LENCO - GL75 Project

[brian2957]

OK mate , let me know if you need anything meantime .

[brian2957]

If you prefer u can pop it in post

If you don't mind Grant , that would be great . You have PM .

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's update - The Lenco Reference Pt XCVII - For what it's worth....

Right, this thread is ending retirement in that I cant be arsed to be honest and attitude just pisses me off. So, I'll post and see what happens. The 75 has been going through a raft of optimisations to try and get the best from the current set up. I've been playing around with MM loading and apart from making a few errors have decided that this is the best port of call http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/60...oading_Kit-Any in trying to get optimal loading for the Shure M55E (HAPPY NEAL ). As an aside I had the happy error of finding out that my tonearm and m55e actually made a very good match in that the M55E has a moderate compliance of 25cu so in theory is a good match for the medium mass Alphason HR100S tonearm. It's a good idea to try and know the cartridge frequency, on line calculators are available. So, after a little messing around I found that my Shure/Alphason combo generate about 10.3 Khz, so I'm happy even though I got lambasted for a basic school by error.

I've started working on the cosmetic appearance of the 75 again and this time I have stripped back the platters to original metalwork finish but this time I've used wet and dry from 80 grit all the way through the 2500 and I now have x2 highly polished platters topped off with the Crystal platter mat. It looks very fetching and should look quite nice when the top plate is finished. The top plate need more work and shall probably be my little project over the next few weeks.


jeff1.jpg


The EAR 834 clone has had a little attention in that i've chucked in 3 Mullard CV4004 valves. Very good they sound too, jury is still out, but I'm leaning towards these over the Telefunkens, we shall see.

cv4004.jpg

As, ever, well, maybe not.....................

[brian2957]

All a bit technical for me Andy , however the GL75 , especially the plinth , looks fantastic . I must say , I really like that plinth

I quite fancy giving the M55E a try again . I did have a stylus in my box and Grant kindly sent me an M55E body but I think the stylus is knackered so I'll have to get another one .

It would be a great shame if you stopped posting your findings on these threads as they are a valuable source of information mate . Keep up the good work Andy

[Stryder5]

+1 ^^

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's update - The Lenco Reference Pt XCVIII - Journey's End - NEARLY!

The 75 is sitting in bits across several levels of my house, I'm nearing end stage now and I feel I've gone as far as I can with the 75, inspiration may strike again at some point but I'm happy with the way the deck has progressed. TBH I'm now looking forward to spending a little time on the Garrard 301 project. The plinth has had a little more tweaking in that I've managed to add a wee bit more mass and I've stuff a little more marine resin under the tonearm area. The Alphason Tonearm will ultimately be mated with a Ebony tonearm mount to replace the birchply bodge job that i've currently got mounted on the 75's top plate. Every component on the 75 will get a strip down and service before I re-assemble and then the deck will be carefully setup and then left alone. I have another idea with respects to improving the coupling between the top plate and the plinth but this involves "sticking" the top plate onto the plinth via industrial grade double sided tape, I'm thinking maybe carpet tape, we'll see. I'd like to decouple the motor from the 75 but that's another story. So, be prepared guys for this thread to go into retirement pretty soon.

[brian2957]

Hope it all works out for you Andy . I'm sure you'll soon be looking for something else to be doing with your time

[Wakefield Turntables]

Brian, the idea is to finish with part 100and then I may (like Rocky) come out of retirement to update the thread!

[brian2957]

Ah...can't do them fancy Roman numerals Andy

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update - The Reference Lenco Pt XCIX - More fine tuning

I've been quiet recently and it's due down to rebuilding the 75 AGAIN! There have been a few changes made since the last update. Firstly I paid a little more attention to the top plate in that I refilled and sanded down specific areas to give it a better finish and it's also had a new lick of paint. I've also re-serviced the bearing again and I even re-polished the bearing spindle which is something that I've never done before I'm hoping that it may achieve some sonic benefit. I've also been paying careful attention to the tonearm coupling. The Alphason's non-magnetic aluminium mount is now better coupled to it's new EBONY mount which in turn is better coupled to the top plate. I went down the route of using highly adhesive carpet tape to mount the two together this has several very big advantages.

i) Virtually 100% coupling between all surfaces.
ii) Elimination tonearm mounting threads, nuts and washers.
iii) The tonearm mount is extremely well fixed in place.

The tonearm board is now made from Ebony, this is one of my favourite woods and has consistently shown sonic benefits over several decks. The new tonearm mount cost a rather princely £16 but this is far cheaper than having one made which would have been north of £60. It's amazing what you can find when you have the correct keywords. I decided to buy from a UK buyer for two reasons, firstly, it would arrive in 3 days and secondly I'm pretty certain I'm getting ebony and not a wood stained to look like ebony! Here's what I've purchased.


ebony.jpg

The EAR 834 clone will be going to Mr. Firebottle for work. I'm having some RCA sockets fitted so that I can use loading jacks to improve the capacitance seen by the M55E, its a very cheap way of getting the cartridge properly loaded whilst at the same time enabling flexibility. This should reap some sonic benefits once it returns. I'm hoping to get this off in the next week. I've also been looking into how my Nigels Speed Controller has been powered and have been playing around with the power regulation settings on my PS Audio P10. I think I may have stumbled across a way of reducing motor noise into the 75's motor. To my ears the 75's motor sounds slightly quieter and the voltage regulation appears to be better controlled. I can only assume that wild fluctuations in the supplied voltage MAY cause the motor to surge and perform slightly louder, I'm only speculating but the motor does appear to sound better.

The 75 is nearly ready to be pressed back into service again but it will need to be carefully set up again. I intend to write a couple more parts to this thread and then hopefully start to concentrate on my Garrard 301. One of the instalments will detail how I think the deck can be further improved and hopefully at some point in the future I may resurrect this thread and then detail my further adventures with these modifications. The second instalment will be a review of how the 75 sounds. I intend to hunker down over Xmas and get a real feel for how the 75 is performing, I intend to give the deck a real shake down and hopefully get a great over view of its strengths and weaknesses. So, this is how the 75 looks right now. I've given it a new paint job and freshly polished both heavy weight platters. The Crystal mat has been freshly polished. The 75 is now waiting for the Alphason to be mated to the top plate and then we can spin some plastic.


DSCN3768.jpg

As ever, stay tuned...