Interesting thought- Linn &


Been considering a Linn Radikal power supply/motor kit for my LP12. It is now powered by a late "shoe box" Lingo- old styl box but the circuit board is all SMD's.

Anyway, it occurred to me that for the price of the Radikal I could buy a VPI Prime with a tonearm. I recently heard the Prime and was very impressed with it

I really like my Linn, and have zero thoughts of disposing it. 

So so the theoretical question is Prime or Radikal? It would be great to move my LP12 up another notch and it ours be a blast to hav a 2nd TT
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Showing 6 responses by tzh21y

I will say this.  I have heard a Linn recently with the radical and it is a very nice sounding table if set up correctly.  I was pleasantly surprised at how my scout sounded in comparison to the Linn.  My setup cost about 3k including cartridge.  The Linn was close to 10k.  The Linn did sound very good but the scout had more air.  At least with my cartridge.  The Linn had  better control and depth.  It was better than the scout but it also cost over 3 times as much.  It did sound better than I thought it would, especially with the Linn cartridge.  It did not sound as good with a Benz.
I liked the Linn.  I just do not feel I was hearing 10k worth of table.  The Benz should have sang on a 10k system.  The Linn seemed as though it was Linn dependent.  Linn everything or else.
It is not that I think the Linn is not a good table, far from it.  Not sure about the price tag.  I cannot imagine what is possible with the scout.  Maybe an SDS and an hrs isolation platform.  I bet it would sound pretty quiet and impressive but again hrs 1500 and SDS 1000, well you are at 4 grand.  I bet the prime with the added mass, hrs and SDS would be pretty amazing.  The thing with VPI is that the arm is very hard to set up and get right.  Table has to be perfectly level.  After listening to the prime and the lp 12, even though there was some setup issues with the prime, I think I am leaning towards the prime.  It is the best value in turntables.  If I already had a Linn, I would probably keep it.  They do sound great.  
I have found ime the the arm is difficult to set up for optimum performance.  If a lower end cartridge is used, it may not be as difficult.  I have a glider and a denon 103 that was fairly easy and tracked particularly well with the jmw.  However, I have found that the higher end cartridges are much tougher to set up.  It can be done, but it takes a lot of patience.  I have never had a problem with mm cartridges with this arm.  I am currently using a Benz ref s and it is a bear to set up.  Even hearing it on the ekos arm on the Linn told me that this cartridge is much more demanding and finicky with set up.  It did not sound very good on the Linn.  The dealer had a klyde installed that sounded much better on the Linn than the Benz.  So much so that I could not believe it.  I brought the Benz home and put it back on the VPI and the magic returned after careful setup.  Unless it is set up correctly, the ref s is very siblant and can distort during demanding passages.  When set up correctly,this. Cartridge can sound amazing on the scout.  I do not think there is a better value in turntables that found in the scout.  I have tried the butcher block and did not like it very much.  I had an hrs for audition once and it was amazing what it did.  Incredible actually.  I did not have an SDS.  I am curious of what is possible with the scout.  Overall, as I said, the Linn was better that the scout but I thought the scout was better at making me want to listen to music.  I felt the scout took me to the venue better than the Linn.  The Linn brought the venue to me.  The instruments sounded more realistic on the VPI to my ears but the Linn provided more inner detail, blacker background.  Some of the things I did not like about the Linn may have been system related.  It did have a very solid image of the music.  It makes me wonder if I had the scout on a stable platform and a better motor controller could it outperform the Linn at less than half the cost?

My floor is very unlevel.  2nd floor hardwood.  Old house. Walls are very unlevel.  I actually have 2 shims under one of the legs of my stand.  One under two other legs.  One leg is on the floor itself.  I have found that a level surface is huge, especially when using a very sensitive cartridge.  Everything is magnified considerably,  every fault in the system. When everything is aligned it does sound great though.  I level the stand then turntable chassis.  The Benz ref s just let's you know more than other moving magnets or moving coils I have had that something is not right.  Maybe I am just ultra sensitive.  As far as alignment, I have found that you cannot just go by cantilever alignment and overhang. It helps and sometimes it works perfect.  you have to listen and listen good.  Azimuth is important, its all important.  A level surface to place turntable on is more important than I previously thought.  It really make a big difference ime.  Even if it is off a little, it impacts the sound.