detailed and musical sound

needs some more isolation in high volumes

Well ,this could be a real revelation for an entry level stereophile.Especially if you find a second hand bargain like my Axis.Allright,it my seam expensive to those
used in buying Japanese "toasters"and maybe it is the poor baby brother for the HiEnd freaks,still I can't find something better in the immediate competition.But with one addition:the Roksan Tabriz-Zi tonearm.Though it is less than half the price of a new Akito,I think is one of the best tonearms regardless of price.The adaptation may need some skill,but the result is pure Musical bliss.The Axis deserves a very good tonearm,and after trying also the original Akito I'm sure that the Tabriz sounds far better.
The system unveils it's great rythmic capabilities better
accompanied by a good MM cartridge(rather than a difficult MC)such as the Roksan Chorus,the twin Goldring 1042,or the Ortofon 540.Take under consider that for perfect performance in high volume it needs some extra isolation, so your mum's old bookselve is no such a good idea.I custom made a base with a sandwitch of wood-rubber-crystal on steel cones and seems to work fine.My Axis-Tabriz-Ortofon 540 system,followed by an Audiolab 8000A and a pair of Acoustic Energy 109 gives a blush of shame to many $3500+
CD-based systems.An analog reader of a new class.Highly recommended!

Similar Products Used:

Pro-ject 2,Rega 2

Very musical, and supremely reliable

Poor isolation

This turntable has brought me lots of pleasure since I bought it in the late 80's. Although it's no longer in production, it can be found second-hand. This is a very reliable, good sounding turntable. I've brought mine on a tour over the last 13 years - from England to Norway,U.S.A, Mozambique, and then back here in the U.SA. I recently replaced the motor, and had a general service... that's the least I could do to an old friend. I've used an Audio Technica AT-OC9 from the start - great combination!
My Linn Axis has outlived an Incha-Teach and a Reaga amplifer, and has performed well with a range of speakers.
My current set-up is: Quad 77 pre& (much under-rated), Quad 77 CD, and Proac 2000 Signature with Rel Strata II sub-woofer. It's a great combination for the wide range of music I like to play. The turntable shines after the recent service, so I choose LPs over CDs when I can find them!

Sound quality available at this secondhand price is great.

Not at this price.

Whilst scanning www.loot.com I found an Ad for a 2nd hand Linn Axis, i'd never heard of it before and thought i'd go for a listen. It sounded very good, even though it had a cheap Audio Technica Cart in it, I bought it.

I upgraded the Cart to a Goldring Eroica (high output Moving Coil) and the sound has been pleasing me for three years now.

It plays 33/45 brilliantly and has improved listening to my pretty large collection of vinyl. One day i'll grow up and get an LP12 but for now i'm very, very happy with the Axis.

Don't forget Linn will stock parts for the turntable for ever and ever. Also they will do servicing jobs too, so if you see one going for a song, buy it, if it needs a little help take it to a Linn Dealer they will sort it out.

Similar Products Used:

Thorens Td160/SME3009 MKII/Linn K5

Just buy a Linn Turntable (any), mix it with a good integrated amp/speaker combo and forget about HI-FI/tweeks. Take your leftover cash, focus on the MUSIC (not hi-fi), and support (or be a part of) the local live music scene (rock, blues, jazz, county, symphony).
Linn is for people who like music, not equipment (toys), and is made to last.

