Who owned or owns a Linn LP12?

I believe the Lingo (introduced circa 1990) was the first Linn power supply to offer both 33.3 and 45rpm.

With the earlier power supplies one had to use a 45rpm pulley adapter like the one I posted a picture of above.

 

The pulley adaptor came with mine - it was no big deal to use but you wouldn't want to go back and forth between speeds.

 

How often has he changed the cartridge ?

 

I owned an LP12/ittok/lingo for many many years and was reasonably pleased with it until a few years ago when I picked up a used Lenco GL75 for £80. When I say it blew the LP12 away i'm not joking!!! It left it for dead in every aspect.

I was I admit sucked into the Linn hype and wasted so much time being dissatisfied with the sound it wasan't even funny.
I have now fettled my Lenco and finally have reached audio nirvana.

I also wasted many years on the Naim amps hype... but that's another story.

 

Haven't heard of Lenco - is that a Brit table? How would you describe the difference between it and the Linn.

 

Metralla said,

"Exactly - Scott in DC is unfamiliar with the scene."

+++++++++++++++++++++

Metralla, how do you know this?

Scott

 

I remember a few years ago Michael Fremer wrote about the LP12 that he was given to review. This was before the Radikal and Keel upgrades were introduced. He had heard of the LP12's reputation for having added bass but he said he did not hear that with the LP12 he had.

Many of the threads about LP12s have contributors who start their comments with something like, "I bought an LP12 in 1985" or some decades old date. The LP12 has been revised many times over the years and it isn't the same turntable that it was years ago. Far too many of these threads have comments from people who owned one years ago as though that automatically still holds true today. The reason I mentioned Michael Fremer's experience with the LP12 is because while he had heard of the LP12/bass reputation and even listened to it with that issue in mind, he did not find excessive bass in the LP12 that he had.

Scott

 

I think this review by Fremer is actually quite good http://www.sears.com/csdelivery/nb-120000000358418
It was published in 2003 and MF had not really heard an LP12 and doesn't buy into the hype, so a somewhat unbiased review.

EDIT: Sorry Scott, we were posting at the same time. The review I linked bears out what you say.

 

Fundamentally the LP12 of today is the same as it was in 1973 or whenever it was introduced, am I wrong in thinking you can upgrade pretty much any vintage LP12 to current spec? As Linn claimed it was pretty much perfect thirty years ago one has to wonder about the stream of costly upgrades, obviously a lot of owners have had that thought and got off the conveyor belt.

What did a LP12 cost 30 years ago, somewhere between £400 and £600 if my memory serves, what does it cost today, £15,000 to £30,000 isn't it, depending on configuration, I think my Roksan Xerxes cost me around £450, the current Xerxes 20+ is £3,000, my fading memory tells me a Gyrodec cost around £600 back then, today £1350. I guess that's why this thread is full of people who owned LP12s twenty or thirty years ago and not brand new owners, almost none of us could afford a new LP12 and if we could the money could be spent a lot more wisely.

 

Lenco were a Swiss company who made turntables, originally in Italy I believe, as well as under their own name they made turntables for other companies in different countries, in the UK they made them for Goldring and most of them were marketed as Goldring Lencos, hence the GL prefix on the 75. Lencos are idler drives so have a very different character to the Linn, in my opinion a correctly set up LP12 should better a standard GL75, but a fully restored and replinthed GL75 or even better G-88, G-99 is a different story. Twenty plus years ago I would sell mint boxed GL75s for as little as £30, a used LP12 would have been around ten times that, prices have changed somewhat in the Lencos favour since then although you still sometimes see them for under £100.

The great idler drives, Thorens TD-124, Garrard 301/401, Goldring G-88/G-99 were all victims of the Linn/Hi Fi press conspiracy that all other approaches than belt driven suspended decks were wrong and therefore ignored until their rediscovery in the 1990s. Ironically the Japanese weren't victims of the British Hi Fi press and so were able to buy up Garrards at knock down prices for years before they were appreciated in their homeland.

 

The new Linn Majik LP12 is somewhere between 5 & 6 grand here. You don't get much for your money, the basic PS with a Pro-ject 9cc tonearm, and the Adikt cartridge.

jeff

 

I have had a Sondek Lp12 since 1982 (that I bought new).
Ittok LVII, Cirkus, Lingo at present and I'm finally thinking of peddling it...

 

Okay, I did do a quick web search, not many UK Linn dealers these days and the only price I saw listed was around £15000, I also recall something from a year or two ago where their top end offering was £27,000 or £28,000, sorry if I've done Linn an injustice, but I think my point stands, especially with a much improved Michell costing only just over twice it's mid-eighties price.

Somewhere I have early 1980s issues of Hi Fi Choice, before it changed format each issue would concentrate on just one product, the turntable issues are great for research of prices and what was around when, if I can find any issues I'll post up some actual prices.

 

A friend listed his pretty basic LP on Gumtree a couple of weeks ago, he was inundated with potential buyers, I'd guess you might get more out of your deck than it cost back in 1982 and sell pretty easily, the Linn brand is still highly regarded and still has many followers, plus for the money used ones can be great buys.

 

The smart thing to do would be to simply make a clone of the Linn, because of all the aftermarket stuff available for the table, and if Ivor was crazy enough to try to stop it in court, just show Exhibit A, an old Ariston of the type Linn copied.

If the Linn were a tenth of its price it'd be fair value for money, I think.

 

Thanks. It's basically spotless, with a new(er) clear lid and the afromosia looks pretty fetching after all these years.

Burt, No one including Ivor could make a business model out of creating that table for 1/10.

Many have CNCed a copy of the Keel with spotty success.

 

Having remembered that the crazily priced LP 12 was made from old whisky casks and the price was obviously arrived at after sampling a lot of the former contents I'll take back the £30,000 statement, but here's a normal one for £15,650 which in itself seems crazy to me.

http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/?google=12346

 

I didn't say you COULD sell one for a tenth and not lose money. I said it would be a fair value if you could.

Probably a fourth to a third would be realistic.

Better would be to fix the LP12's inherent problems-the suspension is all spring and no damping, and the lack of accurate speed control-and charge just under half. You'd offer a product at a better price that would work better and make a very good net spendable per unit.

 

I think people have started to upgrade those old Aristons and get pretty close to the Linn sound for a lot less money although I have no idea whether they can or do add Linn parts or they create specific Ariston upgrades, on a side note I still have an RD90 boxed up and tucked away which I still have a soft spot for, funnily enough it has a Linn cart on it, mainly because I haven't used it since the late 1990s.

 

It's been forgotten now that MANY of the original LP12s had warped plinths and the cause was they used green wood.

 

I'll take that with a wee dram of Scotch. Everybody has it all figured out now... I wrote Ivor recently, apparently he is enjoying retirement.

 

Good for Ivor, whether or not I like the Linn sound he sure was successful for a while and definitely helped put British Hi Fi on the map, I was really glad Linn didn't go bust a few years back and even if I think current prices are crazy I do hope there's still a market for their products, we've lost far too many of our once great brands.

 

I would agree the prices today for the product are insane when you look (and listen) to the myriad of excellent offerings available. That's why I have moved on. But in many ways, they owned a period of almost 25 years where everything TT was compared to them. Not bad.

Today VPI, as just one example, has modeled a plan to continually update and upgrade their TT offerings... guess where they got that model from?

 

Even at the ridiculous prices they charge for the LP12's (and upgrade parts), I doubt they make much on them. There just isn't the volume of sales like there was years ago. Plus there's competition with aftermarket goodies, that potentially offer better value.

jeff