Forgive me, these are really old crummy photos, but it's what I have..
My Linn Sondek LP12 Story......
I began reading Stereophile and the Absolute Sound around 1990. At this time, my hi-fi consisted of a Phase Linear 4000 series two preamp, a Phase Linear 6000 digital delay, a Marantz EQ20 equalizer, two Carver M-400 amplifiers strapped in mono for 500wpc, an Akai GX-625 quarter track reel to reel, a Pioneer CTF 1250 cassette deck, a Phase Linear 400 amplifier for the rear delayed channels, and a Dual 1219 turntable using a Yamaha MC-11 moving coil cartridge and an Audio Technica SUT. Front speakers were EPI 200C, and the rear were EPI 100W. I also had a pair of BOSE 901 series V for when I wanted to make my ears bleed.
I was happy at this time with my hifi but noticed that nearly every reviewer in Stereophile and The Absolute Sound used a Linn Sondek LP12, that maybe my old idler drive Dual 1219 should go into retirement. So off I went searching for a Linn dealer and I found one about 40 min from my home. (My wife wanted to come along so she could hear how good the LP12 is that I had been constantly talking about) When I found out that they were also a Dual dealer, my intentions changed now I wanted to purchase a new Dual CS-5000 belt drive turntable that I had seen in Audio magazine. (Baby steps)
When I got into the store the audio consultant also the owner of this hifi store had a Dual CD-5000 sitting right next to three Linn LP 12’s. Asking to hear the Dual, the audio consultant asked about my system. He cringed when I told him what I had. Then he asked about my turntable. “Oh my, that’s Cog Driven you know”? as if this were a dirty thing. “Well The Dual 5000 is certainly an upgrade, but what you really need is a Linn Sondek LP12.”
Then he went on to give the Linn spiel about how to listen, about p-r-a-t-. Pace, Rhythm and Timing. I clearly remember him saying “No Dual ever built has proper PRAT.” Really? I thought to myself, being a musician and all I thought that I would have noticed… go figure?” My wife says, “that’s silly.” The audio consultant turns to me in a lowered voice “she not an audiophile is she?”
To demonstrate he set up a Linn LP12 with a Linn Basik Mk IV tonearm and a Linn Basik magnetic phone cartridge. “Hey, the Linn Basik cartridge looks just like an Audio Technica AT91 with a different color stylus mount,” I remarked. “OH, PLEASE……. This is LINN! Completely hand built in Scotland.” “No, that is definitely an AT-91 that’s been private labeled packaged for Linn.” Walking over and looking at a packaged Linn Basik cartridge I said “See, it says made in Japan right on the box.” “NO, that’s where they source the packaging from” remarked the knowledgable and quick thinking audio consultant.
The LP12 was hooked to a 50w Exposure integrated amp and was playing through a set of skinning Linn Kaber speakers. Hmmm.. the system looked gutless.
He played a few seconds of blues from a Robert Johnson album, my wife cringed. “Amazing, right?”, smiles the audio consultant. “Sounds thin and weak” I remark. “Oh Silly ME!, says the audio consultant as he reaches for two old B-A-R-R construction bricks and places them onto the top of the amplifier. “That should do it” says the audio consultant.
“Now, clear your mind and perpare yourself to listen for the PRAT”. He lowers the stylus. The surface noise is almost unbearable. “Maybe you should clean the record first”, I suggest. “Oh NO!, never put any chemicals on your precious vinyl, play the record and let the stylus clean it, then just clean the stylus.” “I make my own record cleaner, I remark, my records are dead silent.” I say in my defense. Then I watch him lift the tonearm and clean the stylus with slip of paper. He lowers the stylus and we listen again.. not much improvement because this record seriously needs a bath.
My wife and I attempt to listen intently first to a solo delta blues album by Robert Johnson. Not taking anything from this pioneer of blues music, but come on? There are NO quality recordings of Robert. None.
Next, we played solo Suzanne Vega, better and I was trying to comprehend why the Linn was giving me PRAT with this simple guitar/artist music that my Dual 1219 somehow missed? “I actually have this record”, I commented. My wife says “I think it sounds better at home”.
“You’re not listening correctly! “ Notice how the voice and guitar are in perfect sync, you won’t hear that on your system.” Remarked the audio consultant. So I say, “you would have to physically alter the voice and guitar during the recording for them to be out of sync”. “You’re not getting it, after listening with the Linn for maybe six weeks you’ll know exactly what I mean. Honestly, you’ll laugh when you think back at this very moment and feel silly for not recognizing it right away. Happens all the time!” Says the audio consultant.
