DENON HA 500, just a photo gallery

[Marco]

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

And yet it cost around £50 in the 70s? Wasn't £50 quite a lot of money then - like you say, around £300 now?

The A23 only costs £100 more than that today..... Aren't you contradicting yourself just a little, old chap?

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."

Ah, right - I've not heard of it.

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

Will do. Thing is, I'm very happy with the A23. The only reason I entertained the Lentek was to see if what I remembered of it from the 80s resembled what I would hear now, and in that respect I'm more than pleased

Marco.

[DSJR]

As I remember (and remember that disposable income for audio was higher then and the market much bigger), there were far better head-amps and transformers around back then. I even remember my AT630 being better for many MC's.. The price difference between different cartridges was skewed as well, Linn charging way over the odds for the Asak for example, yet a DL110 staying at £60 for years until re-discovered all over the internet and the £'s weakness pushing the UK price over £100, where the Asaka/Klyde, Karma/Troika, Arkiv/Akiva just getting more and more expensive. I can't get a handle on things now, especially as income etc hasn't kept up. Working where I did thirty years ago, we dealt with high-income clients, by and large, so a couple of hundred (then) on an Asak or £500 on a NAP250 didn't seem a difficulty. I only learned that the parts cost inside a typical Naim item was a tenth of the retail price some years later and even then, it didn't matter like it does now...

P.S. The DL103 hasn't changed in price for thirty years or so, as it was £90 or thereabouts back in 1980 IIRC. Until not long ago, the subtle and understated DL304 was well under £200..

[The Grand Wazoo]

The Black Head was very good for the price, but rather unremarkable. It was a cut down Tim de PV design. I used one for a while & went back to it a few times while I was in the process of searching for my perfect step up. I didn't sob tears of heartbreak when I finally sold it though.

[Marco]

Well I was listening to the Lentek for a few hours last night, with all sorts of music, and I didn't feel particularly short-changed in terms of 'hi-fi aspects' of the sound or musical enjoyment - in fact, it really digs deep into recordings and unravels subtle nuances in the music, which really puts a smile on your face!

I'm sure that when I swap back to the A23 I'll hear what was 'missing', but the Lentek, regardless of its ultimate hi-fi shortcomings, sure makes music fun to listen to

As an aside, I've often noticed people going on about T de P's 'The Head' SUT, and how wonderful it was, well I had one and found it a pretty unremarkable device - not bad by any means, just a little 'bland', somewhat fluffy sounding, and ultimately rather musically un-involving.

I find the Lentek much more preferable, as it sounds the polar opposite of 'The Head', as it has drive, dynamics, and positively bristles with joie de vivre!

Maybe it's because it matches the DL-103 so well? Perhaps the results with other cartridges are less inspiring and that's why some people didn't get on with it.....? Synergy is all-important, after all.

Whatever - for me it was £60 well spent, as it gives me a viable alternative to the A23 when I fancy a different type of presentation of my favourite choons

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Well I was listening to the Lentek for a few hours last night, with all sorts of music, and I didn't feel particularly short-changed in terms of 'hi-fi aspects' of the sound or musical enjoyment - in fact, it really digs deep into recordings and unravels subtle nuances in the music, which really puts a smile on your face!

I'm sure that when I swap back to the A23 I'll hear what was 'missing', but the Lentek, regardless of its ultimate hi-fi shortcomings, sure makes music fun to listen to

As an aside, I've often noticed people going on about T de P's 'The Head' SUT, and how wonderful it was, well I had one and found it a pretty unremarkable device - not bad by any means, just a little 'bland', somewhat fluffy sounding, and ultimately rather musically un-involving.

I find the Lentek much more preferable, as it sounds the polar opposite of 'The Head', as it has drive, dynamics, and positively bristles with joie de vivre!

Maybe it's because it matches the DL-103 so well? Perhaps the results with other cartridges are less inspiring and that's why some people didn't get on with it.....? Synergy is all-important, after all.

Whatever - for me it was £60 well spent, as it gives me a viable alternative to the A23 when I fancy a different type of presentation of my favourite choons

Marco.

If i ever see an old Mayware 'T24.II' i'll send it you down

[Marco]

Hi Andre,

Nice one, dude... That would be great

Marco.

[DSJR]

Hey Marco, I never said I didn't get on with it, it's just that so many better options became available - like Naim preamps with decent mc stages (for the time) in them and reasonably priced transformers.

Another head amp that we thought rather better than the Lentek was the Beard one. Does anyone remember these????

[Marco]

No worries, Dave - I know where you're coming from.

I think the main reason why I like the Lentek is because it matches the 103 so well - and let there be no mistake: it does, big time! I will certainly be recommending it to 103 users looking for a head amp on a budget.

With other cartridges, results will be less predictable. Did you ever get to hear the Lentek with a properly set-up and partnered 103, through a quality MM valve phono stage?

Naim MC boards? Sorry, I had them in my NAC 52/Supercap and thought they were pants (bland sounding and painfully low in gain), unless of course you were using a Linn Karma or Troika with an LP12, which of course they were specifically designed to match - hence 'K' boards, etc

Synergy, as ever, rules!

Marco.

[DSJR]

Marco, you have a 12, 32 or 72, take all the unnecessary boards out including the filter boards and voila, the sound is improved IMO. Do some more bodging to give each stage LOCAL supply regulation (instead of having the regulators 1m away in a separate box) and the circuits seem to come alive in a good way. Obviously you can take it further still with cap changes (I still feel that the caps chosen were for low-cost reasons)...

[Marco]

Hi Dave,

I've done the board pulling thing, so I know the effect only too well. To my ears it was merely turd polishing, rather than anything particularly fundamental sonically being achieved.

In my view, Naim stuck with the Prefix (as you know, basically the same as the internal boards only with a shorter signal path for under an LP12) way too long as their top phono stage...

As umpteen manufacturers were designing far superior phono stages, namely Whest, Naim just seemed to sit back and make CDPs, etc, whilst ignoring their top-end analogue products. Until that is they brought out the Superline, which hats off to them, is a truly AWESOME phono stage - but it should've been released years earlier (as the plug-in boards were, in terms of functioning as a hi-end phono stage, woefully inadequate)!!

Btw, what about this:

Did you ever get to hear the Lentek with a properly set-up and partnered 103, through a quality MM valve phono stage?

I'm thinking here that if you were listening to the Lentek with the phat sounding Linn MC cartridges and T/Ts (not to mention the many less than exciting phono stages) of the day - no wonder you found it rather bland.....

With the tight, grippy, and dynamic sounding Techy, and the 103, through the massively detailed, wide-open, 'organic' sound of the Croft's valve MM stage, the Lentek is an involving and musically addictive listen. It can definitely be improved though, so I sense some forthcoming internal tweaking taking place soon!

Marco.