Linn CD 12

I have a super modded audio horizon dac hooked to squeezebox playing flac files,it's great, plus when I hook same dac to battery powered modded supply and cdp transport, sound is state of the art micro detail weight in bottom, lower noise floor harmonic textures give you goose bumps

I'm really not familiar with server-based systems, but if you just want to play CDs, the CD12 is an incredible player. It just digs so deep into the music and spins out layer upon layer of beautiful sound. Plus, it's built like a swiss watch, to use an old cliche. As far as support, I believe Linn stocked enough parts to service these units for many, many years. However, if you're considering a purchase, you should call Linn and give them the serial number of the unit and they will let you know for sure.

I like the sound of the CD12. I bet it is quite cheap now that it has been discountinued for some time and the Linn faithful are forced to go to a server. I heard their server and that is also a fine sounding unit. I did not have a chance to compare the server to the player (the dealer no longer had the player when I auditioned the server).

If you don't plan to migrate to a server, there is nothing wrong with sticking with a player. I have not really heard a computer or purpose built server that was clearly superior to a really good player. I happen to own both a Naim CD555 player and a Naim NDS server-based system. I actually prefer the sound of the CD555 player, though I really like the access to my collection afforded by the server. But, the process of loading my discs to the server is pretty arduous (particularly editing the metadata about each disc). So far, I've loaded 3,000 CDs in about 4 months.

i don't own a CD12, but just know that there are TWO versions of the player, and
the later model has a 24 bit processor (i believe) which should sound even better than ther earlier units. they were always described as being a very organic sounding musical player. it's too bad they can't play SACD's.