Linn Bedrok LP12 Plinth Upgrade

I have a good friend who works with German sourced Panzerholz.  Yes, it is very difficult to work with but with modern CNC machines, it mills quite nicely although the “work time” is relatively slow.  I mentioned the Linn $11k plinth to him and he thought it was ridiculously priced and that some third party company will buy one, scan it, and produce a clone at a reasonable price.  

Thanks for the link.  Wow the Klimax LP12 (sounds like an adult movie) starts at the same cost of the new SUV I bought my wife.  Incredible looking and I’m sure sounding equipment for dreamers and those with the money to afford it without having to sell their car.  

Hey you furniture manufacturers in China here’s an opportunity to undercut Linn! China is already making clones of high-end amps. Plinths should be easy to fabricate and have considerable profit margin!

I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the cost of a Klimax LP12 plus and minus the new plinth.  I suppose it is reluctantly acceptable to a person who already owns and loves the LP12.  I admit that I have a bias in the opposite direction; I prefer direct drive turntables and even a modified and modernized idler drive turntable (my Lenco), over any belt drive except maybe the Dohmann, among high end belt drives I have actually seen and heard, and I have not heard many in the high price category. Allowing for the possibility of buying a pre-owned turntable, which mylogic seems only recently to have discovered, there are a myriad of choices at and below the $40,000 "price point" that I would prefer.  However, I mean no disrespect to LP12 fans; the performance is probably way better than I imagine.

China? You could certainly have a Panzerholz plinth made locally in the USA for way less than $11K.  Talk to Albert Porter; he has been making a beautiful complex Panzerholz plinth for the Technics SP10 Mk2 and Mk3 for many years, probably right there in Texas.

The simple description of the process of manufacturing basic plywood is: glue very thin layers of wood "under extreme pressure and heat to create an entirely new, solid and massive material."

I'm waiting to actually see one of these new plinths in person. The "orthogonal layering" description has piqued my curiosity, as I'm wondering if the layers of beech are interwoven, interlocking, or merely stacked. I'm confident the layers are at alternating angles.

So, it remains to be seen: plywood or unobtainium?!?