I have just caught up on this thread over the last few days and I would be of a similar opinion as yourself, with regards to the good old LP12.
Mine is circa 1977 and in really good nick, well serviced and cared for. I have changed the motor, Hercules II, Cirkus and Trampoline 2, plus a bit of referb work on the Hadcock tonearm. A fresh DV 20X2L cartridge completes the set… for now!
I am reasonably content with everything, at a price point I am comfortable with. A while ago when chatting with my Linn/Naim dealer he kind of suggested that there is a sort of a limit on how far you can go with the older models, especially if you want to retain the sound signature of the particular model. Along with some compatibility issues mixing old models with modern components, perhaps.
I take the view of trying to get the best sound out of what I have got, so first thing is power supply (within financial reason), starting at the wall plate and then half decent power leads and block.
Then isolation, particularly for my LP12 (and speakers), I use a Quadraspire rack which is on an 18.5 mm wood floor on top of a wooden sub floor. I could easily see that the LP12 was just not isolated enough so I got a Quadraspire wall shelf and boy what an improvement!
Not an expensive upgrade but it sounds like one! My view, you don’t always have to upgrade units to make an improvement, get the best out of what I have first and then consider upgrades.
As for LP12 upgrades, I have future thoughts on Karousel/Kore/phono stage in some sort of sympathetic combination and maybe isolate my Hercules in a Mose. We’ll see.
More years ago than I care to remember, or maybe that’s decades, I bought a Lenco L75 off Ebay. It arrived with the platter removed and the transit bolts locked but it still didn’t quite survive the attentions of DHL and the plinth was splitting where the top plate had been bodged on by the seller. I didn’t pay much for it so contented myself with giving the seller a bit of a hard time over his packing skill and set the deck aside for a possible future project. Well the future has arrived and the first steps taken so here’s the three layer bamboo and Corian plinth in the rough with PTP plates in their location over the motor and bearing cutout, nothing is fixed in place yet.
It’s a custom made acrylic plinth. I chose a T shape with a hole below the record player bearing. The T shape helps as I can rest the antistatic brush and stylus brush where the cut outs are.
Yes, from 1972. A very solid ‘bolide’ of a deck. I used to have a very extensive Technics TT collection but started to sell off a number of them a few years back. This was one of the ones I let go most recently. Typically though, it was quickly replaced by another Technics deck - a very nice SL-10 with all the bits and a 310MC cart in almost perfect condition. Of the others I still have are an SL-120, SL-1200 Mk2, SL-150, SL-1500, SL-150 Mk2, SL-1400 Mk2, SL-1500Mk2 x 2, SL-1700 Mk2, SL-7 x 2, SL-Q33 and probably a few others I’ve forgotten about.
Well after making 2 different tops for my turntable to sit on using my artesania rack, i was never really happy with the way it made it sound compared to having it sitting on the isolation supports the rack has for each component.
So i ended up moving my PhoenixNet and phono power supply off the rack, so i could then have the turntable on the rack once again. Only problem was i felt both the PhoenixNet, and power supply did like not being off the isolation rack, errrr.
Anyway i decided to get the real deal for my rack, and get the artesania turntable top.
It’s a beast off a support, very heavy, and quite large as it’s designed to hold just about any turntable you want to put on it. The good news is that i also have room for my second tonearm pod, but it will need a height mod to work.
But the sound quality has quite literally blown me away by how much better it is now. You can now tap the support as hard as you like and it’s dead silent, no noise gets through to the turntable at all.
This has given my turntable a nice lift in performance as it obviously likes the new top and it’s deaden qualities.
A pic to show how big it is, especially with my small turntable sitting on it.
Thanks, nothing too much and I moved my TT to this room when I bought the Nait 50 so that I try its internal phono in the simplest way and it turned out to be very enjoyable. The P8 has the AT150ANV cart fitted - it’s a 50th Anniv edition, just like the Nait!
Yep, absolutely doing the job much better than expected. Which is a relief.
It’s funny, but I was doing some vinyl/stream comparisons and there are subtle differences but only really apparent when doing a/b comparison. In fact a couple of times I’ve found myself thinking “what source am I listening to?”. I do listen in the dark so can’t see the TT
Not sure what to do with the XPS2 for now. There seems to be a glut of them on eBay at the moment. Maybe hold on to it to see if the market picks up. Or maybe I’ll connect it to my ND5XS. That might be interesting