Well, I just spent the last 8 hours spending time in a jazz club in San Fransico, then over to Symphony Hall in Chicago, to another jazz club in New York, another symphony in Boston, then over to London, then Venice, and back over to Copenhagen for some more jazz. Literally around the world in just over 8 hours time thanks to my Linn LP12, Naim ARO, Wood bodied Benz, and Pink Link DC Battery Power Supply.
Is it competitive or better than the modern super tables of today? I don't know. What I do know is that during this last 8 strait hours of listening, I didn't once think about what a new table would sound like. I was immersed in the music, the tone and timbre of the instruments, and felt like I was in the concert halls of the symphonies being played and that many times the likes of Ben Webster, Clark Terry, or Dizzy or Ray Brown and countless other jazz greats were in my listening room performing just for me!
So, those are the good points about the Linn. The cons are that either you need to learn how to set up the Linn correctly (which isn't hard, it just takes patience and gets easier with practice) or you need to know someone that can do it for you. I don't mind doing it. It's part of the hobby, the nostalgia of playing vinyl, if you will. Also, it is a misnomer that you constantly have to keep fiddling with the deck. That is simply untrue, unless you keep moving it from house to house.
I think that there are probably a great number of decks out there that can make music. You simply have to go out and listen to as many as you can and then one will "strike a chord" with you and then you'll know.
