Great news, Panos!
I imagine each and every cart rebuild is a gut-wrenching process for the owner, until that rebuilt cart is lowered successfully down into those grooves again.
Frankly, with the huge cost - and the countless tales of woe - I've never had the stomach for it.
I'm delighted that your saga ended in happy spinning and smiles from ear to ear.
Enjoy!
I imagine each and every cart rebuild is a gut-wrenching process for the owner, until that rebuilt cart is lowered successfully down into those grooves again.
Frankly, with the huge cost - and the countless tales of woe - I've never had the stomach for it.
I'm delighted that your saga ended in happy spinning and smiles from ear to ear.
Enjoy!
Excellent news Panos,
I am very familiar with the stock Cadenza Black as a friend has one, I had the pleasure of stealing his hot seat for a couple of albums yesterday.
He's the chap who has the Pink Triangle Anniversary to which we are attempting to fit a Linn radikal. I sorted out one of the issues that we had but ran into another. The Linn motor is designed to run at 250rpm. The Pink is around 275rpm, a 10% difference. The automatic lockdown of speed the Radikal has using the optical tacho doesn't seem to want to adjust for this great a discrepancy. We are using the motor from the Radikal which is a Maxon Re-Max. We have ordered some H-POM (Delrin) so that I can make a larger pulley which will hopefully bring any error within the Radikal's adjustment range. The Delrin was supposed to have turned up yesterday but for some unknown reason it didn't. Hopefully it will before I visit again next week.
Once we have everything up and running we will be able to do a thorough comparison to the OL Ultra controller with my DIY power supply.
Niffy
I am very familiar with the stock Cadenza Black as a friend has one, I had the pleasure of stealing his hot seat for a couple of albums yesterday.
He's the chap who has the Pink Triangle Anniversary to which we are attempting to fit a Linn radikal. I sorted out one of the issues that we had but ran into another. The Linn motor is designed to run at 250rpm. The Pink is around 275rpm, a 10% difference. The automatic lockdown of speed the Radikal has using the optical tacho doesn't seem to want to adjust for this great a discrepancy. We are using the motor from the Radikal which is a Maxon Re-Max. We have ordered some H-POM (Delrin) so that I can make a larger pulley which will hopefully bring any error within the Radikal's adjustment range. The Delrin was supposed to have turned up yesterday but for some unknown reason it didn't. Hopefully it will before I visit again next week.
Once we have everything up and running we will be able to do a thorough comparison to the OL Ultra controller with my DIY power supply.
Niffy
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Niffy,
apologies, but I've just noticed your post above. Since it's already almost one week later, I wonder whether you've been able to create a new pulley to better adjust the motor speed and make it work for the Pink Triangle. Any progress perhaps? Really curious about how the OL controller compares -))
apologies, but I've just noticed your post above. Since it's already almost one week later, I wonder whether you've been able to create a new pulley to better adjust the motor speed and make it work for the Pink Triangle. Any progress perhaps? Really curious about how the OL controller compares -))
Today I have finally finished fitting the Linn Radikal motor and controller to my friend's Pink Triangle Anniversary.
Progress has been much slower than either of us wanted. When the H-POM eventually turned up it was the wrong material. The supplier was a tolal d#*k about rectifying this. Getting the correct material delayed us by a week. C-POM is nice and easy to source, H-POM not so much. To make matters worse I have been suffering from a killer case of long covid. Doing anything wipes me out. Luckily listening to records is a bit like doing nothing.
The Radikal monitors platter speed using an infrared tacho that reflects off the inside of the platter and is interrupted once per revolution by a small piece of felt. The Anniversary has an acrylic platter. Acrylic is very transparent and therefore doesn't reflect the infrared signal from the tacho. To overcome this I covered the bottom of the platter with aluminium foil, stuck in place with spray adhesive.
As mentioned in my previous post the range of adjustment of the Radikal was insufficient so I needed to make a new pulley. Today I made that pulley. I'm very pleased at how it turned out. I haven't used a proper lathe in ages and to my great surprise got my first attempt pretty much perfect. The crown of the pulley ended up being 0.2mm smaller in diameter than I was aiming for.
