The Linn LV V, when was it introduced?

Craig B · Sep 5, 2021

Dowser said: ↑

i Wonder whether either were beaten by the LV-V? Certainly not by the time I bought it 20 odd years later - I’d suggest bearings were a good half mm off, there’s a post here from me somewhere being surprised at the difference nipping them up made (with a DL-110 from memory)
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I always thought the G-707 to be a reasonably good sounding, if not somewhat spindly, tonearm. Certainly not top drawer MC cartridge good, though. Linn's insistence upon running the likes of Supex SD-900, and, later, Asak DC2100K*, on G-707 always seemed a waste of really good cartridges to moi. Grace did have other tonearm models that would have suited better, mind, only their cheapest model G-707 wasn't one of them. On the other hand, with the likes of F9 on, G-707 were hard to beat for the (then) money. The higher the compliance the better really. It wasn't just the introduction of Ittok LVII that killed off the popularity of G-707, for, along came the superb Mission 774 and the Grace became an instant relic with an all too easily broken headshell.

* Yes, they did. Asak preceded Ittok LVII onto the market by a year.

Tony L · Sep 5, 2021

Craig B said: ↑

I always thought the G-707 to be a reasonably good sounding, if not somewhat spindly, tonearm. Certainly not top drawer MC cartridge good, though. Linn's insistence upon running the likes of Supex SD-900, and, later, Asak DC2100K*, on G-707 always seemed a waste of really good cartridges to moi. Grace did have other tonearm models that would have suited better, mind, only their cheapest model G-707 wasn't one of them.
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Yes, I don’t know who did the math at Linn but the 707 was clearly an arm in the category of the fixed shell SME 3009 Improved, Series III, Infinity Black Widow, AT1120 etc, i.e. an arm very obviously designed for high-compliance 1970s MMs. I have no issue with this design school and would like to see more options today. I feel it is sad we have settled down to a medium mass medium compliance conformity, it rules out some rather wonderful outliers at both sides.

As I mentioned upthread I had a Linn Basik LVV, thought it was absolute crap (just cheap music centre-grade junk), so swapped it out for a then deeply unfashionable but obviously beautifully made low mass fluid-damped Audio Technica AT1120 and an Ortofon M25FL that I got for about 1/3rd retail in closeout (again deeply unfashionable). It was a great combo and would track anything cleanly at little more than a gram and sounded very good. It amused me when the Lenco revivalists (Jean Nantais etc) rediscovered this school of low-mass high-compliance MMs a decade or two ago and started raving about how good they were. Good to see an honest reappraisal. The M25FL being a cult item now if you can find a working one (the suspension tends to collapse with age).

The Grace 707 with a F9E or similar was a great arm/cart combo I’d happily use if still available. There really is nothing wrong with that design school, it is just as valid as the modern ubiquity of medium mass/medium compliance, or high-mass/low compliance at the other extreme (e.g. SPUs in nice 12” 3012s, RM309s, FR66 etc). Always more than one way to do these things. Choices are always good, but you need to understand what they are and stick the right cart in the right arm!

sktn77a · Sep 5, 2021

Dowser said: ↑

i Wonder whether either were beaten by the LV-V? Certainly not by the time I bought it 20 odd years later - I’d suggest bearings were a good half mm off, there’s a post here from me somewhere being surprised at the difference nipping them up made (with a DL-110 from memory)
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Both were much better than the LV-V but weren't generating revenue for Linn! Also remember this was when the Linn LP12 was being pushed into entry-level systems and the cost had to be cut somewhere.

Musicman19 · Sep 6, 2021

rbrown said: ↑

It must be wrong. Mine was definitely bought in '83! It cost £74.
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Yes I had one in 83.

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The Linn LV V, when was it introduced?

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