilitates greater competition, lower costs, larger volumes and more commoditisation.
In a market place dominated by standard products sold without any support or understanding, it is inevitable that it becomes more and more difficult to find genuine independent specialists who will address the requirement of people who long for something that is simply better by being different and special. Specialist retailers all too often mimic the large discount chains and mail order operations rather than differentiate themselves as powerfully as they could do by deploying enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff in an educational and support role to inform and enlighten their clientele. Specialists must have a focused approach to serve the needs of their target customers by careful stock selection so that whatever the customer chooses, no matter how good a sound they want, they are confident that they can’t make a mistake.
The bottom line is that people who buy cheap generally waste their money and the products that are most heavily promoted and sold in the biggest quantities are the most worthless. McDonalds may be the biggest food business in the world but they are not the best restaurants. Mass market hi fi companies may have a lot of advertising muscle and a lot of brand recognition but they don’t make the best sound and they don’t offer the best value. If specialists want to grow their business they have to thrill their customers by exceeding their expectations so that their customers tell their friends and generate future and referral business. Ultimately the only thing that gives people lasting pleasure is giving others pleasure. Truly committed retailers with enthusiastic staff who are passionate about this business have to manifest that passion by operating with conviction in everything they do; from the customers they set out to attract to the products they carefully select that these customers would most value; with the demonstration, education and advice that allows the customer to choose with confidence, and with installation, after-care and service that a specialist relationship merits.
MA: We have been concerned in recent years that Linn don’t service older products. It is one of the few grumbles from our customers who can’t grasp why a Karik (for example) can’t be fixed. What would your answer be?
IT: Linn offer service over a long product life and for as long as is practicable thereafter and Linn support our products for much longer than any other manufacturer. Once a product has been out of production for 10 or so years we bring it to our customers’ attention that the repairs are likely to become more costly and there is always a danger that another component or part of the product will subsequently also fail. When this is understood in conjunction with the realisation that a current product can offer incomparably superior performance, it makes sense for the customer to consider whether it makes economic sense to repair a product or purchase a new one. Whenever possible our products are modular, upgradeable and expandable so that we can service them with current parts but there are some components that go out of production and that cannot be simply replaced. At the factory we operate a standard service charge regime to make it easy for customers and for our retailers to decide whether to repair a product or return it to Linn for repair, so we sometimes have to tell people that we cannot repair a long discontinued product at the standard rate or that we don’t consider it sensible or economic to repair a product. Because our customers get so attached to their Linn equipment they often fail to consider all these issues. After all, if you had a Karik and it has worked well for 15 or more years and it breaks, why shouldn’t you be able to get it repaired? The bottom line is we can almost always repair a product but the full cost of that repair would only be justified if the customer wanted to preserve the product for sentimental reasons or as a collectable item. In terms of performance and value the product owes the customer nothing; it has delivered good value over a long life, most of its raw materials can be recycled usefully and the customer would benefit from both superior performance and value from a newer product, and Linn and the retailers aim to support the customers in this process.
MA: The evening is yours and you have the house to yourself. Do you listen to music or watch a movie?
IT: I would always listen to music. I am not a movie fan and I rarely watch television.
MA: Do you see Linn as your business or your child?
IT: Apart from my family and friends, my work at Linn has been my life.
MA: You must get to hear a lot of stereo systems. What is wrong with the sound of many of them?
IT: My father used to tell a joke about a man who bought a truck load full of sardines. When he got them home his wife told him that she had nothing for dinner. He said “that’s not a problem” and brought in a can of sardines from the consignment. However, when his wife opened the sardines she discovered that they were inedible. Outraged he contacted the supplier and demanded an explanation only to be told that these sardines were not for eating, they were only for buying and selling.
Most of the products that I hear seem to be sold on the same principle and the people who buy them seldom listen to them enough. They tend to blame themselves and say that their ears are not good enough or that they have lost interest in music and so on. The reality is that the only reason why people would listen to music less frequently instead of more often or the same type of music rather than an ever widening range, is that their system is not good enough for them or no longer good enough because something has gone wrong.
MA: Finally, pick two products; one that defines Linn’s past and one which defines its future. (Feel free to hint at new products).
IT: The Linn Sondek LP12 was our first product. It continues in production. We continue to improve it and we continue to advise people to cherish the unique store of music and performance captured in their treasured record collection. The LP12 clearly defines Linn’s past and, because we continue to improve its performance and plan to do so in the future, arguably also our present and our future standards and values.
The new Klimax DS is an even more revolutionary source product. It is also an “open” product with universal and standard interfaces for hardware and software. It is also upgradeable. It is even more transformational; indeed it will have a bigger impact on our industry than the LP12 did. It offers unprecedented sonic accuracy. Anyone with a Knekt system can plug it in as a source and enjoy it throughout their home. Linn DS technology, accessing music over Ethernet, is also the future of high performance dedicated music and movie systems and for multi room systems. When people hear what a Linn DS source does they will be as surprised, astonished and delighted as the people were who first heard an LP12 demonstrated 35 years ago. Like all Linn products it will improve any hi fi system. Such is the power of precision engineered sound from Linn.
