I’m planning to buy a turntable soon. I’ve listened to the Rega P10 and Linn’s Akkurate level offering. Pound for pound, the Rega seems like incredible value; I only started preferring the Linn after switching out the standard cart for a Lyra. I’ve started looking a bit further afield and I’m drawn to the Brinkmann Bardot. Quite a bit more expensive with their tonearm… they don’t seem to get much mention on these forums, at least nothing like Rega and Linn. I’d love to hear opinions from those with any experience with them.
I’ve heard a lot of good things for the Rega
Remember the Planner 3 was the go to TT for those that couldn’t stretch to the Linn
Equally the the Brinkmans are very good
However where we can end up with the Linn is very much further up the ladder than these go
I also feel there’s much more availability on the S/H market than the other 2
My advice is go for the Linn LP12, upgradeable and timeless. A couple of bits of mine are 40 or so years old, some are much younger as they got upgraded to a new spec.
I reckon that its down to finance at the end of the day. I would throw the Techmics into the mix as well as a potential buy, it has detachable headshell so you can easily demo cartridges as well, eeally delivers on sq imo.
Does seem to be a bias here towards Linn and Rega. That said lots of great tables. SME with SME arm, Basis, VPI, Kuzma, EAT, Clearaudio. I think if I was well heeled and lived in the U.K. it would be an SME.
I had an SME 20/2a for 15 years. Enjoyed this fantastic beast! But wanted today to have something more quicker and easier to run. So bought a rega rp10, and next will be the p10.
Would love to have an Avid Acutus se, or a Vertere SG1.
With the Linn you will be always in a never ending series of potential upgrades. Less do with the Regas. Realistically with Rega the tweaks are minor and lowish cost.
I had, and still have a Rega 25. Daughter has it now.
I bought a Michell Gyro SE with a Rega 330? arm and a Benz micro ace cartridge. Happy to the point that all I added was the Michell( well Trichord actually) power supply. No more tweaking required for that source.
Hi Luke, my first hand experience with the three players:
Rega P10 (“old” model) – this a is a NO nonsense player. It’s super easy to setup any your will have no excuses for bad sound. Everything is pre-installed (VTA is “fixed”, and with the “standard” Apheta or an later upgraded Aphelion (3 point lockup) and therefore you cannot configure anything the wrong way. Love this player as a reference for ease of use. Sidenote: immune to my wooden floor.
The Linn LP12 at Klimax Leven is a beast – I was sneaking around a sub-chassis player for a long time. Although the player was installer by really, really qualified LINN people from the mothership it was a desaster for a few weeks. Nothing wrong with the deck itself but with my wooden floor. NO chance to get the peeler to work properly. After I went for a wall mount things are not great – actually GREAT. Sound quality is great. But this it’s a diva. after a few weeks the springs “settled” and the player needed some re-adjustment. For the last weeks it’s up and running just fine :-).
The Bardo (10.5 plus the optional Rönt power supply and a rather standard Koetsu black) is a piece of art. It’s very smallish and most people will not even take it as a full turntable. BUT the direct drive is just gorgeous (nooo - it does not spin up like a 1200 and it takes a 20-30 seconds – but the mechanical engineering is just beyond believe. With this player you will need a dealer that’s capable to advice on a “suitable” combination – but once that is done, the player ist rock solid. I never ever had to worry about anything. Sidenote: also immune to my wooden floor.
The bad news: all of those three player are fantastic machines. I would have a really, really tough time to select ONE…
No less a person than the late Derek Jenkins (RIP), a life long advocate of the LP12 and all things analogue rated the Brinkmann on a par with the Linn at least.
How much the Brinkmann can be upgraded is something else. The LP12 seems to be infinatly upgradable, witness the recent new main bearing, a bit like Madonna prerhaps? How to reinvent yourself perhaps.
