New Lenco owner

[Natara]

A while back I bought a lovely Birch ply plinth from Don on this forum and have just bought a GL75 in lovely condition with a SHURE M75EJ cart. It is my intention to eventually change the tonearm but will play with it as is for a little while.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Ha another lenconian welcome! Great decks you'll have plenty of fun.

[speedracer]

Agree with Andrew above, they are great fun. I bought a MDF plinth from John & had another Lenco Heaven guy build my GL75 for me, which is something I wouldn't mind doing myself at some point in the future, & I don't have a bad thing to say about it.

[Dr Henry Jones]

Lenco is (relatively) the cheapest of the idler drive turntables to buy, and yes it does need a little more work to bring out the best in it.
However , if you put the work in you will have an extremely high end turntable at a very low price , I have a garrard 301 and a thorens the124 and the Lenco is easily as good as either of them........and I have two more significant modifications to make.
Another very important thing. ...The diy approach, this very therapeutic, sitting back and really enjoying music on vinyl on a turntable that you have designed, plus iwanted Iit to play all sorts of music not just what i like , so i borrowed some lps of various music that I don't usually listen to........herb Albert, James last and Paul morriat, all middle of the road .....easy listening, and I can'tsay that it's all my cup of tea but the arrangements and the musicianship is superb , so you also get to appreciate other sorts of music .
All in all you can, with a little bit of thought and study end up with a turntable that produces the same perfomanc as a very high end turntable at a fraction of the cost. So a small outlay to buy the Lenco,and another for the materials to make the plinth and in return for a modest outlay you get back a great sound, an appreciationfor music you never took any notice of and a great boost Iin confidence.

[DSJR]

Do you REALLY all have to yank the L75 arm off, carve up the top plate and retro-fit some third party arm? The L75 arm in proper V Block fettle and replacement exit cables used to sound amazing with a K9 (the AT520 at £120 is regarded as a modern replacement for the K9 and sounds not so different I gather) and a GL75/K9 was far better sounding than say, a Linn Axis/Akito-mk1/K9 I distinctly remember. The DL110 worked well too and if you want to over-egg the bass as the M75-EJ does, a Sumiko Pearl.

Just sayin' loike.....

[Firebottle]

Do you REALLY all have to yank the L75 arm off, carve up the top plate and retro-fit some third party arm?

I completely agree David, I have the original arm and am running a Lyra Clavis at 1.8 gram and it sounds ******* superb.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Do you REALLY all have to yank the L75 arm off, carve up the top plate and retro-fit some third party arm? The L75 arm in proper V Block fettle and replacement exit cables used to sound amazing with a K9 (the AT520 at £120 is regarded as a modern replacement for the K9 and sounds not so different I gather) and a GL75/K9 was far better sounding than say, a Linn Axis/Akito-mk1/K9 I distinctly remember. The DL110 worked well too and if you want to over-egg the bass as the M75-EJ does, a Sumiko Pearl.

Just sayin' loike.....

No of course you dont have to cut the thing to pieces. One of the many charms of the Lenco is that you you tweak, experiment, modify etc VERY CHEAPLY! The original deck in itself is a piece of master engineering and apart from a quick service just needs plonking in a semi decent plinth and you;ll have years and years of faithful service. My '75 is an on going WIP and I detail the new mods every several weeks or so for those interested, in fact I'm in the process of installing a whole new raft of things to try out (but that's just me). My advice would be to take things in your own time and LEARN how each new tweak changes your deck, then settle on something which makes you happy! ;)

[donmarrese]

Do you REALLY all have to yank the L75 arm off, carve up the top plate and retro-fit some third party arm? The L75 arm in proper V Block fettle and replacement exit cables used to sound amazing with a K9 (the AT520 at £120 is regarded as a modern replacement for the K9 and sounds not so different I gather) and a GL75/K9 was far better sounding than say, a Linn Axis/Akito-mk1/K9 I distinctly remember. The DL110 worked well too and if you want to over-egg the bass as the M75-EJ does, a Sumiko Pearl.

Just sayin' loike.....

Yes. you have a point, but IMO it's the wiring and wand mass that lets it down. Stick one of Brian Limage's Carbon Arms on (https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=28711.0) and you've made the biggest single improvement on a fantastic turntable. IMO only

[Dr Henry Jones]

Do you REALLY all have to yank the L75 arm off, carve up the top plate and retro-fit some third party arm? The L75 arm in proper V Block fettle and replacement exit cables used to sound amazing with a K9 (the AT520 at £120 is regarded as a modern replacement for the K9 and sounds not so different I gather) and a GL75/K9 was far better sounding than say, a Linn Axis/Akito-mk1/K9 I distinctly remember. The DL110 worked well too and if you want to over-egg the bass as the M75-EJ does, a Sumiko Pearl.

Just sayin' loike..... well. ...no you don't have to, but my argument would be is that so much of th original Leno that is so good that it's a sin to not take the rest of it away, a very good motor , a very good baring, a very good idler and platter. .......does that not deserve a much better arm, top plate and plinth? To my ears it's a bargain and worth the work,
Regards steve

[curry49]

Lenco arms are oft replaced with arms which are no better except in looks. I found my Ittok only slightly better with MMs.

Just sayin' :)

[Jimbo]

I completely agree David, I have the original arm and am running a Lyra Clavis at 1.8 gram and it sounds ******* superb.

:clap::thumbsup: