Nick G modified Lentek Head Amp

[DSJR]

Please can Mr Lurcher provide a component list (and the best place to get the bits), or if he has spares, take pity on an impoverished audiophool and sell the bits at a fair price????????

Thanks in advance...

[Reid Malenfant]

Please can Mr Lurcher provide a component list (and the best place to get the bits), or if he has spares, take pity on an impoverished audiophool and sell the bits at a fair price????????

Thanks in advance...

Dave, i offered you Sanyo Oscons (which i believe were the tant replacements) for nothing They are still here....

[DSJR]

Oh yes, thanks very much. You know the values needed? PM on its way..

[John]

Seems like Nick does his magic again It can only get better as still burning in I imagine

[lurcher]

Cool, glad it works.

The bits I used were:

From www.rapidonline.com

47uF 6.3V OSCON SA Electrolytic Capacitor 4 off Part # 11-2508
47u 10V OSCON SC Electrolytic Capacitors 2 off Part # 11-2522

From www.rswww.co.uk

Radial polyprop cap,2.2nF 100V 2.5mm 2 off Part # 247-0271
Radial polyprop cap,10nF 100V 2.5mm 3 off Part # 247-0300

I don't have enough left to make up a set of all the bits, but if you can't get any of them, let me know and I will add them to the next order I send to them both for you.

The connectors used were from HiFi Collective

CMC gold plated RCA sockets one pair
CMC-1036-WF RCA plug one pair

[Marco]

Not forgetting of course the excellent Shark interconnect cable...

Yes it does work - and how! Btw, I really like those lockable CMC RCA plugs!

John, yes no doubt things are still burning in, but even right now the results are sublime....

I'm not sure that after this I want to go back to my SPU!!

Marco.

[DSJR]

Thanks to all for the excellent info. I do have a domestic account with RS, but have to pay a fiver postage - same with Rapid (would cost more in diesel to travel and park to/in Colchester).

Marco, I'm going to leave my interconnect alone for now. The cable in mine still has bright shiny copper on a tiny bit of exposed inner core and the screen wires look very good too. The dialectric is a foamed poly-whatever and I always found it good in the full-length versions we sold at the time. Not disputing the quality of the Shark though, their silver plated cable (still available I believe) was excellent I remember and nothing like a "typical" silver-plated copper wire.

[Marco]

No problem, Dave.

I doubt that I'd bother in your position either. The difference is that I had the original cable and plugs on mine, which were pretty horrid, so replacing them with something better was a no-brainer.

Good luck with the mods - keep us posted on how you get on. I was up until 3am this morning listening to music, so that's testament to how good the Lentek gets when modded as described!

Marco.

[Marco]

John, yes no doubt things are still burning in, but even right now the results are sublime....

Well, the new components in the Lentek have had a chance now to burn-in, and needless to say things have improved further, with the sound now 'fleshing out', losing a slight hard edge (simply due to the newness of the caps, etc), and gaining more weight, body and finesse.

The sonic balance now of the Lentek, with the DL-103 through my Croft preamp's valve MM stage, is just right and music is utterly beguiling to listen to. There's an addictive rhythmic flow and 'impetus' with the Lentek that makes rock, pop and dance music boogie along in a thrilling 'edge of the seat' way that escapes the A23, or indeed any step-up transformer I've heard with the DL-103.

The Lentek, thus modified, takes the performance of the Denon to new levels and really shows what this cartridge is capable of when optimally partnered and everything is working in its favour - and that means the use of a high-mass headshell (Ortofon LH-9000 at 16.8g) and a 'classic' tonearm such as the Jelco SA-750.

Quite frankly, the modded Lentek successfully addresses the weaknesses of the 103 in a way I've never heard before, as the openness and clarity in both the midrange and top-end registers is such that one would struggle to guess that a spherical tip was in use, and the sheer drive and extension of the bass with suitable material takes your breath away.

It's testament to how good vinyl replay is in my system at the moment with the Lentek and DL-103 that I'm in no great hurry to return to my SPU/A23 combo, although I suspect that when I do, I'll be reminded of the rather unique and desirable traits of that particular combo - hey, I guess that's the fun of owning more than one cartridge!

Next up will be to try Barry's superb EMT TSD-15, with a fine-line stylus, using an Ortofon adapter for the Jelco, which is another broadcast cartridge I've always rated and wanted to hear properly in my system.

The Decca London Gold of Barry's was also a thrilling listen, with unique musical abilities that no other cartridge I've heard has, the same of which can be said of the SPU and the DL-103, when partnered with my modified Lentek head amp.

Those are the sorts of cartridges that to my ears make music make sense, and are miles away from the sound of many clinical, tonally bleached and musically bland monstrosities, posing as cartridges, foisted upon us nowadays!

Considering that the design of all the above cartridges harks from a bygone era, where has modern cartridge design gone wrong, I wonder?

Marco.

[DSJR]

Jimmy H used an EMT with VDH tip for a while and i found, at the time, it to be a little straight laced and "correct" in an objective sense. It'll be interesting to see and hear how it copes with modern sources and step-ups..

I wonder if my Koetsu Black is repairable (it's lost a channel)? When working it sounded sublime, with weight but no bloat and life without any harshness....