Secondhand LP12

I bought one a year or two ago.. 1978 vintage with a Vallhalla added on, an excellent Syrinx PU3 tonearm AND a Dynavector Karat 17D all for $500. Those few cognoscenti would have paid that for the tonearm alone. Upon receipt it was obvious that there was some structural damage, probably during freight. The bearing looked squished, the armboard was roughed up sufficiently to rip out a screw and the subchassis was bent. My dealer, taking pity on my plight replaced the bearing/inner platter with a mint one he had removed during a Cirkus upgrade for another customer, found an armboard that would fit, replaced the subchassis, all springs, nuts, washers, belt and the power cord. All for free!He also tossed in a very decent Benz MC cartrige in with the deal (i.e. also free). The number of dealers and people who actually are capable with LP12s is vanishingly rare these days, as compared to say the early 80s, and the few that are left genuinly cherish the LP12 for its music making abilities, rather than a profit item- there is far more profit and much less labour to be had selling a CD player.
The moral is that buying used turntables (and especially tonearms) is a caveat emptor situation. Had I been charged a fair and reasonable price for all of the replacment parts and labour, it would have more than doubled the aquisition price.
Since that time I have of course upgraded the LP12 to the Prefix/Geddon/Aro as well as getting a new black plinth (the original one did not have corner braces and as such is poorly suited to using with a Prefix). So all that remains out of my original investment is the motor, the lid and the hinges. Even the on/off switch was replaced with a moulded dummy plate when the Geddon was fitted. And in that context, $500 was quite a bit to pay for the motor and lid.
If there are any users or potential users of an LP12 around the Atlanta area they should at some time make a beeline to Music Audio to see what Richard Jenkins can offer them and their LP12's. Oh, they carry the Naim line too.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

[This message was edited by Ron Toolsie on SUNDAY 28 January 2001 at 02:40.]

BTW, this particular LP12 is 10 years old. Can it still be considered a youngster ?

Bernard.

Mine, albeit a mongrel LP12 (built from bits) has a 14 year old plinth (1987) in Afromosia. This technically dates my LP12 to that era, but at least it's corner-braced and in good nick (apart from the odd tiny blemish, but nothing serious).

All the internals are post 1990 - a 1998 Cirkus bearing and internals matches up with a 199x Lingo and an Aro of unknown age but mint condition (as verified by Naim).

So long as the LP12 is of the newer, corner braced plinth type, you should be fine. LP12s represent a bargain in musical terms. Enjoy!

John

The arm is an Akito. All right, it's not an Ekos. My plan is actually (my finances being somewhat thin these days) to mount a not all too expensive but relatively decent cartridge on it, MM or MC, no matter. As soon as the finances get better, I'd mount an Ekos with a good cartridge and throw away the current arm. Therefore, I think that an high investment on a cartridge seems pointless to me at the moment.

This leads to another question about the phono preamp. Actually, my pre- and power amps are of an excellent but small (and of course hand-made) Swiss brand called Holborne, based on a hybrid tube-transistor technology. No power in the world could make me change - its warmth combined with exellent dynamics is just gorgeous. And Holborne also produces a state-of-the-art phono preamp built the same way, and I could buy a second-hand model for a really cheap price. The thing is, I always hear "Linto, Linto, Linto" when talking about Linn. So what is relevant then ? A phono preamp that suits to the rest of the system or a Linto that suits the cartridge ? Many thanks.

Bernard.

I was listening to an LP12/Cirkus/Armageddon/Ittok-II/DV 10x4/Stageline/Flatcap-II source on Saturday.

In hi-fi terms the CDS-II/XPS was better.

Musically, though, the deck pissed all over the CD player! There's nothing wrong with the Cirkus!

cheers, Martin

P.S. Stageline & Flatcap had approx three hours run-in from brand new by that point!