Thoughts on the Linn LP12 turntable

LInn was very good, groundbreaking in its time (early 70s in fact OP).  In the 70s I had an original spec LP12/Ittok.  But all the upgrades do not and cannot make a silk purse because advancement can only be achieved within the envelope of the original design now almost 50 years old.  To pay £30,000 for a Linn today is madness but some still do it.

Against that, in principle Linn is right to keep it simple.  All today's over-engineered blingy record players have long lost the principle that we are simply playing records.  I want none of it.

I have had three Simon Yorkes starting in the 80s replacing the Linn and each has been a massive improvement over the Linn and the previous.  They leave the Linn in the dirt without idiotic engineering bling.  Remember SY was Fremer's reference for 8 years.  Those of us who have the few he built are very fortunate.

I spent many hours in the 1980s setting up LP12s. Despite the quasi religious fervour surrounding them, I never liked the sound. Ironically, despite Linn going on about PRAT, the LP12 never sounded right temporally. And when a company introduces a tool to straighten bolts that should have been straight (peripendicular) in the first place, you really have to ask questions. I moved of from there to a Roksan Xerxes which, while finnicky about setup itself, was much better sounding.

In the intervening time, Linn have pretty much reengineered/redesigned most of the turntable and have addressed a lot of its original weaknesses. However, the price of doing so has put it into competition with a lot of very fine turntables indeed.

As a concluding remark, the Linn tonearms were much better engineered/toleranced than the deck, the Ittok had one major ergonomic flaw in the very limited range of vertical motion available when cueing. This, combined with the bounciness of the suspension, made the deck horrible to use - for me at least.

Great table when set up properly.

 It was one of the few things I brought with me when I moved from the UK to the US 25 years ago- unlike 98% of my vinyl collection which went curbside for the garbage collector, along with my Quad ESL57s.

My only gripe nowadays is trying to assess the resale value of a used LP12. One literally needs a spreadsheet to chart the impact of the dozens of potential mix ‘n match upgrades that a used deck might have. 

Bought an Axis In the early 90s, it was a good upgrade from my Dual 505. An LP12 followed in 1995 which I then had Lingoed. I was more than happy with the sound at the time compared to CD. My LP12 has been dormant for a few years now as I’ve gone 100% streaming. God knows how much an LP12 update would be to bring the quality up to my present system (my Sondek sounds flat with a very limited soundstage in comparison) and tbh, if I fall under the spell of nostalgia for vinyl there are so many other great decks I’d just trade in the Linn for something else.

We sold them when they were new in the 1970's.  They were VERY fussy and bouncy and took forever to set up.  Not BAD, mind you, in sound, but when Technics came out with direct drive, well, some customers still liked their 12's, but many of my people went to Technics and were very happy.  Some of the inexpensive ones did not sound as good as the 12's, but the better ones were clearly much easier to deal with and set-up and actually USE, plus they sounded better, so they won out.

There were other TT's that we sold that were good as well--LUXMAN comes to mind, but belt drive tables have inherent issues that DD tables do not.  Of course, not all DD tables are created equally, so check it out IN YOUR ROOM with the arm+cartridge+cartridge pre you use to find what works best for YOU.

As for current Sondek prices, well, as a dealer, I would be VERY happy to sell you one, right?  How many would you like?

Cheers!