My effusive congratulations above were an unsuccessful attempt (so far) at goading Jean into spilling the beans regarding the new innovations he incorporated into A. Salvatore’s “Super Canuck” Lenco :)
Ulterior motives aside, I’ve had some time to get my thoughts together to say a few words about what Jean’s unflagging boosterism of the Lenco has meant to some of us in the stereo hobby. It just so happens that I have been doing a little research of late about SS phono pre’s – having noted that there is a new crop of expensive “state of the art” preamps being flogged on the various discussion groups. In doing that search, I visited a number of audio websites that I hadn’t been to for several years. It seems like folks everywhere are extolling the virtues of $10K+ turntables, $5K cartridges, $5K arms and the like! These are not even considered to be the best available – just “very good”. That’s an embarrassing amount of money to spend on a “hobby”. Who has that kind of cash these days, anyhow?
So, in steps Jean Nantais – the fellow who popularized his own sonic RE-discovery that has allowed some regular folks in these days to actually own at least one hi-fi component that might very well be the best – or a least counted among the best, i.e., the BIG BODY LENCO. He pointed it out to us and even told us how to re-build it and pretty much asked for nothing in return. And yet, what I have always seen as good natured magnanimity has, over the years, been derided by some naysayers as opinionated self-promotion.
Sometimes I wonder why guys do it – put their audio discoveries on the internet for all and sundry freely partake of – only to have envious weasels who have never contributed anything take pot shots at them. Anyhow, hats off to Jean for not simply taking his toys and going home.
You can look at my system and see that a Lenco rebuild was right down my alley and still is a “no brainer” for me. Put in a few bucks for raw materials and few hours of work and WHAMMO! - an audio component that can compete at the leading edge. The Lenco was by far the easiest of my major DIY projects - if you cant rebuild a Lenco, you shouldn’t be trusted around a toaster and a butter knife :) (Speaking of my system, hopefully I will be making some online updates soon. Admittedly, I have been in that phase where, after getting a very good CD player, I haven’t been spinning too many records in the last couple of years. Probably my analog rig has gotten a little too technical, so I plan to do some simplification.)
Finally, there are two amazing things to consider about the Lenco discovery – one that the performance of a refurbished 40 year old Lenco on a big slab of wood can be even be compared a modern state-of-the-art TT in any regard - and two, that is still possible to buy a stock Lenco for a few hundred bucks.
I am glad that I got in early.
Mike