After an hour or so of listening, and me being smitten by the good looking Linn, I purchased the showroom sample with the Linn Basik IV tonearm and the Audio Technics AT-91 oops!, sorry, hand made in Scotland by the Japanese in Japan, Linn Basik cartridge, all for about $2500, or roughly $2000.00 more than the Dual CS 5000 would have cost me. My wife stared at me in disbelief as I wrote the check. (The I told you so’s would come much later…. Wives never forget!)
“Don’t ever try that nasty Yamaha cartridge on the Linn Basik tonearm, that combo won’t work, stick with the Linn Basik and when you’re ready to upgrade to a serious cartridge come back and we will talk” says the slick minded audio consultant. “Do you want to schedule me out to your home and set it up and dial it in for you, of course I can’t guarantee results based on you current system”, “When you’re ready to upgrade your components come see me and we will talk.” What would you recommend, I asked. “Well the Exposure integrated with 50 wpc would certainly be life changing for you.”
“I have over 500 wpc on tap now.” “Yes but the Exposure is very high current.” says the audio consultant.
Back home I was happy, the Linn was gorgeous, and sounded good. Reading more Stereophile I realized that maybe my hi-fi was low fi! I mean, no one mentioned Carver, or Phase Linear, need to go shopping. But Bob did get the kudos with the Carver challenge didn’t he? =)
I thought to myself, I need to go back to McIntosh gear. After a two hour drive to my nearest Mac dealer, I purchased a pristine McIntosh C-29, with a McIntosh MC-2300 power amp. Wow! What a huge difference in sound! I also purchase a new phono cartridge a SHURE ULTRA 500, big improvement over the Linn/AT91 I was using, I mean the all hand made in Scotland but packaged in Japan by Audio Technica. =)
I kept this turntable for ten years. Moving from a tiny home into a large one, I bought another Mac amp to add music to another room and replaced the TEAC SX3300 with a ReVox B67 half track and the TEAC CD player with a Rotel 955AX. Speakers were upgraded to Definitive Technology BP10’s, purchased at the 1990 CES show, thank you Sandy Gross.
When in the new house I notice that I couldn’t walk across the floor when playing a record without the stylus jumping from the grooves. Back to the Linn dealer. “Oh that’s because you need a better tonearm.” “The Linn Basik, is well for the budget conscience audiophile, it really isn’t high-end.” “But I really like the tonearm, I don’t think that’s the problem”. “Sure it is, everything matters. The Linn ITTOK is more stable and less susceptible to foot falls”. $2500 later and things seem to have gotten worse, back to the Linn dealer.
“Oh, well you need to upgrade from the stock suspension, you need to get a new sub-chassis rebuild, we recommend swapping out the original bearing with the new Cirkus upgrade, and we should also install a refresh kit and replace your grommets.” “That should take care of it for you.” “Oh, okay, how much will that cost?”
“About $1500.00 installed”. “And I notice here that you are using the original belt, oh my!, is this the original inner platter?, well we need to swap that out too, don’t want to damage your new Cirkus bearing with this old thing, I think your’s is from like 1990.” “It is, I said, you’re the one who sold it to me. That would make it six years old now.” “Oh my, well we will fix all that!” How much for the new inner platter? “With a new support?” “Really?.”
When I got the Linn back and when I went to set it up, my wife was staring at me. “So, what did they have to do it this time.” Well, is has a new bearing, new tonearm, new belt, new inner platter, new springs, new grommets, and refresh kit, and I also had them give me a new out board power supply for my motor.”
“How much has this thing cost you?, my wife asked in a not so pleasant manner. “Around $8000.00” I said sheepishly. “I hate this turntable”, exclaimed my wife. “I can’t even play any of my 45’s on it, it only has one speed. You can’t play any of your 78’s either, you know why?, because it only has one speed!” “I want the Dual back, at least with the Dual I didn’t have to run over and pick up the tonearm at the end of the record”. “Well, hook it up and let’s see if we can walk across the floor.” Said my wife.
All hooked up, and I put a record on and gently walked over to the couch for a listen. Then I thought, this is insane, so I got up and walked like a normal person would over the the stereo stand. The stylus jumped out of the grove with reckless abandon. So I lost it. Really lost it. Here comes the wife. “$8000 and you think you would be able to play a record on it.” She walked away in disgust. I called my Linn dealer. “Oh my!, you must need some ballast to steady things. We also offer an extra heavy platform that you could place the Linn on. What are you setting it on now”? “It’s on a shelf in my stereo stand.” “Well there is your problem! You need a solid unmovable base to set the Linn on, no one puts their turntable in a stereo stand. Come on down, we have just the type of base you’re looking for.” So my wife and I head down to our Linn dealer, I begged her not to come. “This base is made from special MDF type of wood that absorbs shocks.” “What’s the door under the turnable for, record storage?” Asks my wife. “Oh No! Ballast!, lots of Ballast!”. The audio consultant opens the door underneath the turntable stand there he has three 60lbs bags of sakrete stacked one on the other. “Oh, that’s high-end”, my wife said giving me the “what are you thinking” look. We left.
