Linn LP 12... anyone else still like this design?

[No Regrets]

The famous rigid, light coffee table?

Not exactly. I built a wall shelf system where I lagged bolted 2x2's into the wall studs, screwed in the mounting brackets into the 2x2's. I used standoffs between the bracket hangers and the bottom wooden shelf to try and decouple any vibrations or ringing from the hangers. I then used 3 wood screws, screwed in through the bottom side of the bottom shelf in a equallateral triangle. I then rest the top wooden shelf on top of these wood screw points. I can thereby level the top wooden shelf by simply adjusting the three wood screws appropriately and by resting solely on these fine tips, I believe it further helps remove any vibrations. The board is definitely light and rigid and to my ears, lets all of the music from the vinyl grooves come thru unmolested.

I will try to attach some photos to give you a little idea of what I did. I mounted it in a fashion so that it looked as though it was a part of the rest of the system.

 

[DaveyF]

Hi No regrets, I hadn't seen your pics till now...wow, very nice looking system!
The Dunlavy's are one of the few speakers that when I heard them for the first time, I knew I was listening to something special. I attended an a'phile meeting about seven or eight years ago, where the presenter was using Dunlavy 5's. Hooked up to Joule Electra amps and a Joule preamp and being driven by a VPI TNT, the sound was excellent...one of the best I had heard up to that time.

Only thing with Dunlavy's is one has to have a very big room to accommodate them, but if that applies, I think they are the real deal, even today.

 

[mep]

Since Dunlavy went out of business, is anyone supporting them if you blow a driver or are you toast?

 

[No Regrets]

Hi No regrets, I hadn't seen your pics till now...wow, very nice looking system!
The Dunlavy's are one of the few speakers that when I heard them for the first time, I knew I
was listening to something special. I attended an a'phile meeting about seven or eight years ago, where the presenter was using Dunlavy 5's. Hooked up to Joule Electra amps and a Joule preamp and being driven by a VPI TNT, the sound was excellent...one of the best I had heard up to that time.

Only thing with Dunlavy's is one has to have a very big room to accommodate them, but if that applies, I think they are the real deal, even today.

Thanks DaveyF for the nice words! I absolutely love the Dunlavy speakers. The Dunlavy V's are great speakers, but I didn't have a room large enough to do the speakers justice. When talking with John Dunlavy, he said that the IV's would sound stellar in "my" room and literally outshine the V's if I were to try to use those in my room. But if I had the larger room, there would be no doubt in my mind....I'd have the V's.

Thanks again,
No Regrets

 

[No Regrets]

Since Dunlavy went out of business, is anyone supporting them if you blow a driver or are you toast?

Hi Mep,

That's a great question.

I know a while back that there was a gentleman that had quite a stock of drivers available, however I do not know if that is the case anymore.

However, John Dunlavy was very fanatical about matching all of his drivers in a very precise manner as well as really dialing in his crossover networks to match his drivers. So, if I were ever to "blow" a driver, I would find someone trying to sell a pair of SCIV's and have them pull all of the drivers and both crossover networks and just ship them to me without the cabinets. Those cabinets are very large and very heavy and very costly to ship.

With that being said, I have had these speakers for many, many years and they have held up incredibly well, with no signs of aging or deterioration what so ever. I still visit high end audio salons from time to time and imho, the Dunlavy's have withstood the test of time very nicely.

Warmest regards,
No Regrets

 

[DaveyF]

No Regrets, when I heard the Dunlavy V's they were set up in a very large room, appx 25X35; they had no problem filling the room. For a while in the late 90's, I had a friend who shoe horned a pair of VI's into a room about half that size and while the sound was good, I always felt that he was not doing the speaker justice.
He loved the sound and never thought a smaller speaker had the punch of his VI's.....BUT to me the room was overdriven and the speakers sounded a little diffuse and boomy. Not my cup of tea, but to each his own, LOL.

 

[fas42]

No Regrets, when I heard the Dunlavy V's they were set up in a very large room, appx 25X35; they had no problem filling the room.

This comment always gets me -- this filling the room business. This should be a no brainer, a single live instrument or voice has no problems "filling a room". It's a fundamental of normal musical sounds, that the acoustic space is completely taken over by the tones of the musical notes in such a sized space. Yet so many people seem to have trouble achieving it in a satisfactory way: to me a well functioning system should take over the whole house, let alone the room. As an example, my friend's setup has no trouble now dominating to the end of the rooms, with conventionally sized speakers ...

