What a fun forum

[Geoff.R.G]

As you may have noticed I am new here, but not new to the world of HiFi.
While waiting for my account to be activated i have enjoyed reading the various boards. I am in full support of the comments made relating to the LP12. I well remember the first reviews in the 1970s panned it then a few years later it was the best thing since sliced bread. Being the grandson of a baker I never did have much time for sliced bread and never auditioned an LP12. Any device in domestic use shouldn't need regular readjustment, there is absolutely no reason why things should work loose if they were done up properly in the first place. We retorque the flaps on a 747 just once after installing new carriages and then expect them to be fine for six years and they suffer markedly more vibration than a turntable.

I was also interested to read the NVA board, sensibly priced equipment sold directly to the end user. I like that there is some science behind the requirement to use OEM speaker cable, not a common idea that, telling the customer the truth about cables.

I will admit that my preferred audio media are 1/4 inch tape and Radio 3but I have a Thorens TD160 with SME 2009 11 Improved and an Ortofon VMS30. Aside from my QUAD 99 Pre, FM and CD player with 707 Power all my kit is pre 1990, but then so are my ears. The tape deck is a Teac X10, recently cleaned and relubricated.

I like the attitude of this forum, there are no sacred cows.

[jayman67]

welcome

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

1/4 tape is the most musical and accurate of all the available mediums (unless 2 track 1/2 inch ), it is just such a PITA to use, otherwise I would have one. TEAC decks are a little controversial in that the tape head design is in some ways like a TT cart design, physically they influence both response curves and resonance. TEAC heads have a frequency response hump that is a character of the design and some people like it, for me it has a similar effect as my fav cart the Ortofon SPU or the Denon 103. Also important is the best tape to match the head to cut down on grip and bounce. I worked for AR when they took on the TEAC and TASCAM agencies in the early 70's. I was product manager for TASCAM and DBX, so I know what happens. Studer / Revox is more accurate in terms of head anomalies but are somehow a little boring compared with the TEAC / TASCAM sound.

Anyway welcome, enjoy yourself.

[Fretless]

Interesting to have a reel-to-reel user onboard, the medium on which most 'classic' albums were recorded.
Welcome Geoff, dive in and enjoy !

[Geoff.R.G]

1/4 tape is the most musical and accurate of all the available mediums (unless 2 track 1/2 inch ), it is just such a PITA to use, otherwise I would have one. TEAC decks are a little controversial in that the tape head design is in some ways like a TT cart design, physically they influence both response curves and resonance. TEAC heads have a frequency response hump that is a character of the design and some people like it, for me it has a similar effect as my fav cart the Ortofon SPU or the Denon 103. Also important is the best tape to match the head to cut down on grip and bounce. I worked for AR when they took on the TEAC and TASCAM agencies in the early 70's. I was product manager for TASCAM and DBX, so I know what happens. Studer / Revox is more accurate in terms of head anomalies but are somehow a little boring compared with the TEAC / TASCAM sound.

Anyway welcome, enjoy yourself.

Thanks for that, I also have a Tascam 38 1/2 inch 8 track for everyone else, which is brilliant even if completely outdated but a great sound.
I now have access to a 32 channel digital mixer that produces a 32 track output to computer or hard drive so carol services will in future be completely remixed and EQ rather than trying to do all that live, via a separate mixer. Might have to mix down to tape though

The biggest problem for tape users is the price of tape, £50-£60 for 3600' with a reel or £27 without.

Interesting that Revox/Studer went out of business but Teac are still around.

This is interesting though, Project R2R

[zebbo]

You work on 747s - COOL !!
Welcome.

[Geoff.R.G]

You work on 747s - COOL !!
Welcome.

Worked, I was part of the technical team introducing the 787 from 2011 and I retired in June.

[zebbo]

You work on 747s - COOL !!
Welcome.

Worked, I was part of the technical team introducing the 787 from 2011 and I retired in June.

Excellent, lots of job satisfaction there then? Was it a passion or just a job?

[Geoff.R.G]

It wasn't just a job but I got fed up with the politics of it in the end, all about money.

