For the past 18months I have been in a dilemma as to what I should with my LP12, either upgrade or replace with a different turntable.
Initially I did some research on the various upgrades available, Cirkus Kit, Arm, Power Supply etc and having looked at the cost of each upgrade I decided to see what other turntables were available on the market. Again more research this time looking towards turntables in the range of approx £1400 which was my budget. It is difficult to demo all the variety of the turntables in this range as they are not always available to listen to. However, with the help of my local Hi Fi shop I was able to demonstrate the Rega P7 and Michell Gyrodec SE.
I shall only give a brief summary of the outcome of the demonstration. First of all, the P7. I was impressed, nice timing musical, clear, low surface noise, clinical good pitch stability, basically it did all that I was expecting and did it very well. Was it better that my humble LP12, overall in my judgement it was certainly different but not better.
On to the Gyrodec SE, again very impressive and of course different again to the P7 and my LP12. The SE had a Technoarm and Dynavector MC cartridge, and again I really enjoyed listening to a variety of records but in comparison I came to the conclusion that it was again just different to what I had and no real improvement.
There were areas where both the SE and the P7 were better but important areas to me like the sound of the quality of the instruments through the LP12 was clearly better. I came to the conclusion that after all these years I had became more accustomed to the characteristics of the LP12 sound and even though listening to other turntables was an enlightening experience I decided to build on what I had and revisit my original plan of upgrading my LP12. Back to square one, I guess.
My LP12 that has served me so well for 25 years was suffering from a drift in it's performance. I would guess on average over the past year it would be playing for about 12 hours per week so it deserved a bit of TLC. During my research into potential upgrades I was able to source Analogue Innovation and gave them a call and spoke to John R. We had a lengthy conversation about my turntable and my goals and he provided me with plenty of options to consider. Also he invited me to make an appointment to take my LP12 to him so that he could inspect it and connect it in to his system so that we could both have a listen and plan the way forward.
A visit to Analogue Innovation was arranged. It was quite clear that John has a real passion for the LP12, hi-fi and music in general, and it was no problem at all for him to go to the trouble of incorporating my LP12 into his system. I have spent considerable time over the years reading through hundreds of forum posts and trying to understand the various tweaks and upgrades I had loads of questions to ask. John took great time to provide me with the answers and checked my understanding so it was clear to me what upgrade plans I could do in both the short term and long term that fell within my budget. Dilemma resolved.
Moving on, John is the creator of the Sole Subchassis having only previously seen pictures of this it was great to actually see the sheer quality of the overall manufacture of the Sole Subchassis with my own eyes. Being interested in manufacturing technology myself, I couldn't fail to be impressed with what he has done, it was top quality and at a price I could afford.
John's LP12 of course has the Sole Subchassis installed, with a Rega Arm and Audio Technica MC cartridge. We did a lot of A/B testing listening to my LP12 and John's in his system. The results were that John's LP12 sounded amazingly better, the bass was deeper but clearer, the soundstage had an extra dimension. Instruments sounded better, bass had more sustain, the snare had extra snap, cymbals sounded beautiful. I was hearing musicians and instruments which were not apparent on my LP12. It was the Linn sound that I became so accustomed to after all these years but enhanced to another level which is what I wanted.
Maybe John's Rega Arm/Audio Technica combo is a better spec than my Linn Basik Plus/Ortofon 2M Blue, but I dont think the arm and cartridges are that far apart. I concluded that it must be Sole Sub Chassis that was driving the greater performance, it really was the night and day difference that I didn't get when comparing my LP12 to the P7 and Gyrodec.
So, to conclude this post. For the past week my LP12 has been in the careful hands of John R at Annalogue Innovation. It is currently getting a full service and also John has kindly offered to install the Sole Subchassis for me to try on a sale or return basis as he wants me to be absolutely satisfied with my upgrade. During the past week John has been in communication with me with the progress he has made and has also gone to the trouble of sending some photos of the work done keeping me involved in the upgrade journey. The total experience has so far been very reassuring.
I will soon be returning to collect my upgraded turntable and of course will do a new post which will include a full review of my newly Soled LP12.
