First of all, congratulations with the LP12 Mike, it’s a journey that many made Rega Planar 3 to LP12.
Secondly I think you see things exactly right, the economics simply don’t work out. That may be a minority view and in the LP12 world most will get you on the upgrade path right away.
My recommendation would be to first enjoy what you have now, get used to it, provided there are indeed no issues with it.
Then IMO it makes far more sense to sell, trade-in or repurpose this LP12 and indeed buy a brand new complete Majik LP12 in your desired plinth version. Include two upgrades with that from the start: the Lingo 4 power supply and the Trampolin 2 base plate. Dealer will give you a good package deal.
Keep that for the rest of your life, it will be an extremely competent record player already. If you then ever feel an itch to upgrade further by all means do, who knows where you might bring it.
Finally I second the most basic recommendation I read - get a decent record cleaning machine!
Enjoy spinning LPs again over Christmas (ps: did you ever replace the arm on your Rega?).
Thanks for that @daddycool. I did get the LP12 cheap though, so a new Majik plus Lingo and Trampoline 2 would be NZ$10.5K. Upgrading my LP12 to the same spec would be $7.2K including the purchase price of the LP12 ($1.3K) and I think I have a better arm anyway. Adding the Kore to mine would get me above the Akurate spec for $9.0K all up, compared to a new Akurate for $15.5K and close to the Seleck at $20.6K with a slighter better arm. So, if investing, upgrading i probably best since I got such a good buy on the base LP12.
But, I also agree with this for the meantime:
Yes, I think that is in the mix.
No. Actually I was going to try a new MC on it, but the LP12 including a MC was actually cheaper! The Rega 3 is now in the games room with the Star.
I am very pleased for you. I have seen some of your equipment , I have some very dodgy knees and I was very sorry that I could take no more than the photos of your cameras , on the other hand I am very wary of stairs
Which you will have to have serviced at cost in the UK. No Ittok with unknown history will be in optimal condition. Also the deck (top plate, motor) and cabling is all from someone somewhere sometime and might be ok-ish.
Many of the recommendations you received are from forum members who bought their LP12 new, so that was their clean sheet start. Over the decades they followed the upgrades path with sometimes only the top plate left in place and that’s ok.
I proposed a clean sheet 100% perfect start for you as well, your first brand new LP12 not someone else’s, which history you will write. That’s worth a little extra money in my view - and it will be an easier start as well. The proposed starting point, as said, might surprise you as a very competent record playing whole (despite forum folklore about individual components), Linn knows their stuff.
Just some thoughts over Christmas, in any case nice to see you spinning vinyl again!
Chatted with my Linn dealer and he explained how to check the belt and pulley, using the drooping test , which I did and it was all good. He said not to use the Rega mat as it is quite a bit thicker . So I’ve put the old mat back on with the thinnest double sided tape our hardware shop had . Weirdly, it now sounds punchier and has eased back on the top edge a bit, to what I was more looking for. Quite bizarre, maybe it’s all in the mind, or mains variation - who knows. We did wonder if the mat is not the proper LP12 one - will sort that out when I get the LP12 down to him next year.
Anyway, it sounds really good. One of my test tracks “Dreams” is more engaging on vinyl on a manky old LP12 than the ND555 .
Comparing vinyl with digital is so much more than the hardware. If you start to dig deeper in different releases of vinyl and digital you will enter a DEEP rabbit hole. You rarely compare the same master and that is a major difference in most AB tests people make. More so than the equipment used.
When I first ventured into Hoffman I had little idea of the varying pressing plants, matrices etc (I went by label differences) and their effect on sound quality of a release…it’s a rabbit hole I’m glad I fell into, on the whole.
CD pressings I’m still very ignorant of - tend to go by year.
Hi, Bevo, they’re from an Italian company called Solid Steel.
I see, from reading the manual just now, that Falcon makes a dedicated stand for the speaker - which I didn’t know, otherwise I suppose that I would have bought that. No matter - the stands that I have are fine.
Yes there is a dedicated stand for the Falcons but they cost heaps Graham but meant to be very good . I prefer the look of yours though
Here in Australia Falcon stands are very expensive although evidently there is a special on them dropping the price from $1,700 to $1,000 at one of the main dealers
Incredible how we all hear sound differently Graham
I had a pair of Flacon LS3/5a a few years ago and they just didn’t do it for me, so they were sold on . You may have the gold badge ones with some updates from the ones I had .
I’m much happier with the Neat Petite 30th anniversary’s speakers on the end of the LP12 ARO and Nait 50
Normal service has resumed folks. My mate who has a LP12 popped round this morning and we ran some checks. First up was levelling, which was a bit out, so we fixed that and it’s now bang on - he had an electronic level that helped quite a bit.
We then had a look at the cartridge, without removing it, using a mirror placed on the platter and queuing it up and using an electronic magnifying camera played through a TV. So, the cantilever is nice and straight and there are no obvious defects, though we couldn’t look end on. As the deck is sounding okay, we didn’t have any concerns:
We also checked the tracking weight with a stylus pressure gauge and it was spot on.
We ran a few recordings between the LP12 and hi-res versions on the ND555. The findings were that the ND555 is much quieter and cleaner - no surprise there, but the LP12 conveys more spacial depth and tends towards a more natural presentation - though the recording themselves are a big factor here. Detail retrieval was similar through both sources.
He is firmly of the view to leave the LP12 exactly as it is, it is sounding really good and is pretty much a mint vintage LP. He runs an Armageddon on his with a Wand arm, and does say the off-board power supply was a big upgrade, but he also has original bearings and sub chassis. He said either leave it as it is, or only add a Lingo 4 - but that is 3 times the cost of what I paid for the LP12 so it’s a value for money decision probably. Given the ND555 will always be the quietest and cleanest presentation there is a good case for sticking with the Valhalla as it is, for a presentation that naturally goes with my 70/80’s vinyl. It is just really musical.
We did both conclude that given my record collection is old, the thing to do is to get a record cleaning machine, so I will probably grab a Humminguru as my next step.
