A question of sKale?

[What You See and Hear Expert Linn Retailer]

Hi

Roger Hamilton from Tigerpaw spent the afternoon here yesterday and this is a fine product.

My interest is especially for customers who use heavy cartridge , and one such person who uses an Ortofon Cadenza Black was in the showroom only an hour before Roger arrived. It's a shame because I think he would have ordererd one there and then.

The Counterweight is beautifully made and finished and visually does the Ekos SE proud. The satin finish is not exactly the same as the Linn version but is close and very complimentary. Unless you know the exact metal, finishing, blasting ,substrate and anodise that Linn use it's impossible to exactly match their own counterweight , and obviously Linn keep this recipe to themselves. However the sKale looks and feels the part and is reminiscent of the finish of a Leica camera which is high praise. I have been told that there will be two versions. This one suits the Ittok and Ekos SE and there is soon a black version for the standard Ekos .

The machined indents on the side remind me of the one's on the face of the Linn Keltik baffle and are a nice touch. The top one acts as a signifer to centralise the underslung weight.

I had an LP12 in the showroom the other week with an Ittok and an old Koetsu Onyx. The counterwight was almost falling off the back of the arm in order to be balanced and I will be informing that customer of the sKale pronto.

It's underpriced in my opinion but Roger's view is that by keeping it under £200.00 it will also appeal to Ittok owners.

Regards.