I’m now in a position to update you & to say that installing the Karousel kit is worth the effort. Psychologically (important this) I feel better knowing my LP12 is back up to spec.
I was able to watch my dealer fit the Karousel which was great - it’s always a pleasure to see an expert at work & it’s nice to know what goes on under the top plate - it’s clear my current dealer (an ex Linn employee with years of experience setting up LP12s) is streets ahead of the dealer who sold me the deck 8 or so years previously. I also replaced the belt & in essence the dealer’s fettling was equivalent to a service. Lots of adjustments and even a bit of soldering on an earth lead.
I’m not hearing jaw dropping improvements - that would be expecting too much I think but everything my LP12 does seems improved. As others have said the noise floor (?) has dropped so I hear more of what’s going on. You’d need better speakers than mine to pick up some of the improvements which others have mentioned but even on my humble rig things seem faster (is that leading edge stuff?) and miracle of miracle (absolute beauty this) surface noise has reduced. That’s almost worth the price of entry alone.
So I’m pleased. The LP12 remains the undisputed king of the decks
I was concentrating / enjoying the music so much, and more and more with each system change, I didn’t take much notice! A 333 was involved, if you needed to know.
Festool saws are absolutely superb. I had one many moons ago and you could literally throw it at the wood and still get a perfect cut. Top quality German engineering.
What speakers are you planning to build? Or are you designing them yourself?
I’ve been planning to build something from Troels Gravesen’s collection for ages now. In fact ever since seeing another forum member’s thread on it: Speaker build - CNO4
I always wanted to build my own speakers when younger, read up about it a bit years back. I’m finally getting the tools and courage together to give it a go. Decided on the Festool as if it all goes pear shaped I should be able to sell it on. If it goes well, plus a few other DIY projects I have planned, then it’ll be a great quality investment. I’ve years of car and bike maintenance under my belt, and a bit of woodwork (peaking with a butcher block based free standing kitchen unit) but never anything requiring the precision and machine tool dexterity that cabinets require.
I occasionally post about it to trigger the two Marks to pester me about the project (there are at least two of them who have built beautifully realised Gravesen designs) They might be too tired at this point though, it’s been a year of talk and no action, apart from me buying Gucci tools!
(though I did mock up a cardboard pair to see how the model I was thinking of at the time would look in situ!)
I already had a pair of Totem Arro’s sitting unused in the closet so decided yesterday to order one of those new Wiim Amps to go with my Totem’s to replace a Sonos Beam sound bar in the living room TV set up. Will hopefully give me the option to finally have listenable background music and who knows, might be able to turn off subtitles when watching movies on Netflix lol.
Not purchased yet, but these were left by my local dealer today as he took away the Fyne F702s (which were too big physically, and needed too much space behind them to sound at their best).
Only a few hours listened on the Fink Team Kims, but they both sound rather nice, have a really nice balanced bass at low volume, and passed through the aesthetics committee with flying colours.
Please excuse the tangle of cables - the recent addition of an ND555 meant more power cables, and it’s a bit of a mess until the Chord M6 arrives…
They are a bit spendy (towards the upper end of stand mounts), but happily cheaper than what i had been looking at on ur floor stander front. Especially if i go where i was originally thinking of with a PMC Fact.12 or Titan 606.
They look really nice, and a bit different from the pack. If you do go for them, would you get their angled stands? As they would alter the sound, it would probably be a good idea to try the speakers on their bespoke stands before committing.