Frank

 

[DaveyF]

This comment always gets me -- this filling the room business. This should be a no brainer, a single live instrument or voice has no problems "filling a room". It's a fundamental of normal musical sounds, that the acoustic space is completely taken over by the tones of the musical notes in such a sized space. Yet so many people seem to have trouble achieving it in a satisfactory way: to me a well functioning system should take over the whole house, let alone the room. As an example, my friend's setup has no trouble now dominating to the end of the rooms, with conventionally sized speakers ...

Frank

Frank, indulge me here for a minute. Let's say we take your all-in-one box system with the 3" drivers and put it in the Albert Hall or any other very large hall you might care to mention. Now, you sit at the back of the hall and your system is at the front, playing at full tilt....do you think that it will fill the hall, and if so what with?
Is this a no brainer

 

[fas42]

Frank, indulge me here for a minute. Let's say we take your all-in-one box system with the 3" drivers and put it in the Albert Hall or any other very large hall you might care to mention. Now, you sit at the back of the hall and your system is at the front, playing at full tilt....do you think that it will fill the hall, and if so what with?
Is this a no brainer

So it's in an environment where a singer, or a performer playing a solo instrument, stands in a certain spot, and someone at the back of the hall listens to their efforts. Now we remove that individual, insert my 3" driver setup, play at the same volume as the individual was performing. All of sudden my little beast can't be heard, is that the story?

Frank

 

[DaveyF]

Frank, your little beast can be heard all right ( as distortion), but please do not compare it to the performer or solo instrument. Don't believe me, try it some time and see.
If we followed your logic, all us pro's would ever need when we go into a large hall would be a small 3" driver in order to project fully. For some unknown reason, every PA system I have used or stack I have ever played through utilizes at least a couple of 12" drivers and in some instances multiple 18" drivers. Next time I'm playing live, i will be sure to have the roadie scrap those and just bring in the 3" driver all-in-one box system.

 

[fas42]

Frank, your little beast can be heard all right ( as distortion), but please do not compare it to the performer or solo instrument. Don't believe me, try it some time and see.
If we followed your logic, all us pro's would ever need when we go into a large hall would be a small 3" driver in order to project fully. For some unknown reason, every PA system I have used or stack I have ever played through utilizes at least a couple of 12" drivers and in some instances multiple 18" drivers. Next time I'm playing live, i will be sure to have the roadie scrap those and just bring in the 3" driver all-in-one box system.

That's what the big argument here is about: whether a system can project successfully the sound of live music. Well, I believe it can be done because I use my ears to assess the result. Went shopping couple of days ago and first came across a busker with National guitar, hamonica on a shoulder holder, tambourine strapped to one boot, and keeping the beat on a flat box with the other boot. Then a bit later, quite an accomplished violinist working a long corridor for its very effective echo qualities. Excellent opportunities to calibrate the hearing to the real thing, and I wasn't perturbed at what I was listening to.

Those big drivers are only needed for bass, those bottom couple of octaves; the meat of the spectrum is handled by a compression driver through a horn, the guts of the thing can fit in your hand. My HT uses a single 8" driver with very compliant suspension in the self powered subwoofer: in terms of bass extension and kick this is probably the best I've had over the years ...

Frank

 

[DaveyF]

Well, i pulled the trigger on a Lingo 2 yesterday. Should be interesting to see how it compares to my Valhalla board. BTW, anyone heard that Linn is working on a uber TT.

 

[katylied]

Well, i pulled the trigger on a Lingo 2 yesterday. Should be interesting to see how it compares to my Valhalla board.

You will be surprised on how big is the difference and for the better!

BTW, anyone heard that Linn is working on a uber TT.

Not sure if it will be a "uber TT", but there is something going on from whatI know (not too much btw).

Good choice the WTA on the LP12, was much better than the Ittok using a Koetsu Black.

 

[DaveyF]

The Lingo 2 purchase fell through (So, I am now back in the market). BTW, it is an interesting product to try and source used..VERY VERY hard to do. There are apparently waiting lists for these in the UK. I have also noticed that as soon as they ( Lingo's in general) pop up ( which seems to be rarely) they seem to sell immediately even here in the US. I am now considering a new unit ( Lingo 3) or maybe a Radikal. ( Try and source one of these used....)
Seems to indicate that the old girl LP12 is still VERY much liked and used worldwide.

