Has anyone done the Ekos upgrade ie. ekos1 to ekos2.
I am thinking of having this done when my LP12 gets serviced next month.
What will the upgrade bring me - sonicaly. It seems a bloody bargin at £450 for an £1850 tonearm !!
also I have a klyde at the momnet any suggestion on a replacement, another Klyde ?? or something in that price range.
Phil

Mike £acey has done the Ekos 1 to 2 thing and rates it highly.

He would also recommend the Akiva.

Didn't you say you were going to get Colin Macey to weave his magic on your LP12? If you go to the shop, I'm sure he'll give you the demo and you'll want one...

yes I plan to get Colin to work over my LP12.
I will ask for a demo of course but was just trying to see what the extra cash will buy me. I am used to CD upgrades etc and clearly understand what eah gives, but I am new to this vinyl thing so need some encouragment. The danger is I will over blow my budget, my wife already thinks I am mad !! having the grand total of 12 LP's and spending £1000 on my deck and planning another £1000 on these upgrades.
Still its only money
Phil

I'm contemplating the same step of going from Ekos 1 to Ekos 2; probably in February or March.

My understanding is that the £450 upgrade option involves a change of bearing only. While the bearing is of critical importance to the arm, I have to say that I am not clear as to whether this upgrade results in an Ekos 2 or 'merely' in an improved Ekos 1 (Ekos 1.5, so to speak?).

You might want to check out this point. If you do, please let me know the answer.

I would recommend the Akiva as well. I got mine at the start of this month and it is truly wonderful.

Dan

fled,
I don't wish to dampen your enthusiasm, but have you paused to think just how many 2nd hand LP's a grand will buy. Surely thats the best way to enjoy your kit. Upgrades can (and almost certainly will) come later.
Regards,
Steve O.

Shortly after the Ekos came out, I bought one. Very shortly after that, the dealer said, "Some of the Ekos tonearms have crappy bearings. Bring in your table." Mine was bad, so he swapped it. AFAIK, the only difference between the Ekos I and II is the quality of the bearings. It's not necessarily a matter of age. Apparently, some of the earliest ones (like mine) are okay--which makes them Ekos IIs.

If anyone has information to the contrary, please post.

quote:

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The danger is I will over blow my budget, my wife already thinks I am mad !! having the grand total of 12 LP's and spending £1000 on my deck and planning another £1000 on these upgrades.

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fled,

I think your wify is right.

I have much lower specked LP12 and at least have more LPs than you do!

Is this upgrade a complete swap out of your tonearm or is your tomearm sent to the Linn factory for the upgrade? If so, how long will I be without my tunes?

john

Kuma.
12 and growing I plan on adding at least 4 a week
As I have not that many cd's 200 ish of which I play about 20. I thought I should relook at which source I prefer and start a collection based on that.
I have convinced my wife Vinyl is the way to go (still trying to convince myself though !!) given the options spending another £5k on a CDS3 or £2k on a top spec LP12.
I choose the LP12 and vinyl and so far am very happy. The ekos upgrade I need to be sure it brings benifits otherwise I shall stop at this spec.
Phil

quote:

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As I have not that many cd's 200 ish of which I play about 20. I thought I should relook at which source I prefer and start a collection based on that.
I have convinced my wife Vinyl is the way to go (still trying to convince myself though !!) given the options spending another £5k on a CDS3 or £2k on a top spec LP12.

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fled,

for me, the music and software availablity drove the decision what to spend on each playback.
Having a reference quality vinyl playback is a *luxury* for me since most of my music still come in CDs.

If all of the music I listen to comes in vinyl, I'll invest lot more. ( Lyra Olympus, here I come! )

Hi fled,I too have an lp12/lingo/ekos/klyde.
Approx 5yrs ago, my dealer, during a service noticed that the ekos bearing was shagged.He got it back to linn,where the bearing was replaced f.o.c.They didn't mention "upgrade to ekos2", I just thought it was a rogue bearing,& good customer service.Didn't really hear any fundamental improvement,maybe just slightly tighter.Never heard a better cartridge for similar money to the klyde,if anyone knows of one,I'd be keen to know as well.Arkiv/akiva out of my range, I'm afraid.
Adding so much new music, & also improving your lp12 will be a great thing to do,I am envious.Best of luck, matt

Fled

Sage advice from Kuma! Having the Ekos upgraded may wring some improvement from your system but investing in more records will bring you much, much more.

