MVV
pfm Member
Buy several levels of Mana for your streamer to sit on. Endless sprit level joy.
Previously happy LP12 owners who moved on.....
- Thread starter ex brickie
- Start date
Salamander
pfm Member
I climbed out of the Linn rabbit hole and moved to a Pink Triangle PToo, for me it did everything that the LP was supposed to do. Sold the PT due to it's age and needing some diy, in came a Lenco from BTE, the best tt I owned.
My first high-end record deck was an LP12 in 1997, it replaced a Rega 2. I loved it and played it to death. Upgraded it to Garrard 401, then another LP12, this time with Cirkus and Lingo. This wasn't as much fun as the original LP12, the bass hump of the pre-Cirkus deck is good fun. I now have a 401 in a homemade plinth (the Frank Lloyd Wright 401) and it's great. I had a number of LP12s and they were all great, especially the first one, but what I have now is better. The bass is absolutely solid and the timing bang on.
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
Whoops…In my fumbling senility I forgot to mention Peter Swain at Cymbiosis in my list of excellent Linn LP12 dealers. He overhauled my deck after many years of neglect, fitted the ARO & a DV Dame Kiri Te Kanawa cartridge (think that's what it was…) and Keel. A great place if you want to listen to comparisons between different LP12 setups - he's got hundreds!
MVV
pfm Member
Funny to think that if I could go back about 15 years to talk to the committed Linn/Naim/Mana me and tell him that he ends up with a ‘Jap crap’ deck, some horrid ugly Audio Note amps with gold knobs and a pair of Austrian speakers on wooden stands with no spikes. He would assume I ended up demented and in care.
( Now now, no; that joy is to come)
( Now now, no; that joy is to come)
MVV
pfm Member
Ah yes, “But a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave”
Tony L
Administrator
I’ve always liked the LP12s. Several of the best and most enjoyable systems I’ve ever heard have had one as a source. I think I’d go as far as saying it is my favourite belt-drive turntable.
My core problem with it was at the time I was in the market for one back in the mid-80s was it was a total PITA if you wanted to play 45rpm 12” singles, and I have a lot of very good ones. As such I ended up buying a Xerxes, purely for the 45 ability (I was an early adopter so didn’t realise the PSU would blow up and the top-plate would sag).
In the late-90s at the bottom of the vinyl market dip I eventually got the LP12/Ittok I’d always wanted (late-80s, Valhalla, Cirkus, mint & boxed for £300) and went through a lengthy cycle of buying, selling, tweaking and even a quick diversion to a Rega P9 until I ended up with a seriously nice example with a Zeta and a DIY Armageddon the late Jason Hector (HiFi+) had knocked up. That was a great deck. Most of it is still with a friend, though it now has a Lingo fitted to get the 45 speed ability that should have been built-in since 1972.
I’ve since moved, via a diversion to a NAS Spacedeck, to idlers; Lenco, 301 and finally my current TD-124. And this is where I will stay. If I knew then what I know now I’d just have just bought a 301, 401 or 124 back in the early-80s when mint boxed examples could be found for £40 or so and be done with it for life! You’ll never hear me slagging an LP12 though. It is a great deck.
My core problem with it was at the time I was in the market for one back in the mid-80s was it was a total PITA if you wanted to play 45rpm 12” singles, and I have a lot of very good ones. As such I ended up buying a Xerxes, purely for the 45 ability (I was an early adopter so didn’t realise the PSU would blow up and the top-plate would sag).
In the late-90s at the bottom of the vinyl market dip I eventually got the LP12/Ittok I’d always wanted (late-80s, Valhalla, Cirkus, mint & boxed for £300) and went through a lengthy cycle of buying, selling, tweaking and even a quick diversion to a Rega P9 until I ended up with a seriously nice example with a Zeta and a DIY Armageddon the late Jason Hector (HiFi+) had knocked up. That was a great deck. Most of it is still with a friend, though it now has a Lingo fitted to get the 45 speed ability that should have been built-in since 1972.
I’ve since moved, via a diversion to a NAS Spacedeck, to idlers; Lenco, 301 and finally my current TD-124. And this is where I will stay. If I knew then what I know now I’d just have just bought a 301, 401 or 124 back in the early-80s when mint boxed examples could be found for £40 or so and be done with it for life! You’ll never hear me slagging an LP12 though. It is a great deck.
