I don't know why this TT still gets flooded with politically-intense discussions. I too owned the LP-12 for 18 years. I had not one problem with it nor the Ittok during that time. Now that says a lot about a product.
A year or so after I got my Linn LP-12, I went to another Linn dealer who was also a Goldmund dealer. They had both TT's set up and the salesman was very friendly to give me the time to hear the two back to back. The Goldmund Studio was simply in another league in terms of musicality. It was absolutely wonderful. But still, the Linn played the music mighty fine and I was still a happy camper with the Linn for many many years.
Many years later when I brought home a Clearaudio Ref TT, it took no time at all to immediately hear the low-end extension come out of LPs like I had not heard in my home before. And there was a definite difference in tonality in the context of piano and vocals with the Clearaudio clearly bringing on more definition and clarity. It reminded me so much of the Goldmund comparison. I do not know if this is the table or arm differences or both, but still the Linn did quite well compared to the much more expensive Clearaudio. Still, the Linn's shortcomings were quickly heard again.
I did not hear the Lingo but come on guys, be serious, was the Linn's Valhalla motor circuit the entire reason for the Linn's mediocre bass performance? I doubt this very much.
Continuing on with the issue of credibility, I think the biggest fault that many Linn fanatics have is constantly blaming those who prefer other TT's over the Linn because the Linn they heard was incorrectly set up. Give me a break - this excuse gets old. The Linn documentation to do this is excellent and with patience it is very straight forward to correctly set the springs, the arm cable dressing, the arm board level, etc. My Linn dealer went through this process very thoroughly with me and I kept it in tip-top form throughout. And surely the Linn/Goldmund dealer did too. But my ears made it very clear that the Linn was a good turntable/arm....it was simply not great.
John
A year or so after I got my Linn LP-12, I went to another Linn dealer who was also a Goldmund dealer. They had both TT's set up and the salesman was very friendly to give me the time to hear the two back to back. The Goldmund Studio was simply in another league in terms of musicality. It was absolutely wonderful. But still, the Linn played the music mighty fine and I was still a happy camper with the Linn for many many years.
Many years later when I brought home a Clearaudio Ref TT, it took no time at all to immediately hear the low-end extension come out of LPs like I had not heard in my home before. And there was a definite difference in tonality in the context of piano and vocals with the Clearaudio clearly bringing on more definition and clarity. It reminded me so much of the Goldmund comparison. I do not know if this is the table or arm differences or both, but still the Linn did quite well compared to the much more expensive Clearaudio. Still, the Linn's shortcomings were quickly heard again.
I did not hear the Lingo but come on guys, be serious, was the Linn's Valhalla motor circuit the entire reason for the Linn's mediocre bass performance? I doubt this very much.
Continuing on with the issue of credibility, I think the biggest fault that many Linn fanatics have is constantly blaming those who prefer other TT's over the Linn because the Linn they heard was incorrectly set up. Give me a break - this excuse gets old. The Linn documentation to do this is excellent and with patience it is very straight forward to correctly set the springs, the arm cable dressing, the arm board level, etc. My Linn dealer went through this process very thoroughly with me and I kept it in tip-top form throughout. And surely the Linn/Goldmund dealer did too. But my ears made it very clear that the Linn was a good turntable/arm....it was simply not great.
John