LENCO - GL75 Project

[CornishPasty]

When I wrote revamped I was on about the picture hosting site I use.

[Wakefield Turntables]

These idlers have a hard tyre, but radiused quite severely on the drive contact area. They DO chip and take dents, so please consider keeping the retract assembly intact as this really isn't an issue. May I also suggest as a non-engineer that when the idler is brought into contact with the motor, the 'kick' on the platter, if clean, is enough to circumvent the idler spring, as I think the dynamics of the whole assembly when running only mean this spring is there to enable and maintain initial contact. OK, I'm not an engineer, but that's how it appears to me when the deck is running.

Denon 103? Has the internal tonearm wiring been replaced? I know this arm is slagged off universally and my defence of it is well catalogued here and elsewhere, but I'm not sure I'd use any low output MC type in this arm except possibly a DL110 high output (I once used a 10X IV in a GL75 back in the days when it cost the same as the DL110...).

David, thanks for the comments re: the idler wheel. Now your comments with regards the 103 and the tonearm have surprised me a little. I've trawled the net and not been able to find a decent opinion as to why I shouldn't use the 103M on the Alphason. Additionally, what has re-wiring got to do with the tonearm, things are sounding perfectly fine without spending a couple hundred quid on a rewire. Finally, the Alphason HR100S is widely known as one of the best tonearms devised some where on the net has it been "universally" slagged off?

I'd definately recommend an on/off switch on the deck itself and not forgetting to fit a capacitor across the switch so as to avoid switching thumps through your speakers. This also allows the NSC to warm up and stabilise before using the deck.

This is just something I've been thinking about which might not make it back into the rebuild.

[QUOTE=CornishPasty;799860]Yes that's a good recommendation. If like the micro switch from the GL78 as it's easy to refit to a modified deck but I prefer an on/off switch which I usually install in the bottom left hand corner below the speed control.

Hah ! I thought you'd been at the whisky Andy

Not touched a drop in approx 7 weeks.

[karma67]

i think dave thinks your using the standard arm off the lenco.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonights update - More waffle.

The deck is now in a state of bits ready for a whole heap of repairs, fixes, mods and upgrades. There are several things which have never really worked with the deck such as the anti-bias weight on the Alphason, one of the screw threads is slightly too long and affects one of the feet. The tonearm could have done with better screws to fix it to the top plate. The Denon 103M could do with its pins polishing, the tonearm lead could do with tidying up. Lots of little things that when added up cause me a great deal of irritation. I have to tell myself that this deck is still a WIP just to keep my sanity.

The Jolyon bearing has now been ordered which means I need to dig out some old steel from the garage to be modded and re-fashioned as a support. I have a six week wait for the bearing so this should hopefully allow me to make all the mods needed to fetch the deck upto speed just before Xmas. I'd like the '75 to be finished so I can have a few weeks listening and enjoying the fruits of my labours (hopefully). I dont really have much more to discuss tonight so I'm signing off early to spend some time on the deck. I hope to take lots of photo's detailing what I've done.

Until next time...

[CornishPasty]

Dave was indeed referring to the Lenco arm. With a bit of fettling this arm will easily accommodate an AT33PTG. I modified a headshell, well a few actually to take the DL103 which it also did quite well. There's also no reason why the Alphason won't work with the DL103 either.

[brian2957]

Can you please tell us in more detail how you modified the headshell Ralph .

[CornishPasty]

Can you please tell us in more detail how you modified the headshell Ralph .

Be happy to Brian. I remove the slider and screw from the Lenco headshell and then I Araldite a piece of 3mm thick aluminium cut to shape inside the headshell. 3mm brings the cartridge fixing height to the same as the sled. I can tailor the weight by either making the alumium piece longer or going up to 4mm thickness which I haven't found necessary yet. Then I mill slots into the headshell that simply follow the outside edge of the headshell. I had no access to a milling machine when I made the last one for myself so I just drilled a series of holes and filed them through. Not quite as tidy but good enough for me. I've just put my camera on charge so I'll bung a couple of pics on later. I also have the before and after weights written down somewhere so when I find them I'll post them too.

[brian2957]

That looks interesting Ralph . I would appreciate it if you could post those pictures .

[CornishPasty]

Ok Brian, I've uploaded a couple of pics. Just click on the thumbnail and it'll open up.

[brian2957]

Thanks Ralph , appreciate this . I may have to buy another headshell and have a go at this .

I've been looking at these as the original headshells don't go for much less on Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3515696932...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thakker-He...MAAOSwo0JWOg8u