When the deck was first fired up it ran very slightly slow, perfectly in line with how much too small the pulley was. After the Radikal was reset to auto-calibrate the speed locked in absolutely on point. The speed was checked using a strobe disk and an accurately calibrated strobe light.
Unfortunately I completely forgot to photograph any of this.
Previously the Anniversary was using the original motor and a Truepoint controller. The belt is from Origin Live.
The difference in sound quality was immediate and obvious. The improvements were very similar to those that I found when upgrading to the Maxon Re-Max motor. At the moment I cannot say how much of the improvement is due to the Maxon motor and how much is due to the Radikal controller. The absolute lack of speed drift is going to be down to the Radikal. Bass definition and detail improvements could well be down to this. The sound improved steadily over the course of the first couple of records played.
As with my upgrade the biggest improvement is tonal richness.
I have a very happy friend.
Hopefully next week, health not withstanding, I'll take my Origin Live Ultra controller and power supply over so we can do a proper comparison.
Niffy
Progress has been much slower than either of us wanted. When the H-POM eventually turned up it was the wrong material. The supplier was a tolal d#*k about rectifying this. Getting the correct material delayed us by a week. C-POM is nice and easy to source, H-POM not so much. To make matters worse I have been suffering from a killer case of long covid. Doing anything wipes me out. Luckily listening to records is a bit like doing nothing.
The Radikal monitors platter speed using an infrared tacho that reflects off the inside of the platter and is interrupted once per revolution by a small piece of felt. The Anniversary has an acrylic platter. Acrylic is very transparent and therefore doesn't reflect the infrared signal from the tacho. To overcome this I covered the bottom of the platter with aluminium foil, stuck in place with spray adhesive.
As mentioned in my previous post the range of adjustment of the Radikal was insufficient so I needed to make a new pulley. Today I made that pulley. I'm very pleased at how it turned out. I haven't used a proper lathe in ages and to my great surprise got my first attempt pretty much perfect. The crown of the pulley ended up being 0.2mm smaller in diameter than I was aiming for.
When the deck was first fired up it ran very slightly slow, perfectly in line with how much too small the pulley was. After the Radikal was reset to auto-calibrate the speed locked in absolutely on point. The speed was checked using a strobe disk and an accurately calibrated strobe light.
Unfortunately I completely forgot to photograph any of this.
Previously the Anniversary was using the original motor and a Truepoint controller. The belt is from Origin Live.
The difference in sound quality was immediate and obvious. The improvements were very similar to those that I found when upgrading to the Maxon Re-Max motor. At the moment I cannot say how much of the improvement is due to the Maxon motor and how much is due to the Radikal controller. The absolute lack of speed drift is going to be down to the Radikal. Bass definition and detail improvements could well be down to this. The sound improved steadily over the course of the first couple of records played.
As with my upgrade the biggest improvement is tonal richness.
I have a very happy friend.
Hopefully next week, health not withstanding, I'll take my Origin Live Ultra controller and power supply over so we can do a proper comparison.
Niffy
Hi Niffy,
I am starting from your last post. As a matter of fact you've replied to the question I wanted to ask you -)). I am quite curious to hear how the the polyester thread may affect the sound of the Pink Triangle Anniversary.
Congratulations for your perseverance and for reaching a fully functional result. Well done! By the way, being unaware of the Radikal details, does it just monitor the speed with the tachometer or does it a feedback loop to continuously monitor and self-adjust the motor speed?
I wonder with the OL Ultra controller will compare with the Radikal...
Panos
I am starting from your last post. As a matter of fact you've replied to the question I wanted to ask you -)). I am quite curious to hear how the the polyester thread may affect the sound of the Pink Triangle Anniversary.
Congratulations for your perseverance and for reaching a fully functional result. Well done! By the way, being unaware of the Radikal details, does it just monitor the speed with the tachometer or does it a feedback loop to continuously monitor and self-adjust the motor speed?
I wonder with the OL Ultra controller will compare with the Radikal...
Panos
Hi Panos,
I'm also quite interested to hear how polyester thread compares to the OL belt. We have a bit of a list before we get to that experiment including making better pulley and idlers for my deck.
The Radikal monitors the platter only once per revolution. As such it will have no effect on wow and flutter. Any adjustment will be very gradual and is to counter speed drift over the length of the record.
