Linn Bedrok LP12 Plinth Upgrade

@newton_john  Thanks. I didn't really experience problems with Linn, I experienced problems due to the lack of local dealer support. The gent whom I went to to 'fettle' my Linn is as stated, hundreds of miles north of me, BUT he was well worth visiting as his ability to dial in the table is superior to anyone I have used before, including my old and retired 'fettler'. This aspect is one that I think is somewhat overlooked by Linn owners. There are 'fettlers' and there are 'fettlers'. I never realized how much a true expert in set up vs. a merely competent one, can extract the last bit of SQ from the LP12! Hard to know when this is the case, as I had assumed, perhaps like most folks, that the prior set up was great. The table certainly sounded very good before, but since I have had the chance to hear what the best of them can accomplish, it is somewhat eye opening! 

@daveyf

That’s very interesting. I always thought that anyone trained by Linn could do it as well as anyone else.

The guy who looks after me now has 35 years experience. That may go some way to explain why I have enjoyed vinyl so much more recently. Maybe he learned a few tricks along the way.  I put it all down to Urika II. Of course, upgrades may have been involved too.

Also, I have been puzzled why the turntable takes a couple of sides or more to warm up fully. It doesn’t really sing until the third or fourth album. It was not like that before.

@newton_john Your assumption about the Linn training was my assumption too. That was drastically altered once i heard what the new ’fettler’ was able to accomplish with my table. Not that the old tech was bad, just that there were a few things that he obviously did that weren’t 100% correct. Minor detail things that clearly the new ’fettler’ got 100% correct. ( I can’t explain exactly what these were, but the results speak for themselves). Probably this is why folk in the UK seek out the likes of Peter Swain and others of his experience level.

Here in the US, as I alluded to before, these ’fettlers’ are unfortunately a dying breed. Not sure if they are being replaced, but it does not seem so. That is one of the biggest aspects that concerns me going forward with the table, to be very honest.

You question why the table takes a few more sides to come into tune...that is a great question! Maybe it is something like this:

My new ’fettler’ showed me that the oil level in my Karousel bearing was not quite correct, it had oil in it, but not quite enough. So, IOW ( in other words) my old ’fettler’ put in the oil, but didn’t have enough experience to know exactly how much was required. He put enough in to not do damage, but that was not quite correct. Perhaps something like this is occurring with your table?

I had never heard the word "fettler" until reading this thread. I am aware of the term "fettle", as in the term "fine fettle", which I guess means everything is copacetic for that individual or that object. Wikipedia has several disparate definitions for fettler, only one of which seems applicable to the care and feeding of an LP12. See definition #3 here.  And even that definition does not specify that the thing is done well.

Is fettler a term adopted by Linn explicitly to refer to a tech who is qualified to work on the LP12? If so, an inept fettler does not leave your LP12 in fine fettle.

A fettler is a British term for a maintenance or repair worker, or someone who sands or grinds small imperfections from metal or ceramic.