What tonearms $1500 work well with the Linn?

Drubin, unfortunately, it does mean that the Origin Live arms will not work well, as they are all based in the same design. This was part of the reason there was such a hubbub about whether the Regas were as good as some said when they were first released. The Linn LP12 being the premier high-end 'table in the world at the time, the Linnies universally condemned the Regas as not true high-end, and they were partially correct, as the bass suffered terribly in this combo. I personally think you can improve qute a lot on the Ittok by buying a unipipvot, as this field is rich right now. Even my old Mayware - re-wired - beat my modded RB300 on two suspended decks, the Audiomeca I have and the AR-XA (modded). The unipivots are "tippy", but once in the groove this is not a problem. Someone did a review of the Clearaudio unipivot (I think in the neighborhood of $1000) on this website who owned an OL RB250, and came to the conclusion that the Unify was superior sonically. Unipivots have the closest thing to a perfect bearing in this world (since it balances on a point, and so is frictionless) and Clearaudio do their usual flawless finishing/machining work on it. There are also unipivots by Audiomeca (apparently quite something), Bluenote, Morch UP-4, the Hadcock 242SE and Kuzma which are all reasonably-priced and all have specific design features. Since captive-bearing tonearms are expensive to execute to unipivot levels, they are expensive unless you can find them used - this is the raison-d'etre of the Regas. If you are a fan of high-end MMs, then I suggest a low-mass tonearm used, such as the Black Widow (knife-edge bearing), which is killer on my Ariston with a Grado Woody - audibly superior to the Woody on the Rega, on my Linn-like Ariston. MMs take a leap in detail, 3-d information and dynamics when mated to low-mass tonearms. There are probably other designs I haven't thought of. But if "tippy" unipivots don't intimidate/piss you off, then go this way, I say. You'll find lots of reviews of unipivots on www.ecoustics.com, in the editorial review phono section.

Thanks, great response. Unipivots would piss me off, I'm afraid.

I hope TWL will chime in here too.

Thanks, everyone - I'll keep my eyes out for a used Aro or Ekos, and failing that I'll check out the Clearaudio Unify.

I had an Ittok LVII on my Linn LP12 for about 11 or 12 years, and it served me very well. I think it is a very nice match with an LP12.

That said, if I had $1500 and a Linn LP12/Ittok, and was looking for improvement, I'd sell the Linn and add the money together and get a new package altogether.

Nothing wrong with the Linn stuff, but if you want better, you'll have to improve the table also. Either that, or just go with an Ekos to keep it "all Linn".

I personally wouldn't buy a unipivot arm to go on it, because of my personal preferences of cartridge types. If you want to put a unipivot on it, then the Aro is probably one of the best choices for the Linn.

Twl-I need further education-I take it that unipivots don't work well with certain cartridge types? What are the limitations - cartridge weight, compliance, MM vs. MC or ?