All in good time Dan. I’m not called the central procrastinator for nothing, when it concerns upgrading HiFi of course 
. Hopefully you get that one. Hint Joe’s Garage 
I will be careful with the LP12 upgrades but already have a plan to achieve this in mind and want to be sure it is in line with my end game with of course cartridge replacements and re fettling to follow that
Hope things are OK with you as much as they can be under the circumstances
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Had a lovely weekend. Spent time with family and friends. Going out and about and doing things.
Back to reality tomorrow with work and so on. Obviously dealing with cancer is difficult but having really good times as well.
LP12 Karousel is starting to bed in.
Just looking at doing a couple of things to turntable. Replacement cartridge and Trampolin or new base board. I have the old hardboard original type. Will see what dealer advises but probably Trampolin.
As for cart I can trade in Dynavector 10x5 and get same with reduced price or buy a demo one from Cymbiosis and sell old one on ebay.
Or I could go Krystal and use K boards on 52 as phono stage.
Not sure yet. And the Karousel is only just settling. Was told it takes a few days use to bed in and sound better.
It sounds pretty good but no jaw dropping improvement. Think this could be because cart is on it’s way out.
Normally when I get an upgrade it is clear. This is underwhelming at the moment.
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Glad to hear that.
I would be careful with k-boards. Sometimes they can be sensitive enough for RF breakthrough. Someone I know with a full olive 52/250 setup used to suffer with that and had to resort to using an RF choke sometimes
You know there is many headaches to get vinyl right, I may even decide it’s not worth all the upgrades and get a new cart plus setup and be done with it. Kore and karousel don’t add a lot though so I guess those plus cart as a minimum
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The K board is unknown. This is why my thinking is to keep the phonostage as it is and stick with the 10x5.
It’s cheaper than Krystal and gives me a good cart for reasonable money at the moment.
I don’t want to spend too much money on something which may be upgraded in the future. It may not.
If k boards create problems then I will need a step up transformer for Graham Slee Reflex M and it will end up costing over £2k to change to Krystal.
If the difference in quality is worth it then fair enough.
I guess my plans are to replace Dynavector 10x5 with new one.
Leave it for a while and then get used Radikal 1 and then leave it. I hope this is enough for sometime.
Obviously with health issues I need to be mindful of work and money and I don’t want to over extend myself by spending too much on LP12.
It does sound lovely. But big LP12 upgrades are extremely expensive.
The Lingo 4 is meant to be close to Radikal 1 but not quite as good.
The Lingo 4 could be another option and buy used. But prices are so close to used Radikal 1 in UK.
An Ekos 2 was also recommended. My Akito is upgraded to quite a high level but won’t benefit from anything better than a Krystal and won’t be good enough for Urika.
This is the advice I am getting and generally it pays to listen to the experts who deal with this day in day out.
Any major HiFi upgrades have broken many a good man and time has shown that we can live with lesser systems and still connect with the music we like/love……
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The advice you have received from your dealer is very sound Dan
Upgrades can be a deep money pit
Patience is a virtue
Cheers
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Sorry to hear this, Dan…I hope the Karousel works its magic for you over the next few days. I found it a very worthwhile upgrade, fingers x’d you may too.
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I think the dealer has been very very good.
It’s doing things in right order and getting a good balance.
Have now switched from LP12 to ND5XS into NDS 555PS.
And it sounds absolutely awesome. Such a great streaming set up.
To get close to that sound quality will cost alot on LP12.
You’re 100% right, it can become a complete money pit.
Could easily spend £15k on LP12 upgrades to get it to Klimax level buying used kit.
I have spent more than £15k this year on system upgrades as it is.
Have a smaller plan and stick to it.
Tell me about it being a money pit Dan
I’ve spent an absurd amount of dosh on my 2 LP12’s
But the SQ is simply fantastic and I wouldn’t be without them
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I have spent my money of late on servicing, speakers, NAC 52, Powerlines (x4), Fraim shelves and base to accommodate 3 stack system and upgrading streamer with ND5XS2 which is amazing into NDS as DAC. Fantastic upgrades and worth every penny.
The 52 is revealing and the LP12 sounds very good but is missing something at the moment. It’s just not great compared to the streamer.
I am hoping a replacement cart will make LP12 sing. It’s a tad dull and maybe Karousel is revealing that more with cart on the way out.
It’s a subtle change with cart rather than not working. It justs sounds a bit dim.
Come on Dan, you should know by now that a Fischer price turntable will blow the socks off a digital streaming device, even a Naim one.
I’m in a similar dilemma with my TT now that I have a ND555. The performance gap between vinyl and streaming is so large now that it would need quite a big upgrade on the TT to get a closer level of performance.
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Ha ha welcome to the deep money pit Mike 
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One way forward is to take streaming even further - most obviously by getting an ND555.
But that would require giving up on one (or even both!) of your other sources.
[As a lifelong lover of multiple sources I went single-mindedly for streaming about 4 years ago and have never looked back.]
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Ha, yes, but only a money pit if you a.low the temptation. @JimDog has a good strategy, and off course I have the ND555 
.
It’s just I have 300 odd 70/80’ s vinyl in great condition and they are fun to spin. I’d just like to get a bit closer with the vinyl set up. TBH the prospect of Linn leaves me cold, too much upgrade temptation and the need to service from a remote dealer. I think my options range from sticking, or a used Rega Planar 10, or a wild card option of a Rega Planar 8 with my Exact Cart and a direct swap into the current set up for PS and phono stage……
Your son is not doing himself any favours with that grotty old Thorens mat, as the LP being played is only supported on the two sets of ridges. A Linn felt mat would be so much better, or think about a Herbies’ Mat from the USA (although I know that Richard Dane doesn’t like them).
Yep pretty tough call
Probably in NZ the only guy you would rely on re Linn Sondek would be the ex naim distributor Chris
To get quality out of the Rega range you would have to climb up their tree quite a bit
I think any of the RM guys service Linn, so Auckland is closest. I fixed a few typos in my post, I was missing a Rega Planar 8 with my exact cart (MM 
).
Yes I would think a Rega 8 would be good for sure
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There is the Rega Naia. I listened to it on saturday and it’s a superb turntable. If you have a Rega dealer would be worth a listen.
It would be all the turntable you ever needed.
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