Another day, another product launch, another trip to the Linn factory in Glasgow. You might think I have it easy but I have to pay for all this, that's pay attention and pay the £s!

Quick recap, a few years ago Linn launched new flagship 360 speakers with an interesting amplifier technology that might have passed you by in the blur of beautiful cabinets and new drive units. This was Adaptive Bias Control, which constantly monitors and adjusts the amplifier bias as it changes with volume, temperature and age.

This means that the power amplifier is always working in it's optimum range. In the middle of a new speaker launch it's impossible to see what this specific element was doing even though the overall speakers are truly magnificent!

Roll on a year and the same technology appears in the flagship Linn Solo 800 power amplifiers. Anyone who came to our Linn night last year will have heard these, and they are incredible. All the cliched descriptions about blackness between notes, zero noise floor and ultimate dynamics were there and obvious. The only drawback is £ 75,000, although that is for two!

My trip a few weeks ago was to hear their little brother the new Solo 500s using the same Adaptive Bias technology but with a mere 500 watts instead of 800W. I had a listen to the 500s in a passive system and then in a 6 pack active system driving Linn Klimax 360s. As with the big brothers these are beautifully machined, a real work of art. Instead of the large external heatsinks of the 800s these 500s have a clever machined from solid case with air ducts in it giving a huge surface area inside the cabinet. On the top they look like fish gills!

Also they are only £ 23,500 ! Unfortunately that's each so it's actually £ 47,000 per pair. To help with that we have some generous trade-ins on current Solo 500 and Solo Twins, subsidised in conjunction with Linn. 

I don't have a shop unit here just yet, drop me a line and I'll let you know when I do.

Start saving!