You can have an Axis board repaired for £100 in the UK. This includes a lifetime guarantee. The company is called Wilkinsons Hi Fi. They have a few videos on YT. I had one done 4 years ago. Still working fine.
I had a newer Linn Axis turntable that I purchased from Audible Elegance about 10 years ago. It sounded great in the store, actually fuller than a Rega 3 so I thought I'd give it a try. The arm bearings needed a good cleaning with alcohol to free them up which I did without dismantling the arm. It sounded good but always seemed to have a veil over the sound. I enjoyed my Thorens 125's and Regas so I sold the Linn to a friend. About 2 years later I had to replace the caps in the supply board and he is using it still to this day.
Hello Jim, glad you enjoyed it while you had it. It also depended upon whether or not you had the early versions with the removeable headshell or not. That made a big difference. As for the caps, yep, that's what I am into. I think that the Regas are still made today vs. the Linn Axis speaks as to the market's decision as well. By the way, the Thorens of your vintage has suspensions that should be tuned just like an LP12. As a matter of fact, the bolts, grommets, washers, springs and nuts are pretty much the same. The grommets in 70s tables are now hard. Just an FYI.
Linn T-Kables are now made from Mogami studio grade cable which is a really high quality copper used in many recording studios. I used a version of it (Neglex 2534) to make cables for my own LP12, having used it to make interconnects for some years that out perform silver plated cables costing serious money. As well as the Mogami cable, cost £5, I bought Duelund rhodium plated OCC copper phono plugs and a rhodium plated arm plug, total cost £180. So all in all about half the cost of a factory cable which comes with some fairly mundane connectors. I was replacing a horrible 1990 vintage cable which was not only stiff, it came nasty plastic plugs. I would love to buy all Linn parts for my upgrades, however, the cost is a limiting factor. I could have bought a Keel sub-chassis, £3,250 in the UK. I actually bought the Stack Alto sub-chassis and armboard, pre-assembled and did the fitting on my own jig. The improvement is simply staggering at a cost of £650. Is the Keel better, I’ll never know. The Keel and the Alto are both CNC machined aluminium finished beautifully. I do miss the Linn logo on the armboard but the £2,600 saving has funded a speaker upgrade which the turntable can now justify.
Glad you have found alternatives that work well for you. Cables are a very funny thing as they may work for one series of products and the next series, well, they are a disaster. Silver is also a very peculiar element in results. As for the Stack products, they do seem to be made with care and they are well organized and thought through packages. You don't see them here in the States. Thank you for your comments and tips. Please feel free to share this site with others.
Yep, a lot of people have never been told how to properly transport a turntable thereby exposing the most critical parts, the bearings, to unwanted damage. It is probably the leading cause for most tonearms to be fubar. The main bearings follow suit and I just junked a Thorens because the inner platter slapped the thust plate so hard that it made a dent in that plate twice the size of the head of a pin. This is why I have a lot of problems with people buying used turntables at today's high prices. I would say about 70% of the tables I see have not been transported properly and have bearing damage one way or another. The older the table, the more it approaches 90%.
I have owned a Linn Axis for several years now, and the first thing I read about it before purchasing, was to always isolate the power supply to it when not in use. The board would fry over time and die a death otherwise! Very informative video, keep up the good work 😊
Thank you, Neil. Nice tip for other Axis owners. When I go to work on this one I am going to be mindful of the shortcomings of flow solder production. I have been finding too many fractures or failed solder points and I actually have a video coming up on that which involved a wiper control arm failure on a truck. The parts were fine, the switches fine, but a flow solder connection simply fractured and failed. I'll be curious so see if that's the case here. Heat stress can be hard on electronics and shorten their life expectancy as well so we shall see.
I power my Axis through a Furman Power Conditioner and when not in use, I simply turn off the conditioner and in turn it cuts all power to the turntable.
I’m pretty sure the Axis never came with the removable headshell Basik LV-X arm. That one was replaced by the fixed headshell Basik Plus years before the Axis came out. The early Axis came with the Basik Plus, then later ones came with an early Akito. The power supplies on the Axis are now mostly starting to fail, and they’re a pain to fix.
I was looking at one of those tables for a back up but read too many times they eventually have electronic issues that can be a pain to figure out. I opted for a Denon DP-1200 that seem to be less problematic in that regard. One year in and knock on wood the Denon has been flawless. Good luck with the Linn and more importantly I pray for your wife’s speedy recovery. Must be stressful. 🙏
Well, at the store, I am enjoying the hell out of the Pure Fidelity. It's essentially a Rega on steroids. I'll always like the Linn but I think part of that is because I have so many fond memories of working on Linn, visiting Linn in Scotland, and the years (a long time ago) of great support from the then distributor, Audiophile Systems. Audiophile Systems was run by the most important man in my business career, Gary Warzin. He was an amazing person who understood that in taking care of his dealers that he would get his share of business. Now, the only thing I hear from others is demands for orders and they don't give a damn about the health of the dealer or the people. Product support from most manufacturers is a nightmare. It's almost impossible to find anyone who works for a company these days who even knows anything about their product beyond the SKU number. There are a few, but not many. I have had the pleasure of talking to the owner and creator of Pure Fidelity and it enhanced by abilities. As for other tables, well, Oralcle is rather interesting but you need to put on your French-Canadian thinking cap with those. Old Transcriptors are interesting, but I think more from a historical perspective. I certainly don't want to leave out Rega itself. It's a quality product, thought out as a system itself (which I highly respect), and simple. And, for the magic answer, my first quality belt drive table was a Fons with a Grace 707 tonearm and a Supex 901 E+ Super. It is my understanding that Fons was essentially put out of business by Linn when they determined that their former employee had, without permission, made use of the hyperbolic bearing design which was patented by Linn. Interesting 4 speed turntable which used a DC motor to allow for all the speeds. 16, 33, 45, and 78. I would imagine the Beatles sounded rather interesting at 16 in an altered state.
