THE LINN lp12 IS ONE OF THE BEST SOUNDING TURNTABLES EVER BUILD

I have serviced hundreds of these. The three 47uF caps, R1, and BR1 are the main failure points. That board has already been serviced, the original R2 R3 resistors are much smaller, and the varistor has replaced a regular resistor at R1. Ideally, the BR1 bridge rectifier should also be replaced with a 1000V one. You should also adjust the white trimmer RV1 to 85V across the red and gray motor wires. R32 (560k) is another potential trouble spot. But most important of all, anyone attempting a repair should unplug the turntable before going near the board. These boards are powered up 24/7 whenever the turntable is connected to power, that's why they are failing after 30 years. By the way, the oil you took out is the factory supplied graphite based Linn black oil. That's what's supposed to be in there.

Love my lp12. Had the same issue and the recap did the trick. Thanks the the insight you bring.

I have this exact problem but took mine to my local very expensive Linn dealer for repair a few weeks ago. I'll be on the phone picking it tomorrow so I can fix it myself. Cheers man 👊🎶

I respect an electronics tech that has a clean,organized work area. Several KZfaq Electronics sites work benches are a cluttered disaster. Drives me nuts!

Thank you so much for this video!! I just inherited an LP12 from my Dad (his pride and joy - and a huge part of my childhood) but it's having motor issues like those in the clip ....bit worse actually, a really bad knock and the tiniest resistance stops the motor. I'm looking forward to getting her on the workbench! Thanks again, and for all the folks who commented for noobs like me that just love listening to music how it should be ....yup I can't seem to listen to any of our bluetooth speakers now : )

Lovely video. Very informative and interesting. You have a natural, friendly manner! Subscribed :)

Thank you so much. Mine doesn't need it yet but yhis will be my go to video. Happy new year!

Many thanks this was just what I needed. I’m going to maybe buy one used Lp12 next week Cheers and stay safe these times

Hey, neat idea - putting the platter on upside down! I've never thought of doing that.

Excellent Video Again! Thanks Mark!

thanks to your videos i found my vahalla was 35volts to high omg ,it runs great now

Love your videos I am learning a lot.

What a rich trove of tips! Thanks a bunch!

The Alphason Sonata walked all over the top spec Linn , Pink T and Roksan when I auditioned them many, many ...many years ago. Basically I don't think Mike Knowles spent enough on advertising for the HiFi rags to upset Ivor and co by rocking the gravy boat.

Excellent tutorial. Thank you.

thank you recap did the trick for my lp12

Just re caped mine interesting those small 16 volt caps in mine they are 35 volts ? may be that,s what Linn had at the time production or a later revision ? Motor is much stronger torque now . There is a pre set on the board which needed resetting, connected a meter to pin 1 grey wire and pin 2 red wire motor on the terminal strip and is now reading correctly at 85 volts +- 1 volt the motor starts first time.

Great vid and lots of good info thanks mate

Thanks for the tips, just picked one up today, $35 at a thrift store, turns on, but no movement from turntable, but now I have somewhere to start from on the list!

You recommend synthetic 0W-30 oil for the bearing. What about 0W-16 or does it really matter since it is just a turntable and viscosity is not a big deal?