Yes, I do remember my grandfather, who spent his living years in a small terrace in Barnsley, when he wasn't working in a coalmine. He was a good catholic though, and when he died he had the full pomp and ceremony with the big stone and all the rest. I've since commented to my father that in death he enjoys a splendour that he never knew in life. Sod that, life's for living and when you're gone, it's over. No grand stone for me, I'm having either a woodland job with a tree, a few sheep and a view of Ingleborough, or I'm having a straightforward cremation and the ashes beside a footpath in the Dales.Ah yes, “But a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave”
I did precisely that, I bought a 401 for £40 sometime in the mid to late 80's not because I was clever but because I lived in the town where they were built and I knew dozens of men who had previously worked there so there was a constant source of knowledge if ever anything went wrong. Also Terry O'Sullivan was then operating from a place in Marlborough and lots of owners were on first name terms with each other. It was genuinely a situation where you would be mad not to buy a 301/401.
Unfortunately Mother Nature is catching up and very few of them/us are now left. I was speaking to a former member of the Garrard Buying Dept few months ago and I don't think he even recognised me. A lot of knowledge is going away fast.
Minio
Kind of Sort of Not really...
Yes and no.
Funnily enough, it was a Linn dealer that first introduced me to Pink Triangle.
The overlords of Linn soon put a stop to their dealers carrying rival products though.
Arthur Khoubesserian's approach was like a breath of fresh air.
PT decks were supplied with an Allen key, a pipe cleaner and a piece of pink string. Served me well for 30 years.
It's all you need. And a dab of 3 in 1.
PS: ... and a pair of pink cotton gloves, also supplied, to keep greasy hands off the pristine platter.
MVV
pfm Member
Hi Tony, what makes you prefer idlers? I know you tried a Technics G but didn't get on with it, why there too?
I use a WT Amadeus GTa which sounds fine but I want a fit and forget final TT to see me out. (string and gloop anxiety)
Darren L
Egalitarian
That sounds like a much more preferable resting place to me @stevec67
There's definitely a tradition of opulence in the RC church even in the graveyard, at the last house that we lived in the garden backed onto the local Chapel grounds, it was full of polished granite headstones and surrounds, though it must be said it did have alot of visitors and was in general very well looked after, lots of colour from fresh flowers.
There's definitely a tradition of opulence in the RC church even in the graveyard, at the last house that we lived in the garden backed onto the local Chapel grounds, it was full of polished granite headstones and surrounds, though it must be said it did have alot of visitors and was in general very well looked after, lots of colour from fresh flowers.
Tony L
Administrator
Old-school flat-earth attributes of pitch, rhythm and timing mainly. To my ears the 301, 124 etc combine the best aspects of rock-solid pitch from the really high-mass belt-drives with the light-on-its-feet rhythmic fun and funky aspects of a Linn. The price is a slightly higher noise-floor, but I’ll happily pay that for the best of the rest.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t get on with the 1200G due to its very high mass/damping, not its drive technology. I just don’t seem to like the sound of heavy decks. It was always in perfect tune (given a centred record), it just sounded dead in the water to me. As do all the really big heavy decks I’ve heard.
Brown Bottle
UTB
The Technics G doesn't look as nice as a LP12 but it still looks great IMHO. Now SMEs I do find very ugly, apart from the 10 maybe.
Cheers BB
I wouldn't buy a turntable that didn't have a proper hinged lid. Just as I wouldn't buy an arm which didn't have an arm lift. A record player should be fun to use, not just good to listen to.
John
Rack’em Up!
You forgot to mention record clamp and finger lift!
Why is a record clamp convenient? I don't even like the sound of them so wouldn't want one anyway.
John
Rack’em Up!
In regards to the SME, yes no lid, lack of finger lift, having to turn the deck on/off for each record side along with diddling with a record clamp. All bad!
Paul L
coffee lounge for me
I never found any of that an issue when I had my SME10. Stop and start were quick, the machining on the spindle and clamp were accurate and fast and I’ve always found it easy to life off a custom made lid for a session then replace it. The latter is the approach I have now with the RP10 (without clamp of course and the felt mat means I don’t stop the deck to change a record)
I think we just adapt to a turntable, when I had the Pink Triangle or LP12s I removed the lid for a session anyway but I always stopped the motor to change a record with those as I didn’t want to upset the suspension clumsily.
I think we just adapt to a turntable, when I had the Pink Triangle or LP12s I removed the lid for a session anyway but I always stopped the motor to change a record with those as I didn’t want to upset the suspension clumsily.