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Upgrade my older Linn Sondek or move on?

Hi All,

I have a 1984 Linn Sondek that is still as it came new with a couple of exceptions. I did rebuild my Valhalla board as I was having some issues. Still has the Basic LV X arm, but I added an XTC counterweight as the stock counterweight bushing turned to mush. I am running a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge. 

Question is do I drop the money to upgrade the arm, bearing, and power supply or move on to a new or used table? Looking at used parts to upgrade the Linn I can easily spend $2k. I can sell the Linn and that puts me in the $3.5k budget range for a different table. 

I have been looking at Well Tempered and VPI. Any thoughts on these or other recommendations? Better sound quality and ease of set up / use would be the objectives. The rest of the system: Quicksilver M135 mono amps, Fisher CX-2 preamp, and Magnepan LRS+ speakers.

thermionicemission
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,877 posts
 

@thermionicemission Setting up the LP12 is unfortunately not that easy. Changing out the bearing, requires a compete re-build. Since the LP12 really needs a good tech to do the set up...and suffers if it is done incorrectly, as many folk here have discovered ( even though they thought their set up skills were up to the task! These very same folk then blame the table. vs. their inadequate set up skills), I would suggest another table , one that is set up by your dealer- or is easy to home set up. The Technics is pretty much open box and play.

tvrgeek
299 posts
 

If one could budget it, I would move on. As great as the Linn was, it was a pain and modern manufacturing has improved for less money ( relative). 

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

@tvrgeek 

Boy, you are not kidding. I owned two LP12s in succession. It was the best reasonably priced turntable in it's day, 1970s. But it was a PITA to live with and I rejoiced along with the HiFi press when David Fletcher released the SOTA Sapphire. It was the very first suspension turntable that was a joy to live with.

 

tvrgeek
299 posts
 

Ha-Ha, I had two friends back in Colorado. Both with Quads, MV-50's and PV-5s. Both ran Denon MC. One a Linn, One a SOTA.   Now, the sound from both was fantastic, but they would argue endlessly about their tables!  

The biggest improvement I heard on a table was at Transcendental Sound in Denver. He put his table in an isolated box on a suspension.  No feedback. Really improved midrange clarity.  If I remember, he ran a Panasonic strain gauge cartridge powered by Jeff Roland's power supply. Jordan module arrays on giant sono-tube woofer cabinets. 

crustycoot
644 posts
 

You mentioned a Well Tempered.  My own TT journey took me from a Linn LP12 /KMAL to a Technics SP12 /AT, to a SOTA Sapphire/ Premier MMT.  this spanned 1975 to the late 80s.  I then got a Well Tempered TT/TA and enjoyed it until a year ago.  No springs, no feedback, no static buildup, no endless tweaking.  Stress free listening….don’t dismiss it!  I now have a Thorens TD1600 and AT-LOC9XML, and it’s pretty good, but I am disappointed with the arm.  

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