I blow hot and cold over the Linn, but I DO have to say I bought my first one because it MADE MY LPs SOUND BETTER at the time. I first compared it with my Technics SL110 (beautiful classic build but fed back very badly at the time) anda TD125mk2 (sloppy bearings in the mk2 did have an effect, making the sound more vague, the mk1 wasn't I later discovered) a year or two before I sold them and set them up myself. It was the Ittok which really upset the then LP12 in 1980 and once Linn started their record label, they knew what the thing was and wasn't doing well, although it took a long time to begin to come around - the fans needed to adapt to the revised tone with each update I reckon. So don't feel guilty, we've 'all' gone through the process and some are still enjoying being in the midst of it