Linn Upgrade?

Dear Palewin: As you say everything in the chain has an impact, so you have to make the changes with care. Many alternatives about.

One of them is to change or try with a MM/MI cartridge ( especially that in your SP-8 you can choose for 100kohms to load in the right way a MM/MI cartridge! ), this could give you not only a different " sound " but could make an improvement for the better and your investment will be really low and " humble ".

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

The best change you can make at a very reasonable price is a new mat. Martin Colloms has used a Linn for over twenty years and said it was the best cheap upgrade he had ever had on anything. About $30 from an online shop in Scotland on ebay. Also a new belt if you have never changed it, around same price. The mat is a new thinner design, which, like the original, sounds different depending which side is up. This info is from a recent issue of HIFICRITIC in which they did an extensive survey of Linn upgrades. I recently bought a used Linn and am a VPI dealer so I am familiar with both tables. Look at the forums on the HIFICRITIC web site for extensive discussions of Linn.

I use to own a FR64s arm and it was not a very good match with a Linn table...way to heavy of an arm. The FR14 was designed for the Linn, but IMHO. it too was also too heavy. The FR64 has great re-sale value, therefore, I would part out the arm and sell the table and arm separately and buy a new VPI product. If you really like the Linn sound, sell the FR64 and buy an Ekos.

Stanwal: Thanks for your recommendation - mat & belt ordered! I looked at the threads on HIFICRITIC, and I'll be curious to hear about your experiences with your "new" Linn. I'm still tempted by the Hercules/MOSE, but will wait for the mat & belt to arrive and see how much change I can hear. (My "problem" is that the Linn sounds good to me as it is, this is always an exercise in "can I make it even better.")
Brf: My arm is the lighter FR64x, not the stainless steel FR64s. It was selected by my local Linn dealer when I returned from my expat years in England (where I bought the LP12). It has always seemed a good match, but of course, without A/B testing its hard to tell. My LP12 started out with an SME 3009/II in England, then an Infinity Black Widow (may have been the only one in the U.K. at the time!) and finally the FR64x when I moved from Shure to MC cartridges.
All: When I started this thread, the very similar "LP12 or New TT" wasn't up on the forum; it must have been posted at almost the same time, and has many more responses to the same question, so apologies for duplicating questions!

The Fr64x is only slightly lighter than the Fr64s due to the anodized aluminum arm tube. I am very surprised to hear that a Linn dealer would recommend a Fr64 series arm with a spring suspension due to the arm's mass. FR made the fr12 and fr14 specifically for the Linn market, and many also felt those light weight fr12/14 arms to be still too heavy for the Linn. I am not sure you are hearing the arm's full potential on the Linn and vise versa.