Another LP12 upgrade

The last time that I did LP12 upgrades was in 2004 to 2006. Currently it is with the old plinth and outer platter from 1985 a new solid base and top plate from 2004 and the standard armboard. It had the cirkus upgrade and I added an Ekos2 and T cable plus Akiva. Also a lingo 2 and linto phonostage.
The Akiva is old but there was a long period up until recently that the deck got very low usage due to focussing on other priorities.
The question is where to go now. I was thinking of a Kandid but it was recommended to have a kore plus karousel as a minimum with that.
The rest of the system is fixed and fully serviced but not DR’ed (Auralic Altair G1 +CDS3+252+300+SL2) and will probably stay that way.
Interested to see what others would do in terms of upgrades

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Go to more than one Naim/Linn dealer as you will probably get slightly different ideas from each. So factor that in.
The LP12 has the ability to extact £30K from your wallet if you go all the way, luckily not all at once if you don’t want to.
Linn have one thing in common with Naim. Each upgrade is easily demonstrated.

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Karousel is a significant lift. You may wish to consider either the Kore or the Majik sub chassis.
I just did a Karousel and Kore. The bass became tighter, deeper and more focused.

Take care of things below the top plate first. Although the Kore is good, the Majik sub chassis is a good value.

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Yes I realise upgrades can escalate. Unfortunately where I live there are not too many dealers to choose from but the positive thing is there is a good one not so far away. He was the one that recommended the kore and karousel before anything else.
I could also get a fair trade in for the akiva for a kandid.
I was more looking also to the motor power supply and possibly phonostage upgrades. I hear the lingo 4 is quite a good step up from the lingo 2. Not sure with the phonostage though. Would be nice to lose the two boxes and gain a bit of space.

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Hi Mt

Yes the lingo 4 is a huge jump up from the Lingo 2 which I did a year ago on one of my LP12’s so well worth opening your wallet for

I don’t know anything about the linto phono stage so can’t comment. On this particular LP12 I’m using the naim stageline k phono stage with the Linn Krystal cartridge , it all sounds pretty good

Thanks for the replies.

Later on in the year I am tempted with the following upgrades to the deck
Lingo 4 with Lingo 2 trade in
Kore
Karousel
Kandid with Akiva trade in

And keep the Ekos-2 and the Linto. I wonder though if anyone has experience of going from Linto to Urika

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Upgrade path looks good Mt

On another of my LP12’s I’ve gone down a similar path with the Kore and karousel

And also about to add the Kandid . Some say should do the Keel before going to Kandid ( and maybe that’s another step I might do in time) but in your case take the cartridge trade in

Regards

Bevo

Sorry i don’t but… in the past Linn had a package deal with Urika + Radikal purchased together with a £500 saving, so ask your dealer if this deal still applies.

Linn also had a deal for a free Karousel fitting when buying £3k worth of Linn products, so also ask your dealer about this too.

Also, don’t underestimate the upgrade to a keel.

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Correct Debs

But from memory those deals were only for a certain time window of a few months

Agree with your comment re Keel , which I have on my main LP12 Klimax

However very expensive here in Australia to purchase individually unfortunately

That’s a great way to go. However, I wouldn’t move to a Kandid before Radikal, Keel and Karousel.

Krystal is described as a Silver Troika and would be a perfect match.

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Current Linn price list bundles still apply.
January 2022
Obviously now Radikal 2s

Thanks.
I will definitely ask. Although as Bevo suggested these are probably specials. I missed the last half price deal for kore plus karousel.
I guess a change to radikal plus urika would allow also to lose a box.
I will also think about keel.

Interesting because in my last series of upgrades, I tried the klyde but could not get on wìth it. Then came the Akiva and I just had to have one. This was on a deck before keel and radikal existed.
Ok I have never heard krystal so can’t comment there. The troika yes and that was really good, but the Akiva was just in a different league.

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@anon17458420 I would recommend a somewhat different route :slight_smile:

See the most recent posts in the “New Linn Ekstatik and Radikal” thread. Several pre-loved Akkurate Radikal 1s on the market soon, members upgrading straight to Klimax Radikal 2. In my opinion power supply goes over everything else. Makes pondering about other things relatively unimportant, so I’d suggest:

  • Radikal 1 first, pre-loved as per the above should be the same price as a new Lingo 4 after the recent price hike. Also same price then as the Karousel/Kore upgrade that most think of first/only.

  • Karousel and Majik subchassis (or Kore after a demo to hear if you like what it does). Perhaps even at the same time if your budget can stretch that.

  • To get full potential out of the tonearm why not send the Ekos 2 to Audio Origami for their rewire with cardas copper and the bearings job. I would hesitate to recommend their alternative for the t-cable as it is a silver/copper hybrid. The official Linn new grey (Akito 3) t-cable is more fun than black or older ones.

  • As to the cartridge, if I understand correctly, you like your Akiva but you also think of a modern Linn MC. Have you considered the alternative of Adikt with a Lejonklou Gaio 2 phono stage, which together is less money than a Krystal?

  • If you do want to keep the Akiva and want to move away from the Linto, perhaps you could try a Prefix with HiCap. That pre-loved package should be terrific value now.

  • Keel, if after all that you still feel like upgrading further, as gateway to even more. But first question actually, do you already have a Trampolin 2?

Not the mainstream opinion and options I know, but hopefully food for thought, good luck!

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All fair points Daddycool

Power supply really important

However on my second LP12 I have the ARO arm with the older but wonderful Naim Armageddon PS

I can certainly vouch for these two as a combination , there is just something about it that is immensely enjoyable

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I’d love to know that too - my Linto was purchased at time of release and has been serviced by Class A but I do wonder if it’s a weak link in the chain currently.

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Wow some food for thought. I certainly have some time to carefully think through these upgrades. I’m timing this towards the end of this year. Although it would be good to get a good deal the most important is to optimise and get the deck how I would like it.

Interesting idea about pre loved radikal-1. I will definitely follow that up, but assume that will negate the combined radikal plus urika.

I think I am sort of set to do a karousel plus kore upgrade. Although keel is desirable it is quite a bit more and I read that the step to the keel from the kore is less than the step to a kore.

Regarding the Ekos-2 that is completely new stuff to me.

I tried the Adikt in my 2004 upgrades. I wanted more that only stepping up to a fine MC cartridge can give. I’m also unsure here about mix and matching. I assume that Linn have optimised the Akiva with the Linto to a large extent. I really enjoyed the result I had after upgrading to that in 2005

I tried a k prefix before moving to linto. Actually I preferred the Linto even though the prefix was good. Again tempted not to mix and match. The prefix also suffers alot from RFI.

I was always under the impression tgat trampolin was not a good upgrade. I have good racks from phonosophie with an isolated element on top including a top frame. The LP12 seems very much to like this as a support.

Thanks alot for you replies though. They have certainly shifted my thoughts

Regards,
Mark

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Interesting I have never serviced my linn boxes either. I guess that they are not as sensitive in that respect though.

Let’s hope we get some answers regarding the linto versus urika.

Looking at the linndocs wiki pages, I think if the urika upgrade is done then this only makes sense with Radikal anyhow

I have just downloaded the Linn price list from the website of a certain retailer in the Midlands and can confirm that the combination discount for Radikal + Urika certainly still applies and the discount has grown with inflation, so it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s available with both the Akurate and Klimax casings.

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Out of curiosity, how many do you have, and how do you get to use more than one?