You've probably got cracked and burnt resistors too. I recommend you have a really close look. There is a known update you should carry out on the Valhalla power supply board. If you do a search you'll find there's a standard upgrade which Linn did in the late 80's. As yours hasn't been done (I can see by the old bridge rectifier) I would strongly recommend you do that - no need to send it to Linn. Also, if your electrolytic capacitors are drying our, you should look at replacing all of them as they're very old. I also found that Resistor R33 was completely fried and needed replacing (upgrading) . Here are the notes I made when I did mine: VALHALLA UPGRADE. Replace R1 with Surge Gard SG240 Thermistor (Digikey) Replace BR1 with Vishay KAB100E 1.2amp min (Farnell/Digikey) Replace C18/C1/C2 all with new 47microfarad 250volt axial NCC (Digikey) Replace C3 with 220microfarad 16volt radial Replace C14 and C20 with 1microfarad 63volt radial Replace C15 and C8 with 22microfarad 35volt radial use 22 mi-farad 50v in stock Poss replace R2 and R3 Welwyn W22 7watt 15K resistors Notes: RE: Valhalla thermistor The 3 big caps are 250V axial lead ones, they're perfect fit. Although higher rated voltage caps are sometimes suggested or seem a safer bet, its often they're bigger in diameter and may result with marginal or insufficient clearance to re-install the bottom board. Take note of this. Its imperative to replace all the other electrolytic caps for another lease of life, considering the whole thing is likely over 2 decades old. Note also that there's a capacitor (220uF/10V axial) nearest to the ribbon connector which one lead have to be soldered on the top and bottom plane, only this one. You can substitute this for the more commonly found 220uF/16V radial type, but again, ensure soldering the negative lead, top and bottom plane.

One of my sales guys was mad about these turntables, and more importantly the tone arm. We thought it was a more sophisticated version of a Thorens TD125 series. Get Video. It show how capacitors in drive circuits are important as well as a good clean and lube.

Very cool and helpful video thank you

Just upgrade to the Mober DC motor and external control / SSP12 two piece inner platter and Mober bearing I did last weekend and will never regret it. Solid super stable ultra quiet, 45 & 33.3 and now much better resolution and dynamics. Linn charge us all way too much for upgrades that are no where near the cost effectiveness of this Mober upgrade.

They took the idea from Thorens TD150 , 100% the same ...:D three spring-suspention 🤷🏼‍♀️👍

I~have the adaptor to get the 45rpm but its a pain. There is an upgrade to the Valhalla PSU but it cost a load!

Excellent Video!

Hi. Nice movie. I have same motor start problem issue. My Linn LP12 have got a Hercules II board. Solution for that board is same like for Vallhala?

I read that a defined viscosity oil is recommended for the lp12 to have a defined force to the belt. Any comments?

Great video. In another case, what if it was the motor?

I own a Linn LP12 made in 1976.A couple of days ago the platter stopped rotating. For about a week before this happened I would notice a very mild noise for about 3 seconds that would go away as the platter reached full speed. When I now place my finger on the motor pulley I feel a vibration but no rotation. Could the problem be with the power circuit board which the original board and not an upgrade ?

It's common for the radial lead caps' joints to fail, in addition to the large filter and output caps going bad.

Just to say if you aren't happy with re-capping your Valhalla, an alternative power supply is the Hercules. Arguably better sound but it does give you 33 and 45 RPM. I dropped one in when my Valhalla literally burst into flames! Oh, don't be worried about dark oil - Original Linn turntable oil is black! Very interesting video otherwise, thanks 👍

Power for the motor board is direct off the power mains. Use an isolation transformer if the motor boards needs to be tested on the bench. Two power supplies on that board. One is HV used to drive the motor amplifier, other is a 9VDC used to run the CMOS logic stall divider, LP filter, control circuit and part of the motor drive amplifier. Most common fault, the three 47uF 'lytic capacitors, there is a power line inrush limiter that can give problems. The slow roasting of the capacitors is due to the 15K resistors used as a rectified power line voltage divider. These 15K resistors dissipate about 1.6 watts long as the Linn is plugged in. Highly recommended to replace these with two 7.5K @ 5 watt power resistors to spread out the heat and reduce further heat damage to the pcb. While you're in this board, replace ALL the 'lytic capacitors as the OEM units are mostly awful. The power mains rectifier some times die. Other designed in problem is R33, 180K @ 1/2watt resistor. It is under rated and tends to roast. This can happen to R32, 560K @ 1/4watt resistor which is a divider for the motor amplifier first stage using an op-amp. This resistor is also over worked by heat. It is possible to find poor solder connections on these boards. Check this as another potential intermittent problem source.