[_D_S_J_R_]

As you may have noticed I am new here, but not new to the world of HiFi.
While waiting for my account to be activated i have enjoyed reading the various boards. I am in full support of the comments made relating to the LP12. I well remember the first reviews in the 1970s panned it then a few years later it was the best thing since sliced bread. Being the grandson of a baker I never did have much time for sliced bread and never auditioned an LP12. Any device in domestic use shouldn't need regular readjustment, there is absolutely no reason why things should work loose if they were done up properly in the first place. We retorque the flaps on a 747 just once after installing new carriages and then expect them to be fine for six years and they suffer markedly more vibration than a turntable.

I like the attitude of this forum, there are no sacred cows.

Now, why couldn't Linn have gone away from a WOODEN plinth that compresses its fibres so readily. maybe a solid casting, or even thick plastic, would have been better but hell to transport. Why did they choose to use a thin stainless steel top plate and a motor that ticked for the first six months until the bearings quietened? Why was the sub chassis a pressed steel ribbed plate to start with, which only then became re-enforced by a spot welded extra piece, later glued and this twenty years before an SME made casting at mad money? The nice ribbed rubber mat was quickly changed for a thin felt thing that goes fluffy after a short while and becomes misshapen? Why was the armboard first chosen to be ply, then laminated MDF and why wasn't the board hard-bolted to the resonant sub-chassis? Oh yeah, and why was the platter so heavy it supposedly upset the whole dynamics of the system, as the Doc keeps telling me/us? No doubt there were loads of bullshit answers forthcoming from the Glasgow factory and even more made up by ignorant twonks in dealers, as I was supposed to be and no doubt we were all brainwashed by the hype from Ivor and his cronies. I bought an NAS Mentor in 1988 which was in a different plane of subjective audio existence, but do you know something? Back in 1975 when I visited Grahams and met my old pal Jimmy Hughes for the first time, this damned shit-heap of tin and cardboard did actually help the records we played to sound better and more enjoyable. Piano playing was easier to follow and musically understand, bass lines were more 'tuneful' over the coloured bloat of direct drives *at the time* with solid plinths *when inappropriately mounted* and so on and so on. Similar sprung decks such as the TD125mk2 were vague and ill-defined in comparison (I now think it was the sloppy main bearings that did it as other decks with improved bearings always became clearer to me when the bearings were sorted out, the AR turntable for one when it became the rather good to my ears AR Legend)

I replaced a Technics SL110 with my first LP12 in 1976 (the Technics cost more too, I seem to remember and I still love the looks) because I heard the improvement it made to the reproduction of my records, as did a little Naim 12s/120 I heard at the same time, which was nothing like what came later from this manufacturer. This was long before I became part of a Linn and Naim dealership. Up until the Ittok, the LP12/Grace 707 was quite benign and it's a shame you never heard one in comparison with other expensive decks forty years ago. Totally irrelevant now though, as better siting and other arm, mat etc. and other refinements means that vintage direct drives are sounding better than they've ever done and the ton-up TD150 masquerading as the Ariston RD11, sorry, Linn LP12 wouldn't stand a chance.

Well, I have no chance at all, as anti-NVA so-called pals of mine have accused me of now blindly following Richard Dunn's brainwashing techniques. I can't bloody win

It's fine to have an opinion you know, but try to listen to these alternatives first before making an opinion of your own, even if it opens you up to criticism by those who haven't bothered to hear for themselves. We all do it and I refuse to stand alone in this...

Please don't mind me saying so, but if you try an NVA amp, if you haven't already, you'll hopefully hear the same kind of improved musical clarity the LP12 offered over its then alternatives way back in 1975. Nobody has to believe me and I no longer care really, but you needed to have heard what I did *then* in comparison with many alternatives. Sorry all, I can't change my memories, even if I like to think I've moved on somewhat since then. Of course, had I the pleasure of a PL71 I may have fared differently, but it was there and gone in a blink of an eye and quickly forgotten to 'those that didn't know.'

Welcome to the forum by the way.