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Lenco and Garrard external ac power supply

Been thinking about this recently...Does it even make sense to try to find someone willing to build a power supply for turntables such as the Lenco L75 or Garrard 301 when they were made to just be plugged directly into the wall ac in the first place??

Loricroft makes ones for the 301 that convert ac to dc then back to "perfect" ac again which is what something like a Pure Power ac line conditioner/regenerator does. The neat thing about the Loricroft is that you can apparently adjust the 301's speed with it. It would be trick to find something like that for a Lenco 75 that was not so expensive.

PS audio used to make some big line re-conditioners that did the same sort of thing I think back in the day but I don't know if they are making the same equipmnet still. Furman and a couple others I think do similar things also.

What would be neat would be to find a ac regenerator that you could use to control the speed of either a 301, 401 or Lenco 75. Since they are all AC and can run at 110 or 220 volts maybe its possible, I don;t know but I know the Loricroft controller is way way expensive is it really worth $4000 bucks?? Thats almost as much as a restored 301 or top Lenco....geesh

Maybe you could just save the 4000 bucks and build one??/ Could it really be that tough?..
jeremy72
jhendrixfan
40 posts
 
Garrard 301's LIKE 220VAC much better than 110VAC.
Probably brcause they were originally designed for 50Hz 220VAC.
Some users actually do the power conversion so as to reproduce that scenario from 120VAC 60Hz mains.
Sounds weird but it does produce better results from the motor.
OTOH...IF you live in an area with 220VAC 50Hz mains then probably best to just plug it directly into the wall.
xactaudio's avatar
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xactaudio
156 posts
 
Actually, the 301 does not really care what the voltage is as far as sound quality goes. Voltage is important but more so for other reasons. What makes the sonic improvements in a 301 is the frequency of the voltage. At 47Hz, the 301's motor will generate the least amount of resonance or vibrations. In turn that reduction of vibration will be heard as a much cleaner sound from the 301. 50Hz is almost as smooth as 47Hz and 50Hz is much smoother than 60Hz.
jeremy72 OP
97 posts
 
Interesting, but confusing...If you run the table at 47 Hz then won't it run too slow? Sorry, if I am not getting it.. Just seems as if it might not lock onto 33 or 45 if running 47Hz with a 60Hz pulley, or 50Hz pulley for that matter.
jeremy72 OP
97 posts
 
So does that mean you should run the Lenco motor at a lower frequency also??
xactaudio's avatar
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xactaudio
156 posts
 
Correct Jeremy, the speed of the 301 motor is, in large part, determined by the frequency of the mains. The voltage controls the torque and will affect the speed to a much smaller degree. The 301 will operate at correct speed with 47Hz and around 230v with some of the 50Hz pulleys and minimal eddy current brake. Remember, Garrard made many variations (by design and machining tolerances I am guessing) of pulley diameters for 50Hz because post war Europe had a fairly large variation in voltages. To get the most out of the 47Hz setting, a custom pulley needs to be used so the eddy current brake can be used to maximum benefit and optimal voltage (torque) dialed in.
I have not tested the Lenco motor but no doubt it will have a different preference. Most likely very different.
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