Given that I have a Linn Axis coming to me, I'm performing my usual research into what has been said about it to learn what issues might need to be corrected (such as increasing the ratings on new capacitors, etc.). That has caused me to spend time in other forums and reading old magazines. The only contemporary article about the Axis that was actually informative was the one in Audio. It actually included wow and flutter measurements, frequency response vs loading measurements (for the K9 cartridge), and so on. (The Axis had the lowest wow and flutter of its era, near as I can tell, and the K9 was pretty flat with a touch of rolloff in the I-can't-hear-that-high-any-more-anyway range.)
But just about everything else I read was very tiring and annoying. "Linn wouldn't let dealers put the Ittok tonarm on it because then it sounded as good as the LP12" "It's definitely a step up from a Rega P3." "The Basik tonearm is better than the RB-300." "The Rega P3 with the RB-300 tonearm destroys the Axis." "We refused to sell the Axis because it just wasn't musical." "The Axis has rhythm!" "Fatique sets in after a few hours of listening to the Axis." "In A/B comparison with the Sondek, the Axis was plainly better because the lateral compliance of the springs allow the platter to move with motor accelerations and groove drag." (That one had me sorta curious, I have to admit.) "These are junk." "These are entry-level high-end." "If they weren't crap, they'd still be making them." And on and on. Absolutely nothing that has any value whatsoever. My sense of Sterophile's comments sections were that they were dominated by just those sorts of unevidenced pronouncements from "experts."
(I'll add my more of the same: When my friend bought the Axis, he and I auditioned both Linns and two Regas. We were listening to a Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto, and my clear recollection was that the music was more detailed and less smeared going from the Regas to the Axis, with an even bigger step going from the Axis to the LP12. Of course, all had different tonearms and cartridges, so really we didn't learn much. My friend bought the Axis and I went back home to my $100 Technics. But these are the transducers, just like speakers, and, as we all understand, LPs perform poorly enough that audible comparisons aren't a complete waste of time.)
But Stereophile didn't review the Axis, or at least not such that it is currently available on their website. Several of its editors from that period apparently did actually own one, though none of their comments about them had anything to do with woo. There was one article by Larry Archibald asking what a music lover was to do with the apparent demands made by audiophiles for prices paid for audio candy--a more balanced view than we read these days. I think the snake-oil thing must not have been quite as bad in the '87-94 era when the Axis was in production.
My conclusion? ASR is an outlier, not the norm. But I'm told by younger relatives that I'm a "smartie" instead of a "normie" and that was not a compliment. So, it makes sense that ASR is where the smarties hang out, eschewed and disparaged by the normies that dominate the other channels.
Rick "sigh" Denney
