Linn Sondek LP12 impressions


Hello I was wondering if anyone still uses these old designed turntables?

I know its totally not vogue since its a belt drive and all the rage DD and Idler have taken over as "the reference"

Lawrence
lharasim
Banerjba, what were the tracking forces used on the different tables? I doubt that they were the same. An incorrectly set up cartridge might not track well in one instance and would track better once correctly set up. Same thing applies for an incorrectly set up arm.
As to the looks of the Linn, I don't subscribe to the fact that it looks bad. In fact I think the fluted look is pretty classic. Plus, one can change the plinth to make it look amazing. If you don't like the look of a plinth, that's another thing, BUT I think there are a LOT of TT's that look worse than the Linn and at all prices.
The cartridges were likely set up correctly by an excellent Linn dealer. Mine was tuned up by the fellow considered number one in the area.

My $200 plastic Technics P mount with elcheapo cartridge can play the record. The fact that. $4k turntable than has been built for 40 years could not at an authorized dealer is not a good thing. I don't see any modern tables emulating anything from the Linn design and few are staying with a sprung design of any kind let alone one like the Linn. I owned an older Thorens which was also sprung and certain aspects of the Linn are similar. The Thorens never went off and could always play all of my records. Of course it had neither the soundstage or PRaT of the Linn.

I actually like the looks of the classic Linn. I had the nice grooved Afrmosia which is the classic look.
Banerjba, do you REALLY believe that the LP12 is at fault because one of your records couldn't be tracked by an arm and cartridge ( I'm not sure you have mentioned which) that was mounted on the LP12!!--- I'm done with this stupidity.
My Civic will ride over rough roads that my buddy's Corvette can't traverse. Putting a lot of money into a Linn is a choice one makes, hopefully aware of the pros and cons. You just have to want to own a Linn. You either feel it or you don't.
Actually quite a number of my records could not be tracked by this table. The same cartridge on a different table had not issue. The particular record is one I used to take with to test at dealers. I was actually looking to buy a new model thinking they use have improved since I bought mine nearly two decades ago.

Anyway not to beat a dead horse. These days I also use record weights which are not ideally suited to suspended tables.

I seem to remember someone created an aftermarket kit that swapped out the springs for rubber suspension components. Never seen this in Canada but that would be interesting to try.