MC for MusicHall MMF2.2

Thanks for your replys. Now I'm kinda bummed.
I have a 20year old Linn Axis with a Grado Gold on it. The cueing arm is bad and the cost to replace it is $240. I thought I was getting a good table with the 2.2. I found a Rega P2 with a glassplatter that I could have had for what I paid for the MusicHall. I guess I made the wrong decision.
I bought the 2.2 thru LP Gear and I did get a stylus upgrade for the Tracker. It sounds pretty good. I did get the Speed control box and a TT weight and they both made a huge improvement. Maybe I'll try the Grado with this table.
Again thanks all for the input.

Yikes. It would be more than worth $240 to get a Linn Axis running again, especially if it has the Akito arm but the Basik was decent enough. Any Linn dealer would be happy to service it for you.

It's pretty easy to find a used Basik or Akito tonearm and not all that difficult to replace the entire arm yourself. The Akito arm performed acceptably well with moving coils up to $400 or so. The Basik was a little shaky with MCs but I would certainly consider a $300 moving magnet with the Basik -- a Linn Adikt would be a natural choice, but so would the Ortofon 2M Bronze, Goldring 1042 or Audio Technica AT150MLx.

Here's my final answer: sell the Music Hall and spend the proceeds on getting the Linn fixed. Then enjoy it for another 20 years. There is no new table you can buy for $240 that will equal its performance.

My Axis has the Basik arm on it.
I guess I'll see what I can get for the 2.2 and put my $ into the Axis.

Ed,

You are a professional reviewer and of all people should be aware that one of the changes made in going from the Music Hall 2.1 to the 2.2 was the tone arm. The new arm has a one piece Headshell and arm formed from a larger diameter aluminum alloy tube also stainless/sapphire pivot bearings and rudimentary VTA adjustment capability. No it's not an SME but is not bad at all and certainly can accommodate and show the advantages of a moderately priced moving coil cartridge. In fact it works quite well with my Denon DL160 and my older Audio Technica AT30 HE. Jazzhowell already did the right thing by adding the speedbox and he can also add an acrylic platter as a further worthwhile upgrade without spending a lot of money. I also own a Linn LP12 that currently has a Sumiko Premier MMT arm, Hercules speed regulator board and a a Sony XL44s LOMC. Is it better? Yes, but it costs 6 times as much and has it's own set of issues with such problems as footfalls and isolation.
Oh, and the Music Hall platter is non ferrous and not a problem with strong magnets in a cartridge (the Philips GA 212/312 were the last turntables I can remember that had a problem with moving coils due to a steel platter).

Gerald,
Thanks for adding some important information. I haven't seen the 2.2 myself but the arm does look like a decent Pro-Ject aluminum tonearm. It appears to be a big step up from the original arm on the 2.1, which I used for a while.

I mentioned the ferrous platter only as a warning; if the 2.2 has a non-ferrous platter then it's good to go with MC cartridges. And the acrylic platter sounds like a good upgrade.

If the upgrades from the 2.1 are as they appear, then the 2.2 seems like it's not a bad turntable for the money, especially considering it's new and low maintenance.

Tom