Hi Hxt1, thanks for the tip, there's nothing like trying something to see what it does, like the ceramic ball. Btw, how do you pronounce Hxt1 ;-)?
There are reasons I've steered clear of stone in the plinth, i.e. the "Hardness Factor", which means it is more reflective than absorptive (and so creates the illusion of detail rather than its natural and glorious reality), and it cannot in itself be Direct Couple-able, meaning screws cannot be sunk into the "meat" of the stone to drain noise away (and anyway, being so hard it would not absorb but instead tend to reflect noise back), as it can with wood products. However, bonded CLD-style to a plinth, screws can still be passed through the stone to the wood to reach the wood of the remains of the plinth. Perhaps you can organize having a slab sent my way via Canada Post so I can try it out and report on it.
In the meantime, before everyone rushes to slate (as some may have done with the ceramic ball bearings), be cautioned that hard materials (and this includes especially hard woods) may be doing the old audiophile "drain some of the bass frequencies away to unnaturally expose the mid and high frequencies Trick" to create the illusion of detail rather than the reality. I fell for this very recently with the ceramic ball bearing, first installing it in various systems, then being forced to return and remove them all once I realized what what really going on (i.e. de-testicularization of the Mighty Lenco). Your description on Lenco Lovers that surface noise is emphasized is a flagpost that this may, that's MAY (don't let me discourage you), be happening, as the larger the traditional CLD plinth ("traditional" being the now-common birch-ply/MDF recipe), the more effective the Direct Coupling and the less apparent the surface noise is, while the detail, transients, bass and high frequencies all continue to improve. Anyway, contact me, we'll organize shipping of a suitably-cut slab my way, and we'll subject it to the Jean Nantais Audio Laboratory (i.e., my hairy bat-like ears) and I'll report further.
Good news to all the Lenco Lovers out there, I've had occasion to listen to two Garrards (301 grease-bearing and 401 oil-bearing) Direct Coupled to Giant CLD plinths and compare them to similarly set-up Lencos, and both in excellent systems, one of them being way WAY beyond my means. Now as background, remember that Direct Coupling ANY idler-wheel drive works very well (and DDs too, as the slaughter of the Technics SP10 MKII by the Sony 2250 attests), in fact creating what may well be the best Garrard rebuilds currently available. So, I once again post the impressions of a complex low-mass Cain & Cain Garrard owner to set the stage/context: "Well, got the stock i/c on the Dyna, and not all tweaked yet, and nothing sitting on stand, without isolation, and it betters the Verdier/Koetu Urishi on a special Isolation stand...I am candidly surprised. I did not expect this. I had the the Cain and Cain plinth and it did not sound good. This is way above. The 301 is incredible in your plinth. It has only the inexpensive Denon 103 R and that is not redone yet...and only a stock cable and it is better by a long ways than the Verdier on a special isolation table. Next I will try the Koetsu in the arm....and in my best phono stage and see. Damn...don’t let this get out, or it will ruin the high end."
In more related news, before we get back to the subject, a former Shindo Garrard owner visited a friend of mine with a Giant Air-Bearing Lenco and was struck, while there, by the utter silence of both it and the Giant Direct Coupled Garrard which was also there. He said the Shindo was noisy. Now we know just how effective Direct Coupling to a Giant plinth really is in eliminating noise and excavating music, and also see an example of Price is the Product (which, being Unobtainium to most, engenders its own mythology, promoted by the owners in most cases, excepting this one) and Audio Bullshit. I reiterate: Russian birch-ply and MDF may not be exotic, but they are EXTREMELY effective, and tonally balanced and dynamically perfect, so much so in all audiophile areas that it is simply impossible to point to any flaws (which cannot be addressed by footers and platforms). Here's a VERY picky Russian birch-ply/MDF CLD Lenco owner with a truly high-end system looking for flaws: "The Lenco is sounding simply fabulous !! Absolutely the best LP reproduction I have owned. I spent quite a while getting everything dialed in and now think I'm realizing the full potential of the Giant Lenco. Bravo, Bravo !!" And later: "The Lenco continues to impress. I'm unable to identify any area where the performance is lacking, i.e.- no shortcomings have reared their ugly head(s) to disrupt my enjoyment of the Giant Plinth Lenco."
Anyway, the result of the visit of the former Shindo owner? The fellow bought that Lenco on the spot (don't despair Lenco Lovers, the friend is also replacing the air-bearing Lenco with a more traditional pivotted tonearm Lenco, "latest spec") with which he was enamoured to the point of Shindo and Giant Garrard invisibility. Now this is not to say that a properly-restored Garrard cannot beat the cr*p out of a multi-kilobuck belt-drive with one footer tied behind its back, just that, after all, there is an idler hierarchy, and that it appears - following as well the defeat of a mighty EMT 930 on Cyprus, fresh from full Restoration by three of Europe's leading analogue experts - that the Lenco occupies the Top of the Heap.
