Lindsayt wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:06 pm
The LP12 is the best turntable in the world - it never was.
Source First, GIGO - even in an analogue system, speakers are more important than the amplifier. In a digital system Source First doesn't apply at all.
Single speaker demos, to the extent taken by Linn; no phones nor alarms - complete bullshit.
Direct drive turntables suffer from cogging and hunting - cheap plastic ones maybe, properly engineered ones, no.
Suspended turntables sound better because of the isolation - it all depends.
Tune dem - let the customer decide how they want to evaluate hi-fi.
Our turntables are better engineered than our competitors - if your competitors are Fisher Price, true. If they are Pioneer Exclusive, no.
Directional speaker cables - I've never heard any difference. It's an AC signal of unknown absolute phase.
Ivor T designed / developed the LP12 - Hamish Robertson did almost all of it and he copied other existing products.
In an analogue system, the source is king. get it wrong and it doesn't matter how good the speakers are, they won't give their full potential, sorry. Done far too many hundreds of dems proving just that! of course you don't take the concept to extreme, but challenge this concept at at your peril.
Many direct drives, especially mid priced ones did suffer terrible cogging or servo-hunting, only tolerated in the infamous godawful Matsushita OEM motor because 1, many listeners are tone deaf and 2, tracking weights were aimed at 1g or so back then. Anything over 2g and the wow was audible!
Suspended turntables did work well with many forms of siting back then. It wasn't until the later 80's that properly sited direct drives could begin to show what they could really do (mid-bass colouration results if siting is ignored on these). Don't knock the AR deck, which even in its early days was a triumph, even the clunky tonearm was loads better than current audio people think.
Tune dem - don't you lot hum along with the melodies/harmonies or sing along with a song? Oh well - must be mad me then... NVA amps pass the tune dem with consumate ease too - cough...
Linn engineered the main bearings to high standards originally, and the platters originally, given time to 'rest' between machining operations, were very 'true' in the early days before production runs could mess this up. Look at a typical mid 70's Technics casting, with the strobe creeping up and down the platter as it rotates... In the 80's, they started their record company, had access to proper master grade recordings and although prices shot up and it took too long, this experience helped mould their future analogue and digital sources when everyone else to a large degree, designed what they 'thought' was a good sound, but with no reference at all!
SOME cables are clearly directional and sadly, I can't sit you down and prove it to you. NVA cables don't seem to mind I admit, but I have interconnects here which I could show you. Also, the horrible QED SA speaker cable was incredibly directional and so easy to demonstrate how odd the sound could be if one of a pair was reversed! We recommended running it with the writing to the amp - less edgy but that's not saying much I agree. I couldn't give a shit if the signal is AC, DC, a combination of both or otherwise, we could prove it with some once popular wires and we're not talking balanced here, where most differences null out, noise and distortion is lower reportedly (and measurably) even in short runs it seems and cables often better designed with less oddities - perhaps!
Hamish bloody Robertson didn't design all of the RD11, THORENS did with the TD150 (this based on the superior suspension layout but flimsy AR model) and the RD11 was a blue-printed heavily beefed up version of the TD150. Same size top plate, same spring positions, same size platters to a thou or two and same basic gearing from motor pulley to platter size and to this day, a TD150 chassis 'sounds' even better when dropped onto a Linn LP12 plinth, which it fits exactly apart from the arm-board width! Oh, you lot would be thrilled had Ivor not taken this design concept over, as the RD11 would have died a death after a few years. Than heavens his loud boasting gave others cause to improve their decks, or if they were better to start with (I think some continental heavyweights were better in the early days), they started to 'listen' better in the refinement of their designs.