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Linn LP12s – Fire away!

NickofWimbledon said:
It has been suggested that this opinions and advice on LP12s should probably have their own thread.

Vigorous exchanges on the virtues of LP12s seem to often turn up in other threads, not always helping to answer the question asked.

In addition, while most old lags here will already know what they think, I was reminded just today that there are newer contributors who might like to hear some pragmatic commentary and simple explanation of the pros and cons on LP12 instead of treating them as some arcane mystery.

The fact that LP12s divide consensus as much as the relevance of valves after 1970 or CD versus LP versus streaming or electrostatic speakers ever did is probably a bit intimidating for anyone who wants to find out for the first time (but without having one in front of them) what all the fuss is about.

Does anyone want to comment on such a thread?

Is every LP12 the embodiment of musical perfection, amazingly over-priced/ musically dreadful/ an outdated rip-off of an old Ariston, or somewhere in between?

Which of the hundreds of variations on the theme of plinth, sub-chassis, bearing, arm, cartridge and PS (old or new) make sense and which are best avoided?

How much does it actually matter what’s under an LP12?

Is it actually ok to spend (say) £2K on an LP12 off eBay?

To what extent has the much-mentioned ‘character’ been fixed in the last 30 years and is that good or bad?

Which third-party bits make sense?

If contributors do nothing else, can we at least agree that this thread is the obvious place for people to explain/ comment on/ decry/ eulogise over LP12s as a specific topic?

If yes, should we all (including me) try to avoid having those exchanges in threads where we risk (a) just trotting out the old arguments with new words and (b) messing up other discussions?
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You know what.?
I have a summary. The Linn is a very very good deck, but...
a whole generation of audiophiles learned to hate what happened in the 80's and early 90's, and the nonsense of that damaged the whole Linn company for some, which frankly, still annoys many of us.

That they have built SUCH a devoted fan base speaks volumes for my first sentence. It sounds great. It deserves it's place in HiFi history, but good god! Could they not simply have relied on the sound quality of the deck????

Well that's history now and what's left is a good, and very expensive deck.
I loved a woman once but discovered she was lying and up to all sorts of nonsense. I left her and wouldn't take her back if the good lord himself came down and begged me to do it, and
Linn ditto.

But thanks for the thread N of W
I feel that's a load off :)
xx
 
I am no longer the same person as when I was 30, 40 or 50 and there´s no longer such a thing as an LP12. Before this last few years what with the Karousel, the Mober and others I´ve never even heard of , there were just 2 stem versions : pre and post-cirkus. Now with all the versions of plinths and sub-chassis and top plates etc, God only knows all the possible combinations and that´s without the arm possibilities. So now to say I´ve got a Linn is about as revealing as saying I drive a 4-wheeled car. Chapeau to any pfm Reliant owners if any are still with us.
The mere thought of removing it from my equation/system would be so time consuming that it just ain´t gonna happen. I can´t even be bothered to go out and search for new music - my last 6 attempts with new vinyl have resulted in miserable failure.
I am very happy with my blue belt which has shown that there was much in my Lp collection that I was blithely unaware of, and it only cost 25 quid. So AFAIAC, whatever 4-wheeled car you buy, change the belt.
 
Chris said:
I am very happy with my blue belt which has shown that there was much in my Lp collection that I was blithely unaware of, and it only cost 25 quid. So AFAIAC, whatever 4-wheeled car you buy, change the belt.
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Very sound advice but should that be a blue one, 1 for the camshaft & 1 for the alternator?
 
I used to take mine to 'Linn Clinics', she was my 'girlfriend' and then my 'mistress' after I got married. Getting the Lp12 looked at by the Linn engineers and paying for getting new belts and suspension screws etc. was expensive and fun.

Then, record shops went out of business and CDs took over, CDs were crap. Had kids who punched in my Kans' tweeters regularly and pushed the Linn off its table (although its lid was luggage strapped down to the table)... Needed a Linn Clinic then.

