I’ve recently noticed that there appears to be a decrease in the damping level when lowering the arm. I’ve always just dropped the cueing lever down and parked my backside but it’s now landing a little too quickly and is louder as a result - the stylus not my backside 
Anybody else experienced this?
The obvious suggestion is to contact my dealer which I will in due course.
I haven’t noticed this with my Ittok.
This raised a smile, thanks.
But I’m sorry I can’t help, my Ittok is normal. Hope you manage to sort it.
C.
There must be some viscous damping fluid in the amlift. Is it possible for this to leak out or evaporate somehow without you noticing? I have a very vague recollection that this happened to a black Ittok that I had over 30 years ago, and that my dealer then (Howard Popeck of Subjective Audio, of fond memory) was able to replenish the fluid somehow. So if the problem with yours is similar, it must be fixable.
You know what you need to do (your final sentence).
With the price of cartridges being what they are I would have this investigated sooner than later. A damaged stylus won’t be cheap to put right.
I had the opposite problem to you. My Ekos arm lift (approx. 25 years old at the time) was taking far too long to lower & whilst never actually getting stuck, it only looked a matter of time before it did.
The arm was going back to Linn for a rewire & service so my dealer asked them to fit a new arm lift, which they did at no extra cost on top of the scheduled work. I am therefore unable to advise how much this would have cost in isolation.
Depending on the age of your arm, perhaps treat it to a service at the same time?
I don’t suppose that it cost Linn a huge amount to fit a new armlift free of charge, but it’s the kind of thing that will stick in your memory if you ever decide to get a new tonearm. Good for Linn!
Thanks for all of the replies.
There’s no leak and it’s not totally without damping so I may just need to just be careful for a while. I’ll use a stopwatch and time it from horizontal to on the record and report back.
I’ll see if Paul at Moorgate can advise if a new lift can be obtained from Linn. The arm has had new bearings whilst in my ownership and Darran has previously declared it good so I think I’m ok there.
This has been known to happen in the past. Replacements as I remember were extortionate if you could get them. I have heard that the arm lift can be cleaned out and refilled with silicone fluid. I can’t remember exactly who offered this service but Audio Origami springs to mind. I may be completely wrong though but might be worth checking out if your dealer can only offer an expensive replacement part.
Alternatively you could remove the pound coin that you taped to the head shell to dig more detail out of the groove 
I used to use a penny on a long gone Amstrad CD1000
My oh my, now that makes me feel old. 
I’ll see if I can do a video and see how it compares to other people’s and then some phone calls next week. Thanks for the Audio Origami tip.
This morning I’ve just had the stopwatch out to check the descent time and it was 6.14 seconds. This was with a medium weight (thickness) record.
Does this compare well to other owners of Linn arms?
Sounds good to me. Just tried my mine a few times and it’s a bit difficult to start the stopwatch exactly the same time as knocking the arm lift, all times were either just above or below yours. Definitely long enough to go and sit down before play starts.
Thanks for taking the time to check. Much appreciated.
Because my LP12 is in a different room to my speakers I’m usually stood next to the speakers when the stylus lands in the run-in groove.
I’ve possibly just experienced a bout of HiFi paranoia. Once you’ve thought about it it sticks in your head and won’t go away
A good bit paranoia is good. The other week I pulled all my plugs out then in to clean them. After a bit of listening I felt a sense that the balance was a touch to the left. I just thought it was my imagination. The next night I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was so slight a feeling but I checked all the plugs again. Guess what, one of the right speaker plugs into the speaker was being held in contact by tape. Must have broken it when unplugging. I re soldered it and everything was better again. I doubt anyone else would have noticed.
Most probably not. You do get a familiarity or even intimacy with your system that allows you to know when something is not right.
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