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Possible turntable upgrade....

Hi All,

So it started as a simple, 'buy some new speakers' impulse. Well, that escalated quickly!

Now, I am looking at my turntable as the possible weakest link. Would love your help/advice/input/experience on whether it's time to give up on my old, beloved c.1980's Linn LP12 that I have had since the mid 80s. The deck has Lingo 1 and Cirkus/Valhalla upgrades of note.

Details: LP12 as above, Graham Phantom arm, Clearaudio Concerto cart.

System: Aesthetix Janus (brand new) pre, BAT 250SE (w BAT-PAK) amp. Tara Labs throughout (recent upgrade) including phono cables, Vivid B1 speakers (Tara The 2 cables).

So, it seems that the Graham Phantom may be too much arm for the Linn (been told Linn is better with a lighter arm) so should I upgrade the deck to build the analog around the arm and take it to the level of the Aesthetix/Vivids etc? Basically, is my money better spent on a new deck as opposed to trying to upgrade an old design such as the Linn? Is the Linn now the weakest link in my system? 

If so, recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I know tastes come into it etc but hopefully my choice of Vivids etc give an insight. Especially love to hear from anyone with a Graham Phantom arm. Price range: as low as possible to make the necessary difference, definitely under $10k. Preferably closer to $5k. Of particular interest (but little listening experience) would be Clearaudio and Transrotor. Open to all ideas. All positive input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you all.  
denjer1
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Denjer I have owned two Linns over the years and I hated both of them but they were still the best table you could buy at the time. You have to trust me on this one. Get a SOTA Cosmos and stick your Graham on it.
You will never buy another turntable. You will be in Heaven. You will be able to put your sub woofer right in front of it and blast the crap out of it and nothing will happen. You will be able to jump up and down right in front of it and nothing will happen. It now has a magnetic bearing like the more expensive Clearaudio tables. They will drill the arm board and weight the chassis for the Graham. You get your choice of wood and a dust cover if you like! They are great people and you will have the best experience with them. You should consider a better cartridge. A Clearaudio Da Vinci would do perfectly. I love spending other peoples money. I have owned at least 20 tables and the only one that compares is the SME. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Millercarbon the only way to isolate a table is to suspend it correctly. You are right about tuning the suspension and The SOTA  does this by adding and or subtracting lead shot to a well under the tonearm board. Any table on a fixed base is only as isolated as what it is sitting on. The problem with the Linn was that its suspension had a very low Q. All you had to do was sneeze in front of it and it would start bouncing. The SOTA and the SME will not do this. You can put them on a collapsible card table and they will be totally immune to anything that happens around it. Try that with any fixed base table no matter the weight.  
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,501 posts
 
What don't you like about your Linn....  
denjer1 OP
45 posts
 
Thank you guys. I'm getting the sense that there is a clear direction to go here. I'll look into all the recommendations. 

Mijostyn: Cartridge upgrade will be the final step. Not even considering options until later. 
Millercarbon: thanks for the really balanced advice and input. Def helps. 
Jperry: Thanks for the input & recommendations. 
denjer1 OP
45 posts
 
Fair question Stingreen. It's not what I don't like, it's more about the fact that I have changed my entire system and wish to be open to seeing if a change would be the way to go. I really haven't even listened to it yet with the new preamp and speakers - hopefully tonight I'll be able to do that. It's more about planning  those next steps that will hopefully keep me happy for the next 10-15 years. When I bought it, I was young and it was a huge stretch for me. The mantra back then was always spend the money on the front end.... It took a while for the rest of my system to overtake the Linn. That's where I am now. 
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