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).
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.
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- 49 posts total
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.
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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. |
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. |
The LP12 is a great TT owned one many, many years ago, had the best PACE to the music than almost any other table at the time. Biggest issue was it was tweaky, as many have already pointed out, and the top end was rolled off as well as the bass bloated. I moved onto a SYD (Simon Yorke Design) which had the PACE & Rythm but took care of the top end and bass issues of the LP12. Yes @mijostyn is correct regarding isolation, almost a MUST for any non-suspended table. Once heard it becomes a eureka moment. (Dealer disclaimer, we are the importers/exporters of the Vibraplane and have now sold over 6,000 units world-wide). The MinusK actually goes lower in isolation than a Vibraplane but has other concerns but is another excellent isolation platform not to overlook. Recently I was at @mijostyn home and had a listen to his SOTA and as he stated, when he placed a seismograph application from his phone on the platter there was ZERO response. GREAT sounding system BTW, a most enjoyable experience. |
- 49 posts total