Valhalla for years, badly set up, hmm must get it set up right! All tube pre power amplifiers. Quad ESLs (the originals) -Sounds great. What bugs me the most though, is the poor spelling of many of the contributors. One person actually had the nerve to spell rhythm as "ritim"!!

The lush "romantic" Linn sound

Being better than it''s 80s peers is no longer enough. CD sounds more like a master tape to me. Sorry.

Its 2002 and I''m still waiting to buy a universal SACD/DVD-Audio player. I''ve not played an LP for about 10 years so I thought I would get my LPs and LP12 Valhalla/Ittok/Ortofon MC10 tuned and up and running. My deck has had nearly all upgrades prior to Cirkus. So what did I find. Well the LPs that have never sounded right on CD sound as lush as I remember them. In general the combination reminds me of why I so much enjoyed upgrading to a Linn. At this point I would like to declare that I am a musician as much as an audiophile because this is where things take a turn. For the last year I have been living with a CD player which finally gives me a sound that''s easy on the ears as well as having all of those CD virtues. After a week of listening to the LP12 I have to say that for me the Linn is no longer relevant. If someone wants to suggest that I don''t know how to tune my Linn then that is their opinion but my Linn exhibits all of those symptons, enjoyable as it is to listen to, which all of the succesive upgrades claim to resolve and which have been described accurately in the major reviews. These include the move to Ekos/Cirkus/Lingo and frankly for the sake of a handfull of albums I just don''t see that it''s worth the trouble. On CD I get rock solid imaging, perfect pitch, relative immunity to speaker induced feedback (I have Impulse H6 downward firing horn designs whereas I used to have smaller speakers with the Linn). More importantly I can always tell a bass guitar from a bass drum even when they are at the same point in the sound stage. I know what CDs limits are, for example an instrument can often be easily picked out but harmonic and timbres can sometimes be lacking. For me though these are small sacrifices. The thing that struck me as the final nail in the Linn''s coffin was that I could not hear the leading edges on electric guitars - as a guitarist I cannot live with this. Anyway I sold many of my albums in a momemnt of madness and even if Vinyl was still attractive I couldn''t bear to start buying used LPs. Especially as we all know that an LP might look mint but may have been thoroughly trashed by a worn sapphire on a cheap music centre. My conclusion is that if you want vinyl to sound good with a Linn then it must be with a better combination than mine. Who''s the idiot that said a record deck will always outperform a same price CD pla

The Linn conveys voice and saxaphone the best for me and is more suited to classical and easy on the ear music rather than heavy metal. However the improvements in base extension, clarity and power with my suede mat make a big difference here.

Requires tuning to keep at it''s best and good choice of arm. I chose the Ittock over the Alphason at the time of purchase because of the superior clarity and detail found. However the Alphason was far more musical and I sometimes wish I had gone for it instead. I am considering therefore in changing the Ittock for an Origin Silver.

I have had my Valhalla for 20 years. Early on I was disatisfied with the base. However I made a suede turntable mat and then proceeded to wow my friends with the base improvements and overall improvements made to the LP12. This difference is not subtle and even the cloth eared will notice the expansive base improvement and overall dynamic improvement. MY advice, get some top quality suede, have a 12" cutter made up by your friendly local engineer and cut yourself a new mat. You should be able to do all this for less than £100 and I expect that you will be utterly delighted. It will knock you out!

Similar Products Used:

None in the last 20 years. Come on folks nothing has come close to my Linn!

Musical and profound

Pricey, especially when fully featured

The LP12 is perhaps too old to be considered a 'hot' table, but once past that bit of sillyness, the LP12 rewards teh listener with the sound of real music. Of course your ancillaries matter, but the LP12 makes music. Plain and simple. The higher specified the LP12's power supply, the better the results. But all this is quite procey, as a fully loaded LP12, is very dear. Works well with Linn arms, but also works well with Rega arms, myths to the contrary aside. Set up is the key, though, for success with this table. You need someone highly qualified to set up the suspension. That's the bad news. The good news is that absent abuse, a current LP12 will hold its settings quite well. This is a table I can be happy with for the foreseeable future.

very analogue sounding, unless you use the lingo.

v poor build for the money, old ones sound warm and wooly, new ones too cold and cd like.

Over priced and over hyped - find it hard to believe that most people who love it have demoed anything else. Build is poor for the money and sound is good but not class leading. Compared to an SP10, itself no spring chicken, it lacks pitch stability, speed on transients and detail. Why bother when there is so much better out there?
The Lingo makes matters worse, bringing cold cd-like effect to the presentation and still not perfect speed stability. The design was once considered very special but is now hopelessly outclassed. Only plus point is that non-audiophiles will recognise the name and think you have the ultimate - Ill stick with sound quality thanks, no offence meant.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SP10, Pink Triangle anniversary.

Simple yet elegant design, outstanding performance.

Pricey, fussy setup.

