Agreed. there are many alternatives out there being offered as “upgrades” . IME very few are upgrades (However, just a few are!) so it can be difficult working out which is and which is not! This is why I try and experiment with as many offerings as possible, that way I know what’s going on, and the benefits or otherwise!!
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This spacer allows the attachment of the Karousel to a pre-Cirkus sub-chassis thus avoiding the additional expense of a new sub-chassis until such time as it’s financially appropriate. It is an official Linn spare part and in my opinion a very thoughtful addition to the spares that are available for the LP12 
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Ahh thanks for clarifying which part adds which element to the sound difference, Peter @Cymbiosis.
Yeah, I’m absolutely blown away by the changes. Thank you so much for recommending these and also fitting me in the following day to fit them!
It does absolutely seem crazy that just an update to the same essential power supply (albeit a different motor) can change the sound so much, by turning a thin rubber belt to spin a disc around. It’s why I was so sceptical of how much difference there could possibly be, as you just can’t see how the logic works… but it sure does. I can certainly see why it’s called Radikal!
Great to know which part the Kore adds, too. The bass definitely has more impact, but now it’s separated out more and much more tuneful. Yep, very happy to know that the Kore was indeed worth it.
Thanks again Peter, very much appreciated!
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That’s ok and yes unusual but I was only working in the morning as I was going to the Litchfield Festival to see a live performance of the music from the Wallace and Gromit film, The Wrong Trousers in the afternoon/evening at Litchfield Cathedral! It was great!! 
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Well, I’m glad it’s not just me that had a great day, Peter. Glad you enjoyed the show! 
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My LP12 path has been mechanics first, I already had Kore and Karousel and upgraded from a Lingo 4 to a Radikal 2 which brought notable improvements.
To help understand, consider a stationary record with stylus sat in the groove, you don’t hear anything as there is no movement. Energy is needed to make that stylus vibrate at audio frequencies and is achieved by the motion of the groove it is sat in.
That energy comes from the motor, through the belt and rotation of the record. You could turn the record by hand and you will hear sound but not much in the way of accurate playback of music! Constant speed is needed to achieve this and at the same time, any mechanical noise from motor, bearing etc needs to be as low as possible to let the stylus respond only to the movement of the groove.
As you improve how smoothly, quietly and accurately the motor turns, the stylus will be reacting more accurately to the groove motion with disturbances from unwanted motion (mechanical noise, speed fluctuations) reduced.
This is very simplistic as I’ve not even mentioned sub chassis, arm bearings but hopefully you can start to appreciate how all these components work together and as they improve, collectively achieve greater performance.
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Oh yeah, I totally realise how it works in that respect @RichardPW, it’s just that when you imagine it was already being driven by a Radikal 1 in the first place. You just can’t imagine how miniscule the differences must have been, but yet the sound output is so vastly different. Literally like going from a fax, to seeing the original work of art!
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I’m in Canada. Very little used linn or naim equipment here, and anything LP12 related is just a very small user base. The one thing is that if I just go with Karousel and Kore now I have a couple years before my planned Lingo upgrade and something might come along.
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Ahh @KenRose , apologies I didn’t realise this. Sorry!
Yeah, I think regardless of where you are, the changes given the release of Utopik upgrades and also the new Klimax Radikal, there should be more general availability in more places. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for the Radikal 2.
Unless you fancied a flight over to Leicester! Not sure if they do direct flights to East Midlands?! 
Best of luck with your Karousel and Kore though. They both will definitely improve where you are now!
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Don’t forget that the groove is less than the thickness of a human hair and the audio modulation (movement) is easily 1/100th of that, moving at a speed of 20 inch/second in the outer grooves. Any minuscule difference is quite significant.
A good analogy I recall from many, many years ago is the heads in computer hard drives - imagine a 747 flying two inches above the ground at Mach three and counting the blades of grass as it passes.
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Glad to hear that you had such a successful audition. Sounds like you made the right choices with @Cymbiosis help. As you say, baffling that such ‘minor’ changes produce such big improvements, but true nonetheless! Enjoy
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Thanks @KJC! Yeah, I’m very pleased with the changes. I didn’t even audition them to be honest, I just went with them. I trust Peter’s knowledge and opinion as he’s literally tried every possible scenario out and knows what works well and what doesn’t. So, it was just a trip to fit them both. Needless to say, they’ve made a brilliant difference and I’m very happy with the results.
I’m on the waiting list for a serviced Prefix, so there’s still a level to go with the phono stage, too. I’m hoping it gets me somewhere towards a Urika, allowing me to possibly make another change to a better arm/keel before I need to look at phono stage as being the weak link.
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