![]() Okay, so it had three rubber feet, but to those used to twiddling their LP12 springs on a cold winter’s eve, the Basik was to all intents and purposes running with no shoes or socks on, naked as the day it was born. In some ways quite impressive, there were nevertheless some all-too-obvious compromises. Most shocking to Castlemilk traditionalists was the lack of suspension. More surprising was the design of the thing. Selling for under £350, it came as quite a shock to Linn fans who’d always assumed the company was exclusively a purveyor of ‘premium’ products. It’s into this climate that the Basik turntable was born. The success of Pro-Ject, and the ever-growing presence of Rega suggested that the decks that punters wanted to buy were either ‘cheap and cheerful’ or expensive and ecstatic. The bottom end of the market was still reasonably buoyant, however. Sondek sales continued solidly – the popularity of CD was hardly a threat to buyers who wanted ‘the best source money can buy’ – but the Axis seemed to be fading. There was a discernible move away from buying turntables as a primary source. Together with the Sondek, it made Linn’s range of vinyl spinners very respectable. Launched in the late eighties at the very competitive £299 price point, thanks to the introduction of the Akito tonearm and Linn’s penchant for increasing its prices just a little faster than most, it had become quite a pricey deck in its own right. ![]() The Axis completed the Scottish company’s turntable portfolio. ![]() By contrast, the LP12 had been around for some twenty years, sold bucket loads and very few (in the UK at least) had even began to question its seemingly unassailable position as ‘the best turntable in the world’. After all, its Karik/Numerik CD spinner had only been around for a couple of years, and the LK1/LK280 pre-power amplifier combo was far from being omnipresent. Back in the early nineties, Linn Products was still regarded primarily as a high end specialist turntable manufacturer. ![]()
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