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New Bearing for LP12--The Karousel

Sorry, but they did make the Cirkus Bearing fit the old chassis - I’m afraid you are wrong when you say the key dimensions are different.

Perhaps I am on your ‘ignore’ list but I did give a more detailed explanation in post #572.
 
YNWOAN said:
Oh, the old chassis was spot welded - if it had been seam welded it would have been a lot more rigid but likely distorted to buggery :).
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The very first one had no brace. The next one was spot welded. The next was glued and the Cirkus one was seam welded.

I can't argue with your measurments, you have the things in front of me, but it was always my understanding that the Cirkus bearing would not fit in a pre-Cirkus sub-chassis. Apologies if I'm wrong on that.
 
The pre-Cirkus subchassis I had, circa 1987 had a brace and was glued to the subchassis. The pre-Cirkus subchassis was single layered (Subchassis only) around where the bearing mounted as opposed to double layer(subchassis + brace thickness) on the Cirkus subchassis where it was mounted to the bearing. This is what accounted for the height difference between the two bearings.
 
nitrous said:
I’ve been pondering bearing and sub-chassis whilst spinning lots of vinyl with the Karousel, and I think if you have an old sub chassis and a cirkus bearing, a Kore would be a more suitable step. Given a bearing could become worn, you get an upgrade and a bit more use from a bearing before moving on to the Karousel. I wonder if the similar price reflects how Linn see it in SQ terms.

by the way I’m glad someone with common sense answered the comment about Pre Cirkus and Cirkus bearings fitting older sub chassis. I’ve used a pre Cirkus bearing with a Cirkus sub chassis, it fits, but runs a bit lower by 1-2mm. Not a problem unless you drop a 200g vinyl pressing from too high on to the platter, in which case it will probably hit the top plate.

still haven’t played any Yes yet, but the The Glove blue Sunshine was excellent!
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That's interesting as I have the Cirkus bearing and the standard sub-chassis and I can't afford to do both. However, if Linn decide to get up to their old tricks (I'm thinking of the Keel pricing when it first came out) then the Karousel won't stay at £750 for long. Come Easter next year it'll be over £1K and it'll carry on upwards from there. I don't think that the Kore will do that, or at least hopefully not.
 
John said:
The pre-Cirkus subchassis I had, circa 1987 had a brace and was glued to the subchassis. The Cirkus subchassis was I think single layered..
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They are actually quite similar. The glued brace on the Pre has a round cut-out where the bearing goes so that the bearing only bolts to the subchassis itself. The brace on the Cirkus is similar but is welded all along either side and does not have the cut-out, so the bearing bolts through both the subchassis and the brace.
 
2ManyBoxes said:
However, if Linn decide to get up to their old tricks then the Karousel won't stay at £750 for long.
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It's worth remembering that your old subchassis, bearing etc can be sold on eBay or in the classifieds on here so it won't actually cost you £750 to upgrade to the new bearing.
 
I believe the majik turntable comes with the new bearing, so given it's part of the package, unlike a new sub-chassis, and likely to be intrinsic to any new Lp12, there hopefully will be more manufacture and demand for the bearing. I would guess they haven't had to do too much re-tooling for the bearing either.
However I would go with the bearing upgrade first as well, as you never know with audio pricing, as you point out.
 
Yeah, but come that glorious day the market will be flooded, I'd expect. £100 would be a maximum with a following wind on a windy day.
 
Mr Pig said:
The very first one had no brace. The next one was spot welded. The next was glued and the Cirkus one was seam welded.

I can't argue with your measurments, you have the things in front of me, but it was always my understanding that the Cirkus bearing would not fit in a pre-Cirkus sub-chassis. Apologies if I'm wrong on that.
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The whole belief that the pre-Cirkus and Cirkus bearings are physically different sizes is really common and I’ve often read it before - so you are far from being alone in this. However, I really do assure you that they are not - as you say, I have them in front of me. I’m sorry, but I’m also 100% positive the Cirkus chassis is not seam welded either. It is epoxy glued just as it was previously. What may be giving the impression that it is welded is the paint finish seems to have been done after the gluing on the Cirkus rather than before as was previously. So, on pre-Cirkus chassis’ you can often see the grey glue seeping out between the joint and on the Cirkus chassis this same glue joint is black (because of the applied paint). I’m guessing you’ve never done any welding because it really is clearly not welded (not MIG and not TIG)
 
2ManyBoxes said:
That's interesting as I have the Cirkus bearing and the standard sub-chassis and I can't afford to do both. However, if Linn decide to get up to their old tricks (I'm thinking of the Keel pricing when it first came out) then the Karousel won't stay at £750 for long. Come Easter next year it'll be over £1K and it'll carry on upwards from there. I don't think that the Kore will do that, or at least hopefully not.
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I tend to agree with you with regards-to Linn’s pricing, one reason I bought the Karousel now. It would be interesting to know how the new bearing works with the steel sub-chassis, it would be a leap of faith buying on to try. Plus you would need to check that the new bearing will actually fit. The three location dimples *could* possibly be deeper than steel sub chassis preventing the proper tightening of the since nut/collar. Probably ok with a Cirkus sub-chassis but worth checking.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if Linn no longer made the bearing. Over the years Linn have progressively moved from being a mechanical engineering company that also makes some electronics to being predominantly an electronics company that happens to also do some mechanical stuff.
 
Brennus said:
So which would sound better, a precirkus bearing in a keel, or a cirkus bearing in its steel sub chassis?
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Don't know which would sound better/different. I can't get past the bearing being the most important/effectual part of a turntable.
 
I don’t know either, but to my eye the big difference between the cirkus and the precirkus is the robustness of the connection to the sub chassis. So a good pre cirkus bearing in an aluminium sub chassis may be 90% there? This is the arrangement I have just now. To me it was a very big jump from the old spot welded sub chassis. The price of cirkus bearings is now very reasonable so I may change out of curiosity?
 
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