Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hi,

I have a replinthed L75. Love it. But I am getting a kind of rhythmic scraping noise which is audible, though pretty quiet, with motor on but no record playing,and can definitely and distinctively be heard through the speakers when the needle of a moderate microphonic cartridge is in some dead wax. I have removed the platter and found that when the power switch is fully in the "on" position, so that the idler wheel (with the help of the spring) contacts the edge of the cut-out in the top plate in the space of which the wheel moves back and forth when being being engaged or disengaged (and in and out when changing speeds). It definitely makes the scraping noise with that contact. The power switch can be partially turned on so as to move the wheel over far enough to engage the moving spindle without hitting the edge of the cut-out. Then I do not get the scraping sound. But when I then put the platter on and try to move the "on" switch only as far as needed to engage the spindle, but not far enough to contact the edge of the cut-out, I get the scraping sound again.

My own surmise is that the wheel should not have been contacting the edge of the cut out, but that in doing so, it got somewhat worn, and that that wear is causing it to make noise when it contacts the either or both of the underside of the spinning platter or the edge of the cut-out. No part of the edge of the wheel seems bare, so far as I can manage to inspect it. But when I cleaner it, rubber residue came off the edge.

Can any of you Lenco experts out there tell me if this diagnosis sounds plausible, and what, if anything, can be done about it? It sure seems like that wheel ought not to contact the cut-out edge, but it also seems inevitable, given the range of motion of the power switch, the location of the fixed parts relative to the moving ones, and the spring's tugging on the wheel arm.

Any help at all appreciated!

Dear Rnm4, You are quite correct; the idler wheel should never contact the edge of the cut-out in the chassis. Further, scraping against the edge may indeed have damaged the rubber gasket that rides on the edge of the wheel. But in passing, another possible source of scraping noise could be the brake system. If the piece of metal that constitutes the brake is touching the platter, that could account for the "other" scraping noise that you hear when you only partially engage the ON switch, so as to avoid the noise due to the scraping idler wheel. Some people just remove the brake entirely. Anyway, it seems as though your table needs some surgery. If someone else built your plinth and installed the table, you might want to take it back. Otherwise, you need to adjust your idler arm and possibly to replace the rubber too. Go to Lenco Lovers website for help on those two things.

I'd like to wax poetic at this point on the merits of the Klipsch Cornwalls which are HUGE by modern standards (almost cartoons of speakers with those huge 15" woofers and super-wide baffles), and so as low on the WAF scale as it is possible to be. But, if any of you can get these beauties past the spousal alert system, these are so far THE most actually [tonally] neutral and balanced speakers I have ever heard: we're talking studio neutral but with HUGE dynamic reserves, detail and bass and speed. And to boot they SCREAM with low-powered tube amps. AND, to boot, they also sound great with powerful solid state amps, which goes against everything one hears about horn-loaded speakers!

I've run them with the 12-watt Leak Stereo 20, which, at least with a rebuild using the latest state of the art components (and paper-in-oil capacitors at critical areas) is incredibly fast and detailed with beautiful bass, and sounds like a Krell with the Cornwalls. And I've used them with a Perreaux 100-watt pre-power (SP2/1150B) with which they sound excellent, with no hint of aggression, brightness, hardness or "horniness".

The Cornwalls, with their big 15" woofers, reflex-loaded to boot, go DEEP in the bass, which is DEEP, tight and beautiful, and so which goes a LONG way to showing just how potent the Lenco bass is when compared to other machines. The Cornwalls are also VERY revealing, easily showing shortcomings (and improvements) of various electronics, tonearms, cartridges, also in terms of PRaT and gestalt. Bad electronics need not apply. I'm hoping to get my hands on an ARC SP-8 as preamp and a Classic 60 as driver amp to set them up, with of course a Lenco, with likely the SME IV/Clearaudio Concerto as source (the workshop floors are very bouncy, so unipivots are just to trickey/unstable). Now THIS should be a truly stellar vintage system (though the ARC stuff isn't SO vintage, I want the best I can put together from experience: ARC SP-8 + Classic 60 equals SUCH PRaT and gestalt that we have the Kundalini Effect!!), for that extra power, as the Cornwalls can suck it up and dish it out! Those visiting Eastern Ontario are invited to drop by, try some of the local award-winning beer (in Germany no less!!), Beau's beer (with painted-on tractor on glass bottles, and on ceramic bottles with rubber caps, cool). Perhaps you'll see the local beauties riding by on their horses :-).

Also, this weekend I expect to hear the Reinderspeter Lenco via the Perreaux/Cornwall system, so some very important stuff coming up VERY soon. Can't wait to fire it up!!

Have fun all, hope to see some of you for a Beau's beer and Lenco Madness!

Sounds pretty cool. I love my vintage living room system, and on a smaller scale, I also really like my Advent table radio in the work shop - it's amazing how they were able to get early SS to sound like tubes. But at the same time, early SS instrument amps sounded like crap. (I had a Standel once, with a 15" JBL.)

Lenco news: Whew! I have finally finished another Lenco. Not new - but a rebuild of Lenco #1 with the L59. I added another layer of MDF, a new finish and wait for it... a Trans-fi Terminator tonearm. Just did a rough set up yesterday for the first listen. My expansion tank is leaking (not sealed yet) and I didnt feel like doing all the leveling necessary for a linear tracker, so I could only listen to half a side but what I heard was very encouraging :) Pics to come.

Mike

Hi from Montréal,

I let myself be convinced that the Lenco project should be fun, so I found a realy good condition L-75 with a stuning sound producing Shure M91ED that I installed temporarely on my Denon DP37F and I cant take it off, I was just wundering if the rega 250 or 300 arm was still the weapon of choice for this project...

Thanks
Al