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REVIEW: CFTech Carbon Fiber Subchassis and Armboard Accessory

Model:	Carbon Fiber Subchassis and Armboard
Category:	Accessory
Suggested Retail Price:	$1000.00 AU
Description:	CF and balsawood laminated subchassis and armboard for the Linn LP12
Manufacturer URL:	CFTech
Model Picture:	View

Review by risabet on September 10, 2007 at 12:44:14 IP Address: 204.108.96.21

Add Your Review for the Carbon Fiber Subchassis and Armboard

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Classic, the Linn LP12 certainly meets anyone’s definition of a classic and for the last thirty-five years, rightly or wrongly, has been the standard by which turntables are measured. The Linn Company has released a rather large number of incremental upgrades/improvements over that time. This review is of two different upgrades, a non-Linn manufactured carbon fiber subchassis and armboard retailing for $1000.00 AU by after-market manufacturer Andy Redwood (redwood.andrew@gmail.com) from the land down under, and a free modification that anyone with an LP12 can do.

Mod #1 (Motor flip mod)

This free, that’s right, free, mod is so simple and once completed so clearly an improvement that you’ll kick yourself for not knowing about it or doing it sooner. It is simply to move the motor from the rear, left-hand side to the front left-hand side. This is effected by stripping the table down to the plinth, removing the top plate and flipping it back-to-front. You will have to spend some sweat equity in refinishing the underside of the top plate as it becomes the top (400 grit W/D sandpaper and mineral spirits works quite well), remount the motor in the new position, reassemble, adjust and balance the table and away you go. The benefit here is clearly in much improved pitch stability and bass extension and smoothness. Sustained piano notes are clearly more stable, with better extension and power. The Guaraldi disc now has a more solid representation of the 88’s and a generally more solid image w/o any movement of the soundstage. Those of you with newer LP12s with the reinforced top plate cannot do this as the mounting stud on the bottom will now be on the top.

Mod # 2 (Carbon fiber subchassis and armboard)

One of the limitations of the LP12 is the stamped metal subchassis and the need to attach the armboard to it through a “lossy” connection of three tiny screws, a rigid connection allowing the resonances of said subchassis to come through loud and clear. Linn has recently addressed this by releasing the “Keel” a one piece subchassis/armboard machined from a single billet of aluminum and designed for Linn arms for circa £1950.00 ($4000.00)! Having not hit the lottery or senility I found that to be just ridiculous so I opted for a carbon fiber subchassis and armboard. The theoretical benefit of the CF is that it is sonically much more neutral than the pressed steel subchassis and so allows a tight connection between the armboard and the subchassis which is accomplished with three stainless steel bolts.

So, how does it sound? Before we go there let’s briefly look at how the unit is installed and such. Installation requires a total strip down to the plinth of the LP12. The bearing is moved over to the new subchassis and the whole thing is reassembled, adjusted and balanced. One has to be careful not to over torque the connections between the armboard and the subchassis as a too tight connection can rob the system of life IMO. The suspension is then leveled, the bounce is corrected and the tonearm cable is dressed. The entire endeavor took about three hours including cleaning parts and contacts. NB: If you don’t own one, build a set-up jig from some plywood or lumber. The jig makes stripping and set-up infinitely easier.

The albums used to evaluate the change are:
Holst: “The Planets” Mehta LAPO Decca SXL6529 (Massed orchestral sound, tonal balance, string tone)
Schubert: “Symphony # 5” Sound 80 DD (String tone)
Copland: “Appalachian Spring” Reference RR-22 (Imaging and string tone)
“Cantate Domino” Proprius 7762 White Jacket (Massed choir, ambience)
Ravel: “Alborado Del Gracioso": Classic Records test pressing 45rpm LSC-2222 45 (Absolutely stunning dynamics)
Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto: “Getz/Gilberto” Verve810 048-1 (Natural timbre and imaging)
Vince Guaraldi: “Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus” Fantasy 3337 (Musical integrity)
Harry James: “The King James Version” Sheffield Lab-3 (Image size, specifically drum kit size, proper brass bite and power)
Rickie Lee Jones: “Rickie Lee Jones” Warner BSK 3296 (musical integrity, emotion, resolving power)
Bob Marley and the Wailers: “Survival” Island LPS 9542 (Musical power and emotion)
David Bowie: “Changes Bowie” Ryko Analogue RALP-0171-2 (I just like it)
Suzanne Vega: “Suzanne Vega” A&M SP6-5072 (female vocal)
Dire Straits: “Brothers in Arms” Warner 49377-1 4 side reissue (More audiophile IMO)
Dire Straits: “Brothers in Arms” WB 25264 (More organically whole IMO)
Jennifer Warnes: “Famous Blue Raincoat” Cypress 661 111-1 (Vocal tone, soundstage)
plus others such as Kronos Quartet “White Man Sleeps;” Peter Tosh “Mystic Man;” and Bach “Brandenburg Concertos” performed by Aston Magna on Smithsonian (P3 14834) that are not among my reference discs. A quick aside on the Bach, this is one of the best recordings of these works available. The performance is a HIP one and was recorded with minimal processing, two mikes, and no manipulation of levels except for that made by the players; this is a set to have.
I have never been a fan of CF in TT as I always felt they lacked the spark of life and energy. This set-up has changed my mind on that point. Sonically the CF upgrade is a stunner. Anyone familiar with the LP12 sound will never have mistaken it for a detail hound. Very musical with enormous PRaT, yes, but oodles of detail, no! The addition of the CF components the Linn becomes a much more detailed table w/o any loss in musicality or rhythmic drive. The Linn has always handled surface noise very well, with nice sharp attacks but with a little too much decay IMO. The addition of the CF pieces takes this to a new level, the attacks are quicker and the decay is quicker also. Subjectively the noise becomes less obtrusive and audible. A nice little benefit and one that I attribute to the better damping of the CF compared to the steel subchassis. Background noise is markedly reduced as well, the proverbially “black background” is actually blacker than it was, the music emerging nicely, with less effort.
Musically the CF mod is a no-brainer IMO. On “Bird on a Wire,” from Famous Blue Raincoat the low gravelly bass voice is clearly separated from the melody and yet immersed in the acoustic in a way that is more convincing and believable. Jennifer’s voice has added structure and delicacy, with better integration of her unique vocal style with the overall acoustic. One of the major improvements is in the delineation of the acoustic space of the recording. “Cantate Domino” specifically “Il est né le divin enfant” is well known for capturing the space of the church it was recorded in, the engineers did a marvelous job and I can now hear more deeply into the sound field with greater specificity and detail than before. The complex vocal lines are now awash in the acoustics but with greater clarity and precision. One can follow individual vocal lines more easily and yet hear the blending that the acoustic provides a nice improvement in both musical and audio terms.