As quickly as you can say, “I’ve been hosed” the Linn LP12 was on eBay and is now torturing someone in San Diego California. I lost about 75% of what I paid for the Linn, because as everyone was saying, LP’s are on their way out.
In need of a turntable and wanting another belt drive unit, I found something that looked identical to my Linn. An Ariston RD11s. It was used but absolutely pristine! It had a lovely Grace 747 tonearm installed and a Nagaoka MP11 Boron cartridge. I think the total package was just a few hundred dollars. I bought it, but never used the turntable, as at this time we were in the middle of moving and I had began to rethink my entire hi-fi journey and component choices.
With the Ariston RD11s installed, I found that I had all of the same problems that I did with the Linn Sondek LP 12. I also found that the turntables were almost Identical. So I also began researching and found that both the RD11 and the LP12 were manufactured at the same location, CASTLE Metal works in Scotland. I also found that the owners of CASTLE basically stole the Ariston RD11 from its under financed inventor, Hamish Roberston and went on to source a new plinth and call it a Linn LP12. The first Linn LP 12 advertisement basically say’s as much.
This really disturbed me, and I continued to research and found detailed court records and articles of how unscrupulous the folks from CASTLE Metal works were. It made me sick. The inventor of the Ariston RD11 aka Linn LP12, didn't have the funds to patent his invention, though that was his intention after he had made some money selling the Aristion RD11. Castle knew this and applied for a patent using his design.
Hamish went on to commit suicide after years of trying to battle CASTLE Metal works, who clearly had unlimited resources. The man lost everything, and left a family behind. I will do a post with all of the documentation that I have at a later date, but suffice it to say that the story is so upsetting to me I would NEVER purchase a Linn product again. I would however purchase another Ariston RD11.
So, though I loved the Ariston/Grace combo, I wanted to be able to walk around my house like I used too more then a decade ago when I was using my Dual 1219, which I had since given to my daughter. Reading now, how the Garrad 301, and Thorens TD124 idler drive turntables were becoming the rage, I thought well, my 1219 was idler drive and I loved it. Those prices too were on the rise.
I found a clean 1229 (a 1219 with a strobe) and purchased it. I sat it up and loved using it. I could jump up and down in front of my stereo stand and the Dual tracked perfectly. This reminded my of a display I once seen as a young man of a Dual 1219 playing upside down in an audio store, demonstrating how perfectly balanced the Dual tonearm was. You can find videos of this on YouTube.
One day, a friend was helping me rearrange my hifi and he cause a shelf to slip and fall on the Dual smashing the tonearm. I could have cried. Back to the Ariston RD11.
A few months later it dawned on me, remove the broke tonearm from the 1229, and drill out the armband to fit the Grace 747 from the Ariston, which is exactly what I did. JOY!, Bliss, Happiness!, PEACE! Did I mention JOY!. The Dual was back in the game and never sounded better. The wonderful Grace 747 only required a minor enlarging and repositioning of the original Dual arm mounting hole, as they are both basically 9” Inch arms. I have been using it every day since and that was more than 26 years ago.
The Dual 1229 is dead silent, rock stable and has real pace, pitch, and power. PRAT my butt, the Dual has everything you want in a quality table. I sold the Ariston sans tonearm to a collector in Canada. I will do a post on the Dual at a later date.
Just checking things now, I see that you can purchase a Linn LP12 Klimax for $45,970.00! Or, for the budget minded audiophile you can get a Linn LP12 Majik for a mere $5440, where you will begin your never ending upgrade journey to hell.
High-end audio has lost its mind. Turntables and Reel to Reel decks for $100,000, speakers for $250,000, Turntables for up to $550,000 dollars. Don’t get me started.
The Linn LP12 is a beautifully made turntable (as was the Aristion RD11) and if you have cement floors you’re good to go. I don’t believe is sounds anywhere near as good as a well tuned Dual 1229, or a Garrad 301, or a Thorens TD124, all of which I have owned. Nor do I think it is better than the original AR turntable that inspired Hamish Robertson to create the Ariston RD11.
That’s my Linn story and it’s also ten years of user frustration that I can never get back. More to come!
