"Perfect Sound Forever" does make the point! Of course CDs do have advantages of size and weight, click-the-remote convenience, lack of wear, programmability, etc. that helped them take over the mass market. But "perfect sound"? NOT!
Still, I'm not yet convinced that the LP-12 was an inferior machine promoted as superior. It would be fun to set up a listening comparison between a stock Lenco, with its not-so-good arm and sprung suspension, and a Linn LP 12 with one of the better arms used on it at that time. If the Linn belt drive really was better in some ways, it's really important to acknowledge that. It would take nothing away from the GLORY of the modern Giant Direct Coupled Lenco!
From what I've read of him, it's hard to believe that Linn's founder Ivor Tiefenbrun would have ever pursued a cheapen-it and convince-them-it's-better strategy. Here are some quotes from an interview in Stereophile with him a decade ago. Actually, he sounds a lot like...you, Jean... a true lover of music, an unconventional thinker willing to buck the herd, calling on people to listen to the evidence of their ears, taking his new turntable around to audio dealers and challenging them to compare it to their best.
* * * *
When I grew up, we had a hi-fi system in our home. My dad was a hi-fi enthusiast. When I got married it was natural to put a hi-fi very near the top of my list of things I needed.
I rented a two-ring gas cooker for a fiver just to do until we bought one, and bought a clothesrack to hang my clothes on. We moved into a completely empty house without a stick of furniture. I went out and bought a hi-fi system that cost the price of a good small car. My wife was utterly appalled. She said, "We don't have any chairs to sit on." I said, "We don't need any chairs. We've got all we need—we've got music." You can do lots of things to music: you can dance, make love, relax—you have a bed, you have a floor. If we had to start again, we'd do the same thing.
* * * *
People felt I was some kind of charlatan. The funny thing is that most marginal, or even nonexistent, improvements were welcomed, and yet here was a very large one that was easily demonstrable. But people actually didn't even want to listen. When they did, of course, they were flabbergasted.
It seemed obvious to me that the quality of the input signal was crucial in the performance of the total system, and that getting information off the record was substantially the task of the turntable; it was a platform for both the record and the arm and cartridge combination.... People said to me that turntables can't alter the sound because all they do is go 'round and 'round. I would say, "Well, my speakers just go in and out...."
* * * *
I took it to shops, knocked on the door, and asked if they wanted to listen to it. Most people told me it made no difference and so they didn't listen. Some said they would. Most heard a difference. Some thought it important, some didn't. And some said, "That's real exciting—how can we sell a thing like this?" And I said, "The same way I'm selling it to you. Play it for the people and let them hear for themselves what it does, and let them decide if it's worth it to them. Let them decide whether we deliver the performance."
* * * *
...there were times when a supplier would change something, which meant that we couldn't make the product unless we compromised performance. And a few times, because we refused to do that, we jeopardized the whole company.
There was one point where we didn't make anything for two and a half months because we couldn't solve a problem with motors. Eventually, I managed to persuade the supplier—I think I bought a couple thousand motors a year from them at that time—that they should change their motors to accommodate us....sometimes it nearly killed us. But being Scotsmen, we "die in perfect squares." We never take a step backward.
Still, I'm not yet convinced that the LP-12 was an inferior machine promoted as superior. It would be fun to set up a listening comparison between a stock Lenco, with its not-so-good arm and sprung suspension, and a Linn LP 12 with one of the better arms used on it at that time. If the Linn belt drive really was better in some ways, it's really important to acknowledge that. It would take nothing away from the GLORY of the modern Giant Direct Coupled Lenco!
From what I've read of him, it's hard to believe that Linn's founder Ivor Tiefenbrun would have ever pursued a cheapen-it and convince-them-it's-better strategy. Here are some quotes from an interview in Stereophile with him a decade ago. Actually, he sounds a lot like...you, Jean... a true lover of music, an unconventional thinker willing to buck the herd, calling on people to listen to the evidence of their ears, taking his new turntable around to audio dealers and challenging them to compare it to their best.
* * * *
When I grew up, we had a hi-fi system in our home. My dad was a hi-fi enthusiast. When I got married it was natural to put a hi-fi very near the top of my list of things I needed.
I rented a two-ring gas cooker for a fiver just to do until we bought one, and bought a clothesrack to hang my clothes on. We moved into a completely empty house without a stick of furniture. I went out and bought a hi-fi system that cost the price of a good small car. My wife was utterly appalled. She said, "We don't have any chairs to sit on." I said, "We don't need any chairs. We've got all we need—we've got music." You can do lots of things to music: you can dance, make love, relax—you have a bed, you have a floor. If we had to start again, we'd do the same thing.
* * * *
People felt I was some kind of charlatan. The funny thing is that most marginal, or even nonexistent, improvements were welcomed, and yet here was a very large one that was easily demonstrable. But people actually didn't even want to listen. When they did, of course, they were flabbergasted.
It seemed obvious to me that the quality of the input signal was crucial in the performance of the total system, and that getting information off the record was substantially the task of the turntable; it was a platform for both the record and the arm and cartridge combination.... People said to me that turntables can't alter the sound because all they do is go 'round and 'round. I would say, "Well, my speakers just go in and out...."
* * * *
I took it to shops, knocked on the door, and asked if they wanted to listen to it. Most people told me it made no difference and so they didn't listen. Some said they would. Most heard a difference. Some thought it important, some didn't. And some said, "That's real exciting—how can we sell a thing like this?" And I said, "The same way I'm selling it to you. Play it for the people and let them hear for themselves what it does, and let them decide if it's worth it to them. Let them decide whether we deliver the performance."
* * * *
...there were times when a supplier would change something, which meant that we couldn't make the product unless we compromised performance. And a few times, because we refused to do that, we jeopardized the whole company.
There was one point where we didn't make anything for two and a half months because we couldn't solve a problem with motors. Eventually, I managed to persuade the supplier—I think I bought a couple thousand motors a year from them at that time—that they should change their motors to accommodate us....sometimes it nearly killed us. But being Scotsmen, we "die in perfect squares." We never take a step backward.