Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hi Steve, happy to see you're still here!! If your Dual is indeed in good trim, meaning the main bearing has no slack, then I would say the Elac would be a sideways step. That said, Elacs are very well-built, and seem to weather the years better than Duals (while I have come across many Duals with ruined bearings, I have yet to find an Elac with one), and the Elac is all-metal and simpler in its construction that the Duals. On the other hand, the Duals may have better tonearms (they LOOK better, but don't underestimate those clunky-looking Elac or Garrard tonearms, with their ring-bearing bearings identical to the fabulous AT 1005 MKII bearings), and some models do have excellent motors, like the Elacs (the Garrard SP-25s, especially the later models, had SUPERB motors).

But, if you strip down your Dual of its automatic system, solder better wire to the terminals, strip, clean and re-lube the motor, main bearing, apply a bit of Dynamat here and there, and bolt it to a plinth (don't go crazy here though, perhaps three layers would be enough, and similar in dimensions to the current plinth), you will get a LARGE improvement. If the Dual is Sacred, then buy an Elac, cheaper, and do the mods to it! For the one I'm working on now, I stripped, cleaned and re-lubed it every bit as carefully as I would a Garrard 301, and I soldered the original Rega tonearm-wire I had kicking around after re-wring mine for an improvement, but I'm leaving it in the original plinth with suspension, for now. I'll mount a good MM to it so as not to undermine it. I'll let you know how it works out. I'll post photos too, this Elac Miracord 40 is mint Art Deco beautiful!

Hi Agee, sounds like a lot of effort!! The only way I know of posting a photo is to register under a "system" here, as with mine. If you cruise the sign-in menu, you'll find "virtual systems", I think its called, and you can get back and announce its posting.

Just by way of brief introduction, I am currently working on a Lenco project with the generous assistance of "Oregon."

I wanted to throw in what I believe is an interesting little bit of background. When I was in high school, a good friend of mine had an awesome hi-fi. It was my first exposure to good music reproduction. We would partake in the sacrament (the sale of which financed the purchase of the hi-fi) and listen to music for hours and hours.

In college I started on my pursuit of quality sound reproduction. But, alas, no matter how much money I have spent (and I've spent a LOT of money over the years) I have not experienced the depth of emotional connection to the music that I experienced back in high school. For years I have attributed that to the naive inexperienced ear of my youth. But now I think I understand. His turntable was a Dual 1229, an idler wheel design.

So many thousands of dollars later, and twenty years of digital jitters, and my stoned high school buddy's little system with an idler wheel up front would probably still best mine in terms of sheer musicality. I feel like I should be able to sue somebody!

By the way, does anybody have any experience with the Dual 1229? There's one for sale on e-bay and I'm thinking of buying it.

Hi Turboglo, great story! This type of anecdote is the most common sent to me, though mostly fond memories of fathers' systems backed by an idler-wheel of course, and like you speaking of the musical POWER of those old systems (and the consequent failure to recapture that power). Like you, most heard the diminution, but trusting the press reports and industry advertising, they dismissed it as an explainable aberration (though the explanation was never forthcoming, the claim being NO sacrifice was made) and moved on (with that nagging little voice at the back of their minds that something was STILL missing). Hilarious and somewhat serious: "I feel like I should be able to sue somebody!"

I suspect many have been reading my claims and reports like these over the last few years and though it strikes a chord within them, they don't want to believe it, having invested too much money backing the wrong horse (a painful admission).

Now, though I'm certain everyone understands this, I do want to caution those watching from the outside that a restored/tweaked/replinthed record changer, though it will have that PRaT, SLAM, bass and musical POWER, will not match a properly redone and set-up Lenco, Garrard or other heavy and well-built idler-wheel drive. But it WILL teach a Great lesson, and will embarrass many highly-regarded belt-drives. More on the fun side, a record-changer, properly re-done, sounds great but more than that, it allows one to give the finger to hair-shirt audiophile existence, and watch the record player turn itself off, and even allows us to stack records and relax!! Now to some this is anathema, but it IS fun!! I don't believe records are SO easily damaged, that if they are clear of dust, the cushioning of air as it falls absorbs/kills the impact, and the absence of dust ensures nothing is ground in. Or one could simply be happy that the one record ends, and the player turns itself off, like a CD player.

So, if the Dual sounds like fun and offers the occasional holiday from audiophile obsessions (while satisfying the desire for MUSIC), then why not bid on it? Elacs are every bit as good, and cheaper to boot, but they are not the Dual you enjoyed so much years ago ;-).

Has anybody ran into a hum once the arm is on the record? I have two arms and the Rega (Audio Note) arm with AN IQ3 cart causes a hum whenever its over the turntable. I believe I have seen some references to it here, but am wondering what you do? Are there certain arms, carts that do not work well with the Lenco/Garrards?

I've finished and tested the lovely Elac Miracord 40A record-changer record player, and the sound was quite simply stunning: incredible dynamics, PRaT, bass, very good detail, losing out only on subtleties like imaging when compared with my reference decks. Even a record-changer will easily humble some quite pricey belt-drives, especially in the traditional areas of SLAM, bass and PRaT! I restored it carefully, giving it the Full Treatment, disassembly, cleaning and re-lubing of all bearings including the motor, cleaning and silencing the idler-wheel, packing the ball-race main bearing with new grease to damp down noise. Quite quiet too (Dynamat and getting rid of the suspension would reduce noise some more).

Those who want to sample what I'm talking about have no excuse: you can buy one of these Elacs cheaply and restore it with a minimum of fuss (the Elac mechanism is much simpler and sturdier than the competition's). I also replaced the original tonearm cable with something better but not stellar: a leftover Rega tonearm cable from an RB-300. With a serious cartridge (I mounted a Shure M91ED) this thing will make belt-drive owners go into shock, just like my Garrard SP-25 years ago (but the Elac is better). Wanna kick the ass of a deck like a Rega or a Project for a fraction of the price? Get a record-changer and have some fun!

Moving on up the ladder, my rebuild of a Garrard 301 is giving the Platine Verdier a serious ass-whuppin', and is also ass-whuppin somethin' else, to be reported on later. Let's just say for now the complex low-mass approach is not vindicated, but the simple high-mass appraoch is. Science is about results, not complexity for the sake of complexity, or cost for the sake of cost.

Hi Tsatalia, different cartridges have different sensitivities to hum, as do tonearms (I've found that several re-wires of Rega tonearms stupidly disconnect the grounding of the tonearm-tube itself), wires, and phono stages (some pick up and amplify hum much more than others). Make sure the Garrard or Lenco is grounded, in the case of the Garrard the motor. If a Lenco (or Garrard), then mumetal works as per Mario's recipe.

I'll be back later, perhaps, to talk about the connection between Sasquatches and audio :-)!! But here's a tidbit for the Idler-Wheel War: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Arthur Schopenhauer