Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

My brother has been complaining of late about the harshness of his CDs (hard clipping). If ever the time was ripe for an analog intervention this was it. Since his music listening has been via one of those integrated Bose units, I had to assemble a complete, stand-alone system. The goal was to keep it around $200 - and with the help of the Salvation Army, we came in under.

Anteed up a rim-drive Garrard Zero-100 that I purchased nearly two years ago for $90 in my “waiting for Lenco” phase. It came with a Grado green cartridge. After pulling out about 2 to 3 lbs. of automation and a full servicing, this Garrard was still too terrain intense underneath to mount into a solid plinth. Instead, I left it on ¾” dowel stilts and put a black fabric skirt (more like bunting) around it. Made a couple of modifications. One was to place the neon stroboscope lamp on a micro-switch circuit, activated by new linkage added to the “auto” toggle, so that it stays off unless selected. The second was to hardwire directly to clips/cartridge and by-pass the contacts on the sliding cartridge tray. This allowed correcting the azimuth which was way out of whack.

For turntable sundries, I bought him a new AudioQuest anti-static cleaning brush ($20) and Silly Putty (original version) for a stylus cleaner ($1.99). For a dust cover, I used the thick clear vinyl that comes with comforters purchased at department stores. Just had to unstitch two of the reinforced seams; cut to fit depth; then restitched.

My good buddy, Stephen does the rounds at the thrifts, picking up various vintage receivers and he brought over three to audition before I left for New York. A hulking Kenwood KR-4600 ($20.00) won out for its excellent phono stage and bass response.

Speakers came by way of the Salvation Army – a pair of Pioneer CS-470 sealed 3-ways in excellent shape ($20.00/pair). The bass on these is commanding, if a little out of control. But the low-end distortion is pretty natural sounding and easy on the ears. My wife helped out with a little refinishing on the cabs and I bought some new grill cloth ($8.95) plus glue (2.95).

The big score at the Salvation Army was in August when somebody dropped off a nice LP jazz collection – Miles, The Duke, Zoot Sims etc. I culled about 20 of these – all scratchless ($20).

So for $183, a pretty sweet sounding analog system with a starter collection of LPs.

Next week, I’ll head down to Southern N.J. to deliver the goods. In the meantime, the gear came with me to New York for a three-week long visit with another brother. The traveling analog show seems to have wowed another – so I may be doing this again.

Sailing on the Analog Sea.

My friend and I are about to embark on our plinths. 24"x"20" using alternate layers of 3/4" mdf and birchply (top layer 1/2") .There are a couple of things we are a bit unsure of. What layers are we bolting the t/t to? Is it just the top layer of mdf or the top two layers and then subsequently gluing all the other layers.Do we use the original mounting screws? Do we use any other screws as well?One other thing, where can we get neoprene sheets here in the Uk? Many thanks for your help, this is the most exciting thing I have ever encounterd in hifi.Nigel.

Nigel,
At each corner of the table, underneath, there is a 4mm threaded nut/knob. The plinth should be screwed to these 4 threads from underneath. The trick is to get a straight hole up throught the layers of mdf and ply. Make sure you leave area (larger than the 4mm screw) so that the head of the screw is braced against the plinth. This depends on how long the screws are and how deeply they are threaded into the nut/knob. I would make these drills after you have glued all the layers together. I advise against only the first couple layers ( then covering those holes with subsequent layers) because you won't be able to get to these screws when you want to remove the plate from the plinth- I am 99.9% certain you will remove the plate for tweaking/adjusting.
Secondly, looking at the top plate from above, platter removed, there are several holes in the top plate. I am referring to the top plate under the platter with the platter removed (I repeat). Screw the top plate down onto the plinth. 3 or 4 screws are enough. The plate should be resting flat on the plinth, this being your first layer of ply routed to the correct depth.. You don't want it too high nor too low, otherwise, when you couple, or screw the plate down, you might bend, or warp the plate, causing the platter to rub against the sides of the plate.
Neoprene, which should be glued onto the plate, not the plinth, can be found on eBay. I used dynamat which is used to dampen car doors.
Of course, other folks may have done things differently, and hopefully they will share their ideas, but I hope you get the general idea.
Let us know how things proceed and email some photos.

Hi Nigel,

Oregon’s post follows the most up-to-date recipe for the “sandwich”. These are two distinct areas of attachment: 1) perimeter bolting (4) of the top plate to the top layer of plinth – usually to mdf, and 2) coupling the platter well (pan) with wood screws to the 2nd plinth layer – usually birch-ply – sometimes with the addition of neoprene gasket material or hardwood shims to make up for any gap.

The first phase of the attachment was always part of the recipe. The 2nd phase – also known as “direct coupling” - came later in Jean’s development of this grand project. Because some (including myself) had difficulties in getting the torque just right on “direct coupling”, you might consider taking this as a two-step process: 4-Bolt the Lenco to the plinth and listen to it for a few weeks – then direct couple. This way you’ll be better able to discern any sonic improvements/degradations.

