Linn Rip off

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

That matters not, it shows the shop up as being part of the same crap that went on.

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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote:This is the dealer DSJR worked for and harps on about not being like I describe
CN211276 wrote:I had the demo on a Saturday, a day when DSJR was not in the shop, as he has advised in a previous thread.
I worked in the 'out in the sticks branch' so wouldn't have ever done the dem. FFS, it's thirty three years ago now and not a life changing epiphany moment. The NW6 shop got a Rega sale and hopefully the purchaser used and enjoyed the thing for some years after. If the sales chap was surprised you 'didn't get it,' it's no big deal as we never worked on commission. Had you gone on three years later, you'd have been able to hear the Rock II and Manticore Mantra as well and these were very good in different ways I remember.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...The time has gone, The song is over, Thought I'd something more to say...

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Lindsayt
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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Lindsayt »

Copperblue wrote: I guess I don't. I bought my first real hifi in the early 1980's when I was doing my A levels - well real to me anyway, AR turntable with Glanz cartridge, Rotel amp (which I preferred over a Nad 3020) and Heybrook HB1s

However, what I do know when I heard my first full on "big" hifi system in the mid-80's it was a Linn / Naim system and it was the best hifi I had heard, it was amazing. That is my experience being oblivious to the shenanigans of Ivor and his cronies. Those extreme activities Linn undertook do not change my memories and a certain fondness to the LP12. As my understanding of what went on increased over the years and my personal experience changed then my view of Linn as a company changed for the worst.

You make Ivor sound like a Scottish mix of Nixon, Idi Amin and Donald Trump.........i don't have that personal experience but respect yours.
I think that the full on Linn Naim system from the early 1980's sounded amazing compared to the Rega, Dual, NAD, Kef Coda type systems of that era. Sounded amazing compared to plasticky Japanese tower systems.

But, and here's the big but, the top of the range Linn Naim system sounded pretty shit compared to top of the range Japanese decks, radio broadcast record players, top of the range Japanese amps, big high efficiency yank speakers etc etc etc from the 1950's through to the 1980's.


When it came to how amazing a sound you could get from an audio system in the 1980's the vast majority of people in the UK were clueless. That includes punters, dealers, manufacturers, magazine journalists.

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

There were few who had a clue Lindsay, but they were either ignored or vilified or called mad :x and I still am :x

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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Lindsayt »

That's just all part of the marketing strategy. Discredit, villify, ridicule anyone who speaks out against the sales message.

I see a lot of parallels between the IvorT Linn cult and the Thomas Quick affair and the AshleyJ AVI sect.

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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Ashley definitely learned for Ivor. He is just not as good at it.

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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Lindsayt »

Or the market and times have moved on. And it's not as easy to get ALL the press / punters / dealers on-side as it used to be.

Especially with there being so many people who now realise they were taken in by the Linn marketing first time round. So they're now wary of that type of "Rah rah rah! We're the best! Everything else is shit." type marketing.

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Re: Linn Rip off

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Ivor was an original, no one had done a job on the hi-fi industry, so it was open and naive back then. Also the dealer were ripe for it as they were in serious problems countering the discounters like Comet, Lasky's etc so they sold on the bullshit with great enthusiasm, and it gained momentum and got out of hand. Once it had so much momentum that most of the *names* in the industry were committed to it then to stand up to it and call the emperor as nude made you attacked and abused. I was virtually driven out of the UK market and for over decade survived almost entirely on export.

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