Thoughts on the Linn LP12 turntable

@daveyf , all you have left are insults? Common davey boy, how about that cheap stamped sheet metal sub chassis sitting atop three springs tuned to the wrong frequency and the crappy Masonite arm board flapping around in the breeze, the two piece platter that rings like a bell. The tiny little dink of a motor that I can stall with a Q tip. Then there is that pathetic sort of wood base stapled together at the corners. Walmart wouldn't sell a turntable like that. If you think that is representative of a high end turntable in this day and age you are in the wrong forum. You might look into basket weaving. And for your information I built a cherry base for one thirteen years ago.

You can insult me all you want but that will not change the fact that the LP 12 is archaic and interesting only from a historic perspective. It's days have long passed. It was all but done in 1980 with the release of the original SOTA Sapphire. Over the next decade a pile of them were dumped into the used market where they could be picked up for pennies on the dollar by people like you who want to turn them into some kind of panacea. They are just an old turntable that the vast majority of serious audiophiles wouldn't go near. 

@mijostyn

"cheap stamped sheet metal sub chassis sitting atop three springs tuned to the wrong frequency and the crappy Masonite arm board flapping around in the breeze, the two piece platter that rings like a bell. The tiny little dink of a motor that I can stall with a Q tip. Then there is that pathetic sort of wood base stapled together at the corners."

Err... yes. That more or less sums it up.

I was going to post a link to Peter Swain’s 4 hour Cymbiosis LP12 set up guide (seeing as how @daveyf was kind enough to suggest paying him a visit) but unfortunately those clips seem to have strangely disappeared off the internet.

A real pity, since long term stability concerns have continuously plagued this deck ever since it's inception.

Oh well, since Leicester is fairly central, the next time I’m passing I might just drop by Cymbiosis.

Especially as it seems even Linn themselves have now given up the ghost in promoting their one time highly lucrative cash cow.

@mijostyn … You are a modern day Hans Christian Andersen,

@zavato Great question! Why is it that mijostyn and others who have to denigrate and naysay the LP12 get butt hurt when folk like their LP12?

Anyone who last owned the LP12 in the 70’s ( if at all!) has zero credibility with me when it comes to their ’expertise’ on the LP12, and particularly when they comment negatively on the updates and/or the current models. Zero.

With my own Linn, I am happy to occasionally use it, the experience always ends up the same, I am happy to own it, it was a first entry into a long term hobby in maintaining a LP Source. I am also quite happy to put it back into storage, and make way, to have more time for experiencing the other TT's available and much preferred when used.               

This is not being a 'naysayer'. It is about an experience of replaying a LP, ones which have a significant influence when being experienced.

In relation to the owned Linn TT, It is a bonafide report on how a use 1990's era version of the TT stimulates the senses and emotions when used to replay a LP.

The resulting influence is quite clear, the Ownership is pleasant and produces a happiness, due to the sentiment around the TT.

The decision made to not use the TT continuously, also produces a feel good factor, where there is a happiness, to see it be put into storage and make way for other TT's to be used, that have for myself proven to be preferred as a tool to replay LP's.  Especially in being able to produce a connection with the stored content that adds to the stimulus during the replay.

As said, the Linn TT, will one day be gifted to a Grandchild, so there must be some type of value seen in it from my end.