Lenco L75 Build

[Hiten]

Bro for the time being you can remove wires (with lugs) from Molex connector like these...

Put the sleeve on and connect them separately.
Or

you can use Headshell wires too. with one side wires soldered and sleeved.
Regards

 

[anilva]

Santhosh,

Congrats on the progress. You will need to order the Phono cable from ebay and wait and meanwhile borrow from someone. Wiring a DIN connector is not easy and you need to wait for the DIN connector to arrive as well.

Please order the one on sale on ebay from Israel. Jochen has but they are in a different price bracket.

Cheers.

 

[stevieboy]

Nice! An all vintage setup. Should be heaven now

Regards

 

[santhosh]

DIN connectors are available with Partconnexion

Thankd Sachin, for some reason, this DIN connector is very expensive. I have ordered a cable as it made sense to buy the cable itself as the cable is cheaper than the sum of all the parts, not to mention the time effort saved. I was looking for a din connector in the interim within India.

Hi Santosh,
I think In your tone arm you need two cables. One is tonearm cable and the other is phono cable. The picture you have provided there you need a phono cable to make a connection to the pre amp.puremusicgroup - WSS Silver Line Phonocable.
I think Jochen stocks WSS cables.
Thanks.

Thanks mahiruha. I did check with Jochen but his contact at WSS was on a holiday and it would take longer.

Bro for the time being you can remove wires (with lugs) from Molex connector like these...

Put the sleeve on and connect them separately.
Or

you can use Headshell wires too. with one side wires soldered and sleeved.
Regards

Hiten, the molex connector idea is a fantastic one. I thought of the cartridge connectors but again I did not have those too and would have had to wait a few days after ordering it.

 

[malvai]

santosh, go for a Jelco tonearm bro... it comes with the din and the tonearm itself is a superb one... i ordered one and am very happy with it. it costs like $130 or 140 shipped!
buy it on ebay from a seller called 2juki. he is extremely helpful too! he knows what he has to do when shipping to india

 

[santhosh]

Santhosh,

Congrats on the progress. You will need to order the Phono cable from ebay and wait and meanwhile borrow from someone. Wiring a DIN connector is not easy and you need to wait for the DIN connector to arrive as well.

Please order the one on sale on ebay from Israel. Jochen has but they are in a different price bracket.

Cheers.

Thanks Anil, I have ordered this one:
Canare starquad tonearm cable - for Linn, SME, Roksan etc - 24AWG | eBay

Nice! An all vintage setup. Should be heaven now

Thanks buddy, things are slowly falling in place to form an all vintage setup.

EDIT: saw Manav's post:

santosh, go for a Jelco tonearm bro... it comes with the din and the tonearm itself is a superb one... i ordered one and am very happy with it. it costs like $130 or 140 shipped!
buy it on ebay from a seller called 2juki. he is extremely helpful too! he knows what he has to do when shipping to india

Thanks Manav, I have ordered the one above. The Jelco tonearm cable was very tempting but I did not want to go overboard for this tonearm. The 12 incher when it happens will get all the bells and whistles - most likely be a single set of quad cardas/mogami wires running from the cart/headshell to the phonostage like you have done .

 

[jls001]

This rebuild has retained the original plinth and managed to squeeze in lots of extra mass away from sight:

http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=9411.0

 

[santhosh]

This rebuild has retained the original plinth and managed to squeeze in lots of extra mass away from sight:

http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=9411.0

Thanks for that fantastic resource Joshua. That was exactly what I had in mind, will do a full CLD a little later, once I have finalised the 12 inch arm .

 

[arj]

great to hear this santosh ! all the very best . looking forward to your future CLD build..i have some ideas /plans myself for my L75

but if you are building a temp structure (as per Jean Nantais ) you will do better by getting rid of the stock plinth completely and put the base plate on bricks or Stone blocks (1 per corner with the base plate coupled via cones to the bricks/stone)

this isfar better than a "light weight" plinth.
AudiogoN Forums: Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II
not in the country right now ..but we should chat once i am back next week

 

[santhosh]

Finally, I got to hear some music from the Lenco - thanks to FM cmsajith for lending me his cable until I receive mine .

Very good sonics. I love it already and I can't wait to hear what a good plinth and a better cart will do. It was sounding very dynamic and bit upfront compared to my Pioneer PL-15 with same Pio cart and the Project 2Xperience with Ortofon Rondo Red cart. The Jelco tonearm though not the higher end is fantastic and it was no surprise that it is so highly regarded and used in so many turntables rebadged. I had heard the same cart briefly with the original Lenco tonearm and can say the Jelco tonearm has made a huge difference, music was quite has a certain fluidity and bounce to it.

The chain:
Lenco L75 -> Pioneer PC-11 MM Cart with JICO Stylus -> Lehmann Audio Black Cube -> ADCOM Pre & Power -> DIY Altec A7

Select tracks from these LPs were played until late in the night:
Ray Charles Greatest Hits
Muddy Waters (45 RPM)
Jennifer Warnes - The Well (45 RPM)
Paul Simon Greatest Hits etc
Ella & Louis

Some Bollywood music that I listened to this morning:
Shakti Samanta Favourites (his favourite numbers, mostly Kishore Kumar)
Amitabh Bachan - Live tonight
Souten
Sufiaana

I am glad I braved the peak hour traffic to his office across Bangalore from my office and back to get the cable from cmsajith. Thanks again sajith.

great to hear this santosh ! all the very best . looking forward to your future CLD build..i have some ideas /plans myself for my L75

but if you are building a temp structure (as per Jean Nantais ) you will do better by getting rid of the stock plinth completely and put the base plate on bricks or Stone blocks (1 per corner with the base plate coupled via cones to the bricks/stone)

this isfar better than a "light weight" plinth.
AudiogoN Forums: Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II
not in the country right now ..but we should chat once i am back next week

Thanks Arjun. I will give it a try very soon then. Will talk to you when we are back.

