DENON HA 500, just a photo gallery

[Marco]

Hi King,

Well I'll have the Lentek by the end of the week, so all will be revealed....

Like I said, perhaps it's just nostalgic rose-tinted bias from when I used it fondly in the 80s (after all, our benchmark in audio for what is considered as 'excellent' constantly improves), but I remember that it matched the DL-103 exceptionally well. Perhaps there was just very good synergy with that cartridge?

The bottom line is that if it gets anywhere near the A23 (or the HA-500 I sold to Giovanni), sonically in my system, then it'll be a total bargain - or perhaps a waste of £60.... We shall see. It's just a bit of fun, really!

Marco.

[Marco]

The Lentek arrived today in full working order (thanks to Dave from Greenhomeelectronics):





I've just fitted a brand new Duracell 9V battery and cleaned all the connections.... Disregard the box, as the unit itself is in (near) mint condition.

Well what I can say first of all is that comments such as:

The Lentek is a hissy, grainy little beastie....

...do not apply in my system. It's pretty silent (although not as silent as the A23). There is some hiss, but it's by no means disastrous.

Grainy? Not in the slightest in my set-up - and I have a rather revealing fairly high-end system

The Lentek, even in it's day, wasn't up to much. It was bland to the point of boring...

That's not what I'm getting from it at the moment. Bland it ain't; slightly 'uncouth' and rough around the edges (compared with the A23), perhaps.

Fine with the early Entre syrup pudding which it was designed for, but not a patch on a decent SUT in my opinion.

It's early days, as I've still to spend the necessary time assessing and comparing it to the A23, but initial results show it to be a lively and detailed little performer, if not as expansive, weighty and finessed sounding as the A23, which you'd of course expect considering the difference in cost!

However, for a budget device, it certainly sounds very good indeed in conjunction with the Croft's valve MM stage. I'll report back later when I've had more time to listen. At the moment though I'm pretty pleased with it

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Good lad..

[Rare Bird]

The problem with old hi-fi enthusiasts especially ones who can afford to upgrade like changing underpants is while upgrading through the years to components they deemed at the time to be better sounding, they have simply lost the plot, they think (As well as been made to think) their new fangled toys are better sounding than what they had 30 years ago.

There's no turning back for them for all sorts of reasons or even admit it .. (Not aimed at anyone in particular)

[DSJR]

The problem with old hi-fi enthusiasts especially ones who can afford to upgrade like changing underpants is while upgrading through the years to components they deemed at the time to be better sounding, they have simply lost the plot, they think (As well as been made to think) their new fangled toys are better sounding than what they had 30 years ago.

There's no turning back for them for all sorts of reasons or even admit it .. (Not aimed at anyone in particular)

I hope that's not me Andr'e? The newest parts of my system now are the CD player at twenty two years old and possibly the X10-D (which is out of circuit at present) at twelve years approx...


Marco, for, "Rough around the edges" read "grainy" and the fact you can hear hiss means it's noisy!! Now I have the earthing of the Quad 33 sorted I get the faintest noise with all the gains turned up on the Crowns and Croft and it's the valve noise in the Croft that's doing it - and that's way, way down on surface noise... Oh yeah, the bright balance was fine for the Entre syrup pudding, certainly the early ones before they gritted them up.....

Affordable decent transistors have moved on a HUGE way since the mid seventies and I bet a good mc active stage could be done without trouble - doesn't A.N.T. do some (they're too expensive for me, so they've sort of fallen off my radar)?

By the way, the Lentek was around £50 back in the late seventies. How much would it be now eh? Around £250 to £300 I suspect, depending on the slurp the manufacturers wanted to make, coupled with where the thing was made.

I bet a Cambridge 640P would see it off though

[Rare Bird]

Not aimed at anyone (Says so)..Technology may have advance don't mean it sounds any good.

Technology is for one thing & it aint your ears.

[DSJR]

Actually, my Quad 33 couldn't sound as good as it does now because the caps weren't made of the correct value and physical size back then. Also, in power amps, the output transistors available today are far more capable in single units (simpler, far less distortion and better thermal tracking) than the banks of transistors per channel in olde worlde power houses..

Back then, star earthing had all but been consigned to history until Denis Morecroft suggested it for ss circuits. IMO, he also gave Naim a kick up the backside to improve their preamp power supplies, although they seem to have stagnated again, where Teddy P and Les W have shown how much more can be got at moderate cost (relatively speaking).

Remember, the gems shine out from any era, but the 60's and 70's had a huge amount of well made absolute shite to which time hasn't been kind.

[Rare Bird]

Yes theres was a load of shit back then infact as much shit as there is today.All vintage amps need a bit of circuit/part tinkering. Pick yourself a classic & fart about with parts & such youll have a gem that can floor most todays amps IMHO..

ps: Power houses don't tickle my fancy never have..

[Marco]

Hi Dave,

Marco, for, "Rough around the edges" read "grainy" and the fact you can hear hiss means it's noisy!!

Semantics, dear chap, nothing else. "Grainy", for me, is the sound of your average solid-state amp (perhaps your crown? Lol ), compared to a good valve one (like the copper amp), and the Lentek doesn't do that - rather it's simply less 'finessed' than the A23, and by that I simply mean less sonically able (as one would expect) but not grainy in the slightest.

Hiss? Only when the preamp's nearly turned up full!

Oh yeah, the bright balance was fine for the Entre syrup pudding, certainly the early ones before they gritted them up.....

You're talking in lingo I don't understand, dude, most probably coined before my time. What's an "Entre syrup pudding"? I need to know what that is before I can attempt to understand the "gritted them up" reference.

Affordable decent transistors have moved on a HUGE way since the mid seventies and I bet a good mc active stage could be done without trouble - doesn't A.N.T. do some (they're too expensive for me, so they've sort of fallen off my radar)?

Yes there are plenty of good active MC phono stages around, the A.N.T being one of them, but in general I prefer SUTs, and the A23 is stunning. None of that detracts though from the fact that the Lentek (in my system) is a little star and punches way above its weight for a 30+ year old design.

By the way, the Lentek was around £50 back in the late seventies. How much would it be now eh? Around £250 to £300 I suspect, depending on the slurp the manufacturers wanted to make, coupled with where the thing was made.

Good point, which suggests that it was a quality item in its day, no?

I bet a Cambridge 640P would see it off though

Dunno - I've not listened to a 640P in anger. I don't care much for the principles of the designer, who comes across as another one of those science/measurement obsessed clowns like Ashley James and his cronies....

Remember, the gems shine out from any era, but the 60's and 70's had a huge amount of well made absolute shite to which time hasn't been kind.

And the Lentek, for me, isn't one of them

Marco.

[DSJR]

The Lentek was a beer budget head amp at the time, believe it it not...

The Entre was a well known (at the time) cartridge with s sound which my then manager summarised as, "An envelope of softness." After a year or so, the balance was livened up, but went gritty with it - less "nice."

Look out for a Moth "Black-Head." I remember them being a very capable cheap SUT...