Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

I shouldn't let the year 2006 end without adding to the Great Tradition of Accumulating Evidence of how idler wheel drives crush belt drives. I'm the proud owner of one of Jean's latest creations, a beautiful piano black Direct Coupled Glass Reinforced Giant Lenco. I've tried this Black Beauty with a couple of different arms and cartridges and it's taken me a while to mount the SME V/Koetsu Rosewood Signature combo that I used to have on my previous table, a VPI HW-19 Mk IV tricked up as close as possible to the TNT level. Now I can make the direct comparison.

And the winner is...no surpise... THE LENCO!! It's not a close call. The most dramatic and obvious difference is a HUGE increase in bass power and refinement. That bass improvement is just the most easily noticeable aspect of an overall increase in dynamics. I had no idea my sweet little Koetsu was actually a thundering monster at heart! The more I've listened to different material, the more I'm appreciating that the Lenco is bringing an all-around improvement in clarity and detail. I'm hearing the distinct sound of different instruments in places where their sounds used to blur together. Words in songs that I couldn't quite make out before are now easy to hear. Transients are faster. All the Koetsu's best qualities of lushness combined with detail are heightened, and a level of PRaT has appeared that was nowhere in sight before.

Maybe even more dramatic than what the Lenco does for the Koetsu is what it does for the humble Denon DL-103. Jean isn't kidding about the Kundalini Effect - the Denon on the SME V produces a level of PRaT that induces higher levels of consciousness!

Now to invite my skeptical audio store buddies over for a demo that will rock their worldview. Happy New Year to Lenco Renegades all!

Hi Folks
Hope there aren't too many heavy heads from New Years celebrations. Having finally done all the tweaks and setting up of the Multiarm jobby I can only say Jean, you need some kind of award for services to audio & d.i.y.ers everywhere. Bolson & the many others who have already got their giant Lencos going already know what I mean but I still wasn't prepared for what I heard. Once the air flow to the MG-1 arm was sorted I nearly fell off my chair at what was coming out of my little system. The drive, harmony & cohesion gets you first. The monster Lenco motor is obviously doing more than just contributing perfect pitch/speed control. Much as I love my belt drives there is no comparison at least that I've heard so far. What I love most is the silken background, its not an abscence of noise, its almost heavy with the acoustic of the recording space - good recordings are almost palpable. The MG-1 arm & Denon is a gorgeous combo. The best arm I've used by quite a measure and dead easy to set up & use. A real bargain and very nicely built. Thanks Ada Lin. I'm now running two 20l/min pumps with a single 1 litre surge tank which it obviously needed because it transforms the arm's performance. The feel of the arm gliding across the main tube is lovely.Thankfully the base is also doing a great job of isolating the turntable. I got my eight year old to jump up down in front whilst a record was playing and the needle didn't budge. Feeling brave I did the same for the same result. Not bad on my wobbly old wooden floors. Must be the same principal as a Cadillac, not so much ride across the bumps as steamroll them flat. At any rate given the turntable and base weighs 160 pound I won't be moving them any time soon. So, finally electronics that don't get in the way of the music. I still shudder every time I think of the Lenco sitting in my garage for years collecting dust because I thought it was a piece of junk and wanted to throw it out! Thank God I found the Lenco thread first. Roll on 2007, year of the Lenco Juggernaut.

Happy New Year All!

In the four months of this "Da Baby Thread" -
217 Posts - 21,701 Views.

May all your contributions be posted quickly in the coming year - a year shaping up to be filled with innovation and discovery.

Sail on, oh ships of Lenco, oh fleets of Idlers.

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and Happy New Musical Discoveries!!! And thanks both for the informative and useful reviews and the kind words! I've got lots of new stuff to report and discuss, but no time today, time for some feasting!!!

However, in a quickie, my Mannheim Steamroller Christmas LPs have never ever sounded better than they currently do via both my Garrard 301 currently sporting the fabulous Rega RB-300 (with my fave recipe of Cardas internal wiring soldered to Music Boys) and a good MC, and via my Lenco/JMW 10.5/Decca Super Gold Party Animal (with TONS of atmosphere)!! On re-inserting the Rega into my system the feeling overwhelmed me that an old and reliable friend was back, and made me all sentimental and Christmassy: no matter how often these Rega tonearm get lauded, they are STILL underrated, having a knack not only for excellent audiophile performance (once they are rewired that is), but also for simply getting on with it and letting the music stand front and centre (this, of course, on an idler-wheel drive), and so focusing our attention on the LPs rather than the equipment. More listening and comparisons ahead. I've got the AR2ax's hooked up, the bass is awesome, neutral as heck, detailed beyond even the ESS, and the musicality/gestalt/PRaT first-rate!

