Hello all,
New here, and fairly newbie in DIY based in the UK.
I have a modest hifi system, A&R A60, Manticore Mantra and Ariston RD11 (a very early one), hooked to a pair of Epos ES14.
I am now in the process of recapping a Revox B750, which I hope will be a nice upgrade. I have little knowledge but I tend to be willing to learn.
Thank you for welcoming me
New here, and fairly newbie in DIY based in the UK.
I have a modest hifi system, A&R A60, Manticore Mantra and Ariston RD11 (a very early one), hooked to a pair of Epos ES14.
I am now in the process of recapping a Revox B750, which I hope will be a nice upgrade. I have little knowledge but I tend to be willing to learn.
Thank you for welcoming me
Thank you Planet10.
The Ariston I have is similar to the early LP12. I am saying that because there is also the RD11S that is a bit different, but mine got the big red power switch on the left found on some early LP12. Probably better turntable out there, but it does the job.
The Ariston I have is similar to the early LP12. I am saying that because there is also the RD11S that is a bit different, but mine got the big red power switch on the left found on some early LP12. Probably better turntable out there, but it does the job.
This is before I purchased it, since I have upgraded the cart to a SAE 1000E. I am planning to maybe upgrade to tonearm to a Hadcock or Audiomods but we'll see. I think it has been restored with a new bearing, spring and sub platter but essentially it is still a to standard early 70s configuration. No Cirkus or Valhalla.
No, this is an Ariston, but the arm board was replaced with a Linn branded when the rega was mounted. Confusing indeed.
Unfortunately the Ariston labels are not present anymore, but the plinth is stamped Vic Hallam, so not castle made. It’s not as early as the 2 buttons one, but I believe probably as early as 74.
Unfortunately the Ariston labels are not present anymore, but the plinth is stamped Vic Hallam, so not castle made. It’s not as early as the 2 buttons one, but I believe probably as early as 74.
The Linn armboard shows how close they are, power switch is the only solid evidence it is not a inn.
dave
dave
The earliest Linn Sondeks were the same turntable as the Ariston RD11. Not just similar, the same. Ariston was Hamish Robertson's company: its first turntables were built (wholly or partly - it's unclear which) by Castle Precision Engineering in Glasgow, a company run by Jack Tiefenbrun. Hamish first exhibited his turntables in public as the Ariston RD11 at the Harrogate HiFi show in Septemer 1971. By 1973 Hamish had fallen out with Jack Tiefenbrun and his son, Ivor. Ivor set up Linn Products and started selling the turntables his father's company had been building for Hamish - now branded as the Linn Sondek LP12. The earliest ones had an Ariston label on them, but the top of the label, which read "Ariston Audio RD11", had been snipped off.
Lots of the details of the history are contested. A good deal of material has been posted in the past both here and on other forums.
Lots of the details of the history are contested. A good deal of material has been posted in the past both here and on other forums.
Thanx for the history. Most of what i got was from the Linn POV.
I spemt an evening with Ivor and Julian. We were one of the biggest NA vendors of LP12s — all they made at the time. Mike Remington (IIRC) was the Canadian Distributor (a master of Linn Speak), visited our HiFi shop often. Mr A (owner of the shop and of a seriouisly good machining company [Kenna Metal] made an epxoy and copper powder outer platter machined to the same (or better) precision tolerances as the LP12 one. We set one Linn up with it and one stock, same arms/cartridges. The copper one was way lighter. And sounded better. The lookon Mike’s face when he heard the difference was priceless. The first Linn upgrade started coming out shortly after, i’m pretty sure that they were goosed into it by that demo.
Got my RD11 new in 1975, my first Linn in 1978 ($175 CAD sans arm). By then they sounded quite different.
dave
I spemt an evening with Ivor and Julian. We were one of the biggest NA vendors of LP12s — all they made at the time. Mike Remington (IIRC) was the Canadian Distributor (a master of Linn Speak), visited our HiFi shop often. Mr A (owner of the shop and of a seriouisly good machining company [Kenna Metal] made an epxoy and copper powder outer platter machined to the same (or better) precision tolerances as the LP12 one. We set one Linn up with it and one stock, same arms/cartridges. The copper one was way lighter. And sounded better. The lookon Mike’s face when he heard the difference was priceless. The first Linn upgrade started coming out shortly after, i’m pretty sure that they were goosed into it by that demo.
Got my RD11 new in 1975, my first Linn in 1978 ($175 CAD sans arm). By then they sounded quite different.
dave