WTD Linn Karik

[stairpost]

Hi,

I'm looking for a Karik 2 or 3.

Budget of £300 max. Would consider a Genki if anyone has one in budget.

Thanks

Rich.

[stairpost]

Still looking.

[stairpost]

Mimik perhaps?

I thought CD players were a bit out of fashion these days, I'm surprised there aren't more on the market.

[DSJR]

Wait for a Karik III if possible... The Genki and Mimik were grainy sounding pants in comparison I remember as a dealer and really no better as transports than an Arcam or similar.. The last Kariks had some air and space to the sonics, but the thing as a whole lacked the overall drive of the Numerik III.

By the way, with ANY Linn digital source from this period, an external mains filter such as the Roxburgh 6A one from Farnell Element 14 -

http://uk.farnell.com/roxburgh/pmf6/filter-in-line-6a/dp/1101097?Ntt=RoxburghIN-LINE

- is vital for best sonics ime. Those brilliant smps supplies put as much sh*t back into the mains as they remove from the circuits they supply and protect I remember.

[stairpost]

Very helpful, thanks for that.

I've had a Karik 2 and a Genki and I have to admit to preferring the karik.

I actually only want a player to listen to 30 or so CDs that are too rare or expensive to replace on vinyl. I've tried ripping them to FLAC but that falls way short quality wise. So a player for the occasional listen seems like the way to go, Ikemi is still a bit silly money.


Wait for a Karik III if possible... The Genki and Mimik were grainy sounding pants in comparison I remember as a dealer and really no better as transports than an Arcam or similar.. The last Kariks had some air and space to the sonics, but the thing as a whole lacked the overall drive of the Numerik III.

By the way, with ANY Linn digital source from this period, an external mains filter such as the Roxburgh 6A one from Farnell Element 14 -

http://uk.farnell.com/roxburgh/pmf6/filter-in-line-6a/dp/1101097?Ntt=RoxburghIN-LINE

- is vital for best sonics ime. Those brilliant smps supplies put as much sh*t back into the mains as they remove from the circuits they supply and protect I remember.

[DSJR]

FLAC worse than the CD that made them? Who told you that?

I get some amazing sounds from my old workroom PC. I'm too mean to buy J-River, so use Foobar for playback and it sounds excellent with recording and production differences clearly audible from album to album and sometimes track to track! If you feel vinyl is better than CD, then I can't offer any more advice, as the opposite is true for me and most professionals who listen without agendas... - CD comes closest, or bloody well should, to the mastering engineer than vinyl ever can, as the springy vinyl softens the hf and warms the tone, irrespective of the stylus used or cost of the playing system. If you feel the opposite, then I suspect amp or speaker crossover troubles being hidden by the warm softer vinyl perspectives and reproduced in full glory by the amp and speakers.

Hell, I'm starting to sound like a frustrated Ashley James - I'm so sorry...


You know, my stereo's are largely ancient geriatric things, yet I'm having more fun from mixed sources and music than I think I ever had - and I don't play them loudly either! I get a lovely musical and 3-D effect from good recordings on FLAC or WAV and even YouTube surprises me.

I use one of these which is only twenty quid - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IS4I5W0/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00A2QJK5I&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=WBV655E19XKJVEDX7GC7

The SPDIF output goes into an aged QED Digit Opto, lightly tuned inside by DIY Audio recommended mods from years ago and with both a QED Positron supply and a kindly donated Beresford Caiman one plus an MG supplied SBooster. The (£50) Denon 1520 CD player used as transport feeds it via a slightly posh looking but cheap CPC optical cable - sounds amazing. The old PC is a Core 2 Duo running Windows 10, so nothing at all modern or fancy. Passive preamp driving a hodge podge of old and newish power amps and NVA LS5 into usually old IMF Compact speakers, or a dedicated headphone amp into Sennheiser HD25SP's, the liveliness suiting my ears well. The downstairs system has the old but lovely Micro Seiki CD player, refurbed Crown pre and power (usually) into the Spendors using NVA LS2 and home made interconnects. Bigger sound than 'upstairs' and CD's just mechanically 'disappear' for me...

[stairpost]

I have no doubt that there is sound reasoning as to why digital is better, but Yep, I'm one of those that just prefers vinyl, I'll openly admit though that some albums I have on both formats sound noticeably better on CD, in those cases the vinyl doesn't get played as much.

I've tried playing FLAC files from my laptop using both squeezebox server and a cheap USB D/A converter, but it sounds lacking to me and it isn't a source that I feel complelled to refine or resolve

I shall happily try the mains filter on a player when I pick one up though, it seems like a reasonable price.