You should use light machine old for the bearing , it's a white bearing liner . And you should fill the bearing with oil and put tissue knotted around the bearing and replace the inner platter and then remove the inner platter and the bearing oil is done , the way you did it , there's not enough oil in it the way you did it .

this is a later production turntable, or one that has been upgraded to have the gray sleeve inside the platter bearing (and black suspension bolts), made of a high-impact material called Peek, and which is ventilated to let the air out quickly when you reinstall the platter. Therefore don't let the platter fall hard into the bearing. Also, you didn't use anywhere near enough oil.

I had a first generation LP12 (33 1/3 only) payed $400 in the late 70s or early 80s , and the Poster "Garbage In Garbage Out." Wish I had never traded it in.

I had the same problems with my LP-12 a couple years ago. I re-capped the board but it didn't solve the problem. Then I ordered a Hercules power supply from Stamford Audio in the UK. It was not cheap but the Hercules gives you 45 rpm -- comes with a new switch to allow 33 1/3 or 45 rpm. Unfortunately that still didn't fix the problem :( so I bought a new motor, also not cheap. But that fixed the problem and even though it was a chunk of change, I think I won't have any more problems for a long time.

Linn use Velocite No 6 high speed spindle oil and filled so the oil seeps out of the bearing when the inner platter is fully down.

Some euro tables spec a gear oil for their bearings. 75W90. I know Rega does. Can buy a quart of gear oil for $6.00

Can you describe how to troubleshoot the motor if the power supply repair did not fix the issue?

I had an LP 12 years ago w/the Valhalla sound board, and the Itok 4 arm. Loved it, but man, if you bumped it by accident you had to set it up all over again. Had it before there were really good sound deadening/vibration cancelling racks. I had to buy a rack and mount it to the studs. Went to VPI, and never regretted it.

I have 3 dual tables love to have a Linn but they have sky rocket in price now

Make damn sure you unplug it before going underneath. I caught a very nasty mains shock just by touching one of the springs.

Sir, I have LP12 with Zeta arm just got from a friend from usa, but since I'm in India ur Voltage is 230v/50HZ but the one I have is 110v /60hz, where can I source 50hz pulley.

Don't forget Thorens has a chassis/sub chassis design as well.

It took a 'turn' for the worse, but in the end it 'turned' out okay....LOL Nice!

great video you need to put more oil down the bearing should take a while for the spindle to fully drop and put a bit on the motor

I wonder if you can get strobe disks anymore, I used to do HiFi repair a long time ago, this brings back some memories!

that turntable is truly amazing, its like perfection! one of these days i’ll have one of my own. are they high maintenance?

To prevent belt stretch, slip and shine it is, in my opinion good practice to give the platter an assistive spin whilst you switch on....also periodic belt clean with isopropyl.

iPhones a lot heavier than an lp how does it compensate!

when using the lift , everything is moving too much, which is not a good thing of the LINN...

Isn't the oil going to drain out when you flip it upside down?

Glad i came across this vid as i have heard so much about how great the Linn LP12 is - well for my money i will stick to my Rega Planer 2 , which to my mind is far simpler , less to go wrong and the sound it produces is magic to my ears.For starters that suspension - is that really needed and that sheet metal underside , does that not produce minute resonance acting like an amplifier? Then the metal sub and main platters are also resonance producers compared to the sensible glass platter of my Rega. Also my Rega has a ball bearing that sits at the bottom of the bronze centre sleeve and the sub platter's shaft sits on top of that ball bearing , which equates to a point load effect with minimum friction.For me a better system than this Linn. Another advantage with my Rega is that i can buy a new o-ring drive belt from an engineering supply at negligible cost and works just as good as an original Rega o-ring. The only criticism i had with my Rega was that the sub platter was made from resin and thus very light , so i made my own one out of SOLID brass with a hardened steel centre shaft and that adds another kilogram of extra torque to the spin.It will take a huge amount of cash to buy a turntable to better it.

Ivor Tiefenbrun would have told you that changing the caps away from the original make would completely destroy the sound. There again, he often talked bollocks.

SondeK. I know it looks like an R

Thanks for this video, it's an area I avoid but I'll send my viewers to this page.

