Fascinating look at what was going on inside the living rooms of the audio-enlightened at the time, Colin! And as I suspected, the Linns were never compared with idlers (at least not publicly), as the issue was already pretty well dead by then. But let's not forget the context: just as the industry and press combined touted Perfect Sound Forever and won over the overwhelming mass of the population with Perfect Sound Forever, so the industry and press back then touted the belt and killed the idler before the Linn ever hit the stands (and again, against a background of idlers, someone - i.e. press and industry - had to have heard the diminution in the sonic areas already listed). That perceived loss of slam PRaT and bass was dismissed by you and the public because you relied on the expert testimony of the press and industry there was no sonic price, and so though you and others heard it, you dismissed it as an unrelated aberration and moved on.
Innocent and against an audio background which was utterly unaware any Audio Battle of Systems had even occurred, other than commercial DD vs BD competition, (I used idler-wheel record changers as a kid, but not being from an audio family or even aware there was such a thing as an "audio magazine" I knew nothing other than that more pennies had to be taped to the tonearm to prevent the cartridge from skipping :-)), I all-unaware bought a Garrard SP-25 at a flea market thinking it was a belt-drive and took it home to match up to my NAD/Boston set-up.
As background to this, I had never been an audiophile until the mid-80s, and happily used my Akai belt-drive/Kenwood receiver system in what I think of as The Days of Innocence (happily listening to the MUSIC blissfully unaware of any audio losses or distortions). Then Digital came out and I was looking forward to it as much as anyone. A friend of mine was the first to buy a CD-based system and paid quite a lot of money for a new [what we considered state of the art, not being audiophiles] Yamaha/AR system with Yamaha CD player. At the Unveiling Party (he invited Everyone in the neighbourhood to hear the First of the New Paradigm), while everyone ooohed and aaaahhhhheed, I found myself offended at the cold, clinical sound which emerged, all hard edges with NO atmosphere, and I asked everyone "Do you not hear it?!?" No one agreed, and so I bet the owner of the new machine that I could assemble a turntable-based system for the same money which was superior (without even knowing of the existence of such machines, I was so angry). I researched, discovered audio magazines, discovered high-end audio shops, and was finally led to then Shit-Kicker Rega Planar 3 with its controversial RB-300 tonearm (the controversy being those who said it was a true high-end tonearm, while the price-conscious denied this). Not having a lot of money at the time, the best I could do as buy the Rega Planar 3 and keep my old cartridge. Mounting my Acutex to the Rega, I was astonished to discover tons of information, details, entire instruments which I had never heard before. Having switched my cartridge from the old to the new underlined just how much the record player was doing, and in that moment my Audio Innocence fell away and I became an audiophile, eventually buying a Grado, a Musical Fidelity A1, and a pair of Infinite Slope speakers (today Joseph Audio markets these). My friend heard the Rega in his system and today he is even more anti-digital than I am, and won't allow a CD player in his house! He started with a Revolver/Sumiko MMT/Grado set-up, and evolved through the Maplenoll Athena to a Lenco today.
By the time I tripped over the SP-25 I owned both a maxed-out Maplenoll Athena and an Audiomeca Roma, was a confirmed member of the Belt-Drives are Superior to All Club (the only alternative I was aware of being DD), and was using a variety of high-end MCs. That particular SP-25 was defective, and when I opened it expecting to repair a simple belt-drive (by this time I was the unofficial Maplenoll technician for my city), I was astounded to be confronted with a WHEEL and a host of complex and bizarre gears, levers and springs. I didn't know what the Hell I was looking at, and only knew I had no hope of repairing it...conventionally at least. So, testing and experimenting, I decided to simply throw out everything which did not drive the platter directly and get rid of the non-functioning automatic system entirely, and stripped it down to the on/off switch, speed control, and motor and wheel, a little pile of metal parts, springs and grommets sitting by its side. I had made the little fully-automatic SP-25 a fully manual machine, and in the process got rid of all the rattly/noisy little bits. In addition, I soldered a better cable to the terminals. Then I mounted a decent cartridge (a Glanz), hooked it up to the little system not expecting much, and found myself ASTONISHED. I KNEW instantly that this as a superior system (given the relatively cheap construction of the little machine with its cheap tonearm), that both my highly-regarded Maplenoll and Audiomeca 'tables were beaten, had never heard such speed, such "clarity" (razor-sharp transients), such DRIVE, such tight bass!
Those were fun days: I got to know many of the high-end audio personalities of Helsinki, and found myself marching around from high-end shop to high-end shop with the little Garrard SP-25 under my arm (it didn't weigh much), with an Audio Technica OC30 (superior to the OC9) now mounted to the tonearm (this tonearm/MC combo was admittedly bright, but the detail, transient speed and SLAM were entirely audible), and proceeded to demonstrate it in high-end systems. There was no rumble, and some were so gobsmacked they asked if I could adapt the system to their existing belt-drives. I remember demonstrating it in a system which totaled some $200K in one shop, and there was some high-level meeting happening upstairs (it was a chain of high-end shops across Scandinavia). As the little Garrard began to play, the door to the meeting room opened and all the attendees marched out and asked what was playing, asking if it was the new high-end CD player they were obviously expecting. The salesman pointed to the little Garrard sitting on the floor, and the management simply stared for a few moments without speaking, as if it were an extraterrestrial, and simply walked back into the meeting room without saying a word and closed the door. The salesmen owned a Thorens Reference (one of the biggest, most massive and most beautiful belt-drives ever made) and asked me if I could make it an idler-wheel drive.
A freind of mine who had Made Good (now very wealthy) came to Helskini to visit me, heard my little system and was astonished as well, saying "The hairs are rising up on my arms!!!" He asked how much I needed to do the research to develop the technology/'table, and I began, eventually finding a Lenco to experiment with for the proposed new company, which was abandoned as many big companies stopped production of turntables (Thorens) and cartridges (Shure), which truly seemed to be The much-predicted End for vinyl.
Which is all to say, modded, even a humble SP-25 can make the case for the idler-wheel very effectively, that the sonic price which was paid by converting to belt-drive had to have been very audible to the few who were involved in the design and promotion of belt-drives, which was why the noise issue was emphasized to the exclusion of all else by both press and industry.
As to Linn carrying the Vinyl Standard, let's not forget that just before the Digital Dark Ages and through its beginning there was an explosion of new designs, headed by the likes of Roksan with its challenge to the Linn dominance, the Rega RB-300 tonearm (which matched to the Roksan struggled with Linn/Ittok for the crown) which hit the market like a sledgehammer (high-end performance and superb engineering at a budget price which brought the high End within the reach of audio masses), Pink Triangle with its introduction of the first acrylic platter and I believe DC motor. With this explosion of designs (add Maplenoll, VPI, Sota and various unsuspended designs from the American side), came a fortuitous and coinciding re-explosion of interest in quality vinyl (anyone remember the constant "Now is the time to buy your Final Turntable before the End, they have never been better" articles?), and this contributed greatly to the survival of the High-End Vinyl Standard through the Digital Dark Ages. And through all THAT foofarah, some few British companies carried the idler standard underground and behind the scenes with small adverts at the back of British audio mags, with Loricraft offering their wooden plinths and rebuilds alongside various stone plinths.
It seems the Audio Gods were [wisely] smiling on us all along and continue to do so! Vive la Vinyl!!