 

[santhosh]

Here is a pic of the TT. I did not want to disturb the Project TT as I plan to make some more tweaks to the Lenco today/tomorrow, so I listened to it on the floor (not the optimal setup but .....)

 

[Hiten]

^ Looking good bro.

I can't wait to hear what a good plinth and a better cart will do.

Don't know if they are any worth but you can do few before/after measurements like I did in here post #4 without any song playing on ordinary Philips idler wheel TT. And was surprised to see noise (Rumble ?) creeping in to line out of the TT.
Regards

 

[santhosh]

^ Looking good bro.

Don't know if they are any worth but you can do few before/after measurements like I did in here post #4 without any song playing on ordinary Philips idler wheel TT. And was surprised to see noise (Rumble ?) creeping in to line out of the TT.
Regards

Actually Hiten, I did. I felt that the speed on some familiar tracks was slightly fast (I was actually liking it).

So I did some tests using "Dr.Feickert's Test LP" which works together with a Dr.Feickert iPhone/Android App called Platterspeed. It was quite late, so I could not really play loudly. I will repeat the tests and post back. But here are the results from yesterday's test:

Speed Test: The motor was running slightly fast but mostly stable. 45 RPM was playing at ~46.5 to 47 RPM and 33 1/3 was playing around 35. This can be fixed, so did not worry

Channel Balance: Right channel was slightly louder by ~2dB. Need to align the cart, will do today
Silent Track: I was amazed as to how silent it was. No hum, no surface noise nor rumble from the motor (in the silence of the night).

There were some other tests for antiskating etc which I need to read up on, so I skipped those.

IMO the Platterspeed tool and LP is very useful tool, available from Jochen@TLR for ~ Rs.900. Mine was a gift from Malvai. He visited Jochen before he came to my place and I requested him to buy this and he did not accept the money when I wanted to pay him. Thanks bro. He too bought one.

 

[Hiten]

Yes Test LP is elegant and right way for the setup. But I dont know how to use oscilloscope, for channel balance and speed that is good. My testing was kind of primitive . sorry I did not made my self clear but what I was suggesting in above example is the vibration from the motor caused some signal to travel to lineout and was measurable so me was thinking before you build new plinth which will dampen the vibrations/resonance a before/after measurement test would give clear idea. I have a Shure test LP but am to lazy to setup. Will give it a shot in few days.

Channel Balance: Right channel was slightly louder by ~2dB. Need to align the cart, will do today

before aligning switch the L & R channel and see if it is a sure case of cartridge alignment. Also you need to measure at the start of the LP and at the end of the LP. Because if the plane of the platter and plane of the tonearm base is not on same level it will give different reading. If change is very little don't bother and worry too much just enjoy the music.
Regards

 

[santhosh]

what I was suggesting in above example is the vibration from the motor caused some signal to travel to lineout and was measurable so me was thinking before you build new plinth which will dampen the vibrations/resonance a before/after measurement test would give clear idea.

I am not sure about how to measure that except by ear. From reading on Lencoheaven and speaking to jls001 and kuruvilajacob, it is a significant audible difference. Any ideas to measure before/after are welcome. I will measure and report back.

if change is very little don't bother and worry too much just enjoy the music.

Agree Hiten, it could be that it was not levelled properly. I will worry about fine-tuning when it is finally setup on the rack after

 

[Hiten]

I will worry about fine-tuning when it is finally setup on the rack after

OK, makes sense.
-x-x-
Bro can you do me a favor ? Nothing important but if your Test LP has Left and right channel testing, when LP is playing Left channel is the right channel completely silent ?
Thanks in advance
Regards

 

[arj]

OK, makes sense.
-x-x-
Bro can you do me a favor ? Nothing important but if your Test LP has Left and right channel testing, when LP is playing Left channel is the right channel completely silent ?
Thanks in advance
Regards

it has to be..else there is some crosstalk going on somewhere and that would result in incorrect/poor imaging

 

[Hiten]

Yes it has to be but I think 1 or 2 db (perceivable difference to reference vol.) is allowed for ordinary turntable+cartridge+tonearm. So if anyone has budget turntable "perfect" alignment, tracking force (common wisdom says slightly more than required but now I doubt it) and very very very good tracking cartridge will go a long way.
-x-x-
I wonder how much it is in high end turntable ? anyone tested this ??
regards

 

[arj]

In TTs , crosstalk (from what little i know) is really a function of the azhimuth than anything else..(and maybe the internal wiring in the tonearm ? ). i dont think the turntable really matters.

some amount of cross talk would also exist in the pre/phono and even the amp..the dual monos are the ones which avoid it the best.


no clue about the db levels though

 

[jls001]

@Santhosh: I checked up the shop from where I had bought the 5 pin DIN socket and connector but they have only the exact opposite of what you need. But this will still work if your plan is to rewire the arm and DIY tonearm cable. Give me a shout if you ever need it. The socket and connector are REAN brand (a sub brand of Neutrik).