LP12 PSU (and maybe motor) upgrade

Folks,

I have a very old LP12 that I bought second hand in the mid '80s. Over the years, it's been well services by a good friend who runs a hi-fi shop in Chester and I've upgraded cartridges many times and the arm so I now have an Ittok and a decent cartrdge.

I would like to be able to play 45s now though, as so many great albums are being released in that format. There seems to be a plethora of options ranging from Hercules to Lingo to changing to a d.c. motor and a suitable PSU.

Do people have any recommendations (I appreciate this ia subjective to an extent). I am generally of the opinion that spending a decent amount of money from the get go is better VFM long term, but I also know that you can spend silly money sometimes on things that could only make the slightest of differences.

I'm interested in what benefits the d.c. motor might make. I'm an electronics engineer, so I can understamd the theory behind it, but with some of these things I think theory and practice don't always stack up. FWIW, until I started reading about d.c. options, the Hercules (and maybe MOSE) seemed like a good bet. A brand new Lingo is not happening!

I'm based in the UK, so would like something that's available here.

Thanks.

 

My first phone call would be to Peter Swain at Cymbiosis in Leicester..
He's your man and will navigate through your needs while keeping within your budget.
Last time I was there he had 17 different LP12's set up in various spec for demo...that is amazing

 

I've been running a Hercules for a few years now, mounted in a small external enclosure. It's an excellent alternative to many of the other power supplies on the market. It replaced the Valhalla that came with the deck.

jeff

 

I would presume that finding a used, earlier version of the Lingo somewhere should not be too difficult.

I still have my original Lingo PS. One of the best upgrades I that I ever made. The solidity and presence it can bring to an LP12 is quite astonishing.

 

Until you decide, why not just get a 45 adaptor for your present motor setup it just slides over your current capstan.

 

I have a radical, lower noise floor.

 

Yeah, I've had one for years, but it's such a ball ache!

At the moment, that or the version that suits in the deck itself seems the most likely, I would be interested to know how good the d.c. motor is though.

There are some Lingos on ebay and my friend who runs the hi-fi shop in Chester is likely to come across this kind of thing; he's been good over the years at giving me first dibs on trade-ins.

 

I have a Heed Orbit outboard PSU for my LP12 - having never really compared it to other PSUs I cannot comment on its position in the pecking order, but speed is accurate, tight and it gets good feedback from users.

It might be an option.