New Bearing for LP12--The Karousel
- Thread starter stackowax
- Start date
forester
pfm Member
The conspiracy theories are unbelievable, Linn did this, Linn did that, all to make their customers spend more! If you want to improve the mating between the bearing housing and subchassis the odds are you're going to adapt both pieces to achieve that. Back in the day I seem to remember the Cirkus was a few hundred pounds at most and for years a subchassis was what, about thirty quid? Both were so insignificantly cheap in the scale of things I had the shop 'just put them on' when the deck was in getting an Ekos fitted. Mind you the combined result was a bit better than expected. When I came to collect the deck the shop staff were all crammed in the listening room trying it out.
Linn customers generally don't need to be cajoled or tricked out of their cash, back then I would just have bought more and bigger amplifiers with any spare cash (in fact I pretty well did), the price of the bearing was frankly peanuts. I don't regard the price of the new bearing as out of the way either. Even though the deck is better just now than I've ever heard it (perhaps due to more regular use of the whole system while working at home) the prospect of further musical revelation beckons and I've saved far more on petrol (actually LPG in my case) over the past few months not to mention a missed holiday abroad. I can be confident in it's longevity as the current item must be well over 25 (or whenever they first came out) and still sounds sooo good. In fact I've never had a piece of Linn equipment fail in over 34 years and that includes a bargain 5103 I bought on Pink Fish for two hundred quid just to fill in a second system for a couple of months and that was three or four years ago.
Linn customers generally don't need to be cajoled or tricked out of their cash, back then I would just have bought more and bigger amplifiers with any spare cash (in fact I pretty well did), the price of the bearing was frankly peanuts. I don't regard the price of the new bearing as out of the way either. Even though the deck is better just now than I've ever heard it (perhaps due to more regular use of the whole system while working at home) the prospect of further musical revelation beckons and I've saved far more on petrol (actually LPG in my case) over the past few months not to mention a missed holiday abroad. I can be confident in it's longevity as the current item must be well over 25 (or whenever they first came out) and still sounds sooo good. In fact I've never had a piece of Linn equipment fail in over 34 years and that includes a bargain 5103 I bought on Pink Fish for two hundred quid just to fill in a second system for a couple of months and that was three or four years ago.
I bought a Cirkus when they first came out, probably weeks after it came out, and if I remember correctly it cost about £360 fitted. You're going back, what, twenty years though? I guess in today's money that would be about the same as the new bearing kit?
It's well engineered, you can't take that away from them. A lot of people probably don't realise how well made the LP12 is but if you've been inside some of the competition you'll get it quite quickly. And it was like that from the very beginning. We take the solid wood plinths for granted but it's worth pointing out that if you bought a Lenco or Ariston you got a veneered chipboard plinth. I built decks up using parts spanning decades and they fitted together perfectly.
I'm not saying everything they've ever made has been perfect, or that no other manufacturer is as good, but an LP12 is a quality bit of kit.
Considering that the new bearing and subchassis are more complex assemblies than the Cirkus, does that make it cheap? ;0)
Cirkus subchassis was included at the time.
The new bearing comes with a better subchassis as well? The contents of the kit are similar I thought?
Oh, ok. So it's expensive after all? ;0)
Darren L
Egalitarian
I'm not so sure, at first I thought wow £750 for a new bearing, but on seeing that it's actually a new bearing, sub platter and suspension fitted and set up by a (one would hope) Linn trained tech and that most people will be able to sell their old bearing it maybe isn't so bad a deal, that's if it brings a significant lift in performance, I've no reason to think it wouldn't.
I think of it's cost like this. It's now the bearing which will be on any new Linn turntable that's sold. It is the primary component in the turntable chain and will be the only new bearing linn will sell, I assume.
Therefore it has to be a percentage of the cheapest turntable package, the Majik. So hopefully will only go up moderately in price along with the Majik price.
I would suggest more of them will be sold than any other part of the Linn turntable chain, as people will replace them on there older Lp12's.
Having said all that, I am an optimist....
Therefore it has to be a percentage of the cheapest turntable package, the Majik. So hopefully will only go up moderately in price along with the Majik price.
I would suggest more of them will be sold than any other part of the Linn turntable chain, as people will replace them on there older Lp12's.
Having said all that, I am an optimist....
Fuller
pfm Member
Sorry my error, I have just found the receipt, purchased 09/09/93, and the cost was £285.00.
Mine must've cost that as well then as it was literally just out. The shop staff were raving about it, saying it was better than a Lingo, and it was a lot cheaper so I just went for it.
Was always my view at the time, half the cost of the Lingo and twice as good..... Never under stood the resistance to it.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Is there any truth to the rumour that the next major LP12 upgrade is really going to lock Linn users in. Called the Kovid, once you've got it, you ain't going anywhere else...