Speaking of building and testing, here are the preliminary results of the Mighty SME 30 vs Mighty Lenco Shootout!!
As you all should know by now, the Lenco in question is a standard Lenco L75/L78 (same difference), with its cavities filled in with marine-grade glass-epoxy in order to kill resonances without sacrifing dynamics (by using energy-kiling materials such as sorbothane & etc. which also indiscriminately kill off natural musical dynamics), Direct Coupled to a massive Russian birch-ply/MDF plinth for a total of 100 pounds. The Lenco itself has had none of its parts replaced, only restored by various manners. The original mat was glued in place, the main bearing is orginal with no tweaks, the motor is restored and rebalanced with no replacement of parts or power conditioners. Basically an original Lenco, restored and Direct Coupled, set on a marble/acrylic slab. The tonearm is a SME IV and is combined with a Clearaudio Concerto cartridge. Why it you ask? Well, the SME 30 is after all a $40K turntable from a very serous engineering company, and is furthermore mounted with a state of the art Graham Phantom tonearm and a Benz LP cartridge, all VERY heady stuff. The tube preamp/phono preamp was set for low-output MCs only, and so I couldn't bring in my JMW/Decca combo. The Concerto was the only available high-end MC in the shop (and I got agood deal for the SME IV ;-)), so I trusted myself to the Audio Gods and bought it: turns out the Concerto/SME combo is superb, Hallelujah!! The system consisted of top-of-the-line Atma-Shere electronics (BOY was it hot in that listening room!) matched to Sound Lab ESLs.
Good thing I went to these lengths too, as it turns out the SME 30 is after all a superb, World Class turntable (but said owner, Rick, being extremely generous of spirit, instantly deemed the Lenco World Class too), and the results were very close indeed in audiophile terms, and in fact is not yet settled on many counts: the cartridge loading was right for the Benz LP at 500 ohms, but badly off for the Clearaudio Concerto, which requires 47K into a tubed preamp according to the manual, we'll attend to that in Round Two.
The shootout was very good and favoured, musically-speaking, the Lenco, which it was admitted by the owner of the SME had superior rhythm, SLAM (punchiness), musical excitement and gestalt/music-as-an-organic-whole. But, the SME 30 was much better than I thought (it being a belt-drive and all ;-)). The bass was pretty well a toss-up for now, with the SME being superior on some recordings, and the Lenco being superior on others. Overall, the Lenco's bass was, given the right recording, more powerful and deeper with more impact and detail. But on other recordings, the Lenco was less well-defined and the SME took the lead. The Lenco was superior on all records in terms of PRaT, or Rhythm, Pace and Timing, admitted by the owner of the SME 30 as well (did I mention he is extremely genrous of spirit?). The owner, a bass player, thought the Lenco coloured in the bass and the SME neutral. I thought that this was recording-dependent, that the better the bass recording (the deeper and more natural), the better the Lenco retrieved it over the SME. Seems as well to be an issue of neutrality vs colouration: if your definition of neutral is more on the dry side, then yes, the Lenco's bass seems more tube-like. If your definition of bass is that it should be naturally "juicy", then the Lenco's bass is more natural and so neutral. It is not known how much of the Lenco's bass in the Shootout is in fact attributable to both cartridge loading, and to the natural sound of the Concerto (which is found by some to have "loose" bass, but which is not evident on all recordings, the bass on some records being superb and astounding). Same applies of course to the Graham/Benz combo.
Both 'tables were very detailed, but in the midrange the Lenco was the clear winner, resolving detail better, revealing relations both in terms of timing and raw detail/separation of instruments. Also, there was more "swing" and dynamics, and a more overall natural sound and gestalt/magic. Again, judgment came down to what was more neutral, and what was more coloured (transparency and detail-retrieval aside). Should music be as magical as it was via the Lenco, and was the SME in fact telling the truth/being more neutral? We'll get back to that, and the Shootout continues for a couple of weeks.
In the highs the SME was the clear winner, being more extended and resolving more air, but we'll hopefully address that by correcting the loading issue.
Now, both turntables were declared by all present incredible and World Class, the question being that vexing question of neutrality vs colouration. Now, the owner of the SME 30 felt the SME was more neutral, that the Lenco was coloured, but freely admitted the Lenco was superb and World Class, and both were about even overall. And here I will make a stab at some Socratic argumentation in order to effect a Paradigm Shift in his thinking. To wit: what is music's most immediate and obvious characteristic? Answer: musicality. According to this iron-bound logic then, it is the 'table which transmits less of this musicality which is the more coloured, and the table which retrieves more of this characteristic which is more neutral.
We have all undergone an incorrect Paradigm Shift in recent audio times with the rise of digital, and have equated this far more dry and matter-of-fact presentation
(and seemingly more scientific with the inclusive complex mathematics and computer/elctronics trickery) with neutrality. This is a faulty yardstick, the real yardstick should be live music, as The Absolute Sound suggests, which is NEVER dry and analytical. According to this, the Lenco, juicy and magical and entertaining as it is, is in fact more neutral, while the more matter-of-fact/cerebral SME 30 is more coloured/digital. Of course, everyone will draw their own conclusions and express/yield to their own tastes. And, furthermore, the Shootout is far from over, more conclusions, feelings and so on ahead as we next tend to the Concerto's cartridge loading and open the doors to more witnesses.
This is all very exciting, and I would like a BIG round of applause to Rick, who is extremely generous of spirit and open-minded, and who made this all possible!! Wish there more out there like him!!
Have fun all, I'm hoping the Reinderspeter top-plate Lenco will be ready in time to throw into the ring as well!! Have fun all!
