I recently sent Linn a nice friendly (honest!) email with my experience of removing the Trampolin and it's beneficial sonic effects.
Having expressed my disappointment and commented on the fact that there seems to be a large number of people in agreement with me I asked for any advice they could offer as to the circumstances under which it should be used.
I received the following reply, of particular interest is the part stating they've never had any other negative feedback about this product (!).
They also attached a PDF file with some advice in, I've cut and pasted the text below their reply.
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Dear Andy
Thank you for your e-mail as follows - please excuse the delay in
responding.
I am sorry to learn that you are disappointed with the sonic performance of
the Trampolin base board. Linn sell their products through demonstration,
allowing the customer to decide themselves what improvements are made.
Certainly, when I upgraded from the Solid base to the Trampolin many years
ago I found that the sonic performance of my LP's improved significantly and
this is the first time that we have had negative feedback regarding this
component.
There are instances however, where we do not recommend the use of the
Trampolin and the following attachment has further details explaining
various situations - if you have any doubts, please contact your Linn
retailer who will be more than happy to advise.
Please feel free to contact me at Linn Customer Services if I can offer
any further advice or assistance.
------
TRAMPOLIN SUSPENSION UPGRADE FOR THE LINN SONDEK LP12 TURNTABLE
The Trampolin is a new baseboard for the LP12, designed to further improve acoustic and
mechanical isolation of the turntable from its surrounding when used on standard furniture or
wall shelves. It incorporates a silicone membrane suspension, as used in the Axis and Basik
turntables.
When the LP12 is used in rooms with solid concrete floors or on heavy furniture, sound
quality can be improved by fitting the Trampolin. This provides greatly improved isolation
from floor-borne vibration (20dB at 100Hz), and its adjustable feet accommodate items of
furniture which make the turntable difficult to level accurately.
However, where suspended
wooden floors are concerned (which may upset Trampolin suspension), for best results from
this upgrade we recommend that the turntable is mounted on a wall bracket.
The Trampolin suspension upgrade is a dealer fitted option as it is important that a correct
assessment of the turntable positioning is made.
If furniture or room decoration does not allow use of the Trampolin, the acoustic feedback
isolation gained by replacing the standard fibreboard base of the LP12 with a new rigid type
is till very well worthwhile. This rigid base is made from the same material as the Trampolin,
but has no additional suspension, and uses standard LP12 hard feet.
New LP12 turntables are already fitted with this new baseboard as standard (1991). For
existing LP12 owners the sound quality improvement in either of the above cases is
worthwhile. With the introduction of the Isobarik Crossover update which extends the bass
performance of our active systems the Trampolin will become a must for all customers.
Andrew L. Weekes
P.S. I'll leave you to make up your own minds as to what this tells you about the current Linn as a company.
Posted on: 19 June 2001 by Dev B
>>>I'll leave you to make up your own minds as to what this tells you about the current Linn as a company
I don't think this propagates the Linn Anti-hifi argument in my view.
Their e-mail however does confirm my own experience with the Trampolinn, namely, in my current flat with concrete floors the Trampolinn was better. In my old flat with wooden floors (and Mana supports) no baseboard was best.
It also confirms what I have been saying about floors - they have more of an effect on than the stand in my experience and the decision on type of stand one should use needs to take account of the type of floor you have.
This is obviously not an issue with double layer base stands (eg Mana soundstage, Hutter and Fraim).
Posted on: 19 June 2001 by John G.
"Their e-mail however does confirm my own experience with the Trampolinn, namely, in my current flat with concrete floors the Trampolinn was better. In my old flat with wooden floors (and Mana supports) no baseboard was best." Dev
I found the Mana to perform better on concrete vs. wood floor even without a soundstage. The soundstage was a big improvement a year or so later when I added it but the rack still sounded good sans the soundstage on concrete.
I have a hard time believing the Trampolin could ever be an improvement in any case unless it was on a bad support in the first place. Dev, what were you using to support your LP12 when the Trampolin was better?
John
[This message was edited by John Gilleran on TUESDAY 19 June 2001 at 17:22.]
Posted on: 20 June 2001 by Dev B
This is what I had/did:
Previous room:
1. LP12/Black Ittok/Valhalla/K9/Trampolinn on Audiotech, wooden floors
2. LP12/Black Ittok/Valhalla/K9/Standard Board on Audiotech, wooden floors
3. LP12/Black Ittok/Lingo/Troika/Standard Board on Audiotech, wooden floors
5. LP12/Aro/Lingo/Troika on Mana Ref, wooden floors
6. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika on Mana Ref, wooden floors
7. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika/Prefix K/HiCap/Mana Phase 4, wooden floors
8. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika/Prefix K/HiCap/No baseboard, Mana feet, Mana Phase 4, wooden floors
9. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika/Prefix K/HiCap/No baseboard, Mana feet, Mana Phase 5, Mana powersupply table, wooden floors
10. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Dynavector 17D2/Prefix K/HiCap/Standard baseboard, Quadraspire rack, wooden floors
New house:
11. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Dynavector 17D2/Prefix K/Straight into 52/Standard baseboard, Audiotech wallshelf, concrete floor, plasterboard wall
12. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Dynavector 17D2/Linn Linto/Standard baseboard, Audiotech wallshelf, concrete floor, plasterboard wall
13. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Dynavector 17D2/Linn Linto/Trampolinn, Audiotech wallshelf, concrete floor, plasterboard wall
14. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika again!!/Prefix K/Straight into 52/Standard baseboard, Audiotech wallshelf, concrete floor, plasterboard wall
15. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika again!!/Prefix K/Straight into 52/Standard baseboard, Projekt rack, concrete floor
16. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika again!!/Prefix K/SuperCap/Standard baseboard, Projekt rack, concrete floor
17. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Troika again!!/Prefix K/SuperCap/Trampolinn, Projekt rack, concrete floor
18. LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Arkiv B/Prefix K/Straight into 52/Trampolinn, Projekt rack, concrete floor
19. Phonosophie P3/Aro/Naim P3 PS/Arkiv B/Prefix K/Straight into 52/, Projekt rack, concrete floor
20. Well Tempered/ArkivB/Prefix K, Straight into 52, Projekt rack, concrete floor
21. 20. Well Tempered/ArkivB/Prefix K/HiCap Straight into 52, Projekt rack, concrete floor
Setup 20/21 was in such a different league to any of the other 19 setups, I have not wanted to try or fiddle anymore.
But from memory, I enjoyed Setup 12, 7 and 19 the best. In all of the other combinations it was 'good' but something was 'wrong'.
regards,
Dev
Posted on: 18 July 2001 by SaturnSF
C'mon guys; is the Trampolin really such a thing of evil like everyone here suggests?
My Linn/Naim dealer who I trust implicitly suggests the use of one, and although it may not be suitable in all situations, I find it hard to believe that Linn would ship a product that would degrade the sound of their deck! Not that Linn or any company is perfect, but I must trust they are above such a gross profit-taking manuever.
FYI, my deck is on the top shelf of an original four-shelf Sound Org rack, and I have wooden floors.
I would swap out the Trampolin for the original base and hear for myself, but I discovered to my dismay that it was likely lost in a move.
This is my first post, btw. Hello!
