Koss 76 manual Nick Dudley PORT COQUITLAM, BC, ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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up radio-frequency noise and feeding it into the system through the ground, and it also prevents certain components, particularly digital components, from radiating digital noise where it can get into places it shouldn’t. Though some power cables have price tags that can induce cardiac arrest (another reason they use hospital grade connectors, perhaps), some affordable ones offer both shielding and good connectors.

Shielded power cables, by the way, have generally more capacitance than the cheap cables that no doubt came with your gear, and that is already enough to filter out a little of the high frequency hash that comes from the power company. To finish the job it’s useful to add a good power filter, but as you already know good ones don’t come cheap. Some of them, what’s more, can actually make your system sound worse, hence the warning from some experts. In particular, filters that limit current can adversely affect power amplifiers.

And we haven’t yet gotten to the speaker cables and interconnects. If you’re using the cheap junk that is avail-

able free or almost free, then changing it is virtually an emergency measure.

I have just completed the removal of the Valhalla board, AC motor, switch and associated cables on a Linn LP12 turntable and replaced them with the Origin Live Advanced DC motor kit. The results are nothing short of impressive and seem (by your description) to be very similar in character to the improvements realized with the Lingo

I was wondering if you had ever heard the mod, and how it compares to the Lingo. I’m sure Linn is not in favor of this type of behavior but I would guess some UHF subscribers (like me) wouldn’t mind seeing a comparison of the available PSU options that can drive the LP12. Considering the cost of Lingo upgrades, these alternative mods start to look pretty good.

Nick Dudley

PORT COQUITLAM, BC

Nick, many years ago we did a direct comparison between a stock Linn LP-12 and an LP-12 that had been upgraded with a subchassis made from a more exotic material. The one with the new

subchassis sounded better. Now here’s where it gets interesting. One of our then staff members, Henry See, was looking for a good turntable, and he was offered either of the Linns at the same price. Despite the fact he had participated in the comparison, he chose the stock Linn.

Now why would he do that? He explained the reason for his choice: the upgraded LP-12 did sound audibly better, but it wasn’t a Linn anymore. There was reason to believe that Linn would be offering more upgrades in the future — indeed it already was — but if Henry bought the modified LP-12 none of those upgrades would ever be avail- able to him. In retrospect he was right. Today’s Linns, even those that have not had the full tilt upgrades, sound way better than the modded LP-12 Henry turned down.

To be sure, what was true then may or may not be true in 2006. Linn’s turn- table sales are today a tiny fraction of its business, and it isn’t certain that future upgrades will amount to more than tinkering. A third party improvement

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 11

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