Finally....I've been Lenco'd

[captrajesh]

Congratulations Reben; Hope you would get enough time to embark on the restoration exercise.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Reuben,
Congratulation for your long awaited Lenco L-75. I have a nice original plinth for your Lenco -75 which you can have free if you are interested. You may remember my post about changing the plinth for my Lenco L-75 recently. So the original plinth is with me. Do let me know. If you wish to make a new heavy plinth, I can be of help as I have made several of those in the past . Unfortunately, my carpenter has stopped coming as he has shifted from here. Your Lenco seems to be in pristine condition and the idler wheel looks unused. Is it a New Old Stock?

 

[shafic]

Congrats!! Reuben,

Your "All Black Lenco" looks very pretty.:clapping:

 

[captrajesh]

Very sad that we pay 22k in place where members from developed countries enjoy the same at 1/3rd of it. And not to forget min 15k -20k for an upgraded tonearm with cartridge and 10k for plinth and other bits to get it in top condition :sad:hyeah:

On top of it, average earnings here is a fraction of those living there.

 

[reubensm]

Reuben,
Congratulation for your long awaited Lenco L-75. I have a nice original plinth for your Lenco -75 which you can have free if you are interested. You may remember my post about changing the plinth for my Lenco L-75 recently. So the original plinth is with me. Do let me know. If you wish to make a new heavy plinth, I can be of help as I have made several of those in the past . Unfortunately, my carpenter has stopped coming as he has shifted from here. Your Lenco seems to be in pristine condition and the idler wheel looks unused. Is it a New Old Stock?

Thanks Mr. Kuruvilla, just came down and also noticed that you tried to call me. Sorry I missed your call, was upstairs with the kids listening to some kiddies LPs. Shall call you tomorrow.

Thanks for the offer, I was actually planning to run it on an old stool turned upside down. I've got to sit down with the tone arm and also clean up the deck. Hope to do so next weekend. A long due visit is pending from my end. Planning to go to my wife's hometown in Feb'14 as I have to travel out of station during the later half of December and most part of Jan.

The seller did not mention anything about it being NOS but said it was stored away for a long time as he was using a Garrard. Overall the deck is in splendid condition with a few nicks and dings on the chassis (paint only). The arm is one flimsy piece of machinery. I suspect the v-blocks would need to be looked at. The whole tonearm assembly seems very shaky. Unfortunately I sold of my Linn tonearm or else I could have used it here. Nevertheless, I'll try to make it work with the stock tone arm so that I can get a flavour of how it sounds.

 

[reubensm]

Thanks for sharing the information.

Very sad that we pay 22k in place where members from developed countries enjoy the same at 1/3rd of it. And not to forget min 15k -20k for an upgraded tonearm with cartridge and 10k for plinth and other bits to get it in top condition :sad:hyeah:

Well, not trying to be philosophical here but I guess I can live with 22k. I had made some queries locally in India for L75s and people were demanding like 30-40k with stock arm and wooden box plinth. Also people were demanding 80-90k for the Garrards and one gentleman demanded a cool 1L for a TD124. I was quite eager to give an idler a try and hence took the dive. I was unlucky that I got picked at the customs or else I could have saved the customs duty. Also had to take the shipping route as none of us travel to Germany for anything. My friend was traveling to the UK but the average cost of a decent L75 on ebay.co.uk is around 140 GBP which is about the same cost from ebay.de with shipping. I had a bidding cap of 100 euro and was successful 7 times. However only this seller agreed to my shipping terms and co-operated fully. He however charged me a 9 euro fee for using paypal which I thought was ok, in the circumstances. If I had someone who could collect from Hamburg, then I would have got this for under 100 euro.

 

[reubensm]

Congratulations reubensm.22k is reasonable amount for this TT.It looks to be in a nice condition with metal idler wheel.I am very satisfied with my L-75.It is still without plinth and arm from an old Pioneer Pl A25 TT.It is also very easy to work,very few part and no complex mechanism like Dual or Garrard.

