Nick G modified Lentek Head Amp

[Marco]

Guys,

I mentioned a while back that I was going to get my Lentek tweaked by Nick (to use with my DL-103), and now it's finished.

Nick's just sent me some pics, so here they are (with new output cables, plugs and phono sockets):





Close up of new phono sockets:





Internal components, showing extensive capacitor changes:





Close-up of internal components:





And again:





And just for comparison purposes, this is what a standard unit looks like inside (taken from DSJR's Lentek Naked thread):






For reference, the component changes, wire and plugs in mine are as follows:

Ceramics were replaced with Wima FKP polyprop caps. Tants were replaces with OSCON SA caps.

The RCA sockets are CMC gold plated RCA sockets from HFC and the plugs are CMC-1036-WF RCA plug also from HFC. Cable is Shark double screened cable.

I'm picking it up tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to hear what it sounds like now...

Full report to follow!

Marco.

[Barry]

Guys,

I mentioned a while back that I was going to get my Lentek tweaked by Nick (to use with my DL-103), and now it's finished.

Nick's just sent me some pics, so here they are (with new output cables, plugs and phono sockets):





Close up of new phono sockets:





Internal components, showing cap and resistor changes:





Close-up of Internal components:





And again:





I'm picking it up tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to hear what it's like now...

Full report to follow!

Marco.

Hi Marco,

Gosh! It looks a bit of a "dog's dinner", but one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover as they say.

I've completely given the EMT TSD15/adapter a completely new set up. I had to change the arm-board so that I could move the SME arm base to the end of the bedplate keyway. The overhang is now correct, before it was significantly out.

The reason why I'm bringing this up is that believe you are intending to use your modified Lentek (how has it been modified?) with the EMT. At the moment I'm running it directly into a MM input of 1mV senstitivity and 47KOhm impedance with excellent results. Will try it with a 20x Nakamichi SUT before I send it off to you.

Regards

[Marco]

Hi Barry,

Dog's dinner... Dogs dinner??? Wash thy mouth out, heathen!

Remember Nick's had to squeeze much bigger components than were there before (not to mention thicker cable) into a tiny area, and it was never 'tidy' inside it to start with......!

Anyway, it looks fine with the cover on it. How it sounds now, anyway, is what matters most

The reason why I'm bringing this up is that believe you are intending to use your modified Lentek (how has it been modified?) with the EMT.

As per pics above. Not sure exactly what you mean by that, and why you're telling me about arm boards, etc, when I won't be able to do that on the Techie

The Lentek head amp will match the EMT (as did the A23 SUT), as the EMT has similar electrical requirements to the DL-103, so it should sound great as a combo

Marco.

[Marco]

Here's a pic of the unit when I bought it in its box (observe the crappy output cable and plugs! ):





And a pic of the inside of the unit as standard, courtesy of Dave (DSJR):





Inside that little black box on the right is where the 'gubbins' is, and there's not a lot of space to try and work inside!

Marco.

[Barry]

Not sure exactly what you mean by that and why you're telling me about arm boards, etc, when I won't be able to do that on the Techie

I was wondering if some component values had been changed,as well as component quality.

Apropos changing the arm board - I wanted to make quite sure the cartridge was operating under ideal conditions in my arm before I sent it off for you to hear it. Before changing the armboard the overhang was badly out; I couldn't hear any distortion, but had to put it right for my own piece of mind.

Regards

[leo]

Oscons and FKP's, thats definitely going to sound different to the stock unit

[Marco]

Ah, no worries, Barry.....

As for component values being changed, I'm not sure, you'll have to ask Nick. He's usually lurking around, so he may comment

Marco.

[Marco]

Oscons and FKP's, thats definitely going to sound different to the stock unit

Hi Leo,

In roughly what way, in your experience?

Marco.

[leo]

Warmer as a guess, more colour. I don't use Oscons in analogue circuits and don't know the Lentek circuit so can't say for sure how it will sound. Nick knows his stuff so they probably mate well with the Lentek.
Oscons are low esr and can be useful in some digital circuits for supply decoupling. I'd imagine a very different flavour to tants when used in analogue circuits. Those Wima polypropylenes should be smoother in the high's than microphonic ceramics if used in say a LPF.

Give it a good running in, Oscons usually require longer than normal caps, they can sometimes be DC leaky when new too which usually goes away after plenty of burn in. Be interesting to hear how you find it

[Marco]

Hi Leo,

Sounds interesting....

The Lentek was a little 'grainy' sounding before and had a rather 'grey' tonal palette. It also gave a somewhat hard edge to vocals, along with its infectious and 'peppy' musical presentation, with bags of rhythmic drive in the bass (when used in conjunction with a DL-103).

So the possible changes you describe could prove to be an asset

Marco.