Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

thanks John, the twl is in place on my arm already, i added some mass to the tube, and am enjoying the 103 so much, im not even going to bother with the 103r just yet!

Hi all, hope you're enjoying the summer! Just reporting in on my Ortofon 2M Black phono cartrdige: it sounds GREAT!! It has the detail of a good (but not great) MC, but with the PALPABILITY, PRaT and gestalt traditionally (in the Audio Undergorund) the strength MMs.

Aw GAWD it feels good to be back in MM Land, at least for now (while my Clearaudio Concerto - the only MC I've heard which actually rivals the best MMs for PRaT and gestalt - goes for repairs as it was defective). The Ortofon is a fitting successor to the Shure V15Vx MR in the sense especially of PRaT, or Pace, Rhythm and Timing, an area where the Shure was unsurpassed in my opinion, and an area where too many audiophiles still have no idea which way is up. I believe many hear it, but since it isn't something as easily identifiable as raw detail - like tinkling bells in the background and so forth - they dismiss it as pleasing but not important (NOT!). Of course, prolonged exposure to idler wheel drives eventually leads to a state of NEED of PRaT and gestalt (all the musicians following the same beat at the same time to sound like a "tight" and communicative band/single element). Anyway, the Ortofon FIRST does these extremely important musical things right, THEN presents great detail, dynamics, deep tight bass and imnaging and so forth. Excellent. I'm running mine on the SME IV for now, as it turns out that so far the SME IV (and by extension the SME V) ALWAYS sounds great with MMs (PRaT, gestalt, dynamics), while being VERY hit and miss with MCs.

It turns out the incredible dynamics of a Lenco is too much for the Spendor BC-1's, which bottom out with a sharp CLACK! quite often, so I'm thinking of augmenting them with a Vandersteen subwoofer to preserve the excellent sense of transparency and PRAT the BC-1s do so well, and be able to beef up the sound without bottoming out the drivers.

And speaking of Lencos - of COURSE - the Lenco magic way with music - incredible gestalt, PRaT, flow, dynamics macro and micro, bass - is slowly percolating through my area and conquering folk willy-nilly, convincing them of the importance of MUSICALITY (as opposed to information, at which the Lenco is nevertheless superb/State of the Art)...and I have nothing to do with it (not much anyway apart from setting them up), as simple repeated exposure to Lencos allows them to work their musical magic and conquer by musical charms while I sit out in the country oblivious with a beer in my hand watching the lovely lasses ride by on their horses.

A fellow who had just bought an Ayre CX-7e CD player - considered one of the most musical CD players ever built by many - says he can no longer listen to it since setting up a Giant Direct Coupled Glass-Reinforced Lenco in his system, set up with a JMW 12/Van den Hul MC-10 combo. And another who had received the less-performant but still excellent Direct Coupled Technics SP-25 DD wrote the following, showing just how effective Direct Coupling, AND vinyl, is, also and especially in the area of musicality: "Hats off!! It was an absolute pleasure to listen to the turntable in my system. Everything from Beatles to Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony made music as never before. Even with a humble Cambridge Audio 640P phono amp and the table sitting on the floor the turntable beat the proverbial pants off my Stereophile Class A transport and DAC. I think the CDs are going to gather dust for some time. The turntable is giving me better sound than the Roksan Xerxes/Rega RB300/Dynavector DV10X and Dynavector P75 phono stage. Add to this the sheer ease of use and I would count this as one of my best..." Just goes to show the magial properties of Direct Coupling, and potential of both Idler and DD done right, and of course, the infinitely Mightier Musical Magic of Vinyl!! Vive la Vinyl!!

And I'm still working on my Mighty Vintage Garage system, centred at one end on the Lenco, and the other with the Leak Stereo Twenty/Klipsch Cornwall combo, still searching for just the right preamp. Right now with ANY preamp the POWER and ruler-flatness of the end result is awesome to behold, these Cornwalls REALLY are tonally neutral (not too bright, everything in its place, bass deep and awesome but not overwhelming), but neutral without being boring, they ROCK!! I'm thinking I'll have to score another ARC SP-8 soon, THE most musical phono preamp/preamp I've ever heard (the Kundalini Effect!!). Have fun all, more big news very soon with the Reinderspeter Lenco set up and playing in the garage system!!

