Just bought a Stack Audio TENOR LP12 sub-chassis and thought I'd share initial thoughts.
I bought it direct from the web site and it arrived today. A sheet of aluminium that is CNCed for the bearing, grommets and arm-board fixing. It comes with an earth strap pre-installed and can be supplied with a spacer so it can take, pre-Cirkus, Cirkus and Karousel bearings. It can also take a Linn arm-board or one of Stack's own which locates on inserts to improve alignment and rigidity.
It's very well made, black anodized, but the most unusual feature is the constrained layer damping. An alloy plate is fixed in a recess machined into most of the underside. The fit is perfect and it's perfectly level with the surface of the sub-chassis. What's invisible is the viscous damping layer between the plate and the sub-chassis.
And of course it's dead flat! If you've never built an LP12 you may not realize what a big deal that can be but Linn's steel ones are often not very flat, and it's a pain.
Why did I buy this? I enjoyed the musicality of my old LP12 but technically it was well off the pace, the RP10 left it for dead in Hi-Fi terms, so I want to try and move my LP12 on a bit. I don't want to change too much at once though, as then you'll have no idea what is contributing what. I could have gone for a more advanced PSU, like the Lingo 4, but I decided on the sub-chassis for a few reasons. One is that it's hard to change later if you don't like it. A motor and PSU is quite easy. Another is that it's cheap.
Second hand the going rate for a Cirkus sub-chassis is about £150. This is a thin folded sheet of steel which is basically identical to the one the LP12 started life with in the early seventies except for the addition of a steel brace.
The next Linn chassis up is the Majik, which is fairly thin sheet aluminium folded into a box. I quite fancied this but it's £330 and incorporates an arm fixing point so you are tied to a Linn arm. I want to use a Rega arm initially at least.
The first CNCed alloy sub-chassis from Linn is the Kore which is £800. It does include a bonded arm-board but damn, £800!! Plus, I actively want to retain the 'wood' arm-board initially for continuity.
So the TENOR is a CNCed sub-chassis for £200, only £50 more than used Cirkus one. Yeah, I'll take a punt on that. Apart from this sub-chassis the deck will be pretty similar to something I've had in the past and with over thirty years of LP12 ownership and experience I'm hoping I'll get a good idea of what the sub-chassis is adding, or taking away! Probably be a few weeks until I nail the deck together, still a few bits to get, but I'll update the thread as things progress.
I bought it direct from the web site and it arrived today. A sheet of aluminium that is CNCed for the bearing, grommets and arm-board fixing. It comes with an earth strap pre-installed and can be supplied with a spacer so it can take, pre-Cirkus, Cirkus and Karousel bearings. It can also take a Linn arm-board or one of Stack's own which locates on inserts to improve alignment and rigidity.
It's very well made, black anodized, but the most unusual feature is the constrained layer damping. An alloy plate is fixed in a recess machined into most of the underside. The fit is perfect and it's perfectly level with the surface of the sub-chassis. What's invisible is the viscous damping layer between the plate and the sub-chassis.
And of course it's dead flat! If you've never built an LP12 you may not realize what a big deal that can be but Linn's steel ones are often not very flat, and it's a pain.
Why did I buy this? I enjoyed the musicality of my old LP12 but technically it was well off the pace, the RP10 left it for dead in Hi-Fi terms, so I want to try and move my LP12 on a bit. I don't want to change too much at once though, as then you'll have no idea what is contributing what. I could have gone for a more advanced PSU, like the Lingo 4, but I decided on the sub-chassis for a few reasons. One is that it's hard to change later if you don't like it. A motor and PSU is quite easy. Another is that it's cheap.
Second hand the going rate for a Cirkus sub-chassis is about £150. This is a thin folded sheet of steel which is basically identical to the one the LP12 started life with in the early seventies except for the addition of a steel brace.
The next Linn chassis up is the Majik, which is fairly thin sheet aluminium folded into a box. I quite fancied this but it's £330 and incorporates an arm fixing point so you are tied to a Linn arm. I want to use a Rega arm initially at least.
The first CNCed alloy sub-chassis from Linn is the Kore which is £800. It does include a bonded arm-board but damn, £800!! Plus, I actively want to retain the 'wood' arm-board initially for continuity.
So the TENOR is a CNCed sub-chassis for £200, only £50 more than used Cirkus one. Yeah, I'll take a punt on that. Apart from this sub-chassis the deck will be pretty similar to something I've had in the past and with over thirty years of LP12 ownership and experience I'm hoping I'll get a good idea of what the sub-chassis is adding, or taking away! Probably be a few weeks until I nail the deck together, still a few bits to get, but I'll update the thread as things progress.