@@audibleeleganceinc Thanks for the wonderful reply and great info! Always loved the look of the Grace 707. So elegant. I've read they also made some amazing cartridges which paired beautifully with their tonearms. Never had a chance to hear one though. Wishing you and your family the best!
Hi there, I have recently bought a Linn Axis, I love the sound and I'm impressed. The platter is not level at all, dips in one corner and rises in another. Should I be looking to alter and if so, any advice? Really appreciate any help as a complete novice with musical technology or appliances. Thank you James
Well, that's pretty odd and not right. Let's start by your removing the platter and looking at the inner platter to see if it equally dips. Use an allen wrench, for example and slid it under the inner platter as a guage. The distance between the bottom edge of the inner platter and the allen wrench should be equal all the way around. It that is unlevel, the platter merely amplifies the difference given its outer edge is out further on the angle. The question is is the platter bent somehow or is the bearing system unlevel.
I have an Axis with an Akito arm. My problem is the platter doesn’t spin when you switch it on. A small manual nudge to the left with your fingers gets it up and running. I’m sure it’s a capacitor issue (which will probably get worse).
That appears to be the most common observation. I have also seen where it is actually the motor. So, with caps being more common, replacing them is a good place to start.
I can't imagine at this point in time trying to resuscitate an older Linn table -and this is from someone with an older Linn active system. I'm not into vinyl (or vinyls, as the kids call them), but if I were to dip my toes back into records I'd think a Rega P3, perhaps with a cartridge upgrade, would be the most cost-effective way to go. Having said that, I hope you can fix this guys Axis.
Well, that's what I am going to try to do. He inherited this table as it is. It's worth a shot in my book. There's just so few of us left who know what to do and how to do it. Yes, a Rega P3 is a delightful table as is the P6 and we have a used one of those with a new cartridge for $1500.
Ha Ha Ha. Love it. No, at the end of the day, I will unwind with a beer. As Dean Martin once said, "the best a non-drinker will feel is when they first wake up." I have no interest on being anything but purely human in these videos. It also helps me relax when doing the videos and we shoot them like live TV, nothing practiced, scripted, or teleprompted. Doesn't see to work for Joe Biden anyway. By the way, it's not uncommon for service technicians to be in some form of altered state when they work on equipment. I've worked in different places and have seen that personally. A lot of depression, actually.
Thank you, Tom. It's amazing how many videos simply pop into my head from day to day experiences. I just have to watch for those moments when people do odd or rude things so that it either doesn't affect the videos I want to do or actually enhances the emotion. Sometimes it changes what videos are shot. And yes, I enjoy PBR and it's not a political statement. I have not had a Bud product in years as I found them rather salty. Never saw much sense in "light" beers anyway. Regular beer is my light, otherwise, it's Kentucky Bourbon.@@thomascollins7932 As for Deb, well, she is doing ok but new issues always arise and she's off to Cleveland next week to see what they can do about it. She's not had a great flight but she has been a sounding board for others who have faired much worse including death. We live on the edge of human knowledge and science. You learn to accept your duty to push that knowledge forward.
Not yet. It's on my upcoming to-do list and I keep getting sidetracked with other things including a few difficult ones that I have written about. I really want this deck going and I have a second one waiting in the wing in Georgia.
@@audibleeleganceinc When I asked that question, I had a broken one too but I'm pleased to say I have now fixed it. Not an easy repair. I did all the cap changes and it didn't fix it. In the end I had to do a deep dive into the schematic to do a more scientific diagnosis. Give me a shout if you get stuck as these things are a pain to fix.
Well, an interesting thought. It certainly was more easy to own and operate. It certain regards, it was also more consistent. Unfortunately, they hobbled the Axis with the LVV arm with the removeable head shell until they ran out of those. It was Linn's way of clearing inventory that didn't sell anymore. I found it annoying.
Glad I did my good deed for the day. It is amazing they can sound as nice as they do when you consider some of the engineering design compromises. Defiantly not as bad as the haters say but not as great as the fan boys think. Btw I will include your wife in my prayers along with our friends in Israel, sadly the world seems to have gone nuts, although a Graeters ice cream cone might make it a bit better! All the best my friend@@audibleeleganceinc
