HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Been been watching inspector Morse on ITV3 and did not recognise his TT. Checked Wikipedia to find out it was the above. The opinion is that it was one of the best and put the LP12 in the shade at a lower price. This was at the time when the Glasgow mafia stranglehold on the industry was at its strongest. Ivor must have been tearing his hair out.

Yes this is true just as the Roksan was released I wanted to upgrade my Linn LP12 Ittok Asak so went to my then dealer The Sound Organisation at London Bridge who took me in to listen to the LP12 Ittok against a Roksan Rega RB300 the Roksan sounded so much better that I ordered one straight away except we put a SME V on it.

It didn't matter how much product placement or seen on TV you did unless you had dealers willing to promote it and pay their bills you had no business. Like everyone else at the time they relied largely on export to survive. The main / better UK dealers were stitched up by the Linn / Naim con. They were left either with cash strapped fringe dealers, or as a dem one that wasn't sold from or sold off.

One of the main tricks from the Linn reps in a dealer was if they saw competition and the dealer said he like it, the reps reaction was "well you don't need us then", that threat was enough to see that the competition didn't sell. I think Sound Org were one of the few who stood up to them, so Ivor started bad mouthing them, and *the* phone calls .

I remember Rayleigh HiFi selling both the Linn and Roksan. Didn't hear the Roksan as I was already 'too far' down the Linn road to make it viable. Later sold the Linn and had a Townshend Rock Reference for a few years until finances dictated a very reluctant sale. Didn't have a t/t for another 6 or 7 years after that. I notice that Rayleigh don't sell the Linn or Roksan, nowadays.

I lost interest in hifi for 30 years because I was sick of all the in the magazines and Ivor having the reviewers in his pocket, or lining theirs. The internet eventually rekindled my interest. Back then I did not know half of what I know now about how bad things were. Because of the reviews dealers would really suffer it they lost the Linn/Naim franchises, although there was no shortage of superior high end products at lower prices. Looking back it seems obvious that the LP12 would have been left in the shade by the better designs a decade later.

I always tried to pay the Maverick and not follow the sheep, I read the reviews on the LP12, then came Roxsan and pink triangle, the magazines painted interesting pictures than attracted me more than the lo12, but sadly all out of my league then so I went to Thorens eventually Townshend , systemdek and now funk firm.
I gave in one day and got an LP 12 had it for two days never played it just picked it up and thought WTF.
I “was” one of those who was brainwashed by the magazines to a certain level but the maverick has survived. One day I intend to have several of the old decks I lusted after

'de-lurks'

Seeing as I was there and involved at the time...

The LP12 COULD be a fine and musically involving sounding turntable. I've recently found how some eras of manufacture gave better plinths and bearings have an effect on nearly forty year old examples, these differences becoming more important now these decks are a few decades old, not nice old plinths coming apart at the seams and sub-standard borderline main bearings are now shagged... - VERY few buy the top silly-money version apparently...

The Roksan was DIFFERENT, not better than a properly sorted LP12, having strengths were the other was weak. I readily accept you could get fine results from a RB300 mounted on one, which saved a load of money over the LP12/Ittok. reviewer pal Jimmy Hughes had excellent sounds from his Xerxes with Breuer arm and a variety of cartridges I remember and the external engineering was superb. Saggy arm-boards may be an issue now with thirty odd year old ones perhaps?

The Pink put me off with very shoddy internal finish and general frailty on early batches. This did get a LOT better as time went on and later ones with the SME V made for a very serious turntable system I remember - back then, the cost of the SME wasn't seen as an impediment and with the right partnering player, it sounded fine to me... I rather admired the simple leaf suspension the Pinks had and these used to stay set up once set I remember.

're-lurks'

Dave stop being silly and just post, just stay away from the arses at AA and AoS etc and post here.

Look at the practical hifi 79 review.
A real eye opener. Not everyone in the industry was bent it seems, and the reviewer doesnt seem very happy about the state of affairs.
Not a roksan, but i thought it illustrated some interesting points

http://www.jbe-turntables.co.uk/press-r ... 4541266532

Enjoyed reading those.

Cheers, Ant...