This is where it all started for me. I bought my first real Hi-fi in 1988 at a time when CD was hyped as 'perfect' and the general public were abandoning vinyl replay in huge numbers. So being a well informed 16 year old, I bought a Linn Axis, Arcam Alpha II amplifier, and JPW P1 speakers. At the time I really wanted an LP12 but couldn't afford one. It took me 3 years to save up for a Lingo LP12 and I still have it today. Anyway, back to the Axis. Compared with the LP12 it is obvious where the corners were cut. First, the platter that weighs 3.75KG on the LP12 is a lot lighter on the Axis and doesn't have the same general high quality feel. Second, the isolation system employed by the Axis is fairly primative and to be honest doesn't work that well. Placing the stylus on a stationary record with the volume set to maximum and tapping the plinth or stand is a fairly crude test of the effectiveness of the isolation system employed by any turntable. In the case of the Axis it produces a noticable bass boom. A well set up LP12 on the other hand produces just about nothing. As you would expect from this, the bass quality and extension of the Axis were not that great. The mid-range and treble compared with more expensive decks also could sound harsh with rather grey tonal colours. In the rhythm and timing department it was typically Linn and compared with other decks sold at a similar price point at the time however, the Axis was very good. I auditioned it against the Michell Synchro, Rega Planar 3, and Revolver and it won fairly comfortably. In conclusion, this deck looks smart, is well engineered, and comes from a company that is pretty much a legend in the field. If you can get one second hand fairly cheaply it would probably be a good buy, but check the tip of the bearing first for damage. A small black spot is bad news! Don't however, expect this deck to sound like an LP12 on the cheap cos it doesn't.

I have had Axis about ten years and I'm satisfied with the sound quality and ease of use.
As described by earlier reviewer, my unit also has plinth and subchassis in slightly different level and that "spontaneous start problem", so I keep it unplugged (turned off from external power switch) when not in use. It was a surprise to find this kind of imperfection from Linn product. If someone knows cure for that, I'd like to know.

This was often referred to as high-end turntable, but I think this is just a good sounding turntable, which is easy to set up and has nice timeless design.

I bought my 1989-vintage Axis used several years ago to replace an entry-level Dual. It has the Akito arm. I've used a Grado Z1 and a Sumiko Blue
Point (had the Z1 on my Dual previously). Noticed less record noise and
greater pitch stability right away. Darker sounding yet better imaging
than the Dual, too. I am delighted with it and, of course, now frequent
used record shops and garage sales to gobble up LPs!

I had this TT for almost two trouble-free years, it was an upgrade for an old Thorens 165 Deck. On the plus side you will find an easy setup and use product, minimal speed variations and a solid musical presentation
(this means, top to bottom coherence, neutral and uncoloured delivery).
On the minus side you will very easy want to upgrade to the next step (Linn LP12 or other higher standard TT due to the unavailiability to upgrade it,
it is good in every aspect but not extraordinary in any single issue regarding TT performance.)
Note: Now it is deleted from the Linn product list, check for a used, well keeped unit.

In the world of turntable manufacturers, Linn's status is one that others strive to attain. Some come close, many do not, but no other company has
been a leader in high performance record playback systems like Linn has. Over
the years, a number of turntables have appeared that have gained popularity
akin to or even greater than the LP-12, but time has shown that those products
eventually fade from the audiophile spotlight, while the Linn table still remains
the reference for getting the music off a vinyl record. Why is that, one may
wonder, when many of the competing products are said to be superior in one way
or another? A dose of Linn's glaswegian perspective is in order, perhaps

The subculture of hi-end audio is one of fads, just like any culture that exists.
Over the years, we have seen various things become the 'de facto' standards by
which an audio product is judged. Bass performance, transparency, imaging, smoothness: these, and many more, have been the basis of audio's 'MVP' list for some
(limited or otherwise) period of time. Given that a company producing specialist
hi-fi gear knows it faces a tough market, it is common to try and appeal to
the most popular thing on an audiophiles wish list. "If they want imaging, by God,
we'll give them imaging!" It makes good business sense, and has sold a lot of
products for a lot of company’s. Linn, however, has not followed the trends in
hi-fi. Rather, they have followed a philosophy that can basically be summed up
with two words: information retrieval. (I can almost hear the movie "Brazil"
playing in the background:) They see a record as a piece of software that contains
extremely hard to retrieve information that represents sound, and the turntable
as a tool used to extract that information from it. That tool, by it's mechanical
nature, can corrupt the information, and the result will not be an accurate
depiction of the recording. Over the years, Linn has refined their tool to extract
more information and corrupt it less. They have shown a keen sense for knowing
what corruption’s would distract the most from being able to enjoy the music
on a record, and then honed the performance of the turntable system to minimize those
distortions. Listening to a current top end LP-12 will show that the resulting
tool has become quite sharp, indeed. In order to accomplish this, the LP-12 is made to extremely high standards, and is expensive as a result. Not everyone will be able to finance such a device, so Linn accommodated this reality by introducing the Axis, which was a much more affordable tool to use when listening to music contained on a vinyl record. The question is, how well can that tool perform?

