Need a Basic Education on the LP12

Identify which model you have, Maybe http://www.audioasylum.com/index.html
can help. All improvements help I think the cartridge, Arm, Lingo and Phono section make the biggest improvements in that order. The lingo is very noticably better. Sell the Creek and get the matching ARC Phono. It will sound great. You will kiss CDs good bye. Unless you get a ARC CD-2

You can get a brand new origin live Aurora and origin live silver tonearm for 2K, that will better any mod you can do to your Linn.

Just keep this in mind, You may find as I did it is not worth trying to upgrade older technology when you can buy a twenty-first century turntable that is so good for so little (compared to making all the upgrades you will need to bring you Linn up to date.)

You may just want to get the silver arm and a shelter 501 cartridge. Then do TWL's hi fi mod to the silver arm and be very happy until you decide to get a new table. This will kick the crap out of ANY cd player!

The shelter is a moving coil cartridge and the phono you have is only MM, but you need to up grade that anyway, say maybe to a black cube? The ARC ph3 is very good and better than the cube, but more dough.

You could also do Origin lives dc motor up grade to your lp12.

What do you suggest Tom? You know the Linn's better than me.

I agree that the Linn can be bettered, but it is still quite a nice table that would be satisfactory for many listeners. I had one for many years, and liked it alot.

Regarding the differences, one easy way to check is to look at the power switch. If it is a large square RED button, then it is an early model, either standard or Nirvana upgrade. If the power switch is a square black button with a small red LED indicator light, then it is a Valhalla power supply model. All of these use the same bearing. There are only differences in springs between the original and Nirvana models. The Valhalla has all Nirvana upgrades as well as the Valhalla power supply. When the later upgrades became available, they changed the main bearing and subchassis with the Cirkus upgrade. The Trampolin was just an add on suspension modification that had a second set of springs and a platform that went on the bottom. The Lingo is an outboard add-on power supply. Most of the upgrades are controversial, but the Valhalla units are probably the best for the least money. The Trampolin is probably the least respected upgrade, and is likely not worth doing. In any event, a Valhalla LP12 is a good table that will serve you well. Be advised that most Valhalla tables are now getting old, and the Valhalla power supplies are showing higher failure rates. If speed control is not good, the Valhalla unit is likely bad. This is not expensive, nor difficult to replace.
Many people could be happy for life with a table of this sound quality. Not the very best, but quite competent in performance.

Upgrades in order of importance, weighted by cost, in my opinion: Lingo power supply, Ittok or Akito arm (Ekos too expensive), Linto phono preamp, Klyde or used Arkiv cartridge(Akiva too expensive, and Arkiv rebuilds at the factory are a good deal), Circus bearing, and a good setup. One thing that's nice about the LP12 is that you can build the table up over time from pretty good to killer. My next upgrade will be the new(er) silver tonearm cable, then a Linto, and I'm done, probably forever.

Go here for a real education:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/4133/lp12_faq.txt