Enjoy your respective New Years Day all, all the best!

Time now for the Mighty to Tremble, in what is shaping up to be a very exciting and significant New Year!!! Having applied all the lessons learned in maximizing the potential of Lencos, and using "Mr. Red" as my Reference and Standard, I sent out a Garrard 301 I rebuilt for the owner of a Platine Verdier, and first impressions have come back already, featuring the word "embarrassing".

Now, before I continue, let's return to logic and the Law of Diminishing Returns: if the Lenco - and back when none of the more recent mods and principles had been applied - was CRUSHING highly-regarded belt-drives like the maxed-out Linn LP12s, Well Tempereds, various Nottinghams and VPIs, then what did this mean for the ultimate performance of the idler-wheel drive principle vis-a-vis the "competition"? Given that once one reached a certain level of performance, improvements should have been incremental and not orders of magnitude?!? With Direct Coupling (and still in the absence of Giant Mass or the Glass Mod) and motor-tuning a small Lenco humiliated a VPI TNT (even if an earlier model), and again given the Law of Diminishing Returns what does this mean for the idler-wheel drive system?

Now already recently a Giant Direct Coupled Glass-Reinforced Lenco bested one of the great legends of Direct Drives, an EMT 948 (which in its turn humiliated - the word shocking was used by the owner - upper-end belt-drives by, I believe, Basis and Amazon), and according to the report, all other EMTs as well, proving it takes an idler to beat an idler ;-) (DDs now out of the picture, at least until I try out the servo-controlled and simpler variety). Now the report, from the owner of the Platine Verdier, not a mere witness, is that the Giant Garrard 301 oil-bearing (in traditional CLD birch-ply/MDF plinth) has crushed, in no uncertain terms and at a disadvantage (no platform, cheap cartridge, lesser phono stage vs the Platine Verdier with extremely expensive MC, on superb platform into much better phono stage) the superb and well thought-out Platine Verdier. As you can all imagine, the system in which this all took place is superb.

Now by this I am NOT saying the Platine Verdier is not superb: it is a work of industrial art with some amazing engineering and design ideas, and true Collector's item (if one is fortunate enough to afford it) and MUCH better built again than the "humble" Garrard 301. So what, again does this mean? It means my Fellow Idler-Wheelers, that the idler-wheel drive system is the best of the three systems currently available, and that by a fairly large margin, no other conclusion need be made. If only the superb Platine Verdier had an idler-wheel drive system, alas!!!

So far only rough and short descriptions have been sent me as the fellows involved are too busy listening to the music, but if more details come in, I will pass them on, assuming I have their blessings, and more news of great significance to boot, which I will sit on for now. Btw, these fellows deserve kudos for seriously considering both the logic and the mounting evidence, for their intrepid sense of adventure, for trusting the evidence of their ears,and for recognizing that high-end belt-drives had some serious musical issues, which is what led them to consider taking the step of trying their hands at idler-wheel drives. Similar kudos go out to ALL those who have had the gumption to do so, and to those who are seriously considering it. Reports will continue, converts will continue to be converted, underground and behind the scenes, it's too late to put a cap on this particular Pandora's Box, The Idler is Out, have fun all, have the spine to trust your ears and stand by them (and identify and reject the unreasoning prejudices with which your minds are infected, as many have already done, again kudos): the ultimate measuring device when it come to reproduction of music.

Now, I write and report this purely out of an interest in discovering the truth of the matter and out of idealism...in opposition to the Politically Correct stand - made by those who are more interested in garnering support and cheaply and easily gaining "respect" than in discovering the truth - that claims, in the absence of tests to determine if this is true, that all three systems are equivalent. But in the interest of keeping the subject alive and stimulating debate I write...Vive la Lenco, Vive la Idler-Wheel!!!! WHAT a New Year!!