Linn LP-12 still competitive with the very best?

"It's not mounting cartridges that's tough with the LP-12, it's getting the suspension properly balanced. That's what makes people nuts."

That's never been an issue for me with my Axis. I've had it for over 20 years.

Normal stylus wear is the only issue I've had to deal with in all that time.

An Axis can be had for much less than an lp12. It's said to have the larger Linn's best attributes in a simpler and more user friendly package.

Why is this "to get the suspension right thing" so difficult with the Linn? Are there tools to have this set up properly or is it a matter of "intuition"? It's like magic sometimes...

Chris

As a "past" user, it can be as good as anyone. even better..
just that it takes a lot of trial and errors, and maintenance is high in terms of time...
but great thing is you have a big community to support you and endless routes to upgrade/?downgrade, if you're handy and willing to do open box work, it's a good choice.

For TD124, you can add a little more from the above points.

Mapman, i have an Axis that i have owned for nearly 20 years too and it has always been good and very fuss free. 3 years ago i bought a late 80's LP12/Ittok from EBay for what would have been about 1000 dollars. I live in the UK. I set up the lp12 myself from manuals on the internet and the the deck has been sounding wonderful ever since. In fact it is sounding better than anything i have ever heard and has needed no further tweaking. Compared to the Axis which is still set up on the same system, the LP12 is punchier, much more focussed with better treble extension and has a much blacker background between notes. It also appears to almost literally throw instruments around the room with its dynamics and soundstage presentation. I know there must be better decks around, especially nowadays with all the development that has gone on but for what i paid it is an awesome turntable and thoroughly stomps over any of the CD players that i have tried on my system, including a Lin Karik/Numerik mk111.

I have a large room- 24 feet across so lots of room on each side of my speakers. When listening to CD's the sound stage rarely goes beyond the speakers, I think I have just one or two CD's that extend a little bit beyond. But when I play records on my Sota, the soundstage nearly doubles in size. The sound stage, on a few exceptional records even goes almost wall to wall.