Show us your turntable

I’m sure they would equally disapprove of the carbon sub-chassis they attach to…

I have read that ‘reconditioned’ Troikas are never as good as the original was, all those years ago. But I never heard the original, nor one of the reconditioned ones.

Linn are missing a trick here. If they are having Mr Ive design a 50th anniversary LP12, they should release a Norman Foster or Richard Rogers-inspired Troika!

2 Likes

Have you seen the price of the LP12 50th anniversary Graham ?

£50k if I’m reading it correctly

Gulp :flushed::flushed::flushed:

1 Like

I can’t see how they get anywhere near that price. Surely a fully ‘tricked out’ LP12 should be closer to £10,000. Or have I not been keeping up with current price inflation?

Or is it just rank profiteering for the privilege of having a new on/off switch, white plinth, rounded corners and a wooden subframe?

I have to say that, to my eyes, it’s a rather tacky travesty!

I certainly wouldn’t swap my beautiful Wenge plinth, ARO, Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua, and Keelsubchassis for that horrid thing.

\Linn probably know this - hence their decision to release it as a “limited edition”!

3 Likes

Me neither Graham, I love my ARO one with the full Monty

My other LP12 is the 40th anniversary and here in Australia that was less than half the price of the 50th limited edition

Who knows how it all happens

1 Like

Meant to ask obviously you like the DV cartridge?

Yes, I had two XX-2 MkII cartridges, one after the other, for about 10 years.

I treated myself to the Te Kaitora Rua at the start of last year. But illness/being away from home prevented me from listening to the TKR until I got back here just over four months ago.

It is fookin’ marvellous, and the geometry fits the ARO heasdshell perfectly - as indeed did the XX-2s, to be fair.

It is a seriously ‘high end’ cartridge at a very fair price. They could easily charge much more (not that I’m suggesting that they should do so!).

I am very impressed with Dynavector cartridges - at whatever price point in their range you go for.

3 Likes

Had to Google that, only to learn that DV is a NZ company. I never knew that.

G – more £20k than £10k. The speed control alone is ~£4/5k IIRC as a retro-fit package.

I wonder if this is Linn’s attempt to up-rank themselves in the market? e.g. by saying this is a great product, which sits alongside some of the other uber-decks in performance, which positions our not so uber Klimax LP12 up the ladder to. Thing is, with only 50, it’s more an expensive memento. Or is it purely the JI factor?

Thing is, upper-end dealers don’t like to faff with kit that much, nor do their customers. Tacky travesty is one descriptor – now just got to find the mug punters?

1 Like

Dynavector is a Japanese company, but the TKR alone is - for reasons that I don’t understand - built in Kiwiland by the Dynavector NZ distributor/importer.

‘Tai Kaitora’ is Maori for ‘the traveller’ and ‘Rua’ means ‘the return’, as this is the second Te Kaitora model that Dynavector have produced. (Amazing what you can learn from product literature!)

1 Like

I’m sure that the ‘mug punters’ will be battering at the doors of their dealers to get their hands on one!

I don’t understand the mentality. Presumably anyone buying this “special edition” has to trade in their existing fully kitted out LP12/Ekos?

It’s probably (??) aimed at the TT collectors out there, who have lots of decks, mainly a few of the uber-ones (which £50k is). Compare this £50k LP12 to an SME60 (same ex-cartridge?) and I’d bet there’d be much frivolity down in Steyning.

Stuff like this is more marketing-wheeze IMHO, and if it goes ‘off’ (as some LP12’s do), it’ll sound like many others.

And the people who own them probably have no more than 100 LPs in total - including (probably) multiple copies of each of Dire Straits’ LPs!

1 Like

I see from your Profile that you’re using an NAC12 as your preamp.

I wonder how many of those are still in regular use. Can Naim still service them? (Not that I imagine that there is much inside to service!)

Yes it is indeed a NAC12s. I believe that they do still service them, but true as you say there is not a lot in there! I was told by a rather knowledgable chap just to leave it a lone and only do anything if it needs fixed.

I have it with a SNAPS and a NAP160 (serviced) and I think there is a nice synergy with them, after all they were designed to work together and I am very happy with it all. My LP12 is old too, around 1978 ish and I like the it all ‘fits’ together.

1 Like

I think that the NAC12/SNAPS/NAP160 was the first ever ‘complete’ system that Naim ever produced for domestic use.

I think that the first ever Naim product was a power amp that Julian Vereker built for London’s Capital Radio, which was designated something such as NAP300.

1 Like

Bear in mind that before the SNAPS came the NAPS. According to the product history, the first product was the NAS speaker, with integral amplifier, way back in 1973 and indeed for Capital Radio. The NAB 300 appeared in 1979.

1 Like

Are you also not a fan of Mr. Knopfler?

1 Like

Actually Mike it’s a Japanese company with huge links to NZ

Basically the cartridges come out of Japan and these days ( when he gets his act together) the electronics ( preamps, Amps and phono amps ) come out of Sydney here.

You are right though the manufacturer of electronics I think started up in Christchurch but then transferred to Australia

My best mate has their gear ( preamps,amps, phono and cartridges ) and always telling me it Sh*ts all over Naim gear ha

Must admit it sounds rather good . But very rare gear

2 Likes

Yes I think you are spot on Graham re first complete gear from naim - well for sure that’s my first combo I had in 1979/1980 until some pr**k stole it !!

1 Like