The Linn Karousel bearing.


After twenty seven years, Linn recently announced an update to their Linn Cirkus bearing--the Karousel bearing. For those who may not know what a Linn Cirkus bearing is...well this is the main bearing of the Linn LP12 turntable. The main bearing design is the part that Ivor Tiefenbrun used as his logo for his table back in the day. Ivor believed, rightly so IMO, that the bearing was the most crucial part of the whole turntable design. His original design had a oil based bearing consisting of a inner platter with a machined spindle that rotates in an oil filled container. Naturally, the container and the spindle had to be precisely manufactured for the spindle to rotate in an accurate manner. The original bearing was replaced after about fifteen years with the first bearing upgrade called ’Cirkus’. This bearing was more beefy than the original bearing and used Linn’s black oil along with a more precisely machined spindle. As such the ’Cirkus’ bearing kit consisted of a new inner platter and bearing fixture. The bearing ’cup’ attached via three screws to the sub- chassis. I replaced my original white collar inner bearing with a Cirkus bearing only about a year or so ago....to say the increase in SQ was substantial would be an understatement! Much lower noise floor, larger images and a more obvious ease to the flow of the music. This ’Cirkus’ upgrade when it first was released, about twenty seven years back came about to some fanfare, but not as much as the more recent power supply upgrades and plinth/subchassis upgrades..and yet i always felt that this particular upgrade was more impactful on the SQ than any other upgrade. ( as perhaps it should be if we go along wth Ivor’s original point!).
So, after many years of Linn LP12 ownership and with an upgrade of the sub-chassis ( to Magik/Kore) and power supply/motor to the Radikal D, i was excited about the new bearing that was introduced just in time for ---the pandemic!!!

The new bearing features a different mounting system to the sub-chassis ( resulting in far more rigidity),plus more precise machining than Linn was able to accomplish before ( there is now talk of 5microns in precision!). This precision pays off in a BIG way as we shall soon see.
I had expected a step up in SQ, since the Cirkus was so very impressive when I fitted it, but to say that I was ’gobsmacked’ when i first heard the new Karousel would be an understatement!
This review is based on listening to the new bearing with about ten hours on it...and as such it could get even better...which would be a truly incredible thing. But, here’s the thing, the new bearing is so amazing in what it does for the Linn LP12 turntable that i think IF funds allow it should be a mandatory upgrade.
My first listen with the upgrade was to the reissue of the old favorite ’The Royal Ballet gala’ album from Analog Productions. This classical LP sounds great on the Linn Cirkus, yet with the new bearing in place, I noticed something that i had not when listening to this album before...a complete and total silence between tracks along with far more precision of timbre on all of the instruments. Better dynamics and larger dynamic swings, more bass reach and better deep bass resolution and lastly, another increase in the ebb and flow ( which i wouldn’t have thought to be even possible) over the Cirkus bearing. To say that the table now moved another step closer to the reproduction of master tape would be appropriate, IMO. The new Karousel bearing for the Linn LP....simply this- Linn has hit one out of the park>>>



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To clarify a few things about the LP12, years ago I used to work for an authorized Linn dealer and setup quite a few LP12's at and around the time the Cirkus  upgrade came out.  First, their were I believe a couple of changes to the original bearing.  The last one was pretty substantial in that it had a bearing liner made of PEEK.  A difficult (at the time)  material to machine that created a tighter bearing tolerance. A much lower expansion/contraction coefficient.  It was black and the oil was black.  Linn also made the bearing and bearing shaft out of the same materials to keep expansion /contraction coefficients the same to keep tolerances from changing because of differing materials.  Then the Cirkus bearing came out as a response to some owners dislike of the linn's mid bass performance or something like that.  By the way their was a great article a few years earlier in Hifi News & Record Review about this very issue written by Martin Colloms where he figured out the (problem?) issue with a fix for it including measurements to backup his subjective impressions.  
 As far as the Cirkus upgrade went, while it took care of this mid bass bloat it also took away a lot of the character of the LP12 that made the LP12, I don't know, shine.  I and quite a few others didn't care for the upgrade that daveyf gushed on about which leaves me to suspect that maybe his table had a more serious issue.  I'm guessing.  Not just customers but dealers who were quite familiar with the table personally didn't bother with the update.  
Also the Majik and Kore (and Keel for that matter) are different sub-chassis'  models made for the LP12.  By the way if you own an earlier Linn like a Valhalla model you will need to update the sub-chassis to install the new main bearing.  
Lately you don't hear much about LInn like in the golden era of audio.  When I look at the LP12 I see a product with a lot of firsts in design and engineering.  Mine is thirty odd years young and admittingly most of it has been changed.  But after everything else in my setup that has been replaced, it has stood the test of time.
@vitussl101. I can tell you that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my LP12 when I changed out the original bearing and heard the significant across the board improvements with the then new Cirkus bearing. If you ask most folk who own Linns that were updated to the Cirkus, they almost universally heard what I did when the bearing was replaced. The same goes now for the new Karousel bearing, but perhaps it is like everything else in this hobby, the more resolving your upstream gear is,,.the bigger the improvements you will hear. 
Karousel is an upgrade I'm interested in, having heard it on YouTube.  I don't have any of the newer sub-chases.  Would that fact prevent me from getting the Karousel?  I do have the Cirkus bearing.
It also depends on your power supply. if you have a Valhalla, then you would need to change that to at least a Lingo ( the Valhalla board is not sized to accommodate a Karousel). The sub chassis probably works if you already have a Cirkus fitted, but it would be helpful to know which sub chassis you do have. Is it the bonded Cirkus sub chassis or something else?

My Karousel bearing arrived today. Took the table to get it installed.

I was amazed at the quality of the workmanship... Now, I can’t wait to -not- hear it. ;-)

Time to start saving to upgrade from Lingo to Lingo 4.