Well, I've just listened to the modified Lentek.....
Oh bloody hell, where do I start? This thing sounds f*cking AMAZING now...!!! :stalks: :eek: :wow:
Ok, I guess at the beginning is a good place...
As I said earlier, in my opinion, the Lentek (in conjunction with a DL-103) excels with rock and pop music. I particularly like listening to it with my large collection of 80s 12" singles, as its peppy, energetic and rhythmically adroit presentation propels music along in a tremendously addictive fashion, putting a big grin on your face.
I've been used to listening on headphones recently, due to my copper amp being away for repair, and find it a very good way of assessing changes made to equipment through my (fairly) sonically transparent headphone amp and AKG 701s, as one can eliminate significant negative influences on the sound, such as the room, for starters!
So I cued up 'Drive' by the Cars, and turned the headphone amp up to the normal level used when I had the Lentek before it was modified, and lowered the stylus into the groove....
When the opening bass line kicked in, it nearly took my head off (!) such was its sheer attack, power and intensity, making the music seem subjectively louder than before. Bass is significantly more extended, weightier, and with superior rhythmic 'snap', and so consequently music listened to is driven along with great purpose, when of course the programme material demands, and with this being beat-driven pop music, it most certainly qualified!
Vocals are crisper sounding, but less sibilant, and are projected with greater expression and definition, losing the sheen, grainy inflection and tonally grey character they had before, and the top end is both sweeter sounding and less 'transistor like', taking on an almost valve-like shimmery sparkle.
The noise floor, whilst still greater than that of a good SUT, is much lower than before, and so consequently one is now more able to concentrate on the musical content of recordings, without being distracted by hiss. Hiss is not an issue now in any real sense unless one is a big fan of choral or light classical music, where noise during quiet passages may be an issue, and if so, a DL-103 is unlikely to be used as one's chosen cartridge - and nor would one likely use a Lentek.
What Nick has managed to achieve through judicious choice of replacement components is ameliorate the undesirable qualities of the Lentek in stock form and maximise its musically infectious traits, making it an absolutely thrilling listen with rock and pop music, using a DL-103, through a quality MM phono stage. Valve phono stages, with their generally more extended tonal palette and 'cleaner' top end, are likely to make the most of its particular sonic attributes.
I must stress that the results obtained are with a Denon DL-103. Similar results with other cartridges cannot be guaranteed.
However, make no mistake, thus modified, the Lentek head amp is in my opinion one of the best MC step-up solutions I've heard at anything like the price, and unquestionably the best device to my ears for optimising the sonic performance of a DL-103, trumping the (£550) A23 SUT in terms of visceral impact and dynamics, if not in ultimate subtlety and finesse with gentler types of music.
If you love the DL-103, and your record collection contains a healthy selection of rock and pop/dance/electronic music, you owe it to yourself to track down a Lentek from Ebay and have our resident genius from Halifax breathe his magic on it, as quite honestly, the results are staggering!
Well done, Nick, you're a star! :cool:
Marco.
