I decommissioned my LP12, Syrinx PU2 and AT something MC cartridge around 2005-ish, but there's an album I have that was never issued on CD. In the mid Nineties I recorded it as a 44.1kHz wav with a 486 PC using a Creative soundcard, and it's on my streaming system.
I recently moved, soon after getting a NAC272 and my system (272->NAP250->SBL1) has room to breathe, it's a lot more fun. I've exclusively used CD since the mid 2000s and streaming (from CD rips) and CD now. It's reasonable to assume I have lost some HF acuity since I am closer to 60 than the pushing 40 I was when I transferred that record, but I hear some LH mistracking on the end of side 2 of that digital recording along with general unclarity and mush which was probably the general purpose soundcard. Clearly my younger self was more habituated to the vagaries of vinyl but 20 years of not hearing mistracking means that grates now. It's not crackling or breakup which I wouldn't have tolerated then, but there is an increased harshness to the end. I used to hate poor tracking even more than surface noise, but it seems I dislike it even more now.
If it were just this album I'd ask a dealer to rent a good vinyl system for an hour and record the line out on my Sound Devices SD702 field recorder, but I did keep some of the vinyl that gave me most joy in my student days and my wife would like to play her records. I hanker a bit hearing once again a complete analogue signal path...
Presumably 25 years of progress has improved the technology, is an old LP12 (single speed Valhalla) a worthwhile base or can I get better for cheaper now? It has been stored in the loft in the packaging with the spacer lifting the platter from the main bearing, I guess the cartridge is probably shot by now and rubber bits of the deck. Perhaps the arm too.
Trouble is I have no idea if I'd be throwing good money after bad trying to revive a quarter-century old turntable. Is there still the dilemma between poorer tracking performance but greater transparency with MC cartridges relative to MM or have they sorted this in the intervening time? Getting it into the 272 also seems an issue, though Naim can help me with that and I already have a Flatcap on the CD5XS.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by Redmires
I'm intrigued that you're using a secondary system to transfer your LPs to digital, rather than your main system? Although I do recall the right pain it was to rig my old 486PC on a coffee table and patch it into my hifi, so maybe that's the reason. I have a decent recorder through an interest in wildlife sound recording so it's portable, but at line level many of the more recent portable SD card recorders perform very well.
I purchased a Rega phono stage (Fono Mini) for the Thorens which comes with a USB output. It's easy to connect to the PC and I'm using the wonderful Audacity to save as a WAV file. It's also in the spare bedroom/office so I can lean over and keep flipping the LP's over as I work.
The LP12 is connected via a Stageline (MC) so to record from the Uniti means going via phono output into the soundcard of the computer. It's a whole lot easier via the USB and probably better quality than using phono connection (someone will correct me if this is not so). Also, I'm not necessarily after the perfect transfer as I'm just wanting to listen to the vinyl collection in the car or mp3 player. I'll still play the LP if it's a serious listening session.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by Dungassin
I'm intrigued that you're using a secondary system to transfer your LPs to digital, rather than your main system? Although I do recall the right pain it was to rig my old 486PC on a coffee table and patch it into my hifi, so maybe that's the reason. I have a decent recorder through an interest in wildlife sound recording so it's portable, but at line level many of the more recent portable SD card recorders perform very well.
I purchased a Rega phono stage (Fono Mini) for the Thorens which comes with a USB output. It's easy to connect to the PC and I'm using the wonderful Audacity to save as a WAV file. It's also in the spare bedroom/office so I can lean over and keep flipping the LP's over as I work.
The LP12 is connected via a Stageline (MC) so to record from the Uniti means going via phono output into the soundcard of the computer. It's a whole lot easier via the USB and probably better quality than using phono connection (someone will correct me if this is not so). Also, I'm not necessarily after the perfect transfer as I'm just wanting to listen to the vinyl collection in the car or mp3 player. I'll still play the LP if it's a serious listening session.
I owned a Thorens 160C with Ortofon 20 (IIRC) before acquiring my LP12 (with Ittok and ARP77 cartridge) back in the 1970s. The Thorens was good, but the LP12 was audibly considerably better, but don't ask me to describe exactly how, as it was a LONG time ago.
Still got the LP12, but it's rather a "Trigger's broom" Not sure how much of the original is left!
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by Christopher_M
From the pics, it seems odd to me that the wood appears to have withstood storage better than anything metallic.
