In February 1973 Linn Products Ltd was formed to sell turntables made by Castle Precision Engineering. This allegedly led to a threat to Robertson that a copyright action would be brought against him if he had the RD11 turntable made elsewhere than at Castle Precision Engineering. By the end of 1972 relations between Robertson and the Tiefenbruns had broken down. In 1971, and now operating as Ariston, Hamish showed the turntable under the model name RD11 at the Harrogate show, and set up a distribution network with C. Robertson's company Thermac then ordered forty of the turntables from Castle Precision Engineering Ltd. While Ivor was away, Hamish changed the ball bearing to a single point bearing. In 1971 Ivor made a prototype turntable with a ball bearing, and then went to Israel. In 1970 Jack's son Ivor formed a friendship with Hamish. Hamish Robertson had a company called Thermac in 1967, which became Ariston in 1970, and Ariston Audio in 1973. Jack Tiefenbrun had formed Castle Precision Engineering (Glasgow) Ltd some 15 years earlier. Further grounds of opposition were that the invention had been 'obtained' from Hamish Robertson, and was his original idea rather than that of Jack Tiefenbrun. The patent was opposed on various grounds, including that 'what was being claimed as new, was in fact old', and that the idea was 'lacking in inventive step' over what was already known. The similarities between the LP12 and the Ariston RD11 resulted in a patent case: Ariston vs.
The XA was created by renowned audio pioneer Edgar Villchur. The design was identical to the Ariston RD11 and similar to the Thorens TD150, both in turn based on the Acoustic Research XA turntable that was launched in 1961. The LP12 has evolved since its introduction, but its basic suspended sub-chassis design has remained.
The Sondek LP12 turntable, introduced in 1972, uses a suspended sub-chassis design and a patented tightly toleranced single-point bearing.
To get the best possible performance from your Sondek LP12 turntable, specify the Ekos SE tonearm, Akiva cartridge, together with the Urika phono stage and Radikal power supply. Keel has been engineered to maintain the same mass and centre of gravity as achieved with the separate sub-chassis, armboard and collar, ensuring that it integrates seamlessly with the suspension system of every Sondek LP12 turntable.Īdding Keel to your Sondek LP12 turntable offers a significant leap in performance and helps get even more music from your record collection. Eliminating screws, fixings and joins between each component removes virtually all vibration, resulting in more accurate music reproduction. Keel is machined from a single solid piece of aluminium to provide extremely rigid support to the tonearm and platter.
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