THE most expensive CD player in the world has gone on sale in Japan and the
US for $20 000. The Sondek CD12, made by the Scottish hi-fi company Linn,
has no visible buttons: it鈥檚 controlled by touch.
It takes the Glasgow firm seven hours to machine the chassis from a solid
block of aluminium. Bill Miller, the player鈥檚 designer, claims the mass damps
vibrations in the laser optics that might distort the data stream and degrade
the sound. The single block of metal also acts as a low-resistance path to earth
which reduces hum.
The remote control is used to program the CD player鈥檚 response when the user
touches the disc drawer. One touch might open the drawer, the next close it, and
so on.
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