The thing I love most about the LP12 is that it is simply an outstanding turntable, period. It's not gimmicky, you don't need an engineering degree to operate it, and once it is set up properly, you can pretty much forget about it and just enjoy the damn thing.

I don't think I can really build on the positive things that other people have said about this table, other than saying I agree whole-heartedly. Any negatives, in my opinion, are from over-enthusiastic tweakers and perpetual nit-pickers. If you simply want to experience hours upon hours of analog bliss without the muss or fuss, then this is the table for you.

a classic, what other manufacturers, strived for

$$$$, setup

There so much you can say about a product that has give me so much enjoyment for the last 17 years. Suffice to say, that there may be better sounding turntables today than the LP12, but no table made 15 years ago sound better today than an LP12, and I'm sure no table made today will sound as good as a LP12 ten years from now. This fine product ages with character, and is infused with new vitality every so often by those obsessed LINN engineers.

As for those CD lovers, vinyl naysayers, all I can say I'll sit in front of my LP12 for days without break, could you do the same listening to CD, and not feel like you've been beat up. The warmth and the musicality of my LP12/Ekos/Trampolin/Troika setup is why a became an audio enthuist, and is the reason I remain one.

Now, sure there are many faults with the LP12: cost, continually tweaking of the setup, inconvenience of use, mid-bass coloration, etc. but that it is still my only piece of hi-fi to survive the 80's and 90's, demonstrates it's resiliency.

Low-level fine detail,ability to capture your undivided attention with musical beauty,atmosphere around performances,ability to tweak and fine-tune to preference.

Bass extension, price new

My Linn has all the upgrades (Lingo,Ekos,Cirkus) but not the Trampolin because I do not believe the Linn likes a second suspension especially a rubber one. I have had a Linn for twelve years. The original had an Ittok and Valhalla.The Lingo has totally different timing and is much more accurate. After listening to the Lingoe'd Linn and then connecting up my old Valhalla'd Linn,it took me two hours of listening to make sense of the timing again.The engineering of the current Linn bearing/spindle and Ekos arm is beyond laboratory standards. This will raise a hoot of laughter among its detractors but is true.
The negative reports about the Linn in these reviews are consistent with bad setup. Bad setup will totally and completely destroy the TTs coherence and accuracy producing a boomy, muddy sound. While it is not difficult with knowledge and experience, although time consuming to do properly, very few people, dealers included, are sufficiently well-equipped in these departments. A well-setup Linn will not go out of tune for many years provided you do not move it at all with the platter in place and do not transport it with the outer or inner platter in situ or without tying down the arm and removing the counterweight. Have you ever encoured a fine instrument that can be treated like a crowbar? Of course not. It is very sensitive but, if you treat it like a cherished possession, will reward you with wonderful musicality. Oh! the Transfiguration Temper Supreme cartridge helps too but, like other neutral products, if your system is not excellent, will sound unexciting. In that case try the Espirit.
The only deck I have tried that comes anywhere close is a fully-upgraded Gyrodek. It is not as precise but quite musical and so it should be with the SME V arm and the Temper Supreme to my Temper (copper coils) which I had at the time. I rate the SME V as better than the Ekos and what engineering! I have fitted a SME VI to an LP12 for a customer. Don't believe that it doesn't work. It sounds superb but you must know what you are doing.
The Rega 3/RB300 - in a different galaxy. The Rega is hard and without air in comparison. No subtlety. No contest.
Second hand I cannot get anywhere near enough Linns for people. It is a sonic bargain but, like all other high-end tables in SA, too expensive.

Similar Products Used:

Thorens TD16-IV & S,Older Linn,Gyrodek,AR,Rega 3.

Simple elegant, lots of used around, good resale value, easy to maintain, lots of factory/non-factory options

None at this price point

Just spend some time to learn the set-up via LP12 FAQ. Check out my web page: http://busybusy.homepage.com/lp12.html for the ultimate LP12 outfit utilizing Carbon Composite upgrade and silver arm wire, and link to LP12 FAQ.

The top of the line LP12 competes to other TT costing 3-5x the cost. I heard an impressive (on paper) Basis/Graham/VDH Grasshopper outfit, and went back to my trusted LP12/Ekos/Koetsu. No regret! The music comes alive, with foot-tapping intensity. If you listen to some TT outfit, engulfed by the huge soundstage, and lots of detail, make sure you check if you foot is tapping with the music. Too many times, the very reason one seeks out the analog rig, i.e., the music, is forgotten in the quest.

Similar Products Used:

Other Linn version, Basik, Vahalla, Ittok...

Read my earlier post

-ditto-

If you followed my earlier review and tried my old URL, it was broken, thanks to belly-up Dot Com.

Please visit my new site for the latest set-up, tweaks and most extremely highest performing Linn modifications.

www.extremephono.com

Similar Products Used:

Nothing comes close under $7000