Regards,
Sachin

Thanks Sachin, yes the metal idler was one of the reasons why I was attracted to this one, and of course, the all black chassis. Yes, I too was astonished to see how simple, yet effective, the mechanism really is.

 

[arj]

Congrats ! very nice to hear you finally got this one it is smarter to buy without the plinth when shipping . now to get a replacement tonearm as well !!

 

[Record Player]

I've trodden down that path and wholeheartedly agree with ease part. But what is life without some monkeying around? For that alone, I prefer restoring a vintage 'table. But for convenience alone, the SL1200 is hard to beat - almost instantaneous start-stops (this is a great feature for someone whose main deck has been a TD124 where braking is manual), huge pitch adjustability, very good stock tonearm, ability to handle heavy tracking weights, fancy pop-up lights, excellent damping from the footers, and best of all - adjustable VTA. On top of that, what is not to like about the sound of a 1200 with a Denon DL103?

Very well said Joshua!

From the very beginning, I figured that one needs to clock some significant amount of time before he moves on to the Garrards, Lencos, Thorens, Duals Etc. This time allows one to first understand how Vinyl and TTs work and if this hobby and passion is really your cup of tea.

Well, surely it was my cup of tea and lots of it . Now over time, I have seen quite a few vintage, and really rare and great turntables, though they sounded great and amazing, I was more inclined to the likes of the 1200. One of the prime reasons being, too much tweaking, DIY, Mods and so on which to me did not really appeal that much to be honest. I wanted something with less of this and just wanted to sit back and relax and enjoy the music 365 days a year. And like you said, the 1200 produces some great quality sound. So from my perspective, all this time has helped me narrow down what I really enjoy rather than getting influenced.

I have an old/new Garrard AT-6 which has just been played a couple of times and is right now ignored completely. Got a custom Plinth made as well and now it looks fantastic on me shelf but I wont be using it often now. Since I've got 2 Twelve Hundreds now for my Primary and Secondary setups I simply love emm. I will most probably put up the Garrad AT-6 TT on Sale.

BTW, loved your way of explanation on the 1200

 

[reubensm]

Honestly, for me the L75 is on board for me to get a grip of the better idler drives. I was actually looking at the EMT 938 from abroad but stalled the idea as some other financial investments had come up on the personal front. Will give the L75 a run and see it lives up to its reputation. If it does, then it will take on the role of my primary deck. If not, I'll be moving to the 1200/1210 for good.

The mind is eager but the fact is that I have little or no time to juggle for these projects. The reality is that it takes ages for me to complete projects. From that perspective, the 1200/1210 works perfectly well for me.

Also don't want to hoard many turntables without using them. Now the Lenco has showed up with 78rpm making my Garrard RC210 redundant. I am planning to put this up for sale after I build the phonostage for it. I don't think I can keep and use 3 turntables. My SL3200 is staying with me for sure.

 

[sachu888]

Will give the L75 a run and see it lives up to its reputation. If it does, then it will take on the role of my primary deck. If not, I'll be moving to the 1200/1210 for good.

I am sure, you will never move to 1200/1210 after listening to L75 even in this condition.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[anilva]

I am sure, you will never move to 1200/1210 after listening to L75 even in this condition.

Regards,
Sachin

Sachin, you are getting presumptuous. While your experience may be what it is, please do not generalize it. A lot depends on quality of tonearm, cartridge and other things in the chain. My experience is otherwise. Nothing to rave about. May be it can exceed the performance once lot of other things are done and mostly not in stock condition.

Cheers.

 

[sachu888]

Sachin, you are getting presumptuous. While your experience may be what it is, please do not generalize it. A lot depends on quality of tonearm, cartridge and other things in the chain. My experience is otherwise. Nothing to rave about. May be it can exceed the performance once lot of other things are done and mostly not in stock condition.

Cheers.

