Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Another idler wheel turntable to look out for. I recently purchased a McCurdy Turntable (pictures at http://www.tamminen.ca/mccurdy/).

The story behind it, as I was told it, is that these turntables were used by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from the 50s to the 80s and then were disposed of. Someone took this one home and built a base for it. It is a heavy base although not a layered one. The platter is aluminum and not as heavy as the one on my Lenco. The idler wheel is still supple and the motor is large, heavy and quiet. I cleaned the bearing apparatus and found that the platter spins very smoothly. I removed the old Shure arm which was not in great shape and replaced it with a Sony arm which I believe came from an old Sony PS 2250 turntable. As you can see by the pictures, it took some adjusting to get the geometry correct. I tried a Denon DL103 cartridge but could not get rid of the hum so I installed a Shure M97HE and added a ground wire. It is now quiet and so far, (one evening's listening) it sounds great.

I am going to give it a couple of weeks as is and then consider all the "Lenco Tweaks" for it. When I get into again, I'll take pictures of the motor and the underside of the metal plinth which by the way is a 1/4" thick piece of steel (I think). If anyone has any more information on this turntable, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Harry

I would have to agree about the greatness of the Ortofon cartridges in that VMS series as it really is clearly the best I have heard on the Lenco.The Denon 103 I feel has been slightly(significantly) bettered by the VMS 20E Mk11.A measure of this was the anti-skate for illustration.I don't know how many would have noticed this but I always found the 103 a bit finnickey as to where it wanted it's anti-skate and gave what could be described as different colourations of sound in different positions.The Ortofon is not like this in that you can hear the sound come in and right where it should be(30% about).I was also using pure silver interconnects for the Denon which seemed to demand the swift transients but the Ortofon handles even the Van Den Hul cables,which I thought were too fuzzy in the past.Now I hear what they can do.The balance of the Ortofon is superior.I still like the Denon but why didn't I notice this earlier.MC's are a plot!

Hi Harry,

That McCurdy sure looks nice and at first blush, it seems to have a few things going for it that might lend itself to be a good candidate for “polishing the rock” to see if it has the potential as another dynamic idler in the rough. In fact, I was ogling one of these last year, but let it slip away.

What attracted me was that expansive flat top plate and how well it would afford vast real estate for attachment and direct coupling to a mass constrained plinth in one swoop. Now that I’ve seen your photos, I also like what I see in that highly polished steel motor spindle. This is almost certainly a leg up on the Rek-O-Kuts and Prestos rim-drives with their bakelite spindles which seem to be prone to a slightly fibrous surface upon wearing.

Nevertheless, you’ll need to be open to other potential difficulties like motor isolation, noisy bearing, etc.. In my search yesterday on this turntable I could not turn up anything definitive on it – other than some “idler” chatter from former studio DJs who referred to the McCurdy as “The Master Rumbler”. But we also know that similar digs were said about the Lenco, and those proved of little consequence to where we are today.

So Harry, you may have to pioneer this one on your own for the betterment of the idler community.

But since you have it up on stilts, you might consider testing with a quiet LP (string quartet?) and reaching under and manually disengaging the idler from the platter rim and listen for the difference in unwanted signal coming out of your speakers. A stethoscope may also be in order for this new patient.

- Mario

Since helping Jean connect with Srajan, I've been spending so much time listening to records on the Lenco that I'm not keeping up with Da Thread! But I want to put in my 2-bits on a week-old topic - how low-output moving coil cartridges work on the Lenco. In a word: Marvelously. When Jean mounted a Dennon DL-103 on my SME-V arm, he discovered the "Kundalini Effect" - a great name for the psychological response to a sound that is so extraordinarily dynamic that it's thrilling. Mounting my Koetsu Rosewood Signature on the Lenco/SME-V produces the "Ecstacy Effect" - the subtlety and romantic bloom nortmally associated with Koetsus but also a sense of power and pace that's not what people people associate with Koetsu. I figure if the Lenco works this well at these two extremes - big bold Dennon and sweet suble Koetsu - it must work well with any lower output MC.

Hi Harry

That turntable has a wonderful utilitarian look to it.

I also have a Sony 2250 tone arm (that will end up on one of my Lencos) and have absolutely no information on it. Can I ask what pivot to spindle distance you mounted it at?

Paul