In the end I couldn't be arsed to keep getting up to change tracks or albums. Sold it and went digital only. A good friend still has his, it sounds amazingly good, but he changes the tracks, meanwhile, I relax in my seat and sip his single malt waiting for the music to start.
 
nostromo said:
I used to take mine to 'Linn Clinics', she was my 'girlfriend' and then my 'mistress' after I got married. Getting the Lp12 looked at by the Linn engineers and paying for getting new belts and suspension screws etc. was expensive and fun.
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"Linn Klinik" actually :)

Need to get my LP12 into the klinik, it hasn't been fettled for over 10 years. Not buying any new expensive bits though as I've got the gas and electricity bills to worry about.
 
Jodet said:
Twenty years ago Linn laid off half their employees and said, in essence, 'from now on we're only going to sell to people who drive Ferrari's'.

They are dead to me.
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Sorry to go back over old ground, but my vague recollection was that their bank (no names) gave Linn the notorious 'Special Measures treatment in around 2006 over the large amount of debt they had taken on, leaving them with the choice of sacking lots of loyal workers or closing down. Have I got that wrong?
 
All I can say after reading this thread is I’m very glad I went down the Roksan route instead. I was all set to buy an LP12 when the chap in the shop suggested I might like to hear a new turntable before making a final decision.

Traded in my original Xerxes for a Xerxes X about twenty years ago, otherwise never felt the need to upgrade or fettle it in any way. No politics or drama or third-party bits and bobs.
 
Joe Hutch said:
All I can say after reading this thread is I’m very glad I went down the Roksan route instead. I was all set to buy an LP12 when the chap in the shop suggested I might like to hear a new turntable before making a final decision.

Traded in my original Xerxes for a Xerxes X about twenty years ago, otherwise never felt the need to upgrade or fettle it in any way. No politics or drama or third-party bits and bobs.
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Kind of a dead end if you want to improve your source and revisit your record collection in a new way.
 
Joe Hutch said:
All I can say after reading this thread is I’m very glad I went down the Roksan route instead. I was all set to buy an LP12 when the chap in the shop suggested I might like to hear a new turntable before making a final decision.

Traded in my original Xerxes for a Xerxes X about twenty years ago, otherwise never felt the need to upgrade or fettle it in any way. No politics or drama or third-party bits and bobs.
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I don't really understand how the existence of an upgrade path that isn't SELL IT AND START AGAIN can be a bad thing - how can an option have a negative value? However, I liked the Xerxes a lot back in the 90s. If I had found one then for the money that I paid for my LP12, I'd probably have bought it. Mind you, I might well have stuck with Touraj M by selling it to 'upgrade' to a Vertere MG-1 by now.

It's good to be reminded that the LP12 is not the only 'classic' turntable that still sounds good today - the Xerxes is certainly another.
 
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In 30 years I’ve never ever felt the need to upgrade my LP12 but Ive always enjoyed doing it up to a a price point, the L4 being the threshold for me. It’s like having a new tt each time. I’m sure I’d have had half a dozen tts by now if I’d gone for something else and spent far more In the process. Can’t say I’ve ever seen a nicer looking tt than the Lp12 though so it was obviously meant to be. The exotic upgrades (Keel, Ekos, Kandid, Radikal, Urika) are not and never will be for me. As far as I’m concerned they are a completely different tt.
 
Paul Hindle said:
The exotic upgrades (Keel, Ekos, Kandid, Radikal, Urika) are not and never will be for me. As far as I’m concerned they are a completely different tt.
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But you liked the Lingo 4? I would have thought this would take the deck along the 'new sound' path?
 
The lingo 4 seriously closed the gap between lingo and radikal, until radikal 2 was released, which lengthened the radikals stride considerably.
 
Mr Pig said:
I'm more interested in how it changes the sound. I'm about to try and fit a Rega Neo and 24v motor kit to an LP12 to see what happens. I see the Lingo 4 as just a grown up version of that.
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A truly Radikal cause of action :D

Love to hear how it sounds ...you might be onto something great...Lingo 4 is £1650 ...so could be a massive cost saving
 
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