The Axis sounds, well, like a Linn record player. The sense of hearing ‘into’ a performance is a hallmark of the LP-12. The Axis gives a large degree of the same type of listening experience that the LP-12 delivers, and as a result it provides a fun and musically invigorating experience. The listeners mind is automatically directed to the music, rather than the hi-fi. This was very evident when comparing it to it’s most obvious peer, the Rega Planar 3. The Axis was equipped with the latest version of the Akito tonearm and a K-9 cartridge; the Planar 3 had the RB-300 arm and an Elys cartridge. The rest of the system was a Nad 314 integrated amplifier, Kimber 4pr speaker cable, and PSB 300 loudspeakers mounted on sand-filled Sound Organization Hi-Stands. Recordings used were Donald Fagan’s "The Nightfly", Lucida Williams self titled album, Ricki Lee Jones’ self titled album, and "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis.

Truly, both turntables sounded good, but they differed in a way that was undeniable. Comparisons between different albums became a moot point. The Axis simply enabled you to hear the performance of the band more than the Rega did. Each record showed an individuality and sense of life on the Linn deck. On the Rega, that type of performance was constrained, at best, and unless you knew it was there; having heard it through the Linn, you wouldn’t consider that the records had those qualities. Both tables tracked the records fine, and neither produced any distortion that negatively effected the sound or caused distractions. The Linn was simply more fun to listen to in such a way that made it seem frivolous to continue using the Rega. The Rega sounded darker, and had more bass energy in it’s sound, but did not create the same sense of appreciation for the music, and it’s performers, as did the Linn. The Linn did not sound bright or bass shy in any way; indeed, it sounded extremely balanced. The instruments sounded more like their real selves, and had whatever amount of bass or treble energy that was natural. The extra bass on the Rega seemed to add, rather than remove, the awareness of a hi-fi being part of the experience. The Linn imaged in a way that included the whole event, i.e. the musicians playing with each other at the same time. The placement suggested that the instruments existed just as they had been panned on the recording. The Rega’s imaging was smaller, and not as suggestive of the performers playing with and off of each other. It was not bad, but after hearing the Linn get it right, the Rega sounded contrived. It has been said that when you get a Linn, it’s like getting a whole new record collection. That statement was directed at the LP-12, but applies to the Axis as well. Listening to music played on the Axis made time spent in front of a pair of loudspeakers seem like time well spent.

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to go and buy a new Axis. In this day and age, with the compact disc claiming most sales, Linn found that people serious enough about their albums to buy a turntable system that cost close to $1500 were serious enough to buy the LP-12. Not everyone, mind you, but enough to make it cost ineffective to continue producing it. After the aforementioned comparisons were made, an LP-12 Cirkus, with the Basik power supply, Trampolinn and arm/cartridge similar to the Axis, was put into the system. The difference between it and the Axis was as dramatic as the comparison between the Axis and the Rega. The LP-12 gave more music in every regard, and the presentation took on an organic, architecturally correct perspective. It sounded more real, and was obviously the turntable that was the one to try and match, let alone beat! However, for the music lover on a budget, a well cared for second hand Axis will give a lot of enjoyment, and the arm and cartridge will fit on an LP-12, should you ever want to jump in the deep end of the pool. Linn dealers are used to people upgrading, so your search for a used table should include them; a lot of people seem to make that jumpJ



Martin Taulu lives and plays electric guitar in Austin, Tx. He sells many brands of hi-fi equipment, but has a Linn Aktiv Keltik system with a fully loaded LP-12 at home. He uses a *tweaked* Optimus 3400 (thanks, Craig) for CD playback. His favorite records are mostly by Frank Zappa.

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