I bought mine secondhand in 1986 after responding to an ad in "HiFi Answers". A guy in London selling it for £300. My car wasn't up to the 500 mile round trip, so a friend drove me there in his VW Beetle for petrol cost, and I sold him my Mission deck for a good price. No mobile phones or internet then. When I got home that night, my missus told me another bloke phoned to say he had one for sale, and he lived at Lostock Hall, 3 miles down the road.
When I started up the LP12, missus said "Wow, we have bass!" Kept that deck for 26 years with no mods, then got £500 as a p/x.
I just dropped in, to see what condition my condition was in
T/T: Inspire Monarch, X200 tonearm, Ortofon Quintet Blue. Phono: Project Tube Box CD: Marantz CD6006 (UK Edition); Amp: Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated.
Speakers: Zu Omen Def, REL T9i subwoofer. Cables: Atlas Equator interconnects, Atlas Hyper 3.0 speaker cables
T'other system:
Echo Dot, Amptastic Mini One,Arcam A75 integrated, Celestion 5's, BK XLS-200 DF
A/V:
LG 55" OLED, Panasonic Blu Ray, Sony a/v amp, MA Radius speakers, REL Storm sub
Forget the past, it's gone. And don't worry about the future, it doesn't exist. There is only NOW.
KICKSTARTER: ENABLING SCAMMERS SINCE 2009
I've enjoyed my LP12's, like the sound but it's the constant need for attention if you even look at them the wrong way. I also hate the Linn pricing ethos, I mean £50 for a drive belt amongst other things. Also rather like the Techie 1200's you need to spend lots of pounds to make them great but unlike the Technics, to get a sorted one out of the box you've got to shell out £6000. They must be doing something right though to have been producing the LP12 for so long.
Turntable
Toshiba SR-370/Mission 774/Van Damme cable with MS Starline plugs/Ortofon Quintet Black
CD
Cambridge CXC transport/modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC/modified Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 tube buffer
Network Player
Cambridge NP30
Amplifier
Denon HA-500 head amp/Nakamichi CA-5E pre-amp/Chinese passive RVC/Proton AA-1150 DMC power amp
Speakers
Mordaunt Short Signifer on original factory stands
Cables
Mogami with Rean Neutrik plugs/NVA LS5
Headphones
Sennheiser HD600/Sennheiser HD650/Koss Pro4 AA
I wasn't a big fan of the Linn upgrade doctrine, I found it to be very much 'buy this upgrade or your kit is basically rubbish'. My LP12 was fairly basic but sounded great on a good day and very lacklustre on an off day. I found Linn owners to be a really nice bunch of people though.
Clearaudio Emotion with Clearaudio Performer cart
Copland CDA 266
Copland CSA 28
Squeezebox Touch
Impulse Lali
Van Damme I/Cs and cables
I was very impressed with a mate's LP12 back in '91 so I probably would have got one then if I'd had the cutter. It's the old cliché I know but it really did 'Just play music.' Lots of great times spent listening to that, smoking premium grade hashish (he had some great connections) and drinking Tennant's Extra.
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
Turntable
Toshiba SR-370/Mission 774/Van Damme cable with MS Starline plugs/Ortofon Quintet Black
CD
Cambridge CXC transport/modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC/modified Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 tube buffer
Network Player
Cambridge NP30
Amplifier
Denon HA-500 head amp/Nakamichi CA-5E pre-amp/Chinese passive RVC/Proton AA-1150 DMC power amp
Speakers
Mordaunt Short Signifer on original factory stands
Cables
Mogami with Rean Neutrik plugs/NVA LS5
Headphones
Sennheiser HD600/Sennheiser HD650/Koss Pro4 AA
I had e few. The first one since my youth I can't remember the model. It was a Russian one, a cabinet - radio, turntable and a space to store records. Many years after I had an Universum VTFC1339RC combo with separate speakers and awful sound. After another pause I have started looking again for a TT.
First came Technics SL23a, after that Linn Axis and last year a long desired Pioneer PLC-590. Still got the last two.
Pioneer:
PLC-590, RT-909, 707, CT-F1250, 900, 750, 700, T-C3, P-D1, TX-7800,
U-24, SR-303, SG-9800, SA-7800, SX-750, DT-400, HPM-100
Nakamichi: DRAGON, BX300e, BX125, BX 1, CD4
Turntable
Toshiba SR-370/Mission 774/Van Damme cable with MS Starline plugs/Ortofon Quintet Black
CD
Cambridge CXC transport/modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC/modified Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 tube buffer
Network Player
Cambridge NP30
Amplifier
Denon HA-500 head amp/Nakamichi CA-5E pre-amp/Chinese passive RVC/Proton AA-1150 DMC power amp
Speakers
Mordaunt Short Signifer on original factory stands
Cables
Mogami with Rean Neutrik plugs/NVA LS5
Headphones
Sennheiser HD600/Sennheiser HD650/Koss Pro4 AA