Linn Klimax Radikal for LP12

@ghdprentice 

Thank you for your comments.

It is the new bigger boxed Klimax Radikal with two separate Utopik  power supplies for the turntable motor and Urika II that I was talking about in comparison with an old style Machined (Klimax) Radikal 2. That was with a Klimax DSM/3 (Utopik I think) and two Klimax Exalktboxes Organik (see my virtual system for something quite similar.)

That already sounds fantastic with vinyl due the improved clock of the DSM/3 controlling the Urika and Exaktboxes. However the new Klimax Radikal made it sound much better than anything I have ever heard. Truly amazing.

My friend didn’t say much about it. He just asked me if I wanted to come in to listen to his system when I dropped him off. He said nothing to prime me and put on Graceland because I’d mentioned that my then future wife had been shocked when she heard it on my LP12 for first time 28 years ago. I didn’t take it in at first as we were chatting about other stuff. Probably the system was warming up. Then it hit me. Just like with my wife all those years earlier.

The Radikal 2, Karousel, Klimax DSM/3 and Organik upgrades that I’ve done over the past few years plus tweaking the network/server setup all pale into insignificance in comparison  I would be sceptical too, if I hadn’t heard it for myself. In fact, I was when another friend rang me a while back to tell me about his new Klimax Radikal. Hearing is believing.

I don’t own Linn but find this thread interesting. 
Just to confirm…a $4,000 phono stage was catapulted into sonic stratosphere with a $16,000 power supply? I mean the circuit inside the phono stage caps its potential. I can’t help but wonder what a $20,000 phono stage would accomplish. I would have taken the approach implemented by @ghdprentice with that ridiculously good ARC phono stage. I’d still do the motor control though. 
I believe you heard the improvement as you should have with a better power to phono amp and proper speed on the motor. And I think that’s a genius design by Linn.
Just playing devil’s advocate with alternate approach….

@audphile1 

You could always call in at your nearest Linn dealer to hear it for yourself, if you are sceptical.

All I can say is that adding the new Klimax Radikal to a Klimax LP12 with Urika ii, Klimax DSM/3, etc. produced the best sound I have ever heard bar none. 

That was a complete surprise to me, but I trust what I hear. Theory exists to explain what you hear, not tell you what to hear.

The cost is very high in line with Linn pushing up the prices of new products like 360 speakers, Bedrok, Solo 500/800 amps and Klimax Exaktboxes into the stratosphere. Whether that is justified is for the market to decide. 

As an upgrade to the Klimax Radikal 2, the net cost is about £7,000 in UK. The two people who I know who’ve done it are more than satisfied.

I’m not at all skeptical of an improvement. I’m questioning the degree of improvement of this upgrade vs stepping up to an overall better(may be objectively) phono stage. 
Also, Urika 2 is a digital phono stage if I’m mistaken. Not sure what takes place in a digital domain other than the RIAA equalization and it’s very interesting. But does it render it into the same category with the likes of Sweetvinyl…I could be mistaken. Good bad or different I am sure it’s fantastic doing what its designers intended. 

I heard recently a friends system using the Urika 2, we then compared it to my phono stage in my CAT preamp ( which includes a number of NOS tubes); frankly the Urika 2 was outclassed. Easy to hear the difference. I am contemplating upgrading my Radikal to Klimax Radikal, but see no reason to do so at the moment due to how it is configured to work with the Urika 2 phono stage. To spend $16k on a power supply upgrade that is designed to have one rail for the Urika, makes zero sense to me.