The current Stereophile (Oct. 2007) has a nice art-icle by Art Dudley on his Linn LP-12 with the Ekos SE arm, Keel subchassis and Trampolin base. Thought I'd offer a "heads up".
Wow, I had no idea that Linns were getting so expensive these days. It really makes the $350 that I spent back in 1987 for a used LP-12 seem like a serious bargain now though (even though mine doesn't have all of the latest and greatest tweaks).Around $13k with the goodies mentioned above, plus the Lingo power supply.
Art gave a lot of detail about the table, the add ons and provided plenty of pics of everything.
Currently, I think a basic LP-12 is going for around $2800. The cool thing about the Linn (and some others) is you can always do whatever upgrades you want, when you want. :yes:
If you look at the typical prices of most high-end audio gear these days, the prices are similarly outrageous. While I love my Linn, I could not justify not ponying-up that much $$ for a fully equiped new unit today.Bigerik, it seems we have just accepted that due to the reputation Linn attained in the 70's and 80's, price increases are ok. With all due respect, Linn is going the other way in terms of volume sales- they are not going after it all. I guess he (ivor) was one of the survivors- the other notable turntable manufacturer still in business of course is Matsushita and I bet there was a period where they actually considered killing the 1200mkII...but along came rap, scratching and affordable home mixers and everyone wanted to be a DJ. Of course Matsushita was large enough to keep it just for fun, whereas (and full credit to ivor) Linn was only, and still is, a small company. My point is this, the 1200mkII hasn't gone up really, in fact if it has gone down in real terms over the last 28 years, whereas the Linn has skyrocketed. R&D on an already produced product where you are only upgrading a bit at a time is really cheap- god, it took them 15 years to create a reasonable power supply, another 10 for a bearing 'upgrade' and so on. I reckon 'Weekend Willy' could have applied the same 'upgrades' over a 30 year period, cobbling them up in his garage workshop for less money and still had the week to do his real job. To me it seems a company running on a reputation aquired a long time ago, producing an ancient device and charging a fortune for it because ivor believes the afficionados will pay anything. If the Linn goes up to $25k will it still sell? I've had two Linns, a really early unit with a 3009 and many years later a valhalla equipped unit with a kuzma arm. Sold them both, bought two SL1200MkIIs (no, not interested in DJing) put them in storage, bought a 2nd hand SL1600MkII, restored it and it use that. Had a 1000 dollars spare too...
I love the fact Linn is still around- it's good for the hobby, but is it really worth the money in this day and age as a viable product?
Bigerik, it seems we have just accepted that due to the reputation Linn attained in the 70's and 80's, price increases are ok. With all due respect, Linn is going the other way in terms of volume sales-...My point is this, the 1200mkII hasn't gone up really, in fact if it has gone down in real terms over the last 28 years, whereas the Linn has skyrocketed. R&D on an already produced product where you are only upgrading a bit at a time is really cheap- god, it took them 15 years to create a reasonable power supply, another 10 for a bearing 'upgrade' and so on. I reckon 'Weekend Willy' could have applied the same 'upgrades' over a 30 year period, cobbling them up in his garage workshop for less money and still had the week to do his real job. To me it seems a company running on a reputation aquired a long time ago, producing an ancient device and charging a fortune for it because ivor believes the afficionados will pay anything. If the Linn goes up to $25k will it still sell? I've had two Linns, a really early unit with a 3009 and many years later a valhalla equipped unit with a kuzma arm. Sold them both, bought two SL1200MkIIs (no, not interested in DJing) put them in storage, bought a 2nd hand SL1600MkII, restored it and it use that. Had a 1000 dollars spare too...
I love the fact Linn is still around- it's good for the hobby, but is it really worth the money in this day and age as a viable product?
Lionking, with repsect, you are mistaken and confusing other technics tables with the 1200mkII. The 1200mkII has not significantly changed. A very small change to internal pcbs was made in the early nineties but the MkII, the only model I mentioned, is still basically unchanged through its run of about 28years. Of course there are available in addtion to the 1200mkII, several 'improved' models Mk3,4,5 etc. Technics' reputation was hard earned and based on sound engineering practices, good value and an awful lot more tables sold than Linn. I am trying to compare a table with a similar production run here that's all. I love them both, but the Linn is shocking value for money.
Can anyone advise if the Linn LP12, complete with Ekos, Troika cartridge (less than 100 hours) and Lingo is worth US$2960 (bought it for S$4500). Estimate vintage I think is circa 1989/1990 about ...... Condition, mint! Thanks!