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"The World's Oldest LP12"...

Interesting that the inside of the inner platter looks to be painted in grey hammerite. I've not seen that before. An interesting old Linn for sure.
 
I thought the oldest LP12 was an Ariston or AR turntable :rolleyes:

Looking at those photos he'd be better calling it the 'worlds oldest LP12 top plate'
 
Tony L said:
Interesting that the inside of the inner platter looks to be painted in grey hammerite. I've not seen that before. An interesting old Linn for sure.
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One of the dealers on the Linn forum commented on how the early inner platters were painted with Hammerite. Not seen one myself but then I didn't buy my LP12 until 1980.

Mick
 
thebiglebowski said:
I thought the oldest LP12 was an Ariston or AR turntable :rolleyes:

Looking at those photos he'd be better calling it the 'worlds oldest LP12 top plate'
Click to expand...

Story goes that the first batch of LP12s (about 40?) were Ariston RD11 models that Castle Engineering held on to when things went pear shaped with Hamish.
 
In fairness the photo is so poor / out if focus it's impossible to make any call on the bearing. I'd also argue one was buying a historical artefact with this one, not a state of the art record deck.
 
I owned one with serial around 1800 for a while, but it was a bit like trigger's broom.

Ie all original except for the new subchassis, bearing, inner, armboard, springs, bolts, baseboard and motor.

So I actually had an original top plate, outer, plinth and lid!
 
Hamish McDairmid sold me mine in April 1980 for £340.

Still going strong - so there NER NER to all you LP12 knockers.

You know who you are . . .

:) :) :)

also inner platters are 10 a penny.

Cheers, H.
 
Price rise of £270 in 7 years, that's the equivalent of over a £1000 in todays money.
 
thebiglebowski said:
Price rise of £270 in 7 years, that's the equivalent of over a £1000 in todays money.
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True, but I guess that in 1973 they were selling them at little profit to get into the market. In fact I was after a Technics direct drive deck at the time but couldn't afford one. IIRC they were a lot more money than the fruit box.
 
When I was at Garrrard they reckoned the evaluation deck was a well engineered piece but that it cost less to make than a 401. As soon as they captured the eye of the market the price went up a lot.
IMHO Linn were the first hifi brand to fix the price to "what the market can be persuaded to pay" rather than cost+ decided margins.
My rusty memory has it that the Linn retail was >£300 when the 401 was £68 (but with no plinth).
The ebay pictures are poor, but the thrust tip does look like it is very worn.
FWIW
 
thebiglebowski said:
Price rise of £270 in 7 years, that's the equivalent of over a £1000 in todays money.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting the rate of inflation at that time, I remember it being somewhat higher than today, we would have welcomed 5% never mind the paltry 3 or thereabouts we have now. I'd like to see the house buyers of today dealing with a 10 or 11% BASE rate.
 
A Technics SP10 Mk2 (without plinth) was £450 in 1976. That was a seriously expensive deck back then and that with Matsushita's advantage in terms of economies of scale. I'll bet very few were sold to anyone other than radio stations until they introduced the Obsidian plinth.
 
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