Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

John,
Thanks for your response and for drawing attention to the Byron Janis article in WSJ. I was able to access the article online this morning and print out. A cogent article in regards to ears vs. instruments. Now another Lenco question. Have you found there is a minimum depth you must use in building a plinth to provide effective mass for the idler drives? My builder thinks 4" is sufficient however from the pictures that have been posted and particularly your own plinths they seem to be around 6" or more. Thanks for the assistance.
Regards,

Hi Montepilot: the more the mass the merrier. Doesn't matter so much how you achieve the mass, so much as how MUCH mass. The best results I've had so far is with a combined weight/mass of 75-80 pounds, which is FAR FAR superior to a combined mass of, say, 40 pounds, much more than double the results. To achieve this mass with Russian birch-ply and MDF, I reach plinth dimensions of 23"W x 19"D x 6"H, Lenco and feet not included. Do a little research on this thread and others, the mass only become truly effective when combined with Direct Coupling, which is the Key.

Hey Jean, it was great reading of your experiences with a horn based loudspeaker system. I wondered when you would finally get around to it, persistant experimenter that you are. When I reported two years ago how my newly aquired Lenco easily bested my Well Tempered Classic, a horn based Altec A7 speaker system made the differences easy to hear. You are right, idler wheels {big bass and hugh dynamics} and horns {the added bass helps and whats wrong with even more dynamics} are made for each other. As you continue to persue horns try to integrate an active crossover as this is the secret to fine tuning these excellent speaker systems as well as providing even more dynamics.

On another note I wanted to report that I'm still enjoying the Ortofon MC 10 super I aquired from you. A very underrated cartridge provided you can load it down to 30-50 ohms. I'm presently being tempted by the new Ortofon Samba for $225 at Needle Doctor which specs out very similar to the MC 10 which it replaces.

Hey Rjdcan, great to hear from you again! Give me enough years, and I will eventually get around to everything ;-)! Just so no one gets the wrong idea (so many are looking for reasons NOT to try an idler-wheel drive), in any system and with any speakers of whatever sensitivity, the big idlers like the Lencos and Garrards are CLEARLY superior in every way to their belt-drive cousins. It's just that, the more responsive/fast/dynamic the system, the greater the lead the idlers will take, due to their STUNNING dynamics Macro and Micro, and leading-edge transients. So don't take this as an excuse to avoid the Idler!!

Glad to hear you are still getting mileage out of that MC, it is unkillable!! I have a confession to make: faced with the repair cost on my Kiseki (one channel out and likely the stylus to replace), and perusing possibilities, a very good deal came up on an Ortofon Jubilee, and doing the research and reading between the lines (that not only was the detail and so on first-rate, but it was BEAUTIFUL-sounding), I decided to spring for it for Christmas (of course, audio-wise it's ALWAYS Christmas for me) rather than invest in refurbing the Purpleheart Sapphire, which never had quite enough balls for my taste, though plenty of Beauty. Well, the Jubilee has the balls of the Denon DL-103 and the refinement of the Kiseki (and like the Kiseki, FANTASTIC bass), it gets the music RIGHT, and based on this experience - and on the M15E Super which I still love (I should mount it on my RS-A1, but my Denon is still making beautiful music there) - I can certainly highly recommend the newer Ortofons as well.

And to those running Deccas, in experimenting with my various cartridges in order to optimize them/match them to the proper tonearm in the context of my system, I made the following discovery: the Decca improves vastly when mass is added to the tonearm. Add a cartridge weight at the headshell end of a tonearm, and the consequent and added moving back of the counterweight will effectively increase the overall mass. BIG jump in dynamics, detail, clarity.

Have fun all, off to listen to my latest classical score!

Hi Jean,
I may be wrong but as far as I know the Klipsch Heresy is not a horn. It was called Heresy because of this fact!
Peter