Linn Sondek LP12 impressions

Linn has been a reference standard for years. Not that it is the best but most serious vinyl enthusiasts have heard one and can benchmark other tables against it. I had Axis and LP12 Valhalla and actually preferred the cheaper table. It was tidier cleaner and had less wooly bass, something the higher Linns also do better. I also liked the Linn Basik which was a great budget table.

LP12 can be be good or bad. Bad ones, even after being set up properly go off after a year or so. Mine was like that. I now use a Clearaudio.

That said, a well set up Linn Lp12 sounds great. Buy a nice used one. If you like it great. If not you can sell it at little to no loss.

DaveyF. Early Linns were notiorious for going out of tune, not only in the UK but also here in Canada. Remember the basic design was not terribly well built. Lightweight wooden frame. Not terribly well braced. The Axis was a clean sheet design and for my all Linn system sounded tidier and cleaner. The LP12 was better in terms of resolution and ofcourse had a wider soundstage. But I have owned a lot of tables from Rega, Clearaudio, Pro-Ject, Technics, Thorens, Revolver and others so I know what kind of sound I like. I had my LP12 for 17 years.

I left the Linn school and prefer my subsequent B&W, McIntosh and Clearaudio set up.

As others bring up, a blown LP12 is a different animal that old 1989 vintage Lp12 I owned. I enjoyed mine but there are other excellent tables now as well.

It's pretty hard to lose with an LP12. If you like it, you have a table for life. If you don't, you can easily sell it.

There are tables such as Clearaudio, Brinkmann and AMG that would get my money before a blown LP12 but that is just a personal preference. I own a Clearaudio and am equally impressed with the other German tables. If you go British and suspended, I prefer the AVIDs.

Magazines in the UK during the 1980s were embarrassing in falling over themselves to anoint Rega and Linn as the only two worthy tables to the point that a lot of very good designs went away. Magazines are not as afraid to call out weakness of products today.

More recent reviews of the LP12 seem to be polite rather than truly enthusiastic. Revered more as a surviving design that is respected but not truly representative the best that can be had from a modern turntable though certainly competitive as one flavor of high end.

Linn did themselves a disservice by not bringing out a more modern turntable with a clean sheet design like their competitors.

BTW the Linn Majik package is actually quite nice but it failed one of my critical tests. I have an LP that everyone of my 12 turntables can play. It has a small pressing defect that would always skip on my old LP12. I took it to my local Linn dealer and it skipped on the Majik but not on the fully blown LP12 . So I need to spend $20k on a Linn to play a record that my $350 Pro-Ject Debut can easily play. And BTW the Majik even had a Pro-ject arm.

Sorry, just having a little fun but it was one of the things that bothered me about my Linn. It would not play certain records that my other tables would. That's not good enough in my book. Not for Rolex money for a base model.

Cartridges were Linn Adikt and Klyde. $500 and $4k respectively here in Canada. On my Linn my Linn Basik, K5 and Sumiko Blue Point cartridges could not track it. The same cheapo Linn Basik cartridge had no trouble on a different table, a Revolver with you guessed it a Linn arm. I was surprised that a modern Linn set up in a good shop could not play it either.

BTW, I really liked the sound of both of the Linns I heard. I thought the Adikt was a really good cartridge. My dealer thought it would be a good match for my Rega P5.

If Linn ever revives their non suspended designs like the original Basik or Axis, I would definitely consider them. I regret selling my Axis.

One other thing that might work against or for the Linn is its appearance. A nice used one for a $1 to $2k looks similar to the new ones costing 10 times as much. There are some really nice looking tables out there now.

Again, I am surprised Linn did not bring out a more modern looking table considering how attractive all of their other components are.

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.

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.