advertisement


When is a spring not a spring ? When it’s a polymer Insole

Chris

Chris

pfm Member
Well, I have finally fitted John R’s thingies after buying them last May and their subsequent adventures in the post to Spain and back and then a voyage here on a Christmas cruise (cheers bro ) and my 3 Linn grommets, their springs and nyloc nuts are in a plastic bag. Bill Evans Trio is playing - Portrait in Jazz is on side 1, volume uppish and even I can hear that nothing is missing, au contraire, Mr. Evans is doing his best to provoke that well known piano shimmy tremolo on individual notes thing and no joy. There certainly seems to be an improvement to me and there is a definite smell of wood coming from that big stand-up violin while the drummer has just had a Red Bull or aomething else. I’m not trying to convince anyone but they only cost the price of my blue belt and the sheer joy of not having to worry about your pistonic bounce and dialling in, twixt forefinger and thumb, your armboard levelness and parallelness in its resting place is well worth it. So John R ( and Mike P too,albeit a few months ago ) I am on a 50 quid two-fold runner, here thousands of kilometres from the nearest Linn setterupperer. Well chuffed. Now Ms. Patricia Barber is having no joy at all with her joanna, either.The drummer is thwacking away and although the bass is all there it’s nowhere near as woody- smelling as the one on the Bill Evans disc
 
Last edited:
Gentlemen, thank you both for your kind comments, I'm really glad you like what the "In Soles" do for the LP12..

Funnily enough they are also well liked by owners of Thorens' TD150, 160 and 166 TT's.

They took a number of years to get right, working with a very helpful polymer company and I think they've done us proud, 150 sets sold so far to very happy suspended TT owners.

Richard, I'm sure Linn will eventually cotton on that their springs are so yesterday. Hmm as for cost, I feel theirs will look great but will retail for at least 5x the cost of ours. Such is life!
 
John ...have you thought that the other linn deck....the axis ...might also benefit from having its hard rubber "springs" changed?
 
Last edited:
Well done John.

I'm discovering for myself how hard it can be to develop products and find companies willing to manufacture small quantities at a reasonable price.

I think people often don't understand the effort and cost that goes into making these things a reality. I certainly didn't until I started trying to do it myself.

Chapeau!
 
John R said:
Gentlemen, thank you both for your kind comments, I'm really glad you like what the "In Soles" do for the LP12..
Click to expand...

I'm just glad you didn't call them the 'John R Soles'! ;0)

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

It's a tricky one, Linn have blatantly copied other people's ideas before, from the bolt on the motor corner to a DC motor. I guess unless you patent this idea they could copy it. However I think they're more likely to come out with a revised design of spring rather than doing away with the springs altogether. The springs are such a fundamental part of the LP12 design that removing them would be too big a shift away from what the LP12 is.

There aren't many parts of the deck that have not been revised. The Lid, hinges, platter and the springs have only been changed once and that was a long time ago. I'm surprised about that when they're such a key component.
 
Lol. Then they'll probably maintain the issues they have currently with the LP12 should they remain with springs as suspension.

There was once a garage proprietor whom I once lived close to, he used to specialise in repair of vehicle body work and was as I recall very well respected. His name? Ron Sole, always signed his correspondence/cheques/invoices etc., R Sole.
 
Mynamemynaim said:
John ...have you thought that the other linn deck....the axis ...might also benefit from having is hard rubber "springs" changed?
Click to expand...

It probably would be a good business and audio improvement opportunity but alas, given my current state of health I'm no longer inclined to look for more work than I have presently.
 
Chris said:
Well, I have finally fitted John R’s thingies after buying them last May and their subsequent adventures in the post to Spain and back and then a voyage here on a Christmas cruise (cheers bro ) and my 3 Linn grommets, their springs and nyloc nuts are in a plastic bag. Bill Evans Trio is playing - Portrait in Jazz is on side 1, volume uppish and even I can hear that nothing is missing, au contraire, Mr. Evans is doing his best to provoke that well known piano shimmy tremolo on individual notes thing and no joy. There certainly seems to be an improvement to me and there is a definite smell of wood coming from that big stand-up violin while the drummer has just had a Red Bull or aomething else. I’m not trying to convince anyone but they only cost the price of my blue belt and the sheer joy of not having to worry about your pistonic bounce and dialling in, twixt forefinger and thumb, your armboard levelness and parallelness in its resting place is well worth it. So John R ( and Mike P too,albeit a few months ago ) I am on a 50 quid two-fold runner, here thousands of kilometres from the nearest Linn setterupperer. Well chuffed. Now Ms. Patricia Barber is having no joy at all with her joanna, either.The drummer is thwacking away and although the bass is all there it’s nowhere near as woody- smelling as the one on the Bill Evans disc
Click to expand...


I sold my LP12 because I decided I wanted a maintenance free turntable for my dotage never wondering if it's out of tune. With these fitted I might well have been tempted to keep it. And this from someone who lives 20 minutes drive from Peter Swain's workplace. I get the impression he finaces his foreign trips by doing LP12 set-ups en route. A cynic might think that the springs remain to generate set-up and upgrade business but how many people are put off by not having a set-up guru conveniently to hand? If you don't own a suspended turntable hifi is generally maintenance free.
 
Dummy’s, aka my view.If you think about it, why are springs needed ? Presumably to isolate the cartridge/groove interface from external forces that might affect their relationship. How? by cushioning the blow dummy, but hang on thereis nothing SITTINGon these springs - the topplate is sitting on the plinth and these turntable springs are special: they don’t cushion from sideways blows because they are not springs for SITTING on as is usual; your subchassis is hanging from these springs. And what are these external forces and how great are they ? Why should we allow springs , because of their need for a pistonic up-down bounce and with a bit of luck to try and minimize any side to side swinging when a suitably designed grommet look alike in sole can do the job, hopefully as well or better, and you can dial in the level of your sub chassis and therefore the armboard with your fingers and a bubble level on the spindle, no needfor a jig, spanner nor magic fingertips to check the bounce. In fact no need for payinganyone to do it for you. In fact, welcome Linn to the land of (nearly) plug and play.
 
Aspro said:
I sold my LP12 because I decided I wanted a maintenance free turntable for my dotage never wondering if it's out of tune. With these fitted I might well have been tempted to keep it. And this from someone who lives 20 minutes drive from Peter Swain's workplace. I get the impression he finaces his foreign trips by doing LP12 set-ups en route. A cynic might think that the springs remain to generate set-up and upgrade business but how many people are put off by not having a set-up guru conveniently to hand? If you don't own a suspended turntable hifi is generally maintenance free.
Click to expand...
To my knowledge, Peter's foreign trips (air tickets) are financed by his client/s. I also think they provide a room or even just a sofa for him to doss down on. Seems fair enough to me, good luck to him.
 
John R said:
To my knowledge, Peter's foreign trips (air tickets) are financed by his client/s. I also think they provide a room or even just a sofa for him to doss down on. Seems fair enough to me, good luck to him.
Click to expand...

I visited Peter recently. He's an absolute gent, and who else shows the commitment and willing to provide a listening room with 20+ differently-configured Sondeks available for listening so that you can actually compare the wide range of Sondek upgrades from one minute to the next. He enables his customers to make good decisions and potentially save a lot of money by assessing which upgrades are worthwhile to them. I was very heartened to see the old kind of dealership where the customer is free to make up his own mind without suggestion or interference. All the Rega decks were there too, and Vertere. From what I've seen, his reputation is earned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top