Linn Sondek Hype

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.

to answer the OP, yes the ikea lack is a viable option but mods (cheap) needed. specifically spiking it... search the forums and you shall find! when i have more time will get you the links...

Nicholas

Abucktwoeighty, that's what I started with! And you don't need to be sorry, I am happy now and listening every day with no problems. Oh, and I liked the Basik tonearm, my Basik had a removeable headshell so I think it was the Basik Plus. I replaced it a couple of times and ended up keeping a Grace 747 on it. I used my turntable nearly every day, so my motor and original powersupply didn't last any time at all. I am thinking less then two years when I replaced them the first time. Don't waste your money on the Cirkus bearing upgrade, the original bearing is just fine. I have heard that the older Linns were more reliable than those from the late 80's and 90's. Mine was 1989.