LP12 power supplies and motors, 1972 to today: what you have and how it ages

The motor of an LP12 has one job, to turn the platter at exactly the right speed without adding any noise of its own, and the power supply decides how well it does it. Linn has built seven supplies for the deck in fifty years. Some of the older ones are now showing their age, and that is worth understanding before you plan anything else.

How to tell what you have

Power supply	Years	How to tell
Basik	1972 to 2002	A plain mains switch and no separate box. Playing 45s needs an adaptor on the motor pulley.
Valhalla	1982 to 2002; standard from about serial number 38,800	A circuit board inside the plinth, under the top plate. 33 rpm only.
Lingo, first three generations	1990 to 2018	A separate box, and a button on the deck for 33 and 45. The first is a small box; from 2001 it is a full-width Linn case; the last is the slimmer Akurate-style case.
Majik power supply	December 2007 on	Inside the plinth, with a button on the deck. No separate box.
Radikal	2009; second generation 2021	A separate box, and a DC motor in its own housing in the plinth.
Lingo, fourth generation	2018 on	A new motor and speed sensor in the deck, with a small separate supply.
Klimax Radikal	October 2025 on	A machined aluminum case of about 14 kg.
Another maker’s board		A board inside the plinth that is not Linn’s, sometimes with its own switch.

If you are not sure, say so. A photograph of the switch and of anything that sits beside the deck is usually enough for us to tell.

How the power supply got here

The first LP12 had no power supply in the modern sense. Mains power reached the motor through a few passive parts that set the voltage and the phase, and the motor’s speed followed the frequency of the wall socket. In 1974 a small circuit board replaced the original terminal strip, and the two-button switch became one. That is the Basik supply, and it stayed in the catalog for thirty years.

The Valhalla of 1982 was Linn’s first piece of electronics. A crystal oscillator makes its own clean 50 Hz, a filter shapes it into a pure sine wave, and an amplifier drives the motor’s two phases a quarter-turn apart, so the motor no longer depends on what the mains is doing. Linn revised it through the decade: zener diodes in 1987 to improve the waveform, then a double-sided board and surge protection at the mains inlet in 1988, which Linn’s own history sheet lists as performance and reliability improvements.

The Lingo, in September 1990, took the idea out of the plinth and into its own box, away from the cartridge. It used two crystal oscillators, one for each speed, taken from Linn’s digital recording system, and gave the motor extra drive to bring the platter up to speed before easing back. For the first time an LP12 played 45s at the press of a button. From 1991 Linn supplied the deck as mechanics only, with a choice of Basik, Valhalla or Lingo. The Lingo moved into a full-size case in 2001, the same year the deck received its first new motor since 1972.

The Majik power supply of December 2007 became the internal supply. The Radikal of 2009 changed the motor itself, to a DC motor watched by an optical sensor that reads the platter directly; it was revised in 2021 and joined by the Klimax Radikal in October 2025. The fourth-generation Lingo of 2018 brought Radikal-style speed management to the AC motor, and it comes with a new one.

How older supplies age

This is the part most owners are never told. A power supply is electronics, and electronics age whether or not the deck is played.

• Capacitors dry out. A Valhalla is live whenever the deck is plugged in, inside a closed wooden box, and its capacitors have been warm for thirty or forty years. As they fade, the board loses its ability to start the platter briskly and hold it steady. The signs are a slow or reluctant start, speed that wanders or runs fast, a motor that hums or vibrates more than it used to, or a deck that one day does not start at all.
• The board carries mains voltage. That is why a Valhalla is not something to poke at, and why repairing one is a bench job for someone who does it for a living.
• Linn stopped making the Valhalla in 2002. A failed one is repaired or replaced with a current supply.
• The Basik is simple enough to last, but its speed is only as steady as your mains, its few parts drift with age, and the motor behind it may be fifty years old. Motors made before 2001 grow noisier as their bearings wear.
• The first Lingos are now more than thirty years old and have capacitors of their own.

Russ Sherrell, our LP12 master, checks the power supply and the motor as part of our $650 service, so you will know where yours stands. And there is one firm rule from Linn: the Karousel bearing may not be fitted to a deck with a Valhalla, or another maker’s board, inside the plinth. If the bearing is on your list, the power supply is too.

Upgrading

Four supplies are current, and each fits any LP12.

• Majik power supply, $740. Inside the plinth. The direct replacement for a tired Basik or Valhalla.
• Lingo, $2,505, fitting included. Checks the platter’s speed on every turn, plays 33 and 45 at a button, and comes with a new motor, which takes the age of the old one out of the question.
• Radikal, $6,270, fitting included. A DC motor and an optical sensor, and the supply that powers a Urika phono stage inside the deck.
• Klimax Radikal, $16,820, fitting included. The Radikal with a separate supply for the motor, in a machined case.

If your deck has run on the same supply since the 1980s, a current one is likely to be a larger change than you expect, because part of what you have been hearing is the age of the old one. Lingo or Radikal: the two LP12 power supplies explained goes through the choice between the two.

Start with a call

Call (503) 222-2599 or write to sales@pearlaudio.com. Tell us how the deck starts and whether the speed holds, and we will tell you what we would look at first.

— John Loranger, Pearl Audio

See also: Lingo or Radikal · Which bearing is in your LP12? · How often does an LP12 need a service · Bringing an older LP12 up to date.