Show us your Sondek

The Karousel in itself is such a significant upgrade, how can you tell how much of what your hearing is down to the cart and how much the Karousel, surely your hearing a major improvement from the combination of both.
I would hedge a bet that the Karousel is contributing the bigger portion of improvement.

Disagree Dread - I did the karousel first and lived with that for well over 6 months, maybe closer to 9 months. Huge improvement.

The Kandid to me gave an equivalent improvement , it’s the one for me. I’m not going anywhere near the top range one, far too pricy here in Australia

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About 50/50 then, thats good.
I thought the Karousel to be possibly the most significant upgrade in years, genuine jaw on the floor. Similar performance jump from going from the original bearing to Cirkus but much much more so

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“As Linn have demonstrated over the years, the cart is the least important component in the turntable…”

Indeed - and that was echoed by my dealer when he put together my original deck which he fitted with a Roksan NIMA plus AT-95ML which was a couple of hundred quid but I was very happy with. Over the next couple of years I performed various upgrades, including a Radikal, Kore and Karousel before I even touched the arm and cartridge. It was only when my name came up for an ARO that I then decided to upgrade the cart and went with an XX2 on his recommendation which sounds a joyous combination. I donated the perfectly fine AT to a rebuild project (a 1967 Thorens TD-124 which belonged to my late father) and hanging off the end of a vintage SME it’s a most pleasant combo. My listening pleasure has been recently increased because I decided to sell my WH Phantom speaker cable for Kudos KS-1 which takes the LP12 to whole new level, a lot of synergy with the ARO and DV to my ears.

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I can imagine, didnt know your’e in Oz

No, I’m in a Nuffield rest home now, so money which might otherwise have been put towards the purchase of more LPs and paying for Naim to fix my NAT01 is being squandered on my health!

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Some say unfortunately Dread ha - kiwi by birth, lived in London for many years in the 70’s and been in Sydney ever since

It’s a good life, can’t complain

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Do you like Fat Freddys Drop?

Sorry to hear that Graham

Brings me back to my reluctance to buy high end priced cartridges. Fine if your wealthy and secure in your wealth, but if like me less so then I consider the disappointment I might experience if I could no longer afford to pay those kind of prices and end up downgrading and losing some of the enjoyment of listening to my music.

Best wishes
:heart:

Similar experience here, started with Akito/K9 which later gave way to an Ekos 2, upgraded to a Klyde for a few years but over time stopped getting on with it. When it came to replacement iirc the Klyde had become discontinued and Linn didnt offer an alternative at the price point, then someone at Naim suggested the DV Karat 17D2 II and I’ve continued to use Karat’s ever since. Only until recently when my D3 was approaching end of life and Linn now had a similarly priced alternative (Krystal) that I auditioned the Krystal vs the latest 17DX version vs the similarly priced XX2 II, needless to say I stayed on the Karat road. As you say, in your case with ARO, there is good synergy with DV carts on LP12’s with Linn or Naim arms and in my experience more so with Karat than XX2 II but thats perhaps subjective taste

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I’m of the same opinion when it comes to budget/performance ratio. I think I’d have to spend pretty big money on a cartridge before hearing any tangible benefits, for me I’m likely to go from Kore to Keel next. I should be able to get one at a good price secondhand from my dealer. Think I’ll also leave my phono stage alone too - I went from Stageline to Rega Aria then a Vertere which was a couple of hundred quid more than the Rega but a lot more musical and less lean so a good partner for my particular deck. Even though my Linn/Naim dealer is a Vertere stockist now, he wasn’t convinced it was proven so I had to buy elsewhere. After that, well - I think that’ll be my end game! Famous last words and all that…

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Ha! Last time I told myself that auditioning a Lingo 4. Ended up Klimax Radikal, Keel, Ekos SE/1 then the Karousel came out…
Resistance proves futile! :grin:

Oh, forgot to mention Superline HCDR, replacing my Prefix/Olive HC which was the most recent upgrade after the above

Ha ha, it’s a ruddy rabbit hole alright! I went from Hercules to L4 to Radikal, the latter for me making an even bigger uplift in performance than the Karousel, I was utterly blown away - looks nicer than the Lingos too. Was also quietly impressed with the Collaro mat which reduced the noisefloor slightly and is better than the stock Linn one with heavier records which are inevitably static prone, even after cleaning on my RCM.

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Only those that know you :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Now that was very interesting and costly.

I had a Lingo 3 (replaced an Armageddon I had owned for years, I have quite a few 45 rpm’s and got tired with the lack of dual speed and having to faff with that horrible Linn pulley adaptor).
Shoot me now but I found I preferred the sound of the L3 over my old 'geddon.
Anyway was interested in a Radikal but then the L4 came along, I was pretty gobsmacked by the performance of the L4 over the L3 and similar to Karousel represented something of a bargain in Linn terms.
Next my dealer loaned me an Akurate Radikal, and in all honesty I didnt feel there was that great a performance difference, the L4 had to my ears significantly narrowed the performance gap between the two.
Then I read about many Linn users saying the Klimax Radikal performed better than the Akurate despite the only difference being the casework and Linn officially saying there was no audible difference. At this time my dealer held the same official Linn line. Nevertheless, I persuaded my dealer to loan me a Klimax Rad alongside the Akurate and I compared them at length and at home in my system for several days. initially I couldnt quite grasp why, but the Klimax just seemed to draw me in and engage me in the music in a way the Akurate didnt. Every time I switched back to the Akurate something just didnt feel the same but I couldnt put my finger on it. Was I kidding myself? Some sort of expectation bias? This just cant be right I told myself, how can the Radikal be better but I cant describe how, weird? I spent the next few days and hours and hours switching between them trying to convince myself that I was under some sort of delusion, my ears, emotion or mind tricking me. But no, the more I tried to convince myself otherwise, the more I played the more I felt more engaged and connected to my music with the Klimax, returning to the Akurate felt a bit empty and meh in comparison, really hard to describe.
I discussed all this with my dealer who was still sceptical but I ordered a K Rad anyway. A few days later he phoned to say they had done the same comparisons in their dem room and now agreed.

I go as far as to say that if anyone is looking for a Linn power supply my view is go L4 or Klimax Rad, skipping the Akurate which seems a bit pointless when the L4 runs it so close and the next really significant improvement comes with the Klimax Radikal.

Interesting experience, but as you say a rabbit hole that ends up much more expensive than intended, in my case taking me further down the Linn hole as mentioned earlier, but ultimately rewarding and more addictive than crack once recovered from the whacking hole in the bank acount!

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Very interesting that - I didn’t realise there were 2 versions of the Radikal, my one is the Akurate which I bought secondhand and traded in my L4 against. I did have a demo before making my choice and I felt it justified the price for the uplift in performance I heard. I guess it’s all down to one’s ears at the end of the day as to what your personal preferences are. The R2 is quite a step-up in price judging by what Dealers are quoting them at online but I won’t rule one out, how can I?!

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If your happy with your Akurate Rad then get it upgraded to R2 spec, no need to buy a new Radikal. I’m assuming the Akurate can be upgraded just the same as the Klimax

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I’d not thought of that…now you’ve got me thinking and I wish you hadn’t lol!

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Quick update Dread - I’m booked in with my dealer for the upgrade, he’s off to the US on Saturday so the parts should be in by the time he returns. Thanks for your detailed comments which I shared with my dealer and he totally agreed, so it’s R2 first then Kore and maybe, just maybe I’ll be nearing the end of a long journey to audio nirvana!

Go Keel if you can stretch to it, you know you’ll want it later :japanese_ogre:

:grin: