Show us your Sondek

Although I heard differences when the Karousel was demonstrated in a back to back comparison with the Cirkus, by the time I’d got it set up at home I can’t honestly say I could tell (from memory) any difference.

Clarity and a virtually silent background. For the first few albums I thought I’d left the pre on mute. It was a staggering improvement!

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Never heard the karousel upgrade either. I think this will likely be an upgrade at some stage together with the kore and a new cartridge. Probably kandid

Clive I hope the comparison demo was not playing never mind the bollocks here’s the sex pistols…

Like you, I did hear an improvement in the demo at the shop. My home experience was, I suspect, clouded by the Krystal, which, although I lived with it for a couple of years, I found a dreadful downgrade from the Troika. After mulling it over, I took the tone arm back to have the Kandid installed, thereby benefitting from a free Karousel. It took me a while to get VTA and tracking force optimised for the Kandid (it’s much taller than the Krystal), but once that was sorted I could enjoy quite a good sound, but I cannot say if any of that was attributed to the bearing. I suspect most was the cartridge, which is the best I’ve heard since the K9, which was a few cartridges back.

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The biggest reduction of noise that I experienced was changing the Subchassis from the Cirkus. My take on the Karousel was that there was a slight reduction in noise which I put down to a very slight suppression of high frequencies. But it gave better clarity and resolution at lower frequencies. I’ve got used to it now and it sounds very good. ( all in the context of my TT and system).

This sounds pretty much what I experienced as well. No doubt in my mind that this was the single best upgrade to my deck in 41 years of ownership.

My Karousel upgrade is booked in for the 8th Feb, along with a new top plate. Finally. Looking forward to it and hearing what the Radikal 2 brings to the show at the same time. Will have to wait for that though assuming it lives up to the hype.

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I’ve just returned from York after having a major upgrade to my LP12:

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Only went in for a new arm lead. Came away with a few upgrades. Cirkus to karousel, Majik to Kore Lingo1 to Lingo 4 and DV10x5 to DV20x2. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I’m thinking on adding some beeswax on my oak plinth. How are you treating yours?

With a microfibre duster and nothing else. I would avoid using any form of wax, polish or oil, which I’m sure I’d regret in the long run.

You might try Lemon Oil… In moderation.

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Linn arm, obviously, but which one, please?

Plus another vote for lemon oil for the plinth. Great stuff!

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Beeswax worked fine for me with the fluted walnut plinth. And smells nice!

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Why so? It’s oak and in a dry climate where I live wood normally like getting some oil to not risk getting cracks. What could potentially happen putting natural beeswax oil onto a natural untreated oak plinth?

Because mine is wenge and is already finished with French polish, I believe. I’d be concerned about leaving a sticky residue.

Dry micro fibre cloth most weeks then once a year or so slightly damp micro cloth with cold clean water then thoroughly dry with clean dry micro.
You’ll regret the never ending maintenance and sticky marks especially with furniture polish or worse silicon polish. :roll_eyes:

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Yep that’s all is needed to freshen up or clean a factory supplied plinth as they are sealed with a clear lacquer. You can oil or wax a factory plinth all day long but none of it is getting into the wood, so is a bit pointless. Might smell nicer though!

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This was a question in a recent thread where I mentioned a previous system mismatch years ago:

The new LP12 was originally built with a new fluted plinth, Trampolin2, Cirkus bearing, Kore subchassis, Valhalla psu, Ittok LVII tonearm, black T-cable, Adikt cartridge.

It morphed into my current configuration with the same LE fluted plinth, Trampolin2 and Cirkus bearing, but with a Majik subchassis, Hercules psu, Jelco TS-550S tonearm, older Linn cable, Nagaoka cartridge.

Currently back at that dealer for some bits & pieces maintenance including a cartridge change.

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Fabulous - thanks for sharing and going into such detail, very much appreciated indeed. It just goes to show how the sound presentation of an LP12 can be changed so radically!

It’s years since I owned (or heard) an LP12, so I’m certainly curious to hear how the modern iteration compares to the higher end Rega models.

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