BTW, Katy,the WTA seemed to be superior to the Ekos 2 as well. Frankly, as I have said before, I think the limitations of the TT are more connected to the limitation as to what arm works than any other factor. I would be VERY surprised if a uber Linn had such limitations, as I'm pretty sure the Scotts now understand this fact. (at least in theory, LOL)

 

[katylied]

I will suggest you to look for a Lingo II (old LK box) or Lingo III (new Majik line box). Difference is only in the box but it makes a small improvement too. Lingo I is too old and I will not recommend it.
Radikal will make a much bigger difference, unfortunately the price is much higher but need to be considered that can power also the Urika "in-turntable" phono stage.
I don't know if the WTA is better than the Ekos 2, it's too long time that I don't have the chance to listen to one. For sure, a Lingo-ed LP12 will sound much better, no matter of which arm is on it.

 

[microstrip]

The Lingo 2 purchase fell through (So, I am now back in the market). BTW, it is an interesting product to try and source used..VERY VERY hard to do. There are apparently waiting lists for these in the UK. I have also noticed that as soon as they ( Lingo's in general) pop up ( which seems to be rarely) they seem to sell immediately even here in the US. I am now considering a new unit ( Lingo 3) or maybe a Radikal. ( Try and source one of these used....)
Seems to indicate that the old girl LP12 is still VERY much liked and used worldwide.

BTW, Katy,the WTA seemed to be superior to the Ekos 2 as well. Frankly, as I have said before, I think the limitations of the TT are more connected to the limitation as to what arm works than any other factor. I would be VERY surprised if a uber Linn had such limitations, as I'm pretty sure the Scotts now understand this fact. (at least in theory, LOL)

DaveyF,

Get a cheap 50W stereo amplifier, two small 110/15V step down transformers and use your sound card with some free generator software to create the two sine-waves with 90 degree out-of-phase. I have done it for several turntables using synchronous AC motors and it is great. A good friend of mine created a file with the fine tuned tones and uses the Ipod as sine generator. When he starts the track the sine wave has higher amplifier for a few seconds during startup and then decreases to an optimal lower noise value. You can play with phase and independent amplitudes to tune your turntable motor.

IMHO, once properly tuned , you will find it much better than the Valhalla.

 

[mmakshak]

Just glancing at the Linn forum, I saw that they have a new top-of-the-line cartridge, called Kandid. I believe that it is somewhat based on Lyra cartridges. I found that putting Mapleshades triple-point footers, upside down(very unstable) improved my Lingo 1. I don't know how it compares to Lingo 2. Isn't one of the benefits of Lingo 2, the isolation of its circuit board?

 

[DaveyF]

Just glancing at the Linn forum, I saw that they have a new top-of-the-line cartridge, called Kandid. I believe that it is somewhat based on Lyra cartridges. I found that putting Mapleshades triple-point footers, upside down(very unstable) improved my Lingo 1. I don't know how it compares to Lingo 2. Isn't one of the benefits of Lingo 2, the isolation of its circuit board?

That's correct mmakshak. This is the primary reason why I bailed on the Lingo 2 that I had pulled the trigger on. The Seller had not told me the serial number and after some research, I determined it was one of the oldest models...which was essentially a re-boxed Lingo 1.( Naturally I was paying top price for that Lingo 2.. ) The new Linn cartridge is getting rave reviews over at the Linn forum. To me, it clearly is a re-badged Lyra, not sure which one it is though. Almost certainly NOT an Atlas. I don't know the price, BUT I bet it's probably higher than the like kind Lyra.

 

[katylied]

The new Linn cartridge is getting rave reviews over at the Linn forum. To me, it clearly is a re-badged Lyra, not sure which one it is though. Almost certainly NOT an Atlas. I don't know the price, BUT I bet it's probably higher than the like kind Lyra.

The Kandid is not a rebadged Lyra but an original Linn design that incorporate technology from and is manufactured by Scantech in Japan (Lyra manufacturer). You can read more about the Kandid on the Linn forum here http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=22228&highlight=kandid. Price in the USA is $4,700, more than the Kleos but half price of the Atlas.

 

[DaveyF]

Katylied, I think the new Kandid should probably still to be considered a re-badged Lyra. It may be a Linn design, BUT Scantech/Lyra is manufacturing it and I think it employs a lot of the already seen Lyra/Scantech technology.