Happy Labor Day weekend all, and here I am once agan labouring at the keyboard on this new Home Despot Thread!! It warms my heart to see the words "Home Despot" once again at the top of the analog forum, and I would like to thank you very much Mario for so adroitely re-igniting what has come to be know as Da Thread, due to its incredible humongousness: what was once very likely the longest thread in audio history, not just Audiogon's history, and a real feather in its crown that grew, changed and developed naturally, a testament to Audiogon's leading-edge format (I think it's the best), open-minded discussions of viable alternatives, and interest in achieving true advancment in the audio arts!!
That they not only tolerated our "subversive" activities (which were actually in the interest of real advancement, however many may have taken them), but indeed encouraged them by allowing us instant posting, is a policy I fervently hope they will once again allow us!! At least until they somehow manage to restore the original thread, or Da Thread, which represented 3,700 posts of accumulated experience, details, evidence, and a fascinating case study invaluable in its own right, of a technology/vintage turntable/Lenco which was at first greeted with mild curiosity, disbelief, resistance; through gradual acceptance, gobsmacked-ness ;-), and evolution of the fulfilling of its potential (beyond enormous to perhaps a New Standard), still underway!! So let's pray this information and record which was beginning to draw some more serious attention out there to Audiogon (
Home Despot), which was the subject of discussions - positive and negative, definitely controversial - on forums and in private chats across the internet and around the world (I'll post this very reply on various Lenco forums to add to their archives), and was seen as an important element in the idler-wheel revival (and so a further testament to Audiogon's potency and fame). The accidental deletion of this resource and record (and what may have come to be regarded as history) certainly gelds this particular bull to a certain extent, but it's too late to stop the Idler Train now, to put the Genie back in the bottle, to close the barn doors!! Just check out the "Garrard 301: Some additional questions" on this very forum.
Jim, you have done an amazing job of summarizing my writings and findings on "Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot", you are hired!! Thanks to all for their e-mails and support on various other forums, up here among the snow-bears I am exploring lands of unparalleled and hair-raising, back-shivering musicality, thanks to some supernaturally-musical components (including, of course, a Giant Direct-Couped Lenco), the sort which should be examined by the design experts to isolate what it is that make them "tick", rather than dismissed as budget flukes or niche oddities, as the idlers were not so long ago treated - "If it measures good and sounds bad, it is bad;
if it measures bad and sounds good, you have measured the wrong thing" - and the resultant knowledge used to improve statement products. At least, I would hope so :-)!
Enjoy your idler-wheels all, and for those who have not yet found one or tried one, enjoy your idler-wheel dreams and plans!! As Mario reminds us, get out there and hunt down those Lencos, which sold in large numbers and are practically unkillable, and if you stumble on Garrards, Rek-o-Kuts or others, then pick them up too!! If not any of these, I've written it before and I'll write it again, (and it looks like this time it will be taken more seriously), satisfy your curiosity by picking up a humble Garrard SP-25 (try to make it a MKIII or later, as the palters are aluminum and not magnetic), restore it as-is (clean, re-lube and perhaps damp with bits of Dynamat or rubber), perhaps get rid of the rattly automatic system to free the surprisingly decent tonearm (same bearing type as the much-respected Audio Technica 1005 and 1009), solder a decent signal cable, and mount a decent MM or even MC (!!). Now these won't match one of the Big Boys, but they'll make your collective jaws hit the floor regardless, as they have the characteristic idler-wheel sound - incredible potency, dynamics, life and PRaT - I keep on writing about and drawing attention to, you should be able to find these for roughly five to twenty bucks. Alternatives are the superbly well-built Elac idlers (my fave record-changers, beautifully designed and built, and FUN), and the idler Duals. Have fun, and good luck!!