FLAC worse than the CD that made them? Who told you that?

I get some amazing sounds from my old workroom PC. I'm too mean to buy J-River, so use Foobar for playback and it sounds excellent with recording and production differences clearly audible from album to album and sometimes track to track! If you feel vinyl is better than CD, then I can't offer any more advice, as the opposite is true for me and most professionals who listen without agendas... - CD comes closest, or bloody well should, to the mastering engineer than vinyl ever can, as the springy vinyl softens the hf and warms the tone, irrespective of the stylus used or cost of the playing system. If you feel the opposite, then I suspect amp or speaker crossover troubles being hidden by the warm softer vinyl perspectives and reproduced in full glory by the amp and speakers.

Hell, I'm starting to sound like a frustrated Ashley James - I'm so sorry...


You know, my stereo's are largely ancient geriatric things, yet I'm having more fun from mixed sources and music than I think I ever had - and I don't play them loudly either! I get a lovely musical and 3-D effect from good recordings on FLAC or WAV and even YouTube surprises me.

I use one of these which is only twenty quid - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IS4I5W0/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00A2QJK5I&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=WBV655E19XKJVEDX7GC7

The SPDIF output goes into an aged QED Digit Opto, lightly tuned inside by DIY Audio recommended mods from years ago and with both a QED Positron supply and a kindly donated Beresford Caiman one plus an MG supplied SBooster. The (£50) Denon 1520 CD player used as transport feeds it via a slightly posh looking but cheap CPC optical cable - sounds amazing. The old PC is a Core 2 Duo running Windows 10, so nothing at all modern or fancy. Passive preamp driving a hodge podge of old and newish power amps and NVA LS5 into usually old IMF Compact speakers, or a dedicated headphone amp into Sennheiser HD25SP's, the liveliness suiting my ears well.

[DSJR]

Try the USB/SPDIF converter I linked to - very cheap and the USB cable it comes with is just fine. the very cheap DAC I have here (currently a fiver on eBay) is a bit 'meh' if you try to listen through it too much, but power supplies are afoot from at least one source, and Lurcher may be in a position to make one up now (5VDC I believe) to hopefully great subjective effect - little pissy chips shouldn't respond as they do to a large linear supply, but for some reason they can and do, I don't have a clue why...

[stairpost]

I use a behringer 202 thingy, that was about £20. As for chips responding to power supplies, I'm afraid that's all a bit beyond me.



Try the USB/SPDIF converter I linked to - very cheap and the USB cable it comes with is just fine. the very cheap DAC I have here (currently a fiver on eBay) is a bit 'meh' if you try to listen through it too much, but power supplies are afoot from at least one source, and Lurcher may be in a position to make one up now (5VDC I believe) to hopefully great subjective effect - little pissy chips shouldn't respond as they do to a large linear supply, but for some reason they can and do, I don't have a clue why...

[Arkless Electronics]

Wait for a Karik III if possible... The Genki and Mimik were grainy sounding pants in comparison I remember as a dealer and really no better as transports than an Arcam or similar.. The last Kariks had some air and space to the sonics, but the thing as a whole lacked the overall drive of the Numerik III.

By the way, with ANY Linn digital source from this period, an external mains filter such as the Roxburgh 6A one from Farnell Element 14 -

http://uk.farnell.com/roxburgh/pmf6/filter-in-line-6a/dp/1101097?Ntt=RoxburghIN-LINE

- is vital for best sonics ime. Those brilliant smps supplies put as much sh*t back into the mains as they remove from the circuits they supply and protect I remember.

TBH I've never heard anything I like from Linn other than the arms and most of the cartridges... electronics a bit of a twat to service as well... Some of their older amps sounded well iffy to me!:rolleyes:

[stairpost]

Budget has been upped a bit if anyone has a Karik or Genki.

[DSJR]

Forget Genki. The Ikemi is a better choice, but avoid early ones, as they sounded two dimensional. Later ones didn't and were quite impressive!

[stairpost]

Forget Genki. The Ikemi is a better choice, but avoid early ones, as they sounded two dimensional. Later ones didn't and were quite impressive!

Ikemi's are more than I want to spend, I just missed out on a late Karik, no remote so I didn't want to pay more than £300, I got pipped by a tenner.

[DSJR]

Ah, OK :)

[stairpost]

Ah, OK :)


I am surprised to see so few CD players on the market, especially from a company that is pushing streaming so avidly.

Maybe CDs aren't as near to the end of their life as evidence suggests.

[stairpost]

Now sorted, Karik 3 on it's way.