New plinth project for Lenco L 75

[peace_sells]

A very nice article on Plinth building. Very good for a layman like me :

plinth building - Audio qualia

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Hi all,
I just manged to get sometime to continue the Lenco plinth building work taken up for a friend from Trivandrum (Not Rueben). I made a cut from the original arm position and hope to fix the arm in such a way that it will not have any contact with body of the Lenco but will not disturb cosmetically the look of the TT. I hope to complete the project in a couple of days time if the carpenter and my mechanic come tomorrow. Some pictures of work done

 

[cat's squirrel]

what is the mounting distance of that arm? You could have turned the Lenco 90 clockwise, and mounted the arm off the top plate. This is what I have done on one of my Lenco's. That keeps the Lenco top plate unmolested, so full value is maintained!

 

[shafic]

what is the mounting distance of that arm? You could have turned the Lenco 90 clockwise, and mounted the arm off the top plate. This is what I have done on one of my Lenco's. That keeps the Lenco top plate unmolested, so full value is maintained!

Can we see your Lenco's pictures? Pls.

 

[sachu888]

what is the mounting distance of that arm? You could have turned the Lenco 90 clockwise, and mounted the arm off the top plate. This is what I have done on one of my Lenco's. That keeps the Lenco top plate unmolested, so full value is maintained!

Hi John
I have seen your posts on VE and LH. I think you are the most experienced here for Lenco. I am building my L75 plinth by turning top plate at 90 degree. We hope to learn good things from you.

Regards
Sachin

 

[kuruvilajacob]

what is the mounting distance of that arm? You could have turned the Lenco 90 clockwise, and mounted the arm off the top plate. This is what I have done on one of my Lenco's. That keeps the Lenco top plate unmolested, so full value is maintained!

You are absolutely right about your observation. I have done like that in some of my earlier Lenco projects. But my friend for whom I am making the plinth wanted it at the same place the stock arm was. Since the mounting distance made it impossible to have it on the stock arm position, I have cut it in just the direction to place the new AT 1007 tone arm with mounting distance of 225 mm.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

I have done some more work on the plinth with the help of my carpenter and it is almost complete. I have laminated the plinth with original mahogany wood veneer and given it for a coat of MRF mat finish. Shall post pictures of it later. Now for the project completed so far

 

[reubensm]

I have done some more work on the plinth with the help of my carpenter and it is almost complete. I have laminated the plinth with original mahogany wood veneer and given it for a coat of MRF mat finish. Shall post pictures of it later. Now for the project completed so far

Its looking lovely!!

 

[kuruvilajacob]

I have completed the plinth building for my friend. After lamination, few coats of MRF mat finish was applied. The finish looks really good. Much better than the poor picture taken from my mobile. I have not played it yet but the work is complete except for dust cover.

 

[reubensm]

I have completed the plinth building for my friend. After lamination, few coats of MRF mat finish was applied. The finish looks really good. Much better than the poor picture taken from my mobile. I have not played it yet but the work is complete except for dust cover.

The work looks outstanding. Have the following queries:

1) Can the overall size be made a bit smaller, so as to fit the deck, turned 90 degrees and a tonearm board (custom built), maybe compensate for the reduction in size by adding layers?

2) Can the tonearm be screwed to a tonearm board rather than a direct fit to the plinth?

3) What is the aprox turn around for such a project, is any tuning or customizing required before the veneer goes on?

 

[reubensm]

on another note, I will make it in March, coming down to Thodupuzha when my son's school closes, Feb trip postponed as I could not get leave

I would need to have 2 plinths built, 1 for the L75 and the other for the 401

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Rueben,
The overall size can be made much smaller but a larger plinth looks more elegant and also if additional tone arm needs to be fitted, it can be done at any convenient side. Did you mean a separate custom built arm board? What I have done here is to ensure that there is no contact with the body of the machine and arm but I had to make the cut to align a longer Tone arm. Yes, for a smaller plinth, you can add an additional layer of plywood. To answer your second question,I think you can do that but you will need to ensure that once the position of tone arm is aligned, you should not move the separate tone arm board. Regarding the third questing, you can paste the veneer after the plinth work is over but after the veneer is pasted, it will need to use sand paper before the MRF coating is applied. The entire project may take 3 man days or 4 if done by professionals. This was done by professionals ie carpenters, painters etc

 

[reubensm]

Rueben,
The overall size can be made much smaller but a larger plinth looks more elegant and also if additional tone arm needs to be fitted, it can be done at any convenient side. Did you mean a separate custom built arm board? What I have done here is to ensure that there is no contact with the body of the machine and arm but I had to make the cut to align a longer Tone arm. Yes, for a smaller plinth, you can add an additional layer of plywood. To answer your second question,I think you can do that but you will need to ensure that once the position of tone arm is aligned, you should not move the separate tone arm board. Regarding the third questing, you can paste the veneer after the plinth work is over but after the veneer is pasted, it will need to use sand paper before the MRF coating is applied. The entire project may take 3 man days or 4 if done by professionals. This was done by professionals ie carpenters, painters etc

Thanks for the detailed reply. One more, is the plinth design for the 401 is different from the L75 (not just the cut out but the mounting methodology, etc) or is the basic design concept, similar?

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Very same concept but different design.

 

[reubensm]

Very same concept but different design.

Was curious as I plan to have both the 401 and L75 plints with similar dimensions. Will discuss in detail later, thanks.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

The project is complete after making the dust cover. I am thinking of finding suitable hinges to see if I can fix the dust. Since the dust cover is 5 mm thick, it's quite heavy and need strong hinges to make the dust cover stand

 

[cat's squirrel]

it may be better if you did not add hinges, as this would connect the cover to the plinth. The cover is a huge area with which to collect sound form the listening room (from the speakers, really), and if connected to the plinth, the sound vibrations would find their way to the stylus by one route or another.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

it may be better if you did not add hinges, as this would connect the cover to the plinth. The cover is a huge area with which to collect sound form the listening room (from the speakers, really), and if connected to the plinth, the sound vibrations would find their way to the stylus by one route or another.

I decided not to add hinges anyway. Yes feedback through the stylus is a challenging thing to tackle . But I understand that by keeping the dust cover closed while playing decreases the feedback from other vibrating sources. Am i correct?

 

[reubensm]

At our EY Global Innovations Centre at Trivandrum, we have our large conference rooms fitted with Tandberg Sound solutions. 2 microphones are mounted at either end of the room with reflectors. They are so sensitive that they pick up absolutely every type of sound in the room. After noticing what an acrylic surface can add, towards sound collection, I am very nervous to play records with the TT dust cover, in place.

 

[cat's squirrel]

it is a conundrum, as you say. Every part of the hifi system picks up vibrations from room sound, and are affected in some way. Acrylic, although nice to look at and easy to machine, is not a very good material from a vibration point of view, as it has low intrinsic damping.

But it is used because it looks fine, and machines well, much like mdf, another poor performer. Seems like acrylic (and mdf) are used by people who are concerned more with looks than sound.