Hi,

I have a replinthed L75. Love it. But I am getting a kind of rhythmic scraping noise which is audible, though pretty quiet, with motor on but no record playing,and can definitely and distinctively be heard through the speakers when the needle of a moderate microphonic cartridge is in some dead wax. I have removed the platter and found that when the power switch is fully in the "on" position, so that the idler wheel (with the help of the spring) contacts the edge of the cut-out in the top plate in the space of which the wheel moves back and forth when being being engaged or disengaged (and in and out when changing speeds). It definitely makes the scraping noise with that contact. The power switch can be partially turned on so as to move the wheel over far enough to engage the moving spindle without hitting the edge of the cut-out. Then I do not get the scraping sound. But when I then put the platter on and try to move the "on" switch only as far as needed to engage the spindle, but not far enough to contact the edge of the cut-out, I get the scraping sound again.

My own surmise is that the wheel should not have been contacting the edge of the cut out, but that in doing so, it got somewhat worn, and that that wear is causing it to make noise when it contacts the either or both of the underside of the spinning platter or the edge of the cut-out. No part of the edge of the wheel seems bare, so far as I can manage to inspect it. But when I cleaner it, rubber residue came off the edge.

Can any of you Lenco experts out there tell me if this diagnosis sounds plausible, and what, if anything, can be done about it? It sure seems like that wheel ought not to contact the cut-out edge, but it also seems inevitable, given the range of motion of the power switch, the location of the fixed parts relative to the moving ones, and the spring's tugging on the wheel arm.

Any help at all appreciated!

Dear Rnm4, You are quite correct; the idler wheel should never contact the edge of the cut-out in the chassis. Further, scraping against the edge may indeed have damaged the rubber gasket that rides on the edge of the wheel. But in passing, another possible source of scraping noise could be the brake system. If the piece of metal that constitutes the brake is touching the platter, that could account for the "other" scraping noise that you hear when you only partially engage the ON switch, so as to avoid the noise due to the scraping idler wheel. Some people just remove the brake entirely. Anyway, it seems as though your table needs some surgery. If someone else built your plinth and installed the table, you might want to take it back. Otherwise, you need to adjust your idler arm and possibly to replace the rubber too. Go to Lenco Lovers website for help on those two things.

I'd like to wax poetic at this point on the merits of the Klipsch Cornwalls which are HUGE by modern standards (almost cartoons of speakers with those huge 15" woofers and super-wide baffles), and so as low on the WAF scale as it is possible to be. But, if any of you can get these beauties past the spousal alert system, these are so far THE most actually [tonally] neutral and balanced speakers I have ever heard: we're talking studio neutral but with HUGE dynamic reserves, detail and bass and speed. And to boot they SCREAM with low-powered tube amps. AND, to boot, they also sound great with powerful solid state amps, which goes against everything one hears about horn-loaded speakers!

I've run them with the 12-watt Leak Stereo 20, which, at least with a rebuild using the latest state of the art components (and paper-in-oil capacitors at critical areas) is incredibly fast and detailed with beautiful bass, and sounds like a Krell with the Cornwalls. And I've used them with a Perreaux 100-watt pre-power (SP2/1150B) with which they sound excellent, with no hint of aggression, brightness, hardness or "horniness".

The Cornwalls, with their big 15" woofers, reflex-loaded to boot, go DEEP in the bass, which is DEEP, tight and beautiful, and so which goes a LONG way to showing just how potent the Lenco bass is when compared to other machines. The Cornwalls are also VERY revealing, easily showing shortcomings (and improvements) of various electronics, tonearms, cartridges, also in terms of PRaT and gestalt. Bad electronics need not apply. I'm hoping to get my hands on an ARC SP-8 as preamp and a Classic 60 as driver amp to set them up, with of course a Lenco, with likely the SME IV/Clearaudio Concerto as source (the workshop floors are very bouncy, so unipivots are just to trickey/unstable). Now THIS should be a truly stellar vintage system (though the ARC stuff isn't SO vintage, I want the best I can put together from experience: ARC SP-8 + Classic 60 equals SUCH PRaT and gestalt that we have the Kundalini Effect!!), for that extra power, as the Cornwalls can suck it up and dish it out! Those visiting Eastern Ontario are invited to drop by, try some of the local award-winning beer (in Germany no less!!), Beau's beer (with painted-on tractor on glass bottles, and on ceramic bottles with rubber caps, cool). Perhaps you'll see the local beauties riding by on their horses :-).

Also, this weekend I expect to hear the Reinderspeter Lenco via the Perreaux/Cornwall system, so some very important stuff coming up VERY soon. Can't wait to fire it up!!

Have fun all, hope to see some of you for a Beau's beer and Lenco Madness!