Why? I have repeatedly compared Lencos and Garrards, and in various systems, and have rebuilt and disassembled many Garrards, Thorenses and Lencos, and can now point to the issue of [true] torque vs inertia. Now everyone may know (or many anyway) that I detest the application of the philosophy of Political Correctness to engineering/science, i.e. that it has no place here. So, influenced by PC and tring to win popularity contest (be all things to all people, offer no judgments, offend no one), many constantly reiterate that all drive systems are equal (in the absence of actual experience or evidence), and that it is merely a matter of implementation. Baloney, Oops, I mean fine, I say, let's bring back the steam engine. It weighs about a 100 tons, takes forever to speed up to combustion engine speds, and to slow down due to its massiveness, and costs several millions of dollars to manufacture. A bit like a 150-pound belt-drive which sells for $50K-$100K. Engineering is about engineering to a PRICE, and if it takes a 100 grand belt-drive to equal a 10 grand idler machine (let's say the true cost of manufacturing a new true idler-wheel drive turntable and selling it), then the 10-grand idler is simply the superior technology (and despite the antiquated rubber wheel, it IS technology).
So, getting to the reasons why: inertia of a massive platter is NOT the same as torque, which is applied actively to achieve its ends, in this case to spin the platter. So, say, take a dinky little motor spinning at 300 RPM (low-torque) and use it to revolve an 80-pound platter on its axis (main bearing) via a flimsy belt or thread with its problematic grip, and compare it with a Monster motor spinning at 1800 rpm, and use IT to revolve an 8-pound platter, with half its mass concentrated on its rim for flywheel effect, using a grippy rubber wheel. What will happen? The little - and so cheaper to manufacture - idler, will kick the ass of the Mighty Uber-Heavy belt-drive, as more and more are discovering, and as the previously posted posting also attests: "Well, got the stock i/c on the Dyna, and not all tweaked yet, and nothing sitting on stand, without isolation, and it betters the Verdier/Koetu Urishi on a special Isolation stand...I am candidly surprised. I did not expect this. I had the the Cain and Cain plinth and it did not sound good. This is way above. The 301 is incredible in your plinth. It has only the inexpensive Denon 103 R and that is not redone yet...and only a stock cable and it is better by a long ways than the Verdier on a special isolation table. Next I will try the Koetsu in the arm....and in my best phono stage and see. Damn...don’t let this get out, or it will ruin the high end." Have a look under my "system" to see the photo of the massively-plattered HUGE Platine Verdier sitting next to the not-so-Giant-looking Giant Direct Coupled Garrard 301.
So now we get to the reason why the Mighty Lenco should outperform the Garrards and EMTs (belt-drives are a forgone conclusion), which are better-built (but NOT better designed as I often write). Btw, the Lenco just has more of everything than the Garrards: more natural-sounding, more detail, more refinement, a larger dynamic pallette/window, it retrieves more of the air and resonance, more bass (!!!), a BIGGER presentation, more of a sense of limitless power, and so on. So, what's going on? The Garrard even has the more powerful/torquey motor! Ah, there's the rub. There must exist a perfect balance of torque-to-inertia. The more powerful the motor, the more that motor's sound/imperfections are heard, as it begins to audibly imprint itself over the flywheel/stabilizing effect of the platter. The Lenco's motor has less torque, but the platter is the better flywheel, with more mass concentrated on the rim, and at a further distance too (the platter is slightly oversized), making it an even more efective flywheel/purveyor of inertia an thus Smoother/Eliminator of speed imperfections (i.e. the motor). This superior flywheel ensures the motor - via the very clever it is now apparent means of using a rubber wheel with all its grip - spins more smoothly, and in the Lenco's case - likely entirely by accident (though perhaps Dr. Lenco actually calculated all this) - creates a perfect balance of torque (VERY important) to inertia (also VERY important) to create the Mighty Lenco, which sonically is akin to the Amazon in Full Flood, a sense of limitless but fluid power which underpins everything played through it, so that the most delicate bits of information emerge unscathed in all their elegance, while backed by the full force of sudden dynamic explosions, the classic Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove.
Well, anyway, that's enough of these ruminations for now, don't depair Garrard and other Mighty Idler users, these easily outclass megabuck belt-drives and provide that incredible idler excitement and POWER, and after all, Lencos can still be had cheap!! Vive la Idler, Vive la Lenco!!