It is, of course, your money so ultimately you need to do what you want to do but I know how much enjoyment I would get out of £1000 worth of new records.

Trust me, even after you get that Ekos upgrade you'll still be trying to figure out how to make it just that bit better...

After all, as good as vinyl is, how much do you really want to invest in what is now a niche medium with limited availability - no matter how good it sounds?

Jim

I was given the impression by my dealer, who advocates the Ekos I > II upgrade, that the arm that is returned is all new and that the old arm is deep sixed.

I too have a klyde, my third one, and have yet to find a cartridge to replace it with, except the Akiva but then that is pretty big money…1000 hrs for 1800 quid nearly 2 quid an hour. Of course this hourly cost could be reduced if one stays with Linn and takes the 600 pound trade in offer on a new Akiva. Finding a new cartridge is quite tricky as discussed in this thread…

http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=67019385&f=48019385&m=160106725

J

I dont plan spending anything unless I can here a substantial improvment ref the EKOS upgrade.
And I fully agree on spending more on Lp,s infact just bought 5 from HMV.
Jim - I understand your comments but not sure its such a niche medium, out of the 5 I just bought 3 are new released music (A girl called eddy, Emiliana Torrini - Fishermans women and push the button - Chemical broters)all of which I could have got on CD.
I dont plan to give up on CD,s infact have bought 2 of those today as well but in preference I will go for vinyl. I guess time will tell if this was a good move or not ?
Phil

Julian

Just out of interest. Where did you get the 1000 hours as the lifespan of a cartidge?

That's about 3.5 LP's a day for a year. Seems a bit on the short side for a lifespan estimate It is diamond on pretty soft vinyl after all.

Fled

Of the top 1000 selling CD's available today how many are available on vinyl? I don't know the answer but if it's 10% I'll be surprised.

I ask that as an LP12/Syrinx PU3/Dynavector 17D2 MkII owner so I'm not anti LP by any means.

Cheers

Jim

Jim - I understand your point and dont disagree in general. Before I decided to go down the LP12 route I did a little researc and yes from the top selling cds there are some but not many on LP maybe your 10% is not far from the mark.
In terms of qulaity (??) music the ratio seems a little better. God that sounds patronising !! I dont mean it in that way. I mean much of the good stuff is available on LP as well as CD, well the stuff I like anyhow.
Phil

re LP availability

it depends on what you listen to. Sure the top selling commercial albums are difficult to get on vinyl. But I can get at least 50% (or more) of the music I listen to (indie rock, electronica mainly) on vinyl. Check out Insound.com and gemm.com
I only buy the CD when I can't get it on vinyl, and I really want an original.

I was led to believe that the Ekos 1 - 2 upgrade gave you a new arm. Although I may be wrong. I was also led to believe that the new Ekos is wired up with different cable inside and that the upgrade comes with the new T cable arm lead.

If someone who has done the change would care to correct me.

Sean.

Phil,

This whole thread strikes me as insane. My God, buy some more music! How did you get to the point that out of 200 CDs purchased, only 20 of them float your boat? Sell the other 180 and look for some more keepers. Have fun shopping for new and used vinyl for a while and maybe you'll find some music that lights your fire. Why not simply get a proper tune-up for your current LP12 setup and then forget about the hardware for a while?

If you choose to ignore the above, at this point do you even know what specific sonic upgrades are you looking for with your vinyl playback?

All the best,

Bill

Jim,

I got the time from such threads as :

http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=67019385&f=48019385&m=4421916066&r=5641916066#5641916066

and


http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=67019385&f=48019385&m=5441901704&r=5441901704#5441901704

My dealer suggested the same and my limited experience, with the Klydes, tally with approximately that kind of life span. The Klydes all exhibited end of side distortion, particularly noticeable on things like female vocals, when they approached 1000 hrs use. When viewed under a high powered microscope (at the dealers) the tell tale elliptical highlights could be clearly seen on the diamond, this is a good indicator of stylus wear. (All were mounted in an Ekos I.)

Other cartridges may of course wear differently.


Sean,

Now you come to say I also remember something about the new arm cable being standard, it can be bought as a separate upgrade too can’t it?

May be we should email Linn tomorrow, for clarification rather than guessin’?