Interesting thought- Linn &

rgs, who said that distortions are more accurate than the original?? 
Like you said, every TT distorts to some extent or other, as for that matter, so does every piece of gear that we use in our system.
However, I am not one to believe that if a piece of gear measures greatly and sounds to my ears poorly, that it is my ears that are wrong. If the gear measures great and sounds great...then it is a winner...conversely if it measures poorly..and to me sounds great, it's still a winner. YMMV.

Norman, the Linn LP12 is not a 'right out of box' set it on the stand and good to go type of product. It has always needed to be set up by a competent dealer and "fettled" ( as the Brits say) to work its best. Somewhat like tuning a race car. If your dealer was unable to do this for you, again it was not the Linn's fault, but certainly one could look at your dealer! 
However, it has been my experience, that once the table is set up 'correctly' then it tends to stay that way through time and deliver the sound for which it is known.

daveyf (and only because you continue this),

" IF HW at VPI is trying to get close to the sound of the master tape, good for him, but I know he has a very long way to still go." And you would "know" that because . . . ?

" If the gear measures great and sounds great...then it is a winner...conversely if it measures poorly..and to me sounds great, it’s still a winner. " I would agree if you substitute "accurate" for "great". As someone famously wrote: A piano should sound like a piano!" The problem with may reviewers, not to mention audiophiles, is that they rarely, if ever, listen to unamplified instruments and singers and don’t know how they really sound. So much of what is written is so purely subjective: The reviews usually conclude by mentioning a number of recordings, usually recent ones, and their conclusion that they "like" the recordings as played by the component under review.

I can’t speak for the latest Linns but the Linns I have heard, admittedly going back a while, were notorious for sounding warm and rolling the frequency extremes. This results in a sound many people "like." But it has hardly been accurate.

That, and the complications of set-up requiring dealer interventions, put Linn out of the running for me. Obviously, YMMV and obviously does.

What upper end turntable is plonk and play?
They all sound their best when set up by a competent dealer.
"Rolled off" frequency extremes are definitely not something I hear from my LP12's.
Imho, the LP12 has been around so long that many opinions  have been aggregated over the years in the audiophile community , many of them propagated by people who have not actually heard a properly set up deck. 

I get my LP 12 "tuned" perhaps once in 5 years. My car is in the shop for routine maintenance far more often.