Lejonklou, the hifi company, is named after its founder Fredrik Lejonklou and I know a bit about both because my dear friend Alex Halberstadt wrote about them in Stereophile.
That captive power cord is one hint at the different drummer approach taken in the making of all the products from Lejonklou (pronounced Lay-YON-clue), which range from phono stages to streamers to DACs to pre and power amplifiers.
Unassuming in appearance, the power supply-sized Slipsik MM Phono Stage was first released in 2006. The “8” in its name reflects the the number of significant revisions the Slipsik has seen since its birth.
From the company:
In February 2019, Slipsik 7 was released. In this latest version, sensitive signals are buried inside the circuit board, between multiple narrowly spaced layers of copper. The power cord inside Slipsik 7 is also screened with an insulated thin-walled solid copper tube, which is soldered to the chassis in both ends. This improves performance by preventing mains hum and radio frequencies from reaching the circuits where the music travels.
In addition to the screening of mains power, the circuit board has been redesigned, using knowledge gained through the development of my dual mono MC pre amplifier SINGularity. The input circuit of Slipsik 7 has also been further trimmed to allow even finer details of the music pass through. The result is the best MM phono preamplifier I’ve ever made.
Version 8 was introduced in February of 2022 and changes include a change of case, tighter selection of main board components, and new chassis ground. All offering a sound improvement according to Lejonklou.
Based on Alex’s impressions of the more uptown Lejonklou Entity phono stage, I can’t wait to hear the Slipsik 8’s way with the oh-so-delicate signals coming off my records.
Lejonklou Slipsik 8 MM Phono Stage
Price: $1795
Company Website: Lejonklou
US Distributor Website: Nokturne Audio
Technical specifications for Slipsik 8.0
Dimensions (WxHxD): 103x58x220 mm
Weight: 950 g
Mains input voltage (two versions): 230 or 115 VAC
Fuse (inside the case): T1A
Input impedance: 47 kΩ/68 pF
Gain at 1 kHz: 41 dB (112 times)
Output impedance/Rec. load: 300 Ω/>3 kΩ
Power consumption: Less than 5 W