Hi Anilva,
I agree,you have both the TTs,so higher authority to you .You are right I posted only about my own and few friend's experience.My other TT is only entry level belt drive Micro Seiki.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[anilva]

Hi Anilva,
I agree,you have both the TTs,so higher authority to you .You are right I posted only about my own and few friend's experience.My other TT is only entry level belt drive Micro Seiki.

Regards,
Sachin

Sachin, I have lot of respect and regard for you. Your services to the DIY community have been outstanding. I have personally benefited from your contributions. I did not mean to show higher or lower authority. Sometimes in our enthusiasm of loving our system, we tend to generalize it. That is what I was pointing out. I hope you do not mind.

Cheers.

 

[jls001]

Will give the L75 a run and see it lives up to its reputation.

Do lavish some tender loving care on it and give it your time. Plus a heavy plinth (no boxed plinth, please, for reasons already eloquently articulated by arj), a nice tonearm (the stock tonearm is no good, to put it bluntly), and decent cartridge. And if you do come across a 1200 for a nice price don't hesitate to pick it up either. It has a different presentation than the Lenco. And very likeable it is, too.

 

[sachu888]

Sachin, I have lot of respect and regard for you. Your services to the DIY community have been outstanding. I have personally benefited from your contributions. I did not mean to show higher or lower authority. Sometimes in our enthusiasm of loving our system, we tend to generalize it. That is what I was pointing out. I hope you do not mind.

Cheers.

I completely agree with you Sir.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[jls001]

Sachin has been a very enthusiastic Lenco evangelist

Hats off to you, sir.

 

[ANILKUMAR]

Finally, the long search is over and the lady has entered the building. Got hold of a limited edition (so called) Black Lenco L75 in more than decent condition today and spent most part of the morning putting the tonearm together. Its quite a sight to look at and quite heavy to handle (thanks to the heavy platter). This is the very first time I've owned one of the legendary TTs of all time. Lets see how the experience goes. It will be a couple of days before I can get it to sing as it has its original 5-pin din cable. I have to change that of course. Here are some of the first pics I've taken of it.

Reuben,
Congratulations!!!!
Welcome to the Lenco L75 family.

-Anil

 

[reubensm]

I am sure, you will never move to 1200/1210 after listening to L75 even in this condition.

Regards,
Sachin

The 1200 is a legend and has nothing more to prove. But as Joshua and you have rightly pointed out, the L75 is worth a dig. Personally I am not a guy who has high expectations from a SQ perspective. Just want to enjoy my music (and if some bragging rights are packaged with the deal, then I'll happily take it). By the way, just for a laugh or two, my status shot up into the big league, overnight, after the L75 arrived. Now friends and relatives are all talking about me nailing a Lenco. Even one of my dad's old friends called me ask me whether he can see it (he'd never seen a Lenco in the flesh, before)

 

[reubensm]

Do lavish some tender loving care on it and give it your time. Plus a heavy plinth (no boxed plinth, please, for reasons already eloquently articulated by arj), a nice tonearm (the stock tonearm is no good, to put it bluntly), and decent cartridge. And if you do come across a 1200 for a nice price don't hesitate to pick it up either. It has a different presentation than the Lenco. And very likeable it is, too.

Yes, agree 100%. I went to car porch and located a solid teak wood stand of an old refrigerator we had at home when we grew up. My wife commented, "why don't you just fill it up with concrete and put your Lenco in it"...sounded like a pretty maverick idea. Even the L75 has got her thinking.

Regarding the tone arm, I really want to try the L75's stock arm and hear it. Maybe I'll have it set up with a ceramic cart for 78rpm and 16rpm listening. The new tonearm will be dedicated to microgroove listening. A friend of mine who is a mechanical engineering professor at a local engineering college has offered to help me fabricate a 16inch broadcast tonearm. Now, that's some offer. Need to spend time thinking about it. So many friends have popped up with ideas, thanks to the L75. I am on 7th heaven currently and loving every moment of it. :clapping: