+1.
@uncleang Seiously? “I’ve always seen LP12’s as a giant money pit with ’upgrades’ that are actually ’fixes’”
Refinement marches on. Over the last fifty years I have pursued high end audio and the changes have been truly amazing. Linn has shown they have what it takes to sell something high end with integrity. Like Leica and Nikon… invest with them and they will support you. The company will bring you along as they assault the state of the art, if you want to go with them. Linn has dedicated themselves to a really good design and improve, improve, and improve endlessly. I have seen this technique, time after time used by the Japanese: for instance used in the design of Namiki Fountain Pens. Classic design with every aspect refined over and over again to achieve perfection. Try one, one of the best three companies in the world producing fountain pens.
My friend and audio dealer talks about the Linn turntables he has “repaired from dealer setup”. Where carefully designed 3D washers are installed upside down, springs, mixed up…the deck not remotely leveled.
The contemporary Linn is an incredibly refined and sophisticated turntable. It’s incredible small size and this sophistication requires someone that can read English to set it up. After that, it needs no one to touch it for years. Any finickiness of forty years ago is long gone.
The ability to upgrade a great sounding <$5K deck to a world class performing turntable is a huge benefit not a shortfall.
Someone compared an AR turntable to a Linn… seriously? There is and has been no comparison. I owned an AR in about 1980, then added a VPI Aries in about 1987… there is no comparison in SQ between the AR and the Linn. The Linn is and always has been leagues above the AR. The background noise, of the AR is horrible… dynamics are equally poor.