Posted by manualblock [ 24.191.167.32 ] on January 06, 2005 at 08:10:07:

In Reply to: Re: I'm about to try an Ariston RD-11 posted by Norris Wilson on January 06, 2005 at 02:14:05:

There was a failure of a couple storage caps on the Valhalla that was pretty common. Mine is a 1984 vintage and Linn dealer charged me 90$ to rebuild the valhalla. You could rebuild it yourself, the specs are floating around on the net. There is a very simple circuit; I think I have a copy if you are interested, that consists of an isolation trans,switch,couple resistors and a cap that some people claim sounds very good replacing the existing power supply. The basic power supply is cheap; I forget exactly the price but that is also an option. ExtremePhono has a thorough and complete site detailing everything to know about Linn LP 12's.
As for advice I am biased towards the Linn; many think it is fat and bloated and it does run slow, but I like it's musicality and haven't heard anything within reason that sounds better. The asking price of 500$ seems more than fair even if you drop 100$ on the PS. And the Denon cartidge works like a dream in the Ittok. I am now using a Empire Gold Low output MC and that tracks nicely also. But I would avoid Grado's; in my humble experience they don't agree with each other. The arm seems to favor lower compliance carts.

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