advertisement


Renovate an old Linn Axis?

I had a K18.... not something I would normally have bought but it was on offer from a hi fi dealer friend at a price I couldn't say no to....
Very bright indeed, probably the brightest cart I've ever had in fact... luckily the treble quality was actually very good and it was an excellent tracker. It sounded rather bass light as well but I was never convinced this was not due to it being so bright. Anyway the overall effect was that it sounded very "fast", detailed, "crisp" buy obviously tilted towards the top end in frequency balance. Very much a curates egg and far from accurate!

After the stylus was past its best I stored it for a few years and eventually gave it to a mate to replace the cart in his Panasonic music centre! A new stylus was silly money and this was way before ebay... could of maybe got £100 for the body these days:eek:
 
Defo Jez, there is a Linn K9 body on eBay priced at £249! OK it hasn't sold but the K18 should presumably be worth at least as much. The ultimate flat earth moving magnet? Cult following ensues.
 
the reason many people say these carts are bright is that they are either not loaded as recommended, and/or the cart dips front to back. Mounter and loaded sympathetically, they sound fine. But they don't smooth over the roughness that the rest of the equipment might have!
 
the reason many people say these carts are bright is that they are either not loaded as recommended, and/or the cart dips front to back. Mounter and loaded sympathetically, they sound fine. But they don't smooth over the roughness that the rest of the equipment might have!

Rubbish! They are simply that bright. As a designer of phono stages (amongst other things) I think I know how to load a cart and how to set up a TT!
 
Helen Bach has a good point. I changed my Exposure X from 470pF to 100pF. Also, if you use a high VTF on the AT95, say 2.2g, it can sound a different cartridge. There's a thread on the Naim forum, where a person was using an AT95e in a Naim Aro and finding tracking at 2.2 g. gave him the best results.
 
My own experience of the K9 (never had K5 or K18) is they are difficult to match up.

I first had a K9 on an LP12/Ittok and loved the sound and used it for several years from around 88. As a result I purchased a supply of stylus replacements.

In the mid 90s for a combination of reasons including some of my kit being stolen I upgraded away from the Ittok. Since then I have built up a large collection of decks and have tried the K9 on most with mixed results but never achieved the same level of satisfaction. It worked quite well on a couple of decks but still didn't quite have the magic. On other decks it just sounded over forward and harsh.

Recently I purchased an Ittok and installed that along with the K9 on my second earlier build LP12 and found the quality of sound I originally remembered. Don't know the reason whether compliance, capacitance or whatever but it just achieves synergy for me on that combo.
 
They sold over 5million AT95s , but still a budget design designed for budget decks & much improved if you replace the standard stylus with a hyperelliptical/shibata
 
yes, let's not forget it is a budget cart, so it will not be perfect (but what is). It is, perhaps, a starting point for those on the road to hifi Nirvana, other carts are available. But sympathetically mounted and loaded, it gives an awful lot of percussive force for a small bit of the local currency
 


advertisement


Back
Top