You have to fill the whole bearing with oil not just a couple of drops

Mann, oh Mann, was für ein Murks. Schwarzes Schmiermittel im Tellerlager deutet auf einen hohen Verschleiß hin. Ich habe einen 10 Jahre alten Project RPM 1.3 Genie. Bei dem habe ich bis jetzt 2 Mal das Tellerlager kontrolliert, alles blank, glasklares weißes Schmiermittel.

It so happens the Thorens TD150 top plate will fit exactly into an LP12 plinth. It is not by coincidence either. The spring points and subchassis fixings are measure for measure identical. Linn in fact (Ariston) made a well engineered TD150. The black oil is Linn's recommended lubricant. The Valhalla supply was notoriously unreliable. Every single Valhalla will end up the way this one has - this must have been low hours - most died in the same manner as yours 20 years ago? Speed is adjusted by carefully adjusting the motor tilt - Tilt away to slow, toward platter to increase. Use the arm board as an indicator for spring setting levels - and it looks nicer if the arm board is flush all round. Spend time dressing arm cable allowing a free bounce as this is crucial for performance, tighten that 'P' clip hard. The AR was NOT the first suspended turntable as history keeps forever flippin' telling us...there were others, and I will leave it to anyone interested to research and find one - at least.

This is very informative and well presented. It looks like he`s punched the hi - fi dealer who ripped him off in the first place.

Accelerometers in smartphones aren't really that accurate... I can recommend you to get a strobe light app and print a strobe disc, way more reliable. If you have the money to burn: factory made strobe disc might be even more accurate. I like your collection of Wiha tools there, I also have some, but not that many haha Mostly Knipex and Wera.

It's Sondek not sonder?

Concerning slow start-up times on an LP12 Valhalla: When servicing Valhalla boards, Linn now recommends adjusting the board to output 70-75 volts as opposed to the earlier spec of 85 volts. This results in a very slow start up, but also lower motor noise (smaller AC pulses), the benefit being an even a more black, more silent background when listening to music.

15:05 33 rpm is 1% too slow, not .01%

33.03 is lousy job. that power supply can be dialed in exactly you know.

More oil in the bearing of a LP12

He has a Led Zeppelin III platter mat, but mispronounces "Valhalla."

they did AR

THAT WAS GOOD BUT NOT PERFECT JOB,YOU HAD HAD TO ADJUST TO THE NOMINAL 33.33 SO FAR THIS IS A PRECISE DEVICE ONLY THE OPERATING VOLTAGE HAD TO UPRISE GAINING THE ADEQUATE RESULT.IF I SAW GOOD THERE WAS A QUARTZ LOCKED CIRCUIT

the correct term is SONDEK not sonde'R' , You may also note that every LINN product features the letter K throughout its entire range from day one in 1972 to the present and every day going forward, more info:-www.positive-feedback.com/pfbackissues/0706/Ivor.7n6.html#:~:text=Bruce%20Kinch%3A%20It's%20been%20said,hundreds%22%20conventional%20gear%20goes%20for.

Linn SondeR? Wow Phone app for speed check? 👎 What power supply was that?? 2 -3 drops of motor oil? Um Linn oil is black If you have an LP12 run, don’t walk. I think this was this tech’s first experience with a Linn LP12

Your knuckles suggest you dont accept late payments..

Never touch the spindle with your fingers!!!

It is called a Linn Sondek.

point zero nine zero....? No it should run at 33 and a 1/3, so point three zero three off innit.

이영표씨이구만요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

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actually NO - Linn stole the idea from Ariston ... google those - the similarity is remarkable

Clearly this guy has no idea of how to service an LP12. The main bearing should only be topped up with Linn black oil, no other type should be used. Likewise, you clean the spindle shaft with a soft cloth, not ruff kitchen paper. If you really want your deck to work at its best, have it serviced by your local Linn dealer who has all the tools, oil and parts to get it working at its very best. Guys like this are a definite no no.

I hate to do this and I'm sorry, but.......FIRST!

i'd never want a turntable like that, looks flimsy with it bouncing around like that and the belt slipping so much it can't have an accurate speed. My sl1200mk2 looks much better quality