Linn Kendo Phono Cartridge

Kendo is a modern martial art form; translated from the Japanese it means “way of the sword”. At Linn however, the word has unique connotations. Linn’s sword is forged of boron, with a super-fine-line diamond tip. Linn’s armour is nickel-coated, 7075-grade aluminium. Kendo is the eager apprentice to its master, Ekstatik; sharing the same values, and picking up many of its traits along the way.

Kendo is the outcome of Linn’s engineers’ efforts to capitalise on the elements of Ekstatik which work so well; using Linn’s tried-and-true, trickle-down development methodology to produce a more affordable, high-performance cartridge which retains the same core design principles and acoustic fingerprint.

Kendo possesses a rigid, nickel-coated 7075-grade aluminium body. This specific grade of aluminium matches that of Linn’s Arko tonearm, for which Kendo was designed to be the perfect partner. This facilitates superb material synergy throughout the tonearm system, and effectively banishes unwanted resonances away from the delicate generator, along the arm, and out through the sub-chassis.

• Stylus Type: Super Fine Line
• Cantilever: Boron
• Armature: Square
• Coil Wire: Copper 4N
• Pin Connection Type: 1.2mm gold pin
• Mounting Points: 3
• Output Voltage: 0.45mV @3.54cm/s
• Channel Balance at 1 kHz: <1dB
• Channel Separation at 1kHz: Better than 28dB
• Load Resistance: 100Ω
• Load Capacitance: 1nF
• Tracking Force: 2.0g
• Cartridge Mass: 7.6 g