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Linn LP12......That good??

I have an Ariston RD80 (very good) and a Thorens TD 160, also very good.
How good are the Linn Lp12 tt's??
I am always looking for the best most impressive sound.
I will have to sell the Ariston/Thorens if i buy the Linn because i will not need 3 turntables!
The Ariston almost looks like the Linn by the way.
So how great are the Linn's and what is the best combination to buy?
Thanks!
x1884
whart's avatar
whart
2,971 posts
 
@bdp24 - perhaps you are correct as a matter of terminology, but it becomes like ordering non-decaffeinated coffee- an acoustic bass to distinguish it from the far more common electric bass in rock or blues? Yeah, I get it, but the instruments sound different, and I guess I'm just expressing my preference for the double bass, given the tone, etc. Ditto on the B-3. Ain't nothing like it. 

daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,835 posts
 
audiovideonirvana, I don’t doubt that your 80’s Linn didn’t sound that great....due to the weakness of the arm. Question is how much influence people have when they go on a public forum...and post opinions that the whole line of tables is just no good based on their highly "limited" experience. I see so many posters on this and other forums who jump to conclusion based on their " limited experience" with the LP12. None of these guys have ever heard a top level LP12, or have ever heard one that is correctly set-up and/or are comparing an old model ( many times from the 80’s--occasionally from the 90’s!--if they have heard the table at all!) to something that now floats their boat. Problem is that what now floats their boat is usually a table that cannot hold a candle to a top line Klimax LP12!
BTW, how many other tables can you say this about...after "thirty years" the option of "fixing up" ( whatever that means to you) is an option for the table. Try saying that with a thirty year old VPI!! You cannot even update most VPI’s to the current level after a few months, LOL. Oh, I forgot, they have a new version out now, leaving the old model to collect dust!
The one thing I do agree with you on is when you say..." If someone gave me a brand new Linn, with all the SOTA bells and whistles it could accommodate, I bet I’d be singing a different tune"!!!! You bet you would buster!!!
audiovideonirvana's avatar
audiovideonirvana
56 posts
 
We are our experiences. That's all I can say.

However, if someone on this marvelous forum wants to gift me a new, fully tricked out LP12, I'll be happy to publicly eat my words... :-)
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,445 posts
 

Good points frogman, but remember, there ARE electric basses without frets. Rick Danko played a fretless Ampeg electric bass in The Last Waltz, and it was a hollow-body ta boot. Jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius played a fretless Fender electric, and if you had called it a bass guitar to his face you would have shortly thereafter seen his fist heading towards YOUR face!

Most electric bassists DO play it with the neck straight out, almost parallel with the floor, but think back to the early Stones; Bill Wyman played his Framus hollow-body electric with the neck and headstock pointing up at the ceiling, like a stand-up. There are pictures from the 1950’s of the early Blues bassists playing the new electric basses, having just switched over from their stand-ups; the electrics were easier to lug around the country on road trips. Some of them were playing their electrics as if they were acoustics, which is, I suspect, why Wyman chose to play his bass in that manner as well.

frogman
7,358 posts
 
Not only did Wyman play it as if it was an acoustic (vertical), but contrary to popular lore and Jaco's own claim of being the inventor of the fretless he actually played a fretless on some early Stones recordings.  Jaco, of course, was the one who really popularized the fretless; amazing player.  

Love the LP12, btw.  Owned one years ago (TNT6 currently) and agree that properly setup it is an excellent table.  
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