The OL/Radikal comparison will be very interesting. Personally I hope that the OL controller is the better of the two. Not because that is the one I have but because he could buy an OL Ultra and build the external power supply for half of what he could sell the Linn for.
Niffy
I'm also quite interested to hear how polyester thread compares to the OL belt. We have a bit of a list before we get to that experiment including making better pulley and idlers for my deck.
The Radikal monitors the platter only once per revolution. As such it will have no effect on wow and flutter. Any adjustment will be very gradual and is to counter speed drift over the length of the record.
The OL/Radikal comparison will be very interesting. Personally I hope that the OL controller is the better of the two. Not because that is the one I have but because he could buy an OL Ultra and build the external power supply for half of what he could sell the Linn for.
Niffy
We have finally managed to do the comparison between the Linn Radikal and the Origin Live Ultra on the Pink Triangle Anniversary turntable.
My friends system that was used to test the Anniversary is very high quality. The cartridge is an Ortofon Cadenza Black and the tonearm is a Funk Firm FX3 rewired with Kondo silver. He has an RCM Theriaa phonostage feeding a Tube Distinctions Soulmate preamp. His speakers are DIY based on Pure Audio Project Trio 15 open baffle with Voxative AC-1.6 full range drivers and dual 15" Eminence bass drivers. The Voxatives are driven by a Tube Distinctions Soulamp and the bass by Nord NC-1200s. The crossover is a Pass Labs B5 active crossover. Cables are XLO signature 3. A PS Audio P15 power plant supplies the mains power.
A very nice system.
He is a self confessed imaging freak and his system certainly does image like a dream.
The two controllers sounded quite different from each other.
Both offered rock solid speed stability and both are way ahead of the Truepoint controller.
Deciding which was better turned out to be quite a challenge and took many hours of switching back and forth to finally nail down.
It's getting late so I'll post tomorrow to let you know what we thought of the two controllers.
Niffy
My friends system that was used to test the Anniversary is very high quality. The cartridge is an Ortofon Cadenza Black and the tonearm is a Funk Firm FX3 rewired with Kondo silver. He has an RCM Theriaa phonostage feeding a Tube Distinctions Soulmate preamp. His speakers are DIY based on Pure Audio Project Trio 15 open baffle with Voxative AC-1.6 full range drivers and dual 15" Eminence bass drivers. The Voxatives are driven by a Tube Distinctions Soulamp and the bass by Nord NC-1200s. The crossover is a Pass Labs B5 active crossover. Cables are XLO signature 3. A PS Audio P15 power plant supplies the mains power.
A very nice system.
He is a self confessed imaging freak and his system certainly does image like a dream.
The two controllers sounded quite different from each other.
Both offered rock solid speed stability and both are way ahead of the Truepoint controller.
Deciding which was better turned out to be quite a challenge and took many hours of switching back and forth to finally nail down.
It's getting late so I'll post tomorrow to let you know what we thought of the two controllers.
Niffy
The Radikal had better transient attack sounding cleaner on the leading edges of notes. It also was slightly more revealing with a bit more fine detail. The better attack and detail consistent across the entire audio band. On certain tracks it also showed itself able to separate instruments and vocals from each other a tiny bit more. Separation was absolutely superb through this system with either controller, the difference is a hair's breadth.
Soundstage with the Radikal was wider with greater height. Soundstage depth extended as far back with either controller. The front of the soundstage with the Radikal started at the plane of the speakers. With the OL Ultra the soundstage extended in front of the speaker plane giving it better image depth and layering. The Radikal had slightly better image focus, scale of images and also had a greater sense of air. Overall levels of transparency was the same between the two controllers.
The main area where the OL Ultra sounded better than the Radikal was tonality. Across the entire frequency range the OL was richer with more fully saturated tonal colours. It also had a slightly greater sense of solidity. In most cases vocals were better with the OL. In comparison the Radikal could sound a bit thin.
With some instruments it was difficult to choose between the two. The impact of a kick drum was more visceral via the Radikal but the body and weight was fuller via the OL.
Over many hours of comparison I preferred some tracks via the Radikal and some tracks via the OL ultra.
Overall I would say that in absolute sound quality terms the Radikal came out just a little ahead.
