Ah, oui, tu as raison. Il y a un manchon avec des arêtes (plutôt que des joints toriques) pour découpler le contrepoids du tube du bras. Cela fait un moment que je n'ai pas regardé et je n'ai pas pris la peine de tirer mon contrepoids pour regarder !
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When it is out of the housing in the counterweight, it looks like a cylindrical rubber interface 15mm long, 14mm outer diameter, 13mm inner diameter + two 17mm diameter lips at each end.
By simple curiosity I tested the counterweight of an Ittok arm instead of the SE counterweight, surprisingly I preferred the result with the Ittok counterweight, I replaced the SE rubber part by a new Linn SE part, the improvement was immediate.
By simple curiosity I tested the counterweight of an Ittok arm instead of the SE counterweight, surprisingly I preferred the result with the Ittok counterweight, I replaced the SE rubber part by a new Linn SE part, the improvement was immediate.
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Yes, that is what the rubber part looks like and you can see that it does make stronger contact at the front and rear of the counterweight. That rubber piece should have a good grip on the arm stud. If it slides too easily the performance will be degraded. This happens with older counterweights from time to time as they seem to flatten out a bit. But if you are careful you can take the rubber part out, turn it inside out and reinstall it and that will usually give a better grip. Also if there is any powder on the rubber it should be cleaned off.
When the rubber part is installed in the counterweight the internal diameter of the 13 mm part is reduced to a small 12 mm, to exert good friction on the solid receiving part of the 12 mm arm. From what I have seen, it is not impossible for the rubber part to lose elasticity as it ages, and Linn can supply a replacement seal probably for this eventuality. I have seen new Linn LVX arms with looser counterweights than others; a tighter seal gave better listening satisfaction.
The problem with the Balik LV-X and Plus is that they use a different, and much softer, rubber decoupling cylinder which Linn no longer have replacements for. The bigger problem is that they often start to liquify over time turning into a goo that wraps itself around the tonearm stub. It is a hassle to clean up and generally needs some kind of home made replacement.
Indeed, Thomas, I also saw this gradual deterioration of the rubber insert of the counterweight LVX. On the brand new LVX arm, the joint was very flexible to promote the decoupling desired by Linn. However with new arms, some rubber inserts "floated" a little too much on the arm, it happened that the adjustment of the counterweight could fluctuate, while on other LVX of the same time (1984/85) the rubber insert had a more precise and adjusted contact while preserving the decoupling and setting position. The listening was more and melodious, while with the rubber insert too free there was blur.
It looks like it. Part number EK 080/1 is listed as Weight damper for Ekos & Ittok C/Weights.
My Linn dealer - David Wilson of Accent on Music - encountered the problem of a stuck anti-skating dial and a stuck counterweight on the Ekos 1 but not the Ekos 2. He treated the Ekos 1 with 15 minutes of heat from a hair dryer and that fixed the problem.
Stuck tracking force dials on Ekos 1s are a known problem and not uncommon. Apparently a grease that hardens over time. Careful rotation of the dial back and forth will help clear out the problem and if it is stuck hard careful warming it up can help, just don't go to town with a high-power heat gun! When the dial is stuck this way you will usually find that there are no clicks at each half gram as there usually are. If it is bad enough there will also be no hard end stops at 0 and 3 grams. This is where care is needed as winding back and forth will work out some of that grease and if you don't mind spending the time the hard stops, and then the clicks, will come back. But you don't want to be on the wrong side of the line when the hard stop returns!
The tracking force dial can still set the tracking force properly without the clicks or hard stops (as long as you stay in the right part of the dial) so you don't necessarily have to get them back.
Rubber and grease that hardens is simply poor engineering, inexcusable at these price points, that's why I don't even consider Linn tonearms.
You might consider a Linn Ittok LVII as I used one for 25 years without a single problem.
I doubt it'll bring any SQ improvement over my RB3000, but I've never tried it, so I'm not making an assertion.
When I had an Ekos 1, from 3 months to 3 months I used to turn the dial gently in both directions. The grease did not freeze, Ekos 1 sounded good that way; a colleague still has my Ekos 1, he continues to apply the method and remains satisfied.
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