I have not used a turntable in years, but I once had an LP12 for 2 or 3 years. I never liked it, I never enjoyed using it and I was happy when I sold it.
Perhaps it was never set up correctly in the first place, but the very tweakiness of its set up and suspension never made me feel very comfortable.
I found it sensitive to vibration and footfalls, and positively dowdy in its appearance and operation.
Linn's insistence on using what appears to be an ordinary, perhaps even cheap, felt mat on the platter was always symbolic to me of this quirky, voodoo product.
Like flyingred, I had some excellent experiences with direct drive turntables including a Kenwood KD-500 with an SME III arm and Grado Signature cartridges.
I also had a Yamaha PX-2 (praised in another recent thread) that was great sounding with several different cartridges including a Dynavector Ruby, Grado signatures and a Monster Alpha Genesis 1000 moving coil, back in my audiophile youth heyday.
If everything Linn says about turntable design is true, than these turntables should not sound good. Yet both of these tables kept me up listening well into the night, something that never happened with my LP12.
To be fair to Linn, I once heard an LP12 with the outboard power supply, with Linn arm and Linn cartridge, through Naim electronics and driving the original Linn Kan, sound very good and very musical.
But in general, these products never lived up to the cult like devotion and hype that they have somehow inspired in some people.
For my next turntable, I think a Michell Gyrodec SE would be a far sexier and I suspect very good sounding turntable, with any decent arm and a Denon 103 moving coil for some old fashioned analogue magic.
Whatever you decide -- good luck.
Perhaps it was never set up correctly in the first place, but the very tweakiness of its set up and suspension never made me feel very comfortable.
I found it sensitive to vibration and footfalls, and positively dowdy in its appearance and operation.
Linn's insistence on using what appears to be an ordinary, perhaps even cheap, felt mat on the platter was always symbolic to me of this quirky, voodoo product.
Like flyingred, I had some excellent experiences with direct drive turntables including a Kenwood KD-500 with an SME III arm and Grado Signature cartridges.
I also had a Yamaha PX-2 (praised in another recent thread) that was great sounding with several different cartridges including a Dynavector Ruby, Grado signatures and a Monster Alpha Genesis 1000 moving coil, back in my audiophile youth heyday.
If everything Linn says about turntable design is true, than these turntables should not sound good. Yet both of these tables kept me up listening well into the night, something that never happened with my LP12.
To be fair to Linn, I once heard an LP12 with the outboard power supply, with Linn arm and Linn cartridge, through Naim electronics and driving the original Linn Kan, sound very good and very musical.
But in general, these products never lived up to the cult like devotion and hype that they have somehow inspired in some people.
For my next turntable, I think a Michell Gyrodec SE would be a far sexier and I suspect very good sounding turntable, with any decent arm and a Denon 103 moving coil for some old fashioned analogue magic.
Whatever you decide -- good luck.