Jony Ive's New Gadget: a $64,000 Record Player

Jul 13, 2023

All the designer's signature touches are there

Linn

Jony Ive's first gadget design since leaving Apple is… a $64,000 Linn record player.

It's hard to think of a bigger U-turn for Jony Ive. After designing the highest-tech consumer gadgets in the world, Ive, along with his design company LoveFrom, has designed a record player for the venerable Scottish turntable company Linn. Is it white? Check. Does Ive use aluminum? Check! Is there a single, hard-to-interpret button? Check, check, check!

Apple is a unique place to be a designer, especially one as detail-oriented as Ive. During his reign over Apple's design department, Ive could use the company's zillions of dollars to research and invent new metal alloys and new manufacturing techniques, all while inventing daring new justifications for removing yet another useful button or port. Those days have gone, but Ive's signature look has not. Let's take a look at it and wonder about just who might buy such a thing.

"It's interesting how people spend so much money to reproduce music from a piece of vinyl that is far from accurate to the master recording. Imagine not only $60K for the turntable but what pre-amps and amps, and speakers this is connected to. The total price tag is unreal. To play music from a piece of plastic," said tech and Apple enthusiast Dmylrea in a MacRumors forum thread participated in by Lifewire.

The Sondek LP12-50 is a limited edition (250 units) 50th Anniversary version of Linn's classic, revered Sondek LP12, the fundamental design which has barely changed since its debut in 1972. Ive's edition is white (with a wood-finish alternative), but otherwise, Ive has had little to do with the workings of the machine.

Instead, he has designed a new switch and some cool aluminum hinges. Say what you like about the later years of Ive's tenure at Apple, but his MacBook hinges have always been great. The base is also made from aluminum (in space gray, no less), and Ive has also screwed with the Sondek's lone button, the power/speed switch.

The regular Sondek has a familiar rocker switch to switch it on. The Ive 50th Anniversary version switches this out for an inscrutable circular pushbutton with red and green LEDs. This button also lets you switch speeds from 33 1/3 rpm to 45 rpm. Depending on the model, you usually need to remove the turntable platter (the round spinning part) and fit an adapter to play 45s.

It's neat being able to change speeds more easily, but the advantage of that old button design is that you can tell from across the room what position it's set in. On the other hand, you can also just check to see if the record is spinning. Whatever—what we're trying to say is that Ive has managed to combine three of his signature moves—white, aluminum, button futzing—into this job.

But who is going to buy this thing? There's definitely a market for high-end Hi-Fi, but this $64,000 turntable is not fundamentally different than Linn's other Sondeks, and the cheapest models can be had for under $5,000. That's a lot of money left over for upgrades.

My first thought is Leica, a camera brand that is now more of a fashion brand and owned entirely by investment companies. Leica also makes all-analog devices with designs that date back decades; beautifully-built cameras with prices to match. But it is also heavily into limited-edition cameras that sell to collectors, the most notorious of which was a "collaboration" with Lenny Kravitz, the $24,400 Correspondent, an M-series camera with two lenses, snakeskin trim, and fake paint wear to show the brass beneath.

Linn

"Vinyl is more about self-expression than utility. Owning vinyl is a way for fans to show they're truly a fan of an artist," musician and designer Coleman Dash told Lifewire via email.

This isn't Ive's first dabbling with luxury goods. The original Apple Watch launched with a solid gold Edition, a $10-17,000 watch that is every bit as obsolete today as all those other Series-1 Apple Watches.

And Ive has also been hobnobbing with royalty, designing various crests for King Charles.

Unlike those Apple Watches, though, this Linn Sondek will probably last as long as the owner. If you're buying this to play records, then it will keep doing that for decades—as long as you still have records to play on it. But is it worth more than $60K? Almost certainly not.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day