Ability to upgrade, smooth, detailed

As with all vinyl, it has a sound of it's own, love it or hate it

I purchased this Linn used, equiped with an Ittok VII arm, Valhalla power supply, and a Koetsu Black cartridge. To put it simply this TT does nothing when it plays a record, ie it imposses so little sonic signature it is amazing. The bass is very good and extended, the highs have no hash or glare, and it can make many average cartridges sound better than they should. As with all true HiFi, what you put together with this will have a big impact on the sound. I finnally purchased a decent phono preamp, a Musical Fidelity LP^2, and it really helped me even more enjoy this TT. When I added the MF pre, I had on the Linn at the time the infamous Shure V15V (next to the newest) cartridge. Before, I had always thought it was a just ok cartridge, even on the Linn. With a better pre, the Shure sat up and sang the song. Where as before I thought the Shure was slow, uninvolving, now I was tapping my feet and really enjoying the tunes.
With the top notch Koetsu, the Linn really could show what a an excellent TT can do. At the very end of Pink Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon" albuem, on CD you can hear at the very end as the beats fade out, an instrumental. It is I believe a orchestration of "I've got a Ticket to Ride". I had never heard it on any TT I had auditioned before. But the Linn with a quality cartride (Koetsu in this case), I could hear it with ease.
Linn folks talk about ryhtm and pace, and they are correct. When you have it down good, the rest sounds great as well. I have never heard any speed varations at all, and on excellent vinyl, no back ground noise from rumble. It also seems to reach into the lp's and pull more info with these features.
As of now, I have no plans to ugrade it an further. I have been told that the Cirkus bearing/spring/chassis upgrade is worth it for even less back ground noise. Then again, some say you also loose something with that as well as the Trampolin.

Similar Products Used:

Sota Saphire

It's now two years that I use the Linn LP 12 with the Lingo PSU. It's partnered (happily) with an Alphason HR 100S-MCS and a Garrott P 77 (which I both love). Before I had a Sota Sapphire with the same arm and cartridge, but I wanted a smaller turntable. That's why I like the LP 12: Its looks are purely british understatement. Please note that it is very sensitive to positioning. Mine lives happily on a simple board fixed to the wall. Soundwise the Lingo'ed LP 12 is a very transparent source. Soundwise it is a very good turntable, even if I think that the cult status it has attained is not based only on sonic merits.

CLASSIC PRODUCT

SET UP FIDDLY, COLORATION.

This is a beautifully made deck. After having yearned for one for years, I finally got one with a Valhalla PSU fitted
and with Ittock 2 tone arm. I have to say that I'm disappointed with the performance. Even with the deck set up with precision I find the sound too coloured.The imaging is also vague.I tried a number of good quality cartridges,and also other tone arms but could never get rid of this steely greyness that coloured all music. I'm also suspicious of the speed stability, particularly under dynamic conditions.(i.e. The platter being momentarily braked by transients)
Having said that, I note an excellent separation of instruments and good rythmic behaviour.I understand that fitting the latest modifications transforms the performance.
(Cirkus bearing etc.)but there's no way I'm willing to fork out that kind of money at the moment, especially as I recently purchased a THORENS TD 124 mk2 for £220 which
with the Ittock fitted,beats the Linn in just about every area:i.e. detail retrieval, tighter deeper bass, pinpoint imaging, and in particular, speed stability. With the Thorens I can hear absolutely no fluctuations and there's even a built in strobe and speed adjuster, 16,33,45,and
78 r.p.m. too!
Maybe the Sondek with all its latest fittings along with
Ekos arm and top MC is worth 5 stars, I can't afford to find out.I never really enjoyed listening to mine, because
each time my attention was drawn to the defaults rather than the music.I therefore award 3 stars.
For anyone looking for an excellent affordable musical
deck, I say search out a Thorens TD 124,stick a GOOD arm on it,sit back and enjoy the music.Spend your saved pennies on some 'new' 2nd hand records!

Similar Products Used:

THORENS TD 124 mk2

I have owned the Linn LP12 for over 20 years. I have an SME mounted on it and a Grado Signature cartridge. I have enjoyed listening to this product all the years that I've owned it. The most fun I have with it is in letting friends hear the difference between the LP and CD.
I even had a member of the Rippingtons listen to their "Curves Ahead" recording and he could not believe what he heard.

This is by no means the best sounding turntable currently available, but it will stand on its own against many other turntables.

Musicality, smoothness and transparancy, subtle detail

It MUST be set up properly, which requires careful attention and some expertise - dealers vary in this department. An LP12 badly set up can sound ordinary, but when set up properly the musical impact is stunning.

I have used the same Linn LP12 since 1979. In that time I have upgraded the power supply to the Valhalla, and later replaced this with the Lingo, which makes an even bigger improvement in reproduction. The LP12 will get the best from any arm/cartridge combination, but I use the LInn Ittok arm with Linn Karma cartridge. The latter is 10 years old, although it has had less use due to CD; nevertheless the results from a first class LP are superior to a first class CD on a comparitively priced CD player. But it must be set up properly, and moved about as little as possible to preserve the settings. It's worth the extra effort. To summarise, a legendary product fully earning its reputation. If you want to get nearer to what went on in the original performance, forget CD - there is no substitute for good vinyl reproduction, and the LP 12 won't dissapoint.

Musical, accurate, soothing?, relaxing, beautiful

You have to be familiar with Linn to get the full benefit of upgrades etc.

I have first purchased my LP12 - Lingo with an Ittok LVII and a K9 in 1990. The sound then was OK. I say OK because for the money spent, it really only was OK. The biggest improvement I noticed then was that the noise-level of my albums was drasticaly reduced. The Linn actually did away with anoying pops and hiss (to a degree, if your 5 year old decided to use your favourite album to conduct a plastisity test on vinyl then it can't help you). That is not to say that it didn't improve the overall sound, I just didn't feel that the quality justafied the high price.
A few years later I upgraded to the famous Ekos and Troika rig, a good improvement - still, a lot of money for the gain in quality. As the Trampoline became available I purchased it and wasn't impressed at all. I had a love-hate relationship with the table, it sounded so sweet and pleasant in one way, yet it lacked some punch and definition in the lower registers (not to be confused with being unfocused or distorted - which is wasn't).
I even tried different pre-amps to see if this was the culprit - all to no avail. How frustrating.
Then Linn came out with the Cirkus. Wow. Now suddenly the table is worth every penny I spent. The bass is tight and focused, music is rythmic, well defined and real easy to listen to. No more yearning for that mystical something I always thought missing.
If anyone is considering a new purchase, make sure you include the Cirkus in the system, anyone with older tables out there: get the Cirkus upgrade. In my case it was the best money spent.
Good luck to all; I have to go put an album on ..........