Anyway a competent dealer could bring it back to decent I reckon, if you were prepared to pay for their time and necessary suspension bits etc. I'm not talking about upgrades now. A 1989 deck won't have the Cirkus btw.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by Wiltshireman
I would say that even as long as everything actually worked then it would still walk all over many of todays turntables. Clean it up, set it up with some new springs, oil in the bearing, and it would be almost as good as new. The one thing about the Linn is that it can be brought right back up to full spec. You can of course spend loads on the mods that are available but you don't actually have to. I would take it to a Linn dealer who can check it over electrically and mechanically and then take it home and enjoy it as it is. One thing that does bother me is that of mistracking. I have not heard my turntable mistrack in years so I am wondering if the arm let alone the cartridge is damaged. It may be that you will have to replace them both but I still think it would be the best thing you will do, vynal is still the best source by far and the Linn at the top of turntable performance but that is why you bought it in the first place. Keep us informed of what you do.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by ermine
Ermine I'm afraid you're perpetuating a common hifi myth - when the LP12 has been properly set up by a competent person, and it is taken to and from the dealer in the recommended manner, it is not, in my experience (as an owner for almost 30 years) "finicky" . The springs, bounce and set up will remain stable at the very least until you need to take it back for a cartridge replacement.
It's a very old deck though, it was shifted around digs, then all the house shares and address instability of being late twenties/early thirties. A LP12 is a very bad proposition for that sort of lifestyle. Just the thought of humping all my records about as a student brings tears to my eyes now - it could now all go on a NAS in a carrier bag. Now - a dealer could set that up, it would go in service and not move for years.
I think some of the grime was when I stowed it in my old garage for a while before getting it into the loft, which was probably not the cleverest thing I've ever done 
The deck metalwork looked OK but the arm and cartridge look shot to bits.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by ermine
One thing that does bother me is that of mistracking. I have not heard my turntable mistrack in years so I am wondering if the arm let alone the cartridge is damaged. It may be that you will have to replace them both but I still think it would be the best thing you will do, vynal is still the best source by far and the Linn at the top of turntable performance but that is why you bought it in the first place. Keep us informed of what you do.
I was exceptionally sensitive to what I called mistracking - a sort of harsh edge to the sound, particularly on inner tracks. It's not actually breakup, I've heard lower end systems do that, but I heard it often enough even at demos when I lived in London at the likes of Subjective audio and Grahams with their records, not particularly mine. I'd go what's that harshness and they'd look at me blankly, so presumably not everyone was bothered. Mind you, the volumes some folk listened at may have had something to do with it, I often had to get people to rack it back in demos. They'd say can't you hear the rhythm and timing or whatever was in at the time and I'd think well yeah, but how the heck do you put up with that harshness... Most of what drove me upmarket in the pre-digital days was trying to get rid of distortion and noise I felt was unnatural. It worked well on a good day, and I enjoyed music that way but I did find analogue systems dreadfully temperamental.
Or perhaps standards were generally lower in those days and I was unlucky enough to be overly sensitive to a vinyl pathology that didn't bother other people. I've been out of the hifi loop for a long time so I have no idea of what progress has been made with vinyl in the last 20 years. I didn't like digital at the start for different reasons but it's been improved for me well enough, and I've never heard what I called mistracking on it. Apart from on my own darned recording
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by ermine
The LP12 is connected via a Stageline (MC) so to record from the Uniti means going via phono output into the soundcard of the computer. It's a whole lot easier via the USB and probably better quality than using phono connection (someone will correct me if this is not so). Also, I'm not necessarily after the perfect transfer as I'm just wanting to listen to the vinyl collection in the car or mp3 player. I'll still play the LP if it's a serious listening session.
Naim seem to specify the Stageline K&S at 0.1V (60dB gain on the 100uV nominal input spec at 1kHz) which would be a pretty good match for computer soundcard line input, so take the stageline straight into your soundcard, as the Stageline will do the RIAA equalisation. It would probably give you a better transfer, but if the alternative works for you why change a winning formula I guess.
Posted on: 06 November 2017 by Wiltshireman
It sounds like you have been unlucky to have heard so much distortion. If played too loud any system will shout but edgy distortion and breakup comes from mistracking by badly set up or damaged arms and or poor cartridges and the inner grooves are always the hardest part to cope with. The only time I can say I have ever heard a well set up turntable combination mistrack was on the Telarc 1812 lp though I have heard several poor cartridges over the years but the worst for the money was a Koetsu about 25 years ago. It just didn't cope at all well with a brass band record I supplied.
I admit the arm does look terrible but only a bearing test would show if it is or not. looks can deceive, I have a friend who has an MGB that looks as if its going to fall apart any minute but in reality its solid as a rock and only needs a respray (he has tinkered with various green spray cans over the years)) and the inside is as good as the day it was new. As to your cartridge it probably does needs replacing there again it might not.
Today dems seem to be played far too loud so to replace actual performance shortcomings. Using the new format of streaming systems can often shout but of course no longer mistrack. Some rooms at the Bristol fair I refuse to go into because they are just far too loud.
I would just take it to a dealer and ask him to look it over and give you a quote on getting it up and running. Good luck.
