Upgrade my older Linn Sondek or move on?


Hi All,

I have a 1984 Linn Sondek that is still as it came new with a couple of exceptions. I did rebuild my Valhalla board as I was having some issues. Still has the Basic LV X arm, but I added an XTC counterweight as the stock counterweight bushing turned to mush. I am running a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge. 

Question is do I drop the money to upgrade the arm, bearing, and power supply or move on to a new or used table? Looking at used parts to upgrade the Linn I can easily spend $2k. I can sell the Linn and that puts me in the $3.5k budget range for a different table. 

I have been looking at Well Tempered and VPI. Any thoughts on these or other recommendations? Better sound quality and ease of set up / use would be the objectives. The rest of the system: Quicksilver M135 mono amps, Fisher CX-2 preamp, and Magnepan LRS+ speakers.

thermionicemission

Showing 1 response by sksos

The LP12 is a great TT owned one many, many years ago, had the best PACE to the music than almost any other table at the time. Biggest issue was it was tweaky, as many have already pointed out, and the top end was rolled off as well as the bass bloated. I moved onto a SYD (Simon Yorke Design) which had the PACE & Rythm but took care of the top end and bass issues of the LP12. Yes @mijostyn is correct regarding isolation, almost a MUST for any non-suspended table. Once heard it becomes a eureka moment. (Dealer disclaimer, we are the importers/exporters of the Vibraplane and have now sold over 6,000 units world-wide). The MinusK actually goes lower in isolation than a Vibraplane but has other concerns but is another excellent isolation platform not to overlook. 

Recently I was at @mijostyn home and had a listen to his SOTA and as he stated, when he placed a seismograph application from his phone on the platter there was ZERO response. GREAT sounding system BTW, a most enjoyable experience.