Serendipitously, I recently stumbled on a way to make a small but worthwhile improvement to the Radikal in the Akurate casework. When you open the case of the ARadikal you will see a square circuit board and a silver metal cover on the side of the unit where the power cable connects (the right side when facing the front) which encloses the power supply board. On the top inside of this metal cover is a trough with a black cable fitted in it. The cable goes from the power switch in the front to the power supply board in the back. If you remove this cable from the trough (you don't need to unplug it) and bend it a bit so it won't touch the top or the metal cover the Radikal becomes more musical. The cable it is fairly stiff so it is not hard to get it to stay in place. You can run the Radikal without the outer case on it so it is easy to listen both ways and decide for yourself.

I say stumbled because it is something that for some reason I never thought to try. What happened is that I received a new Akurate Radikal for a customer and when I opened it to optimize the torques I found the cable was not in the trough. That immediately made me wonder whether somebody at Linn simply forgot to put it in the trough or if it was done on purpose. Of course, once that possibility occurred to me I had to find out which was better and listened to both ways. Out of the trough was definitely better. This accords with experiments that beck, Fredrik and I (probably among others) had done in the past with internal wires leaning against internal metal casework. Which is why it surprised me I never thought of it before. It turns out that is was just an oversight as the next two Radikals I got in had the wire in the trough. As you would expect they don't any any longer.

As this requires opening the unit, if your unit has been torqued the four fasteners that hold on the case on should be re-torqued properly. I always love free upgrades. Have fun.

Intriguing - I haven't tweaked the internal cable arrangements in my streamer since I first put it together. Trouble is, I'll actually have to stop listening to it to do that ....

Very interesting! The view round here is that Linn don’t care about maximising musicality any more (which I certainly don’t agree with), but now Linn are re-routing a cable to improve the musicality of the AkRad. Go figure, as they say over the pond.

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-08-22 21:48 Very interesting! The view round here is that Linn don’t care about maximising musicality any more (which I certainly don’t agree with), but now Linn are re-routing a cable to improve the musicality of the AkRad. Go figure, as they say over the pond.

Sadly, as ThomasOK wrote it was not a new standard for the AKRadikal. They still do not maximise but we can do it! :-)

Great little finding ThomasOK.

What I meant to say was that Linn’s lack of attention to detail these days is truly shocking!

Thank you Thomas! Fifteen minutes well spent, and the bonus is that I've finally got round to masking the over-bright LED.

Great information, I have the first gen Radikal (Magik) case before it was changed to the Akurate cause. Alteast there are some cosmetic changes to the outside. Would my case have the internal cable holder then as well? I also use another tweak of Tom's and run my radikal upside down on its lid as I believe it sounds better. I tried to support it on foam before but it just sounds better damped upside down on its own lid to me.

That’s very interesting, Thomas! Can you provide some pictures? Case bolts torque settings would be of help.

I don't think it is applicable to the early Akurate case (Majik case) Radikal but it has been a while since I've been inside one. If it has a power switch under the front panel it would be applicable, if the power switch is on the back it wouldn't be.

It has been busy here today and yesterday (fully rebuilt an LP12 from out of town today with a Valhalla rebuild, new cartridge, complete setup with new springs and grommets, etc.) and finishing up on another LP12 yesterday. I'll see if I can get a chance to do internal photographs although once you open it up it is obvious what I am talking about. Case torque on my driver is .6Nm -4 notches but YMMV.

Not for me then, I have one of the first ones.

Hopefully this is obvious, but please unplug the mains cable before venturing inside!

Also always take static precautions.

Here are photos.
Before:

After:

Thanks for the pics Thomas :-) Going to try this soon!

Almost forgot, case bolt torques .6Nm -4 notches on my driver.

Mine is an early model bought shortly after launch. It's also been upgraded with Dynamik, again, shortly of launch.

It doesn't have the cable fixing between PSU and PCB.

Also, there's no power cabling running front to rear.

Are these differences due to changes in legislation I wonder.

PSU cover removed:


PSU cover in place:

The wire is for the front mounted switch, is it not?

‘troll

Ah, yes, makes sense cos mine is in the older AV casework.

And the clip probably helps prevent contact where the cables crossover one another.

Yes, the early units had the power switch on the back, at or by the IEC socket. That was changed when Linn put power switches under the front panel on all units to meet electrical usage regulations. This also required taller feet on the Akurate and Majik cases. There is a little white clip with a black wire near the back in yours that just connects the two pins that the front mounted switch otherwise would bridge when switched on.

Thanks - good to know.

Ok, last night I tried this tweak.
Here's before:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3hl56pp4xltx ... 3.mov?dl=0
Here's after:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6yrga1oa20hc ... 4.mov?dl=0
And here, as a bonus, after resetting the Radikal:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/71c2aw8e2ky1b ... 1.mov?dl=0

Congratulation Tendaberry. Clear improvements from the top clip to the bottom one. Nice! :-)

Yes, I know I am quick........ :-)

Tendaberry wrote: ↑2020-09-29 10:38 Ok, last night I tried this tweak.
Here's before:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3hl56pp4xltx ... 3.mov?dl=0
Here's after:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6yrga1oa20hc ... 4.mov?dl=0
And here, as a bonus, after resetting the Radikal:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/71c2aw8e2ky1b ... 1.mov?dl=0

I definitely prefer After. It adds a new level of "complexity that makes sense".

Not sure about the reset. My impression is that the speed is lowered (too late to measure that, I assume). But is it better?

lejonklou wrote: ↑2020-09-29 11:40
adds a new level of "complexity that makes sense”

This expression really makes sense to me and is what I am always listening for when possible.

I often use terms like dense and PA like to cover some of the same ground.

Tendaberry wrote: ↑2020-09-29 10:38 Ok, last night I tried this tweak.
Here's before:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3hl56pp4xltx ... 3.mov?dl=0
Here's after:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6yrga1oa20hc ... 4.mov?dl=0
And here, as a bonus, after resetting the Radikal:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/71c2aw8e2ky1b ... 1.mov?dl=0

After for me. Clear musical improvements ...
Great to see / listen how the system improve and goes in right direction ...

I'm with Fredrik on this. I find after clearly more musical but I don't find the reset convincing. It starts out sounding slow but I don't notice the slowness once it gets going. However, just starting at about 20 seconds and listening to the guitar part that starts at about 24 I find it seems to move along better and have more sense of how the notes are played on the clip before the reset. I like the voices a bit better before the reset too.