Initially I did some research on the various upgrades available, Cirkus Kit, Arm, Power Supply etc and having looked at the cost of each upgrade I decided to see what other turntables were available on the market. Again more research this time looking towards turntables in the range of approx £1400 which was my budget. It is difficult to demo all the variety of the turntables in this range as they are not always available to listen to. However, with the help of my local Hi Fi shop I was able to demonstrate the Rega P7 and Michell Gyrodec SE.
I shall only give a brief summary of the outcome of the demonstration. First of all, the P7. I was impressed, nice timing musical, clear, low surface noise, clinical good pitch stability, basically it did all that I was expecting and did it very well. Was it better that my humble LP12, overall in my judgement it was certainly different but not better.
On to the Gyrodec SE, again very impressive and of course different again to the P7 and my LP12. The SE had a Technoarm and Dynavector MC cartridge, and again I really enjoyed listening to a variety of records but in comparison I came to the conclusion that it was again just different to what I had and no real improvement.
There were areas where both the SE and the P7 were better but important areas to me like the sound of the quality of the instruments through the LP12 was clearly better. I came to the conclusion that after all these years I had became more accustomed to the characteristics of the LP12 sound and even though listening to other turntables was an enlightening experience I decided to build on what I had and revisit my original plan of upgrading my LP12. Back to square one, I guess.
My LP12 that has served me so well for 25 years was suffering from a drift in it's performance. I would guess on average over the past year it would be playing for about 12 hours per week so it deserved a bit of TLC. During my research into potential upgrades I was able to source Analogue Innovation and gave them a call and spoke to John R. We had a lengthy conversation about my turntable and my goals and he provided me with plenty of options to consider. Also he invited me to make an appointment to take my LP12 to him so that he could inspect it and connect it in to his system so that we could both have a listen and plan the way forward.
A visit to Analogue Innovation was arranged. It was quite clear that John has a real passion for the LP12, hi-fi and music in general, and it was no problem at all for him to go to the trouble of incorporating my LP12 into his system. I have spent considerable time over the years reading through hundreds of forum posts and trying to understand the various tweaks and upgrades I had loads of questions to ask. John took great time to provide me with the answers and checked my understanding so it was clear to me what upgrade plans I could do in both the short term and long term that fell within my budget. Dilemma resolved.
Moving on, John is the creator of the Sole Subchassis having only previously seen pictures of this it was great to actually see the sheer quality of the overall manufacture of the Sole Subchassis with my own eyes. Being interested in manufacturing technology myself, I couldn't fail to be impressed with what he has done, it was top quality and at a price I could afford.
John's LP12 of course has the Sole Subchassis installed, with a Rega Arm and Audio Technica MC cartridge. We did a lot of A/B testing listening to my LP12 and John's in his system. The results were that John's LP12 sounded amazingly better, the bass was deeper but clearer, the soundstage had an extra dimension. Instruments sounded better, bass had more sustain, the snare had extra snap, cymbals sounded beautiful. I was hearing musicians and instruments which were not apparent on my LP12. It was the Linn sound that I became so accustomed to after all these years but enhanced to another level which is what I wanted.
Maybe John's Rega Arm/Audio Technica combo is a better spec than my Linn Basik Plus/Ortofon 2M Blue, but I dont think the arm and cartridges are that far apart. I concluded that it must be Sole Sub Chassis that was driving the greater performance, it really was the night and day difference that I didn't get when comparing my LP12 to the P7 and Gyrodec.
So, to conclude this post. For the past week my LP12 has been in the careful hands of John R at Annalogue Innovation. It is currently getting a full service and also John has kindly offered to install the Sole Subchassis for me to try on a sale or return basis as he wants me to be absolutely satisfied with my upgrade. During the past week John has been in communication with me with the progress he has made and has also gone to the trouble of sending some photos of the work done keeping me involved in the upgrade journey. The total experience has so far been very reassuring.
I will soon be returning to collect my upgraded turntable and of course will do a new post which will include a full review of my newly Soled LP12.
