Linn Sondek Hype

Keep the Linn. When you can afford to, upgrade the motor to an Origin Live DC motor. You will be floored once again! If you haven't bought a record cleaning machine, get one. One that works manually ( you spin the disc as you clean ) can be found for less than a couple hundred dollars. Use good fluids, I use the 3 step AVIS, along with a Zerostat 3 static removing gun. The Lp's are very quiet, and, again, you will be re-floored. Later on you can upgrade arms, and cartridges, etc., etc.
These aren't cheap suggestions, but if you buy a little over a period of time, it won't hurt so much, and you'll be very happy with what you end up with. I know I am!

I assume your floors are very solid, or you would be complaining about footfall problems. If you can live with the cosmetics of the thing, I highly recommend the Target wall shelf, at about $150 or so. Really isolates the Linn and lets you experiment with various shelf materials very inexpensively. It comes with a plywood shelf, which works fine, but I much prefer Corian myself. You would be amazed how much the surface the Linn sits on affects the sound. Enjoy.

Use your Dual 1229 amd chuck the Linn. :) Man, if only I had half of the money that I poured into that table in upgrades. I was never really happy with my Linn, it seemed that I was always doing some new tweek to improve performance. By the way, I am a huge Mcintosh fan and at one time had a Mr78, C29 and a MC-2300. No complaints. The Linn is a nice enough table, but silly problems began to creep up. Speed control, too fast then too slow, then death. Motors, my goodness, those stinking little gutless motors don't last. I went through three. Power supplies anyone? Belts? Bearing upgrades (well Norman, you didn't tell me that you listen to solo piano music, so that is why your LP12 sounds muddled, you need the Cirkus Bearing upgrade! We can accomdate you for only $$$$$) In any event I think I ended up selling my Linn for about $1100.. (it looked new) I had around $8000 into it. Couldn't stomach another upgrade or tweek. Your in my prayers man.
Norman

Normansizemore, I'm sorry you had such troubles with your Linn. Mine has the Origin Live DC motor/power supply upgrade which only cost just over $600. This is as far as I need to go to get great unmuddled sound. My arm is just the Basik LV X with a Grado Ref. Sonata cartridge. I'm very pleased. I think the best thing I did was to get an inexpensive Nitty Gritty to clean the vinyl, along with the AIVS fluids, and the Zerostat.