I’m more intrigued by this line of thought, and it’s also easy to test. Maybe the Kore subchassis is to blame - possibly because it’s not flat/true (which it definitely isn’t) I think swapping in other cartridges (the Troika and the venerable Adikt) should help sort this one out. I’m not hearing much sibilance, or obvious signs of mistracking, so I sort of doubt this is the main issue. You can see it doing its thing in the video below. At the maximum tracking weight and with the anti-skate set to the most tracking-conducive setting, it tracked the first “stress test” track (+12dB) pretty well, and got through the second (+14dB) with some distortion, then gave the third an honest shot before failing (+16dB). To test this hypothesis, I finally bought the Hi-Fi News Test LP to see if it had a tracking problem. (Unless there’s something wrong with the Best Tractor, which I doubt.)īut this cartridge came to me used, and although the (trustworthy) person who sold it to me told me it only has 50 hours of usage, maybe he was wrong, and maybe it’s worn out. Maybe there’s something wrong with the cartridgeĪfter obsessively checking alignment, I’m sure it’s spot on. (Update: Most of the mystery here was cleared up by removing the Kore and installing the Mober subchassis. Why did this expensive setup not sound better than the cheaper one it replaced? On amazing-sounding recordings like Joy Division’s “Atmosphere,” I was left pretty disappointed. Only two of the worst-sounding test tracks (The Beach Boys and Mingus) sounded better here than in Round 5. But on more delicate tracks, I definitely missed some detail, springiness, and natural, lifelike presentation.
![best amp with linn ekos best amp with linn ekos](http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/1455/picture1981.jpg)
On my most rock-n’-roll tracks (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Panda,” “Halleluwah”) this setup sounded really, really good. Although it lost a bit of treble definition by weighting itself so heavily to the bottom end, in most cases I was happy with the compromise. In general, I really enjoyed its smooth and bass-heavy presentation. It’s not that this configuration sounded bad. According to my way of recording scores, the setup this round sounded 9.6% better than Round 6 (XX-2/Nima/Mober), but 5.8% worse than Round 5 (Adikt/Nima/Mober). Was it a cartridge/arm mismatch? Was it poor alignment? Both seem likely in retrospect, and my other hypotheses still hold some weight.īut hope persisted: if I nailed the alignment and put the XX-2 mkII on a very fancy tonearm, the Linn Ekos 2, the combination should sound better than the much cheaper Nima/Adikt combination.Īlthough it sounded way better than the XX-2/Nima/Mober configuration, the XX-2/Ekos 2/Kore still sounded considerably worse than the Adikt/Nima/Mober combination. Whatever the reason, swapping out an Adikt MM cartridge ($700USD MSRP) and installing a considerably fancier and more expensive Dynavector XX-2 mkII MC cartridge ($2000USD MSRP) - and running it through the same Dynavector phono sage, which you’d think would favor the Dynavector cartridge - made my system sound awful.
#Best amp with linn ekos full#
Full listening impressions on the Ekos and Kore are below digestible, numerical summaries of all my listening tests are here. You can read about the installation process for both, and check out my listening methodology.
![best amp with linn ekos best amp with linn ekos](https://www.stereonet.com/uk/images/uploads/4581/ekstatik_ekos_se_closeup_72__large_full.jpg)
#Best amp with linn ekos install#
In the latest edition of the LP12 Modification Frenzy, I install a very fancy tonearm and a moderately fancy subchassis, both made by Linn. LP12MF Listening Test: Linn Ekos 2 Tonearm and Kore Subchassis