Since the bolting of the Lenco to the plinth is to draw the top plate perimeter edges into the top plinth layer, I see no reason to be locked into the bottom/up 4mm bolting. I drilled out the threads of the top plate lugs and bolted top to bottom using ¼” bolts with cone washer with black neoprene on the contact surface. This eliminated tricky alignments procedures. Initially, I drilled smaller holes to align a couple of plinth layers at a time using nails while I made internal cutouts. Once all glued up with top plate in place – I drilled down with a ¼” bit. Then recess the nut into the bottom layer by drilling partway through the bottom layer with a ½” bit. You can almost always find ¼” bolts for the correct depth.

Nothing is written in stone about how you get there as long as you adhere to the basic principles of the sandwich recipe.

Sail on!

Congratulations on your impending religious experience Nigel!! And just in time too, as I do believe I have a new and significant upgrade to offer all the Lenco-ers out there.

Back when I had made the first "high-end" idler from cobbling together the working parts of a Garrard SP-25 to a Connoisseur platter and bearing (in the absence of finding a Garrard 301 or 401 and before I had stumbled on the Lenco), I had married the Garrard inner platter/drive wheel to the Connoisseur platter by pouring in marine grade epoxy-resin, which is very liquid and hardens to a true glass-like hardness and consistency. Now this has been at the back of my mind for years, but given the Lenco's incredible Mightiness (even in the early days before Direct Coupling and very high-mass superior to the VPI TNT Dopogue had, as well as a Well-Tempered, STD, Linn LP12 - Hi Malcolm, Rjdcan, Mark!! - among others), I didn't think it truly necessary to go to these lengths to damp the top-plate, as the much easier Dynamat (and various other damping materials) did a good job. But now, given the enormous efforts made to either reinforce the top-plate or eliminate it, and the tremendous success of Direct Coupling, I thought I'd dust off this idea and give it a go. The thinking behind this is several-fold. I have repeatedly warned against over-damping the top-plate and plinth for fear of damping the Lenco's Mightiness in the bargain (damaging its amazing dynamics micro and macro). I have heard the difference between lots of Dynamat (there goes the neighbourhood) and a little (Ah there it is again!). Now the glass damps the top-plate with extreme effectiveness, as it literally pours into and fills all cavities (I use a caulking gun to create little walls around the bits you don't want filled, like the speed and on-switch linkages), and, by using an extremely smooth tape (I use double and triple thickness packing tape, pressed on as perfectly as possible for a perfect surface) to cover the arm-hole and other holes, the glue fills these in too and makes them flush with the surface, thus eliminating those problematic holes. But not only does the glue make for the perfect damping material (eliminating vibration/torsional movement while doing nothing to subtract the 'table/tonearm/cartridge's natural energies), it also reinforces the top-plate to an extreme degree, and so prevents any grosser vibration. The Direct Coupling does the rest. No need to cut away the body, no need to reinforce with metal sheet. But: this is not a reversible mod, so some participation and reporting back is required.

Now, as always, I was more worried about losing the musical magic than I was desiring to increase detail and various other sonic artefacts. Recall my last post where the Lenco/SME V/Denon DL-103"E" was causing severe shivers and spasms in addition to the usual raising of hairs and minor shivers the "ordinary" Giant Direct Coupled Lenco causes via the magical AR2ax's (it turns out these have AlNiCo magnets which might explain their supernatural abilities). Well, this Lenco already had the glass-epoxy mod. So, with great difficulty (the SME is not an easy arm to set up or exchange), I went back and forth between a regular Lenco and a Glass Lenco using the ARs to see what advantages and disadvantages there were, musically-speaking , as the ARs are PRaT masters, given a Lenco and suitable electronics. Sure enough, when I mounted the SME on the regular Lenco the shivers stopped, though the hair-raising phenomenon and whiplash-inducing head-banging continued. Tonight, after a week of living with the Lenco on the normal Lenco, I moved it to the Glass Lenco: the shivers, the intense spasms, the whole-body hair-raising is back with a vengeance, and a form of intense BEAUTY which is quite simply sublime.

Now, like the Direct Coupling, set up is important, as, yes, there is more detail, speed and focus, and this can lead to some unpleasant surprises, like discovering a certain album is bright, or a certain arm/cartridge combo is not as optimized as you thought. You'll have to optimize these to compensate, but what is most important, the musical payoff is TREMENDOUS. It should be, as it does more of what high-mass and Direct Coupling already accomplish, which is to hold the Lenco down nailed to the universe so as to allow that near-perfect drive system to do its work unimpeded, and with total confidence. The result is Pure Magic. If it was only in audiophile terms important, I would simply go back to Dynamat. So, for the intrepid, and in the knowledge the mod is permanent (or at the very least a total bitch to undo), I would appreciate any feedback on the success (or not) of this mod!!

Now while I have drastically reduced my participation on forums to a large extent, this doesn’t mean I haven't been very active in the Lenco War. I've stepped it up a notch: expect to see the Lenco show up at shows in the future fronting various types of equipment the better to demonstrate them (anything upstream of a Lenco or other large idler is bound to be shown to best effect!) thus showing in no uncertain terms just how potent and successful (in fact the MOST Potent) a drive system idler really is. Vive la Lenco, Vive la Idler Wheel!!