Altium > Case Studies > Revitalizing Iconic Audio Systems with IoT: A Case Study on Linn Products

Revitalizing Iconic Audio Systems with IoT: A Case Study on Linn Products

Technology Category

Sensors - Acoustic Sensors
Sensors - Level Sensors

Applicable Industries

Electronics
Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Linn Products is a company that designs, manufactures, and sells high-end audio and home theatre systems. Since its inception in 1972, it has become an icon in the music industry, developing some of the most well-engineered audio and home systems. The company is built on the philosophy that 'music is for life', a belief that is reflected in its products. Linn Products is not just about developing impressive hi-fi systems, but about realizing the intention of the musician. The company designs, manufactures, and ships all its products from its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Challenge

Linn Products, a company renowned for its high-end audio systems, faced a significant challenge when it decided to update its flagship product, the Sondek LP12 turntable, which was originally developed in 1972. The company needed to incorporate a new phono stage, named Eureka, into the LP12, a task that seemed almost impossible given the constraints of the turntable's design. The aesthetics of the audio systems were also crucial for Linn Products, requiring the electronics to be as visually appealing as the external casings. Prior to this, Linn Products had been using a series of disparate tools for its electronic designs, which resulted in a lack of clear link between the schematic and the board layout. This led to engineers spending more time maintaining the tool than being creative, which was not conducive to the company's philosophy of 'music for life'.

The Solution

Linn Products turned to Altium Designer to overcome these challenges. Altium Designer's ECAD MCAD features allowed the company to quickly verify that folding the schematics in half would enable the two parts of the board to nest together, thus fitting the new phono stage within the constraints of the 1970s turntable design. This brought a new lease of life to the product. Altium Designer also unified the design process, providing a higher level of abstraction that allowed the engineers at Linn Products to be more creative. The use of hierarchical design and other unique features of Altium enabled Linn Products to take a high-level view of the electronic design, eliminating the need for low-level detail. Furthermore, Altium Designer met the company's need for a unified electronics design system that went beyond just the electronics design, as it allowed the engineers to output and customize their data to the needs of the on-site manufacturing team.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Altium Designer has had a significant impact on the operations at Linn Products. The unified design process has allowed the engineers to be more creative, focusing on the new differentiating parts of a project rather than spending time on re-implementing elements they've done before. This has resulted in a faster turnaround of projects and, according to the company, better projects overall. The seamless flow of projects from start to finish has also improved the work environment, with engineers being more relaxed and designs flowing more naturally. Furthermore, the ability to customize and output design data to the needs of the on-site manufacturing team has streamlined the manufacturing process, ensuring that the final product is a piece of precision engineering that enhances the end user experience.