Think I got a bit of a bargain on eBay this week as I took a chance on a 35-year old Asak MC, the seller saying it hadn't been used that regularly down the years and still sounded great.

Well, after a bit of fettling and fiddling I've got it singing now and it's made an obvious difference to the sound from my vinyl source compared to the P77 I was using previously.

I had a sesh last night and played lots of different types of music on lots of different ages of vinyl and was much happier than I had been previously.

In particular, a forty-five year old copy of Kate And Anna McGarrigle's Dancer With Bruised Knees sounded brand new

Rock never sounded that good before - always a bit muddled - but playing some Smiths, ELO and Bowie proved otherwise.

The soundstage is better, there's more clarity overall (especially treble-wise), the bass feels tighter but really it's just more musical all round.

My only slight concern is that on some reissues - like the Bowie Diamond Dogs that I bought new in about 1984 spookily enough - are rather quiet and I actually had the gain on the Tisbury up to the max.

Newer vinyl is much louder though and some of the thicker old stuff is fine too - it's just those semi-flexidisc RCA black label reissues that sound quiet. Good, but quiet.


Anyway .. thanks for everyone who chipped in with advice : I've taken my first step on the MC ladder.


I'll be looking to sell the P77 now. It had a brand new old stock stylus fitted three years ago when I last had the Linn serviced by Simon of The Audio Files in Crowthorne.
I've not used it that much since then, generally preferring the CD player, so it's probably had about 150 hours use. Not sure how much to ask, really - does £70 sound about right ??