The OL probably landed slightly on the warm side of absolutely neutral whereas the Radikal landed slightly on the cool side.
In value for money terms it's no contest. The cost of the Radikal is over three times that of the OL ultra, external supply and Maxon Re-Max motor combined.
The Radikal is really only designed to be used on the LP12 Sondek. It can be successfully adapted for use on other decks but don't expect any help from Linn or any of their dealers in doing this. My local dealer refused to even discuss the possibility with me. Linn have their dealer network on a very short leash.
The OL on the other hand is designed to be fitted to pretty much any deck and Mark from OL, though curt, is much more helpful than anyone from Linn.
By all accounts the Radikal 2 is quite a bit better than the Radikal 1. Whether this controller would significantly widen the gap is a completely different question. Upgrading the power supply of the OL controller made a huge difference. The Radikal has quite a small, though high quality, switch mode supply. I wonder if a fat linear supply would up its performance.
Niffy
Soundstage with the Radikal was wider with greater height. Soundstage depth extended as far back with either controller. The front of the soundstage with the Radikal started at the plane of the speakers. With the OL Ultra the soundstage extended in front of the speaker plane giving it better image depth and layering. The Radikal had slightly better image focus, scale of images and also had a greater sense of air. Overall levels of transparency was the same between the two controllers.
The main area where the OL Ultra sounded better than the Radikal was tonality. Across the entire frequency range the OL was richer with more fully saturated tonal colours. It also had a slightly greater sense of solidity. In most cases vocals were better with the OL. In comparison the Radikal could sound a bit thin.
With some instruments it was difficult to choose between the two. The impact of a kick drum was more visceral via the Radikal but the body and weight was fuller via the OL.
Over many hours of comparison I preferred some tracks via the Radikal and some tracks via the OL ultra.
Overall I would say that in absolute sound quality terms the Radikal came out just a little ahead.
The OL probably landed slightly on the warm side of absolutely neutral whereas the Radikal landed slightly on the cool side.
In value for money terms it's no contest. The cost of the Radikal is over three times that of the OL ultra, external supply and Maxon Re-Max motor combined.
The Radikal is really only designed to be used on the LP12 Sondek. It can be successfully adapted for use on other decks but don't expect any help from Linn or any of their dealers in doing this. My local dealer refused to even discuss the possibility with me. Linn have their dealer network on a very short leash.
The OL on the other hand is designed to be fitted to pretty much any deck and Mark from OL, though curt, is much more helpful than anyone from Linn.
By all accounts the Radikal 2 is quite a bit better than the Radikal 1. Whether this controller would significantly widen the gap is a completely different question. Upgrading the power supply of the OL controller made a huge difference. The Radikal has quite a small, though high quality, switch mode supply. I wonder if a fat linear supply would up its performance.
Niffy
You timed your post to drop just as I hit the "post reply" button.Niffy, we are looking forward to your feedback about the comparison.
I am very much in favor of great imaging, too. That's why I listen to Falcon LS3/5a in near-field (1-1.2m from the listening position).
Cheers,
P.
I also like a system that images. My speakers use Jordan Eikona II drivers in Ellipsoid spherical cabinets. I also favor near field listening though not quite as close as you. Have you tried decoupling your speakers from the stands? It makes a huge difference to imaging. Something like the ISO Acoustics Gaias work very well. Townshend podiums are better still. My stands have decoupling built in based on Townshend.
Niffy
I am currently waiting for my trusted Falcon LS3/5a Golden Badge speakers to return from the Falcon factory after some tuning. Then I will be able to compare my Roksan Xerxes with the RE-max motor, the polyester thread belt and the OL Advanced power supply with my Lenco L78 (rebuilt) turntable. I expect it to be a fierce battle. I have no decoupling feet, but I understand the ISOacoustics Gaia III have a threaded end, which does not fit the bottom of my Falcons. Perhaps there is another ISOacoustics model for bookshelf speakers...?
Niffy, by the way, have you had the chance to try a polyester thread belt on the PT Anniversary T/T for some A/B testing with its current belt?
Panos
Niffy, by the way, have you had the chance to try a polyester thread belt on the PT Anniversary T/T for some A/B testing with its current belt?
Panos