Mana Table Set Up ... How to and Why?

[Dr_Eddie]

Hi guys and gals. A little back ground to this story. About 10 years ago my pal John decided to buy my old Nirvana LP12 with Afromosia plinth and smoked perspex lid. It was fitted with an LV11 Ittok. Peter gave it a good service and lube job and reset the suspension, new belt, new mat etc. When it was done and he was happy with it , we were ushered into the listening room and Peter took great delight watching our faces as he put Hugh Masekala's Coal Train track off the Hope album on the deck. Now, remember this deck had an Ittok with a K9 moving magnet ( go to the bottom of the class dummy ). Our jaws were on the floor, my deck had never sounded this good................ever, and the cartridge which the K9 replaced was my beloved Koetsu Red Signature. Wow...............I think John became a Linnie right there, having spent the rest of his life listening to a Thorens TD166 with SME 3009 arm on it.

So he was now after a system to finally replace his old Tandberg Tuner/Amp and speakers. I suggested we have an evening surfing Ebay and see what we could find. Not long into it, we hit paydirt. ............

A Linn Tri-amped Isobarik system with Linn LK1 preamp, Isobarik Active Crossover, Dirak Power Supply, LK2. LK280,LK280, All cables including 6 X 5 metre lengths of Linn K2 cables....................The speakers looked immaculate on the listing and John bid on it and somehow won the auction. Price was £1453 for the lot. Not a bad haul, but it did mean driving up to Cheshire to collect it. We got it all back to his gaffe in Waltham Abbey and hauled it up a flight of stairs. And it sat there for 10 years. Don't ask me why but John wasn't living there at the time, so it sort of slipped under the radar. Finally, this week, I got to help him install it all. We didn't even know if the amps worked !!!. He also bid on another listing after that, a Mana Acoustics Reference 1 LP12 table. That has also sat there packed up for 10 years in two huge boxes. By now, every room in the house has been re-wired and redecorated as well. First job was to replace the crappy Hyquaphon tweeters with D2008 181200 Ferrofluid Scanspeaks. 4 in all. A huge upgrade for £250, and a bit of patience and solder. Here are some pictures of what we ended up with after two days work.









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So how did it sound? One word, Sublime. Forget all the crap you've heard about Linn amplification of this vintage, it is absolutely superb and equal to the job in hand. Sweet, powerful, very musical, fast and dynamic. The system just got better and better as the hours passed. My only reservation is that we couldn't figure out how to install the base section as it is square rather than rectangular. Any ideas here would be gratefully received.

[Derosa]

Hi Eddie
Good to see a post from you how is your system now ?
I have been using mana for 30 years so installed a lot over the years
What are the dimensions of it ?
I think it is a sound stage which goes at the bottom of the reference table
Thanks
Tony

[Dr_Eddie]

Hi Tony, my system hasn't changed since Peter built my full house Stilletto LP12 about 3 years ago IIRC. I'm still running my 6 pack active Isobarik system with Naim amplification. I'll go more into detail of my current system when I get to it in another thread. How I got here is a real story in itself.

I strayed off the path of righteousness in the middle somewhere and I got a bit sidetracked because of it. Needless to say I happily got to the keeper stage now, where the urge to forever upgrade seems to fade away and buying more vinyl has the upper edge.

As for the larger level you can see John holding in the pictures above, one side is about the same width as the mana frame width but the front to back dimension seems deeper. We surmised this might be to increase stability of the base , but we left it out to begin with.
Two of the quadraspire Evo support pillars got lost which explains the weird top section, but we've ordered 4 x 100mm sections for the top from Audio Affair. That should then bring both the full Mana tower and amp rack to the same height. I still can't get my head around how good that humble K9 sounded.

[Derosa]

Hi Eddie
Here is an image of my old system as you can see I placed the rack in the middle of the board for best stability
Hope that helps
Tony

[Derosa]

And one face on

[Dr_Eddie]

Thanks for the pictures Tony, and confirms exactly what I was expecting. Next job will be to put the base stand level in as you've got it. Because I was basically guessing I didn't want to spoil the first impressions for John in case it really mattered. We can tackle that job now with a degree of confidence.

[Derosa]

Great stuff
Don’t forget keep spikes as short as possible and when the nuts are done up finger tight just nip them up with a spanner
I normally do them all the same and then use a front one to tune the board
Bet it sounds great
I remember and really enjoyed your threads on the linn forum I learnt a lot from you and my bank balance was emptied regularly!
ATB
Tony

[The Flatearther]

Eddie I’m such a bone head! I forgot to look at the pics you sent me last week. Your Buddy is in for a real treat.

Those Square stages are not for the main Mana Equipment stands. They go under the Briks and they will stonk the Briks to another level!

Simply put them where the Briks are, tune the board then on go the Brik stands then the Briks and wowser!!

PS if he doesn’t want them they should fetch a good price as they are rare.
Steve

[Derosa]

Hi Eddie
Sorry I thought there was only 1 soundstage
ATB
Tony

[Coyote Jim]

If your going to do it then don't mess about.

[Mr Onion]

Me thinks the law of diminishing returns would have taken place well before half of those platforms would have been in place.

Bet it sounds pretty good though.

[Dr_Eddie]

The Thot Plickens somewhat Flat, because there was only one square stage and it looks exactly like the ones under Tony's racks.
To be honest we both did our backs in getting the Briks onto their stands. I doubt we'd want to lift them even higher........................

I was well impressed with the musical performance of the Mana table, it is a superb support for Johns LP12. The man spent about two hours following your tuning guide to the letter Flat, so you're not a bonehead at all. Perish the thought.