The symphonic selections were reproduced with a greater sense of space and much improved clarity and power. On the Holst disc the choir in “Neptune: The Mystic” is hair-raising, not in its power but in the subtle way it appears in the music. Almost subliminally the choir appears out of the background; it is both eerie and moving and is more refined in this behavior than previously. “Mars: The Bringer of War” has the appropriate jump factor and is apparently more dynamic due to better low-level detail retrieval. The Copland is one of my favorite performances of this work, though some find it quite pedestrian. Recorded for chamber orchestra, the inner detail and tone of the strings is skillfully reproduced. Again the CFd LP12 replicates the real thing better than the stock subchassis version. I am just less aware of the reproduction of music as opposed to the hearing of it.

The Getz disc is definitely one of my favorites simply because it is so holistically recorded. This quality is magnified by the recreation of subtle, low-level soundstage cues that are reproduced here for the first time. On “The Girl from Ipanema” Astrud’s voice is now filled with subtle inflections that went unnoticed before. Here they remove a layer of artifice from the sound that is not missed at all. Getz’s sax is reedy and round as a sax should sound and Joao Gilberto’s guitar is spot on. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s piano is nicely placed and harmonically rich.

The Harry James and the Vince Guaraldi discs are both reproduced with a new subtlety and integrity. The drum kit in the HJ album is perfectly reproduced. Transients are the best I’ve heard IMS with fast leading edges and a warmth in the decay that is very realistic (I formerly played percussion),and the size of the kit is spot on, as are the relative positions of each drum and cymbal. The Black Orpheus album is musically complete and more convincing with the CF than the original subchassis. Once again I come back to the quieting of surface and background noise and the retrieval of low-level details that were previously lost in the mix.

The popular albums all benefit from the same things as all of the others did. The RLJ’s is clear and clean, her vocals are better defined and easier to understand, rhythmic drive is undiminished and bass power is more clearly structured than before. Survival by Bob Marley is an album of raw emotion and power that comes through loud and clear with the CF. The Dire Straits album is one of great musical worth and the reissue is one that I previously found to be more audiophile than musically compelling. That has changed with the upgrades to the TT. The reissue has so much more in the way of ambient information, that information so influences the believability of the reproduction that I can now state hands down that the reissue is far and away the more musically satisfying of the two.

Taken as a whole the two mods described above take the LP12 to an entirely new level of refinement. The increase in pitch stability, detail retrieval, specifically ambient clues, and bass power and extension w/o the loss of what the LP12 is rightly known for, the pace, musicality and PRaT of the table is a right spectacular achievement. The free mod is in my opinion a no brainer, sit down and take the time to try it. I doubt you’ll go back. The CF mod is tougher, I haven’t heard the Keeled LP12 and so I have no point of reference. The keel is £1950.00 and the CFTech is $1000.00 AU. Some dedicated Linnies will want the “Keel” because it is a Linn produkt, for the rest of us the CFTech is a sonic revelation and quite a bargain also. I highly recommend both pieces as a cost effective upgrade to the LP12.

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Product Weakness:	The finish on the armboard could be better. Some small bubbles are in the resin if you look closely.
Product Strengths:	The mod is free! The CF is reasonably priced and makes the LP12 better across the board IMO.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Tube Audio Design TAD 1000
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Tube Audio Design TAD 150
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Linn LP12
Speakers:	Martin-Logan Clarity
Cables/Interconnects:	AQ King Cobra, Diamndback, Indigo (SG)
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	See review
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Panamax 5100
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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