Linn Bedrok LP12 Plinth Upgrade

@lewm

Damped suspension

The logic bounce l referred to is excess downforce applied to the spindle while playing a record. The sub-chassis will violently bounce up and down and the cartridge will not leave the groove. Also no change in the pitch of the recording playback. The deck will recover as if nothing has happened. That is also true of footfall…..no effect on the turntable, it is quite oblivious to it.

The Logic DM101 in its various forms never had damped springs. Any tweaks on that model were due to the scarcity of replacing stretched springs after hit and miss results of sourcing replacements from basic hardware stores. Often a damping tweak was tried to match the characteristic bounce if the new springs were too weak.

Of the higher quality turntables circa 70s and 80s l have owned, Garrard 401, Thorens TD124 mk2, CJ Walker 55, Systemdek III and the Logic DM101, none from the start have ever had damped springs.

l believe you mentioned a Garrard 401 in your system and were sourcing a new plinth?. My early series 401 (with the flush mount strobe light) was mounted in the huge ‘SME Plinth System’. The plinth base and depth was so big to accomodate the widest and deepest decks. The cover was of similar height to the plinth and designed to take the tallest 9 and 12’’ arms. It became unwieldily in my living room and absolutely dominated it. That was why l parted company with the set up in the 80s…..it was a bad move looking back now! The idea of having two turntables in a lounge back then would have been unthinkable, but now is not too much of a wierd idea.

Like @lewm, the AR XA was my first good table. But the arm wasn't so hot. I replaced the AR with a Thorens TD-150, which had a suspension, platter, and bearing very similar to the AR, but with a much better arm.

I then got a TD-125 (with an SME 3009 mounted on it), which was nothing but trouble. I had it in the repair shop many, many times, and the electronics were never fixed. Too complicated.

The Linn Sondek was a much better approach to turntable design. The basic design (including 3-pt. spring suspension) was the same as the AR and Thorens, but with superior machining and finishing (especially of the bearing).

While folks have a point that the LP12 was derived from designs like the AR etc., it has now evolved into a far superior product. 

I question how many here who have posted so far have actually heard a new Linn LP12, even if it is a Majik ( entry level) version? 

@daveyf

An old friend of mine, now sadly upstairs and now looking down on us kind of worshipped his Hi-Fi. He never stuck with the same brands and I was always conveniently right behind him when he was upgrading and l bought two turntables.

l remember the saying he was always coming out with and on reflection a parable of sorts….

‘’A good turntable should be seen, and not heard!’’

Please take this in good spirit……l am sure he was just talking about wow and rumble.

@mylogic  Your friend was 100% correct. Noise generated from the table is not beneficial. Which is one of the reasons why Linn has gone to significant effort to minimize the input from the table to the upstream components. For example, the new Karousel bearing is certainly a lot more accurate than the very good Cirkus bearing. Accurate and quiet. With my set up, I can put the stylus into the lead in groove and there is still dead silence until the music starts to play. It's a bit unnerving when you first hear this, as one thinks there must be something wrong with the system, but that S/N ratio is important..as your friend was alluding to.